Most of them kept their whaling-knives about them ready for bloody defence if they were attacked.

The shops were almost deserted; there was no unnecessary expenditure by the men; they dared not venture out to buy lavish presents for the wife or sweetheart or little children.

The public-houses kept scouts on the look-out; while fierce men drank and swore deep oaths of vengeance in the bar--men who did not maunder in their cups, nor grow foolishly merry, but in whom liquor called forth all the desperate, bad passions of human nature.
Indeed, all along the coast of Yorkshire, it seemed as if a blight hung over the land and the people.

Men dodged about their daily business with hatred and suspicion in their eyes, and many a curse went over the sea to the three fatal ships lying motionless at anchor three miles off Monkshaven.

When first Philip had heard in his shop that these three men-of-war might be seen lying fell and still on the gray horizon, his heart sank, and he scarcely dared to ask their names.