Item, if by night any accident shall occur to any one of the said ships (which God forbid) it shall show four lanterns at the stern and four at the bows, as it may be difficult to see all the said lanterns; it shall also fire two guns until the other ships shall come to its aid, whereupon the said ships shall be bound to come to its succour. Item, if one of the said ships should have need of galleys, it shall fire one gun and keep a lantern at the poop until the said galleys have arrived, and the Captain of the said galleys shall be bound to go or send to it if it is possible. Item, if it should happen that the ships part company by any chance (which God forbid) and they find their companions by night, the one to windward shall show six lanterns three by three and shall fire two guns. Item, the one to leeward shall show four lanterns one above the other and fire four guns; and the watchword for the night shall be cried; and thus each one will be easily recognised without having to come right up with one another; and the said lord wills and commands that when the fleet thus part company and find one another by night, and some distance off find another ship not belonging to their company, none shall dare to fire at one another without first having made the above signals, as well by day as by night; and moreover, the said lord wills and commands that they shall, in addition, speak with one another. The watchword or cry for the night, and all the other signals, as well for day as for night, are changed and are at the discretion and will of the lord and chief of the said fleet, with the council of master mariners and pilots, and with the aforesaid council and the assistance of this present collection, they can make use of as much as seems good to them. The instructions just quoted are plainly an ideal set; they represent the best experience of the age, but there is no indication that they were ever actually employed at sea. The other important set of instructions of the early sixteenth century is by no means so full as that of Conflans, but it was actually used at sea, and reappears in various guises until the middle of the century. It seems to have been first drawn up by Philippe de Cleves, to have been used by the Emperor Charles V in his voyage from Flanders to Spain in 1517, and finally to have been incorporated, with slight alterations by Jehan Bytharne, Gunner in Ordinary to the King of France, in his _Livre de Guerre tant par mer que par terre_[360] written in 1543. The flag signals, which Bytharne says he had himself seen made at sea, present no improvement on those already cited, and they may, as given by Bytharne, be summarised as follows: To assemble the Captains for Council or to speak to them. The Captains to bring their best pilot and most experienced officer. A square banner tied in a weft[361] in the main mizen.