Immortality And The English In Space

Sorry folks, I have got involved in an email discussion of human immortality with a professional philosopher which is a bit time-consuming. The question of survival after death is relevant to several works by Poul Anderson as is every other major issue.

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In The High Crusade, Anderson makes each stage of the medieval Englishmen's interstellar conquests seem plausible:

the Wersgorix home planet has a denser atmosphere so that Brother Parvus can easily hear their whispers in a terrestroid atmosphere;

the Wersgorix idea of a truce is based on expediency, not on any concepts of honor that a knight would be unwilling to break;

playing cautious, the Wersgorix hold back, giving the English time to gain instruction in the easy spaceship and weapons control systems from their prisoners;

the Wersgorix do not want to look incompetent by immediately informing the imperial capital of their initial setback;

in any case, interstellar communication is limited to light speed so that messages have to be sent in the FTL ships;

there are only three fortresses on this colony planet and the English have already captured one so it does not seem unrealistic to attack a second;

in any case, boldness is the only course open to them.

At what stage in the original reading did I begin to suspect that the English were going to win?