ith sword;
But forth will we and bend the bow.
We shall bend the bow on the lily lea
Betwixt the thorn and the oaken tree.

With stone and lime is the burg wall built,
And pit and prison are stark and strong,
And many a true man there is spilt,
And many a right man doomed by wrong.

So forth shall we and bend the bow
And the king's writ never the road shall know.

Now yeomen walk ye warily,
And heed ye the houses where ye go,
For as fair and as fine as they may be,
Lest behind your heels the door clap to.
Fare forth with the bow to the lily lea
Betwixt the thorn and the oaken tree.

Now bills and bows I and out a-gate!
And turn about on the lily lea!
And though their company be great
The grey-goose wing shall set us free.
Now bent is the bow in the green abode
And the king's writ knoweth not the road.

So over the mead and over the hithe,
And away to the wild-wood wend we forth;
There dwell we yeomen bold and blithe
Where the Sheriff's word is nought of worth.
Bent is the bow on the lily lea
Betwixt the thorn and the oaken tree.

But here the song dropped suddenly, and one of the men held up his hand
as who would say, Hist! Then through the open window came the sound of
another song, gradually swelling as though sung by men on the march.
This time the melody was a piece of the plain-song of the church,
familiar enough to me to bring back to my mind the great arches of some
cathedral in France and the canons singing in the choir.

All leapt up and hurried to take their bows from wall and corner; and
some had bucklers withal, circles of leather, boiled and then moulded
into shape and hardened: these were some two hand-breadths across, with
iron or brass bosses in the centre. Will Green went to the corner
where the bills leaned against the wall and handed them round to the
first-comers as far as they would go, and out we all went gravely and
quietly into the village street and the fair sunlight of the calm
afternoon, now beginning to turn towards evening. None had said
anything since we first heard the new-come singing, save that as we
went out of the door the ballad-singer clapped me