for all that so many which were stranger and more stirring were soon
to crowd upon him. The fat, red-faced gleeman, the listening group, the
archer with upraised finger beating in time to the music, and the huge
sprawling figure of Hordle John, all thrown into red light and black
shadow by the flickering fire in the centre--memory was to come often
lovingly back to it. At the time he was lost in admiration at the deft
way in which the jongleur disguised the loss of his two missing strings,
and the lusty, hearty fashion in which he trolled out his little ballad
of the outland bowmen, which ran in some such fashion as this:

What of the bow?
The bow was made in England:
Of true wood, of yew wood,
The wood of English bows;
So men who are free
Love the old yew tree
And the land where the yew tree grows.

What of the cord?
The cord was made in England:
A rough cord, a tough cord,
A cord that bowmen love;
So we'll drain our jacks
To the English flax
And the land where the hemp was wove.

What of the shaft?
The shaft was cut in England:
A long shaft, a strong shaft,
Barbed and trim and true;
So we'll drink all together
To the gray goose feather
And the land where the gray goose flew.

What of the men?
The men were bred in England:
The bowman--the yeoman--
The lads of dale and fell
Here's to you--and to you;
To the hearts that are true
And the land where the true hearts dwell.

"Well sung, by my hilt!" shouted the archer in high delight. "Many a
night have I heard that song, both in the old war-time and after in the
days of the White Company, when Black Simon of Norwich would lead the
stave, and four hundred of the best bowmen that ever drew string would
come roaring in upon the chorus. I have seen old John Hawkwood, the same
who has led half the Company into Italy, stand laughing in his beard as
he heard it, until his plates rattled again. But to get the full smack
of it ye must yourselves be English bowmen, and be far off upon an
outland soil."

Whilst the song had been singing Dame Eliza and the maid had placed a
board across two trestles, and had laid upon it the knife, the spoon,
the salt, the tranchoir of bread, and finall