he heart of it. I go now to Christchurch with a letter to him from
Sir Claude Latour to ask him if he will take the place of Sir John
Hawkwood; and there is the more chance that he will if I bring one or
two likely men at my heels. What say you, woodman: wilt leave the bucks
to loose a shaft at a nobler mark?"

The forester shook his head. "I have wife and child at Emery Down,"
quoth he; "I would not leave them for such a venture."

"You, then, young sir?" asked the archer.

"Nay, I am a man of peace," said Alleyne Edricson. "Besides, I have
other work to do."

"Peste!" growled the soldier, striking his flagon on the board until the
dishes danced again. "What, in the name of the devil, hath come over
the folk? Why sit ye all moping by the fireside, like crows round a dead
horse, when there is man's work to be done within a few short leagues of
ye? Out upon you all, as a set of laggards and hang-backs! By my hilt I
believe that the men of England are all in France already, and that what
is left behind are in sooth the women dressed up in their paltocks and
hosen."

"Archer," quoth Hordle John, "you have lied more than once and more than
twice; for which, and also because I see much in you to dislike, I am
sorely tempted to lay you upon your back."

"By my hilt! then, I have found a man at last!" shouted the bowman.
"And, 'fore God, you are a better man than I take you for if you can lay
me on my back, mon garcon. I have won the ram more times than there are
toes to my feet, and for seven long years I have found no man in the
Company who could make my jerkin dusty."

"We have had enough bobance and boasting," said Hordle John, rising and
throwing off his doublet. "I will show you that there are better men
left in England than ever went thieving to France."

"Pasques Dieu!" cried the archer, loosening his jerkin, and eyeing his
foeman over with the keen glance of one who is a judge of manhood.
"I have only once before seen such a body of a man. By your leave, my
red-headed friend, I should be right sorry to exchange buffets with
you; and I will allow that there is no man in the Company who would
pull against you on a rope; so let that be a salve to your pride. On
the other hand I should judge that you have led a life of ease for some
months back, and that my muscle is harder than your own. I am ready to
wager upon myself against you if you are not afeard."

"Afeard, thou lurden!" growled big John. "I never saw th