e face yet of
the man that I was afeard of. Come out, and we shall see who is the
better man."

"But the wager?"

"I have nought to wager. Come out for the love and the lust of the
thing."

"Nought to wager!" cried the soldier. "Why, you have that which I covet
above all things. It is that big body of thine that I am after. See,
now, mon garcon. I have a French feather-bed there, which I have been at
pains to keep these years back. I had it at the sacking of Issodun, and
the King himself hath not such a bed. If you throw me, it is thine; but,
if I throw you, then you are under a vow to take bow and bill and hie
with me to France, there to serve in the White Company as long as we be
enrolled."

"A fair wager!" cried all the travellers, moving back their benches and
trestles, so as to give fair field for the wrestlers.

"Then you may bid farewell to your bed, soldier," said Hordle John.

"Nay; I shall keep the bed, and I shall have you to France in spite
of your teeth, and you shall live to thank me for it. How shall it be,
then, mon enfant? Collar and elbow, or close-lock, or catch how you
can?"

"To the devil with your tricks," said John, opening and shutting his
great red hands. "Stand forth, and let me clip thee."

"Shalt clip me as best you can then," quoth the archer, moving out into
the open space, and keeping a most wary eye upon his opponent. He had
thrown off his green jerkin, and his chest was covered only by a pink
silk jupon, or undershirt, cut low in the neck and sleeveless. Hordle
John was stripped from his waist upwards, and his huge body, with his
great muscles swelling out like the gnarled roots of an oak, towered
high above the soldier. The other, however, though near a foot shorter,
was a man of great strength; and there was a gloss upon his white skin
which was wanting in the heavier limbs of the renegade monk. He was
quick on his feet, too, and skilled at the game; so that it was clear,
from the poise of head and shine of eye, that he counted the chances to
be in his favor. It would have been hard that night, through the whole
length of England, to set up a finer pair in face of each other.

Big John stood waiting in the centre with a sullen, menacing eye, and
his red hair in a bristle, while the archer paced lightly and swiftly to
the right and the left with crooked knee and hands advanced. Then with a
sudden dash, so swift and fierce that the eye could scarce follow it, he
flew in upon