l. I can
shoot three hundred and fifty paces with my little popper there, and
four hundred and twenty with the great war-bow; yet I can make nothing
of this, nor read my own name if you were to set 'Sam Aylward' up
against me. In the whole Company there was only one man who could read,
and he fell down a well at the taking of Ventadour, which proves what
the thing is not suited to a soldier, though most needful to a clerk."

"I can make some show at it," said big John; "though I was scarce long
enough among the monks to catch the whole trick of it.

"Here, then, is something to try upon," quoth the archer, pulling a
square of parchment from the inside of his tunic. It was tied securely
with a broad band of purple silk, and firmly sealed at either end with a
large red seal. John pored long and earnestly over the inscription upon
the back, with his brows bent as one who bears up against great mental
strain.

"Not having read much of late," he said, "I am loth to say too much
about what this may be. Some might say one thing and some another, just
as one bowman loves the yew, and a second will not shoot save with the
ash. To me, by the length and the look of it, I should judge this to be
a verse from one of the Psalms."

The bowman shook his head. "It is scarce likely," he said, "that Sir
Claude Latour should send me all the way across seas with nought more
weighty than a psalm-verse. You have clean overshot the butts this time,
mon camarade. Give it to the little one. I will wager my feather-bed
that he makes more sense of it."

"Why, it is written in the French tongue," said Alleyne, "and in a
right clerkly hand. This is how it runs: 'A le moult puissant et moult
honorable chevalier, Sir Nigel Loring de Christchurch, de son tres
fidele ami Sir Claude Latour, capitaine de la Compagnie blanche,
chatelain de Biscar, grand seigneur de Montchateau, vavaseur de le
renomme Gaston, Comte de Foix, tenant les droits de la haute justice, de
la milieu, et de la basse.' Which signifies in our speech: 'To the very
powerful and very honorable knight, Sir Nigel Loring of Christchurch,
from his very faithful friend Sir Claude Latour, captain of the White
Company, chatelain of Biscar, grand lord of Montchateau and vassal to
the renowned Gaston, Count of Foix, who holds the rights of the high
justice, the middle and the low.'"

"Look at that now!" cried the bowman in triumph. "That is just what he
would have said."

"I can see now