ll what strange vow he may not have sworn to. I
see that he has a patch over his eye, even as he had at Poictiers. There
will come bloodshed of that patch, or I am the more mistaken."

"How chanced it at Poictiers, good Master Aylward?" asked one of the
young archers, leaning upon his elbows, with his eyes fixed respectfully
upon the old bowman's rugged face.

"Aye, Aylward, tell us of it," cried Hordle John.

"Here is to old Samkin Aylward!" shouted several at the further end of
the room, waving their blackjacks in the air.

"Ask him!" said Aylward modestly, nodding towards Black Simon. "He saw
more than I did. And yet, by the holy nails! there was not very much
that I did not see either."

"Ah, yes," said Simon, shaking his head, "it was a great day. I never
hope to see such another. There were some fine archers who drew their
last shaft that day. We shall never see better men, Aylward."

"By my hilt! no. There was little Robby Withstaff, and Andrew
Salblaster, and Wat Alspaye, who broke the neck of the German. Mon Dieu!
what men they were! Take them how you would, at long butts or short,
hoyles, rounds, or rovers, better bowmen never twirled a shaft over
their thumb-nails."

"But the fight, Aylward, the fight!" cried several impatiently.

"Let me fill my jack first, boys, for it is a thirsty tale. It was at
the first fall of the leaf that the prince set forth, and he passed
through Auvergne, and Berry, and Anjou, and Touraine. In Auvergne the
maids are kind, but the wines are sour. In Berry it is the women that
are sour, but the wines are rich. Anjou, however, is a very good
land for bowmen, for wine and women are all that heart could wish. In
Touraine I got nothing save a broken pate, but at Vierzon I had a great
good fortune, for I had a golden pyx from the minster, for which I
afterwards got nine Genoan janes from the goldsmith in the Rue
Mont Olive. From thence we went to Bourges, were I had a tunic of
flame-colored silk and a very fine pair of shoes with tassels of silk
and drops of silver."

"From a stall, Aylward?" asked one of the young archers.

"Nay, from a man's feet, lad. I had reason to think that he might not
need them again, seeing that a thirty-inch shaft had feathered in his
back."

"And what then, Aylward?"

"On we went, coz, some six thousand of us, until we came to Issodun, and
there again a very great thing befell."

"A battle, Aylward?"

"Nay, nay; a greater thing than that. Th