ere is little to be gained out
of a battle, unless one have the fortune to win a ransom. At Issodun I
and three Welshmen came upon a house which all others had passed, and
we had the profit of it to ourselves. For myself, I had a fine
feather-bed--a thing which you will not see in a long day's journey in
England. You have seen it, Alleyne, and you, John. You will bear me out
that it is a noble bed. We put it on a sutler's mule, and bore it after
the army. It was on my mind that I would lay it by until I came to
start house of mine own, and I have it now in a very safe place near
Lyndhurst."

"And what then, master-bowman?" asked Hawtayne. "By St. Christopher! it
is indeed a fair and goodly life which you have chosen, for you gather
up the spoil as a Warsash man gathers lobsters, without grace or favor
from any man."

"You are right, master-shipman," said another of the older archers.
"It is an old bowyer's rede that the second feather of a fenny goose is
better than the pinion of a tame one. Draw on old lad, for I have come
between you and the clout."

"On we went then," said Aylward, after a long pull at his blackjack.
"There were some six thousand of us, with the prince and his knights,
and the feather-bed upon a sutler's mule in the centre. We made great
havoc in Touraine, until we came into Romorantin, where I chanced upon
a gold chain and two bracelets of jasper, which were stolen from me the
same day by a black-eyed wench from the Ardennes. Mon Dieu! there are
some folk who have no fear of Domesday in them, and no sign of grace in
their souls, for ever clutching and clawing at another man's chattels."

"But the battle, Aylward, the battle!" cried several, amid a burst of
laughter.

"I come to it, my young war-pups. Well, then, the King of France had
followed us with fifty thousand men, and he made great haste to catch
us, but when he had us he scarce knew what to do with us, for we were
so drawn up among hedges and vineyards that they could not come nigh us,
save by one lane. On both sides were archers, men-at-arms and knights
behind, and in the centre the baggage, with my feather-bed upon a
sutler's mule. Three hundred chosen knights came straight for it, and,
indeed, they were very brave men, but such a drift of arrows met them
that few came back. Then came the Germans, and they also fought very
bravely, so that one or two broke through the archers and came as far
as the feather-bed, but all to no purpose.