d for which he had been
asked:--

The franklin he hath gone to roam,
The franklin's maid she bides at home,
But she is cold and coy and staid,
And who may win the franklin's maid?

There came a knight of high renown
In bassinet and ciclatoun;
On bended knee full long he prayed,
He might not win the franklin's maid.

There came a squire so debonair
His dress was rich, his words were fair,
He sweetly sang, he deftly played:
He could not win the franklin's maid.

There came a mercer wonder-fine
With velvet cap and gaberdine;
For all his ships, for all his trade
He could not buy the franklin's maid.

There came an archer bold and true,
With bracer guard and stave of yew;
His purse was light, his jerkin frayed;
Haro, alas! the franklin's maid!

Oh, some have laughed and some have cried
And some have scoured the country-side!
But off they ride through wood and glade,
The bowman and the franklin's maid.

A roar of delight from his audience, with stamping of feet and beating
of blackjacks against the ground, showed how thoroughly the song was
to their taste, while John modestly retired into a quart pot, which he
drained in four giant gulps. "I sang that ditty in Hordle ale-house ere
I ever thought to be an archer myself," quoth he.

"Fill up your stoups!" cried Black Simon, thrusting his own goblet into
the open hogshead in front of him. "Here is a last cup to the White
Company, and every brave boy who walks behind the roses of Loring!"

"To the wood, the flax, and the gander's wing!" said an old gray-headed
archer on the right.

"To a gentle loose, and the King of Spain for a mark at fourteen score!"
cried another.

"To a bloody war!" shouted a fourth. "Many to go and few to come!"

"With the most gold to the best steel!" added a fifth.

"And a last cup to the maids of our heart!" cried Aylward. "A steady
hand and a true eye, boys; so let two quarts be a bowman's portion."
With shout and jest and snatch of song they streamed from the room, and
all was peaceful once more in the "Rose de Guienne."

CHAPTER XXIII. HOW ENGLAND HELD THE LISTS AT BORDEAUX. So used were the
good burghers of Bordeaux to martial display and knightly sport, that an
ordinary joust or tournament was an everyday matter with them. The fame
a