e gay prancers
yonder, I doubt not that I should have ransom enough from him to buy my
mother a new cow."

"A cow!" said Aylward. "Say rather ten acres and a homestead on the
banks of Avon."

"Say you so? Then, by our Lady! here is for yonder one in the red
jerkin!"

He was about to push recklessly forward into the open, when Sir Nigel
himself darted in front of him, with his hand upon his breast.

"Back!" said he. "Our time is not yet come, and we must lie here until
evening. Throw off your jacks and headpieces, least their eyes catch the
shine, and tether the horses among the rocks."

The order was swiftly obeyed, and in ten minutes the archers were
stretched along by the side of the brook, munching the bread and the
bacon which they had brought in their bags, and craning their necks to
watch the ever-changing scene beneath them. Very quiet and still they
lay, save for a muttered jest or whispered order, for twice during the
long morning they heard bugle-calls from amid the hills on either side
of them, which showed that they had thrust themselves in between the
outposts of the enemy. The leaders sat amongst the box-wood, and took
counsel together as to what they should do; while from below there
surged up the buzz of voices, the shouting, the neighing of horses, and
all the uproar of a great camp.

"What boots it to wait?" said Sir William Felton. "Let us ride down upon
their camp ere they discover us."

"And so say I," cried the Scottish earl; "for they do not know that
there is any enemy within thirty long leagues of them."

"For my part," said Sir Simon Burley, "I think that it is madness, for
you cannot hope to rout this great army; and where are you to go and
what are you to do when they have turned upon you? How say you, Sir
Oliver Buttesthorn?"

"By the apple of Eve!" cried the fat knight, "it appears to me that
this wind brings a very savory smell of garlic and of onions from their
cooking-kettles. I am in favor of riding down upon them at once, if my
old friend and comrade here is of the same mind."

"Nay," said Sir Nigel, "I have a plan by which we may attempt some small
deed upon them, and yet, by the help of God, may be able to draw off
again; which, as Sir Simon Burley hath said, would be scarce possible in
any other way."

"How then, Sir Nigel?" asked several voices.

"We shall lie here all day; for amid this brushwood it is ill for them
to see us. Then when evening comes we shall sally