re," said Dick, very slowly, "take back your arrow, for I cannot do
as you will."

"Why, man? Are you a Frenchman?" asked the King, angrily, for he was not
wont to have his favours thus refused.

"My mother never told me so, Sire, although I don't know for certain who
my father may have been. Still, I think not, since I hate the sight
of that breed as a farmer's dog hates rats. But, Sire, I have a good
master, and do not wish to change him for one who, saving your presence,
may prove a worse, since King's favour on Monday has been known to mean
King's halter on Tuesday. Did you not promise to whip me round your
walls last night unless I shot as well as I thought I could, and now do
you not change your face and give me golden arrows?"

At these bold words a roar of laughter went up from all who heard them,
in which the King himself joined heartily enough.

"Silence!" he cried presently. "This yeoman's tongue is as sharp as his
shafts. I am pierced. Let us hear whom he will hit next."

"You again, Sire, I think," went on Dick, "because, after the fashion of
kings, you are unjust. You praise me for my shooting, whereas you should
praise God, seeing that it is no merit of mine, but a gift He gave me at
my birth in place of much which He withheld. Moreover, my master there,"
and he pointed to Hugh, "who has just done you better service than
hitting a clout in the red and a dow beneath the wing, you forget
altogether, though I tell you he can shoot almost as well as I, for I
taught him."

"Dick, Dick!" broke in Hugh in an agony of shame. Taking no heed, Dick
went on imperturbably: "And is the best man with a sword in Suffolk, as
the ghost of John Clavering knows to-day. Lastly, Sire, you send this
master of mine upon a certain business where straight arrows may be
wanted as well as sharp swords, and yet you'd keep me here whittling
them out of ashwood, who, if I could have had my will, would have been
on the road these two hours gone. Is that a king's wisdom?"

"By St. George!" exclaimed Edward, "I think that I should make you
councillor as well as fletcher, since without doubt, man, you have a
bitter wit, and, what is more rare, do not fear to speak the truth as
you see it. Moreover, in this matter, you see it well. Go with Hugh de
Cressi on the business which I have given him to do, and, when it is
finished, should both or either of you live, neglect not our command
to rejoin us here, or--if we have crossed the sea--