t runagate knave to overcome thee, thou art worthy of the gallows!"

Hubert had but one set of speech for all occasions. "An your highness
were to hang me," he said, "a man can but do his best. Nevertheless, my
grandsire drew a good bow--"

"The foul fiend on thy grandsire and all his generation!" interrupted
John. "Shoot, knave, and shoot thy best, or it shall be the worse for
thee!"

Thus exhorted, Hubert resumed his place, and, not neglecting the caution
which he had received from his adversary, he made the necessary
allowance for a very light breath of wind which had just arisen, and
shot so successfully that his arrow alighted in the very center of the
target.

"A Hubert! a Hubert!" shouted the populace, more interested in a known
person than in a stranger. "In the clout!--in the clout! A Hubert
forever!"

"Thou canst not mend that shot, Locksley," said the prince, with an
insulting smile.

"I will notch his shaft for him, however," replied Locksley. And,
letting fly his arrow with a little more precaution than before, it
lighted right upon that of his competitor, which it split to shivers.
The people who stood around were so astonished at his wonderful
dexterity, that they could not even give vent to their surprise in their
usual clamor.

"This must be the devil, and no man of flesh and blood," whispered the
yeomen to each other; "such archery was never seen since a bow was first
bent in Britain!"

"And now," said Locksley, "I will crave your grace's permission to plant
such a mark as is used in the north country, and welcome every brave
yeoman to try a shot at it."

He then turned to leave the lists. "Let your guards attend me," he said,
"if you please. I go but to cut a rod from the next willow bush."

Prince John made a signal that some attendants should follow him, in
case of his escape; but the cry of "Shame! shame!" which burst from the
multitude induced him to alter his ungenerous purpose.

Locksley returned almost instantly, with a willow wand about six feet in
length, perfectly straight, and rather thicker than a man's thumb. He
began to peel this with great composure, observing, at the same time,
that to ask a good woodsman to shoot at a target so broad as had
hitherto been used was to put shame upon his skill.

"For my own part," said he, "in the land where I was bred, men would as
soon take for their mark King Arthur's Round Table, which held sixty
knights around it.

"A child of seve