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'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.
Then out rides our own little hothead with the patch over his eye, and my Lord Audley with his four Cheshire squires, and a few others of like kidney, and after them went the prince and Chandos, and then the whole throng of us, with axe and sword, for we had shot away our arrows.
Ma foi! it was a foolish thing, for we came forth from the hedges, and there was naught to guard the baggage had they ridden round behind us.
But all went well with us, and the king was taken, and little Robby Withstaff and I fell in with a wain with twelve, firkins of wine for the king's own table, and, by my hilt! if you ask me what happened after that, I cannot answer you, nor can little Robby Withstaff either."
"And next day?"
"By my faith! we did not tarry long, but we hied back to Bordeaux, where we came in safety with the King of France and also the feather-bed.
I sold my spoil, mes garcons, for as many gold-pieces as I could hold in my hufken, and for seven days I lit twelve wax candles upon the altar of St. Andrew; for if you forget the blessed when things are well with you, they are very likely to forget you when you have need of them.
I have a score of one hundred and nineteen pounds of wax against the holy Andrew, and, as he was a very just man, I doubt not that I shall have full weigh and measure when I have most need of it."
"Tell me, master Aylward," cried a young fresh-faced archer at the further end of the room, "what was this great battle about?"
"Why, you jack-fool, what would it be about save who should wear the crown of France?"
"I thought that mayhap it might be as to who should have this feather-bed of thine."
"If I come down to you, Silas, I may lay my belt across your shoulders," Aylward answered, amid a general shout of laughter.
"But it is time young chickens went to roost when they dare cackle against their elders. It is late, Simon."
"Nay, let us have another song."
"Here is Arnold of Sowley will troll as good a stave as any man in the Company."
"Nay, we have one here who is second to none," said Hawtayne, laying his hand upon big John's shoulder.
"I have heard him on the cog with a voice like the wave upon the shore.
I pray you, friend, to give us
'The Bells of Milton,' or, if you will,
'The Franklin's Maid.' "
Hordle John drew the back of his hand across his mouth, fixed his eyes upon the corner of the ceiling, and bellowed forth, in a voice which made the torches flicker, the southland ballad 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.