Nay, but you will so, said one of the labourers. Hi! Dame Eliza, bring a stoup of your best to Will to clear his throat. Go forward with thy song, and if our girl-faced clerk does not love it he can take to the road and go whence he came.
Nay, but not too fast, broke in Hordle John. There are two words in this matter. It may be that my little comrade has been overquick in reproof, he having gone early into the cloisters and seen little of the rough ways and words of the world. Yet there is truth in what he says, for, as you know well, the song was not of the cleanest. I shall stand by him, therefore, and he shall neither be put out on the road, nor shall his ears be offended indoors.
Indeed, your high and mighty grace, sneered one of the yeomen, have you in sooth so ordained?
By the Virgin! said a second, I think that you may both chance to find yourselves upon the road before long.
And so belaboured as to be scarce able to crawl along it, cried a third.
Nay, I shall go! I shall go! said Alleyne hurriedly, as Hordle John began to slowly roll up his sleeve, and bare an arm like a leg of mutton. I would not have you brawl about me.
Hush, lad! he whispered, I count them not a fly. They may find they have more tow on their distaff than they know how to spin. Stand thou clear and give me space.
Both the foresters and the labourers had risen from their bench, and Dame Eliza and the travelling doctor had flung themselves between the two parties with soft words and soothing gestures, when the door of the Pied Merlin was flung violently open, and the attention of the company was drawn from their own quarrel to the new-comer who had burst so unceremoniously upon them.
Chapter VI
How Samkin Aylward Wagered His Feather-Bed
He was a middle-sized man, of most massive and robust build, with an arching chest and extraordinary breadth of shoulder. His shaven face was as brown as a hazel-nut, tanned and dried by the weather, with harsh well-marked features, which were not improved by a long white scar which stretched from the corner of his left nostril to the angle of the jaw. His eyes were bright and searching, with something of menace and of authority in their quick glitter, and his mouth was firm-set and hard, as befitted one who was wont to set his face against danger. A straight sword by his side and a painted longbow jutting over his shoulder proclaimed his profession, while his scarred brigandine of chain-mail and his dinted steel cap showed that he was no holiday soldier, but one who was even now fresh from the wars. A white surcoat with the Lion of St. George in red upon the centre covered his broad breast, while a sprig of new-plucked broom at the side of his headgear gave a touch of gaiety and grace to his grim war-worn equipment.
Ha! he cried, blinking like an owl in the sudden glare. Good even to you, camarades! Holà![45] a woman, by my soul! and in an instant he had clipped Dame Eliza round the waist and was kissing her violently. His eye happening to wander upon the maid, however, he instantly abandoned the mistress and danced off after the other, who scurried in confusion up one of the ladders, and dropped the heavy trap-door upon her pursuer. He then turned back and saluted the landlady once more with the utmost relish and satisfaction.
La petite[46] is frightened, said he. Ah, cest lamour, lamour[47]! Curse this trick of French, which will stick to my throat. I must wash it out with some good English ale. By my hilt! camarades, there is no drop of French blood in my body, and I am a true English bowman, Samkin Aylward by name, once of Crooksbury; and I tell you, mes amis[48], that it warms my very heartroots to set my feet on the dear old land once more. When I came off the galley at Hythe, this very day, I down on my bones, and I kissed the good brown earth, as I kiss thee now, ma belle[49], for it was eight long years since I had seen it. The very smell of it seemed life to me. But where are my six rascals? Holà, there! En avant![50]
At the order, six men, dressed as common drudges, marched solemnly into the room, each bearing a huge bundle upon his head. They formed in military line, while the soldier stood in front of them with stern eyes, checking off their several packages.
Number one a French feather-bed with the two counterpanes of white sendal, said he.
Here, worthy sir, answered the first of the bearers, laying a great package down in the corner.
Number two seven ells of red Turkey cloth and nine ells of cloth of gold. Put it down by the other. Good dame, I prythee give each of these men a bottrine of wine or a jack of ale. Three a full piece of white Genoan velvet with twelve ellssend of purple silk. Thou rascal, there is dirt on the hem! Thou hast brushed it against some wall, coquin[51]!
Not I, most worthy sir, cried the carrier, shrinking away from the fierce eyes of the bowman.
I say yes, dog! By the three kings! I have seen a man gasp out his last breath for less. Had you gone through the pain and unease that I have done to earn these things you would be at more care. I swear by my ten fingerbones that there is not one of them that hath not cost its weight in French blood! Four an incense-boat, an ewer of silver, a gold buckle and a cope worked in pearls. I found them, camarades, at the Church of St. Denis in the harrying of Narbonne, and I took them away with me lest they fall into the hands of the wicked. Five a cloak of fur turned up with minever, a gold goblet with stand and cover, and a box of rose-coloured sugar. See that you lay them together. Six a box of monies, three pounds of Limousine[52] gold-work, a pair of boots, silver-tagged, and, lastly, a store of naping linen. So, the tally is complete! Here is a groat apiece and you may go.
Go whither, worthy sir? asked one of the carriers.
Whither? To the devil if ye will. What is it to me? Now, ma belle, to supper. A pair of cold capons, a mortress of brawn, or what you will, with a flask or two of the right Gascony. I have crowns in my pouch, my sweet, and I mean to spend them. Bring in wine while the food is dressing. Buvons[53], my brave lads! you shall each empty a stoup with me.
Here was an offer which the company in an English inn at that or any other date are slow to refuse. The flagons were regathered, and came back with the white foam dripping over their edges. Two of the woodmen and three of the labourers drank their portions off hurriedly and trooped off together, for their homes were distant and the hour late. The others, however, drew closer, leaving the place of honour to the right of the gleeman to the free-handed new-comer. He had thrown off his steel cap and his brigandine, and had placed them with his sword, his quiver and his painted long-bow, on the top of his varied heap of plunder in the corner. Now, with his thick and somewhat bowed legs stretched in front of the blaze, his green jerkin thrown open, and a great quart pot held in his corded fist, he looked the picture of comfort and of good-fellowship. His hard-set face had softened, and the thick crop of crisp brown curls which had been hidden by his helmet grew low upon his massive neck. He might have been forty years of age, though hard toil and harder pleasure had left their grim marks upon his features. Alleyne had ceased painting his pied merlin, and sat, brush in hand, staring with open eyes at a type of man so strange and so unlike any whom he had met. Men had been good or had been bad in his catalogue, but here was a man who was fierce one instant and gentle the next, with a curse on his lips and a smile in his eye. What was to be made of such a man as that?
It chanced that the soldier looked up and saw the questioning glance which the young clerk threw upon him. He raised his flagon and drank to him, with a merry flash of his white teeth.
À toi, mon garçon![54] he cried. Hast surely never seen a man-at-arms, that thou shouldst stare so?
I never have, said Alleyne frankly, though I have oft heard talk of their deeds.
By my hilt! cried the other, if you were to cross the narrow sea you would find them as thick as bees at a tee-hole. Couldst not shoot a bolt down any street of Bordeaux, I warrant, but you would pink archer, squire or knight. There are more breastplates than gaberdines to be seen, I promise you.
And where got you all those pretty things? asked Hordle John, pointing at the heap in the corner.
Where there is as much more waiting for any brave lad to pick it up. Where a good man can always earn a good wage, and where he need look upon no man as his paymaster, but just reach his hand out and help himself. Aye, it is a goodly and a proper life. And here I drink to mine old comrades, and the saints be with them! A rouse all together, mes enfants[55], under pain of my displeasure! To Sir Claude Latour and the White Company!
Sir Claude Latour and the White Company! shouted the travellers, draining off their goblets.
Well quaffed, mes braves[56]! It is for me to fill your cups again, since you have drained them to my dear lads of the white jerkin. Holà! mon ange[57], bring wine and ale.
How runs the old stave?
Well drink all together
To the grey goose feather
And the land where the grey goose flew.
He roared out the catch in a harsh unmusical voice, and ended with a shout of laughter. I trust that I am a better bowman than a minstrel, said he.
Methinks I have some remembrance of the lilt, remarked the gleeman, running his fingers over the strings. Hoping that it will give thee no offence, most holy sir with a vicious snap at Alleyne and with the kind permit of the company, I will even venture upon it.
At the time he was lost in admiration at the deft way in which the jongleur disguised the loss of his two missing strings, and the lusty, hearty fashion in which he trolled out his little ballad of the outland bowmen, which ran in some such fashion as this:
What of the bow?
The bow was made in England:
Of true wood, of yew-wood,
The wood of English bows;
So men who are free
Love the old yew-tree
And the land where the yew-tree grows.
What of the cord?
The cord was made in England:
A rough cord, a tough cord,
A cord that bowmen love;
So well drain our jacks
To the English flax
And the land where the hemp was wove.
What of the shaft?
The shaft was cut in England:
A long shaft, a strong shaft,
Barbed and trim and true;
So well drink all together
To the grey goose feather
And the land where the grey goose flew.
What of the men?
The men were bred in England:
The bowmen the yeomen
The lads of dale and fell.
Heres to you and to you!
To the hearts that are true
And the land where the true hearts dwell.
Well sung, by my hilt! shouted the archer in high delight. Many a night have I heard that song, both in the old war-time and after, in the days of the White Company, when Black Simon of Norwich would lead the stave, and four hundred of the best bowmen that ever drew string would come roaring in upon the chorus. I have seen old John Hawkwood, the same who has led half the Company into Italy, stand laughing in his beard as he heard it, until his plates rattled again. But to get the full smack of it ye must yourselves be English bowmen, and be far off upon an outland soil.
Whilst the song had been singing Dame Eliza and the maid had placed a board across two trestles, and had laid upon it the knife, the spoon, the salt, the tranchoir of bread[58], and finally the smoking dish which held the savoury supper. The archer settled himself to it like one who had known what it was to find good food scarce; but his tongue still went as merrily as his teeth.
It passes me, he cried, how all you lusty fellows can hide scratching your backs at home when there are such doings over the seas. Look at me what have I to do? It is but the eye to the cord, the cord to the shaft, and the shaft to the mark. There is the whole song of it. It is but what you do yourselves for pleasure upon a Sunday evening at the parish village butts.
And the wage? asked a labourer.
You see what the wage brings, he answered. I eat of the best, and I drink deep. I treat my friend, and I ask no friend to treat me. I clap a silk gown on my girls back. Never a knights lady shall be better betrimmed and betrinketed. How of all that, mon garçon? And how of the heap of trifles that you can see for yourselves in yonder corner? They are from the South French, every one, upon whom I have been making war. By my hilt! camarades, I think that I may let my plunder speak for itself.
It seems indeed to be a goodly service, said the tooth-drawer.
Tête bleue![59] yes, indeed. Then there is the chance of a ransom. Why, look you, in the affair at Brignais, some four years back, when the companies slew James of Bourbon, and put his army to the sword, there was scarce a man of ours who had not count, baron, or knight. Peter Karsdale, who was but a common country lout newly brought over, with the English fleas still hopping under his doublet, laid his great hands upon the Sieur Amaury de Chatonville, who owns half Picardy, and had five thousand crowns out of him, with horse and harness. Tis true that a French wench took it all off Peter as quick as the Frenchman paid it; but what then? By the twang of string! it would be a bad thing if money was not made to be spent; and how better than on woman eh, ma belle?
It would indeed be a bad thing if we had not our brave archers to bring wealth and kindly customs into the country, quoth Dame Eliza, on whom the soldiers free and open ways had made a deep impression.
À toi, ma chérie![60] said he, with his hand over his heart. Holà! there is la petite peeping from behind the door. À toi, aussi, ma petite! Mon Dieu![61] but the lass has a good colour!
There is one thing, fair sir, said the Cambridge student in his piping voice, which I would fain that you would make more clear. As I understand it, there was a peace made at the town of Brétigny some six years back between our most gracious monarch and the King of the French. This being so, it seems most passing strange that you should talk so loudly of war and of companies when there is no quarrel between the French and us.
Meaning that I lie, said the archer, laying down his knife.
May heaven forefend[62]! cried the student hastily. Magna est veritas sed rara[63], which means in the Latin tongue that archers are all honourable men. I come to you seeking knowledge, for it is my trade to learn.