tle elbow bravely out! set your shoulders squarely against

them, girl! why should you give way to these mad islanders? ah,

cospetto! we are ruined and destroyed!"

the crowd had thickened in front, so that the lame man and the

girl had come to a stand. several half-drunken english archers,

attracted, as the squires had been, by their singular appearance,

were facing towards them, and peering at them through the dim

light.

"by the three kings!" cried one, "here is an old dotard shrew to

have so goodly a crutch! use the leg that god hath given you,

man, and do not bear so heavily upon the wench."

"twenty devils fly away with him!" shouted another. "what, how,

man! are brave archers to go maidless while an old man uses one

as a walking-staff?"

"come with me, my honey-bird!" cried a third, plucking at the

girl's mantle.

"nay, with me, my heart's desire!" said the first. "by st.

george! our life is short, and we should be merry while we may.

may i never see chester bridge again, if she is not a right

winsome lass!"

"what hath the old toad under his arm?" cried one of the others.

"he hugs it to him as the devil hugged the pardoner."

"let us see, old bag of bones; let us see what it is that you

have under your arm!" they crowded in upon him, while he,

ignorant of their language, could but clutch the girl with one

hand and the parcel with the other, looking wildly about in

search of help.

"nay, lads, nay!" cried ford, pushing back the nearest archer.

"this is but scurvy conduct. keep your hands off, or it will be

the worse for you."

"keep your tongue still, or it will be the worse for you,"

shouted the most drunken of the archers. "who are you to spoil

sport?"

"a raw squire, new landed," said another. "by st. thomas of

kent! we are at the beck of our master, but we are not to be

ordered by every babe whose mother hath sent him as far as

aquitaine."

"oh, gentlemen," cried the girl in broken french, "for dear

christ's sake stand by us, and do not let these terrible men do

us an injury."

"have no fears, lady," alleyne answered. "we shall see that all

is well with you. take your hand from the girl's wrist, you

north-country rogue!"

"hold to her, wat!" said a great black-bearded man-at-arms, whose

steel breast-plate glimmered in the dusk. "keep your hands from

your bodkins, you two, for that was my trade before you were

born, and, by god's soul! i will drive a handful of steel through

you if you move a finger."

"thank god!" said alleyne suddenly, as he spied in the lamplight

a shock of blazing red hair which fringed a steel cap high above

the heads of the crowd. "here is john, and aylward, too! help

us, comrades, for there is wrong being done to this maid and to

the old man."

"hola, mon petit," said the old bowman, pushing his way through

the crowd, with the huge forester at his heels. "what is all

this, then? by the twang of string! i think that you will have

some work upon your hands if you are to right all the wrongs that

you may see upon this side of the water. it is not to be thought

that a troop of bowmen, with the wine buzzing in their ears, will

be as soft-spoken as so many young clerks in an orchard. when

you have been a year with the company you will think less of such

matters. but what is amiss here? the provost-marshal with his

archers is coming this way, and some of you may find yourselves

in the stretch-neck, if you take not heed."

"why, it is old sam aylward of the white company!" shouted the

man-at-arms. "why, samkin, what hath come upon thee? i can call

to mind the day when you were as roaring a blade as ever called

himself a free companion. by my soul! from limoges to navarre,

who was there who would kiss a wench or cut a throat as readily

as bowman aylward of hawkwood's company?"

"like enough, peter," said aylward, "and, by my hilt! i may not

have changed so much. but it was ever a fair loose and a clear

mark with me. the wench must be willing, or the man must be

standing up against me, else, by these ten finger bones i either

were safe enough for me."

a glance at aylward's resolute face, and at the huge shoulders of

hordle john, had convinced the archers that there was little to

be got by violence. the girl and the old man began to shuffle on

in the crowd without their tormentors venturing to stop them.

ford and alleyne followed slowly behind them, but aylward caught

the latter by the shoulder.

"by my hilt! camarade," said he, "i hear that you have done great

things at the abbey to-day, but i pray you to have a care, for it

was i who brought you into the company, and it would be a black

day for me if aught were to befall you."

"nay, aylward, i will have a care."

"thrust not forward into danger too much, mon petit. in a little

time your wrist