eather was less keen upon the wednesday, and the rear-guard

made good their passage, with the bombards and the wagon-train.

free companions and gascons made up this portion of the army to

the number of ten thousand men. the fierce sir hugh calverley,

with his yellow mane, and the rugged sir robert knolles, with

their war-hardened and veteran companies of english bowmen,

headed the long column; while behind them came the turbulent

bands of the bastard of breteuil nandon de bagerant, one-eyed

camus, black ortingo, la nuit and others whose very names seem to

smack of hard hands and ruthless deeds. with them also were the

pick of the gascon chivalry--the old duc d'armagnac, his nephew

lord d'albret, brooding and scowling over his wrongs, the giant

oliver de clisson, the captal de buch, pink of knighthood, the

sprightly sir perducas d'albert, the red-bearded lord d'esparre,

and a long train of needy and grasping border nobles, with long

pedigrees and short purses, who had come down from their hill-

side strongholds, all hungering for the spoils and the ransoms of

spain. by the thursday morning the whole army was encamped in

the vale of pampeluna, and the prince had called his council to

meet him in the old palace of the ancient city of navarre.

chapter xxxiv.

how the company made sport in the vale of pampeluna.

whilst the council was sitting in pampeluna the white company,

having encamped in a neighboring valley, close to the companies

of la nuit and of black ortingo, were amusing themselves with

sword-play, wrestling, and shooting at the shields, which they

had placed upon the hillside to serve them as butts. the younger

archers, with their coats of mail thrown aside, their brown or

flaxen hair tossing in the wind, and their jerkins turned back to

give free play to their brawny chests and arms, stood in lines,

each loosing his shaft in turn, while johnston, aylward, black

simon, and half-a-score of the elders lounged up and down with

critical eyes, and a word of rough praise or of curt censure for

the marksmen. behind stood knots of gascon and brabant

crossbowmen from the companies of ortingo and of la nuit, leaning

upon their unsightly weapons and watching the practice of the

englishmen.

"a good shot, hewett, a good shot!" said old johnston to a young

bowman, who stood with his bow in his left hand, gazing with

parted lips after his flying shaft. "you see, she finds the

ring, as i knew she would from the moment that your string

twanged."

"loose it easy, steady, and yet sharp," said aylward. "by my

hilt! mon gar., it is very well when you do but shoot at a

shield. but when there is a man behind the shield, and he rides

at you with wave of sword and glint of eyes from behind his

vizor, you may find him a less easy mark."

"it is a mark that i have found before now," answered the young

bowman.

"and shall again, camarade, i doubt not. but hola! johnston, who

is this who holds his bow like a crow-keeper?"

"it is silas peterson, of horsham. do not wink with one eye and

look with the other, silas, and do not hop and dance after you

shoot, with your tongue out, for that will not speed it upon its

way. stand straight and firm, as god made you. move not the bow

arm, and steady with the drawing hand!"

"i' faith," said black simon, "i am a spearman myself, and am

more fitted for hand-strokes than for such work as this. yet i

have spent my days among bowmen, and i have seen many a brave

shaft sped. i will not say but that we have some good marksmen

here, and that this company would be accounted a fine body of

archers at any time or place. yet i do not see any men who bend

so strong a bow or shoot as true a shaft as those whom i have

known."

"you say sooth," said johnston, turning his seamed and grizzled

face upon the man-at-arms. "see yonder," he added, pointing to a

bombard which lay within the camp: "there is what hath done scath

to good bowmanship, with its filthy soot and foolish roaring

mouth. i wonder that a true knight, like our prince, should

carry such a scurvy thing in his train. robin, thou red-headed

lurden, how oft must i tell thee not to shoot straight with a

quarter-wind blowing across the mark?"

"by these ten finger-bones! there were some fine bowmen at the

intaking of calais," said aylward. "i well remember that, on

occasion of an outfall, a genoan raised his arm over his mantlet,

and shook it at us, a hundred paces from our line. there were

twenty who loosed shafts at him, and when the man was afterwards

slain it was found that he had taken eighteen through his

forearm."

"and i can call to mind," remarked johnston, "that when the great

cog 'christopher,' which the french had taken from us, was moored

two hundred paces from the shore, two archers, little robin

withstaff and elias baddles