Page:A C Doyle - The White Company.djvu/261

Rh anxiety of the man, the appearance of his attendant, and the joint care with which they defended their concealed possession, excited the interest of the two young Englishmen who walked within hand-touch of them.

'Courage, child!' they heard the tall man exclaim in strange hybrid French. 'If we can win another sixty paces we are safe.'

'Hold it safe, father,' the other answered, in the same soft, mincing dialect. 'We have no cause for fear.'

'Verily, they are heathens and barbarians,' cried the man; 'mad, howling, drunken barbarians! Forty more paces, Tita mia, and I swear to the holy Eloi, patron of all learned craftsmen, that I will never set foot over my door again until the whole swarm are safely hived in their camp of Dax, or wherever else they curse with their presence. Twenty more paces, my treasure! Ah, my God! how they push and brawl! Get in their way, Tita mia! Put your little 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