Page:A C Doyle - The White Company.djvu/409

Rh the young squire stood with parted lips and wondering eyes gazing down at the novel scene before him, 'we have been seeking them all night, but now that we have found them I know not what we are to do with them.'

'You say sooth, Samkin,' quoth old Johnston. 'I would that we were upon the far side of Ebro again, for there is neither honour nor profit to be gained here. "What say you, Simon?'

'By the rood!' cried the fierce man-at-arms, 'I will see the colour of their blood ere I turn my mare's head for the mountains. Am I a child, that I should ride for three days and nought but words at the end of it?'

'Well said, my sweet honeysuckle!' cried Hordle John. 'I am with you, like hilt to blade. Could I but lay hands upon one of those gay prancers yonder, I doubt not that I should have ransom enough from him to buy my mother a new cow.'

'A cow!' said Aylward. 'Say rather ten acres and a homestead on the banks of Avon.'

'Say you so? Then, by Our Lady! here is for yonder one in the red jerkin!'

He was about to push recklessly forward into the open, when Sir Nigel himself darted in front of him, with his hand upon his breast.

'Back!' said he. 'Our time is not yet come, and we must lie here until evening. Throw off your jacks and head-pieces, lest their eyes catch the shine, and tether the horses among the rocks.'

The order was swiftly obeyed, and in ten minutes the archers were stretched along by the side of the brook, munching the bread and the bacon which they had brought in their bags, and craning their necks to watch the ever-changing scene beneath them. Very quiet and still they lay, save for a muttered jest or whispered order, for twice during the long morning they heard bugle-calls from amid the hills on either side of them, which showed that they had thrust themselves in between the outposts of the enemy. The leaders sat