Page:A C Doyle - The White Company.djvu/77

Rh Barbed and trim and true; So we'll 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. Here's 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, 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 bide 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.