y
are ready for a cast even at such a quarry as you speak of."
leaving the thumbless archer and his brood, the wayfarers struck
through the scattered huts of emery down, and out on to the broad
rolling heath covered deep in ferns and in heather, where droves
of the half-wild black forest pigs were rooting about amongst the
hillocks. the woods about this point fall away to the left and
the right, while the road curves upwards and the wind sweeps
keenly over the swelling uplands. the broad strips of bracken
glowed red and yellow against the black peaty soil, and a queenly
doe who grazed among them turned her white front and her great
questioning eyes towards the wayfarers.
alleyne gazed in admiration at the supple beauty of the creature;
but the archer's fingers played with his quiver, and his eyes
glistened with the fell instinct which urges a man to slaughter.
"tete dieu!" he growled, "were this france, or even guienne, we
should have a fresh haunch for our none-meat. law or no law, i
have a mind to loose a bolt at her."
"i would break your stave across my knee first," cried john,
laying his great hand upon the bow. "what! man, i am forest-
born, and i know what comes of it. in our own township of hordle
two have lost their eyes and one his skin for this very thing.
on my troth, i felt no great love when i first saw you, but since
then i have conceived over much regard for you to wish to see the
verderer's flayer at work upon you."
"it is my trade to risk my skin," growled the archer; but none
the less he thrust his quiver over his hip again and turned his
face for the west.
as they advanced, the path still tended upwards, running from
heath into copses of holly and yew, and so back into heath again.
it was joyful to hear the merry whistle of blackbirds as they
darted from one clump of greenery to the other. now and again a
peaty amber colored stream rippled across their way, with ferny
over-grown banks, where the blue kingfisher flitted busily from
side to side, or the gray and pensive heron, swollen with trout
and dignity, stood ankle-deep among the sedges. chattering jays
and loud wood-pigeons flapped thickly overhead, while ever and
anon the measured tapping of nature's carpenter, the great green
woodpecker, sounded from each wayside grove. on either side, as
the path mounted, the long sweep of country broadened and
expanded, sloping down on the one side through yellow forest and
brown moor to the distant smoke of lymington and the blue misty
channel which lay alongside the sky-line, while to the north the
woods rolled away, grove topping grove, to where in the furthest
distance the white spire of salisbury stood out hard and clear
against the cloudless sky. to alleyne whose days had been spent
in the low-lying coastland, the eager upland air and the wide
free country-side gave a sense of life and of the joy of living
which made his young blood tingle in his veins. even the heavy
john was not unmoved by the beauty of their road, while the
bowman whistled lustily or sang snatches of french love songs in
a voice which might have scared the most stout-hearted maiden
that ever hearkened to serenade.
"i have a liking for that north countryman," he remarked
presently. "he hath good power of hatred. couldst see by his
cheek and eye that he is as bitter as verjuice. i warm to a man
who hath some gall in his liver."
"ah me!" sighed alleyne. "would it not be better if he had some
love in his heart?"
"i would not say nay to that. by my hilt! i shall never be said
to be traitor to the little king. let a man love the sex.
pasques dieu! they are made to be loved, les petites, from
whimple down to shoe-string! i am right glad, mon garcon, to see
that the good monks have trained thee so wisely and so well."
"nay, i meant not worldly love, but rather that his heart should
soften towards those who have wronged him."
the archer shook his head. "a man should love those of his own
breed," said he. "but it is not nature that an english-born man
should love a scot or a frenchman. ma foi! you have not seen a
drove of nithsdale raiders on their galloway nags, or you would
not speak of loving them. i would as soon take beelzebub himself
to my arms. i fear, mon gar., that they have taught thee but
badly at beaulieu, for surely a bishop knows more of what is
right and what is ill than an abbot can do, and i myself with
these very eyes saw the bishop of lincoln hew into a scottish
hobeler with a battle-axe, which was a passing strange way of
showing him that he loved him."
alleyne scarce saw his way to argue in the face of so decided an
opinion on the part of a high dignitary of the church. "you have
borne arms against the scots, then?" he asked.
"why, man, i first loosed string in battle when i was but a lad,
y
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