ounger by two years than you, at neville's cross, under the lord
mowbray. later, i served under the warden of berwick, that very
john copeland of whom our friend spake, the same who held the
king of scots to ransom. ma foi! it is rough soldiering, and a
good school for one who would learn to be hardy and war-wise."
"i have heard that the scots are good men of war," said hordle
john.
"for axemen and for spearmen i have not seen their match," the
archer answered. "they can travel, too, with bag of meal and
gridiron slung to their sword-belt, so that it is ill to follow
them. there are scant crops and few beeves in the borderland,
where a man must reap his grain with sickle in one fist and brown
bill in the other. on the other hand, they are the sorriest
archers that i have ever seen, and cannot so much as aim with the
arbalest, to say nought of the long-bow. again, they are mostly
poor folk, even the nobles among them, so that there are few who
can buy as good a brigandine of chain-mail as that which i am
wearing, and it is ill for them to stand up against our own
knights, who carry the price of five scotch farms upon their
chest and shoulders. man for man, with equal weapons, they are
as worthy and valiant men as could be found in the whole of
christendom."
"and the french?" asked alleyne, to whom the archer's light
gossip had all the relish that the words of the man of action
have for the recluse.
"the french are also very worthy men. we have had great good
fortune in france, and it hath led to much bobance and camp-fire
talk, but i have ever noticed that those who know the most have
the least to say about it. i have seen frenchmen fight both in
open field, in the intaking and the defending of towns or
castlewicks, in escalados, camisades, night forays, bushments,
sallies, outfalls, and knightly spear-runnings. their knights
and squires, lad, are every whit as good as ours, and i could
pick out a score of those who ride behind du guesclin who would
hold the lists with sharpened lances against the best men in the
army of england. on the other hand, their common folk are so
crushed down with gabelle, and poll-tax, and every manner of
cursed tallage, that the spirit has passed right out of them. it
is a fool's plan to teach a man to be a cur in peace, and think
that he will be a lion in war. fleece them like sheep and sheep
they will remain. if the nobles had not conquered the poor folk
it is like enough that we should not have conquered the nobles."
"but they must be sorry folk to bow down to the rich in such a
fashion," said big john. "i am but a poor commoner of england
myself, and yet i know something of charters, liberties
franchises, usages, privileges, customs, and the like. if these
be broken, then all men know that it is time to buy arrow-heads."
"aye, but the men of the law are strong in france as well as the
men of war. by my hilt! i hold that a man has more to fear there
from the ink-pot of the one than from the iron of the other.
there is ever some cursed sheepskin in their strong boxes to
prove that the rich man should be richer and the poor man poorer.
it would scarce pass in england, but they are quiet folk over the
water."
"and what other nations have you seen in your travels, good sir?"
asked alleyne edricson. his young mind hungered for plain facts
of life, after the long course of speculation and of mysticism on
which he had been trained.
"i have seen the low countryman in arms, and i have nought to say
against him. heavy and slow is he by nature, and is not to be
brought into battle for the sake of a lady's eyelash or the twang
of a minstrel's string, like the hotter blood of the south.
but ma foi! lay hand on his wool-bales, or trifle with his velvet
of bruges, and out buzzes every stout burgher, like bees from the
tee-hole, ready to lay on as though it were his one business in
life. by our lady! they have shown the french at courtrai and
elsewhere that they are as deft in wielding steel as in welding
it."
"and the men of spain?"
"they too are very hardy soldiers, the more so as for many
hundred years they have had to fight hard against the cursed
followers of the black mahound, who have pressed upon them from
the south, and still, as i understand, hold the fairer half of
the country. i had a turn with them upon the sea when they came
over to winchelsea and the good queen with her ladies sat upon
the cliffs looking down at us, as if it had been joust or
tourney. by my hilt! it was a sight that was worth the seeing,
for all that was best in england was out on the water that day.
we went forth in little ships and came back in great galleys--for
of fifty tall ships of spain, over two score flew ,the cross of
st. george ere the sun had set. but now, youngster, i have
answered yo
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