eather was less keen upon the wednesday, and the rear-guard
made good their passage, with the bombards and the wagon-train.
free companions and gascons made up this portion of the army to
the number of ten thousand men. the fierce sir hugh calverley,
with his yellow mane, and the rugged sir robert knolles, with
their war-hardened and veteran companies of english bowmen,
headed the long column; while behind them came the turbulent
bands of the bastard of breteuil nandon de bagerant, one-eyed
camus, black ortingo, la nuit and others whose very names seem to
smack of hard hands and ruthless deeds. with them also were the
pick of the gascon chivalry--the old duc d'armagnac, his nephew
lord d'albret, brooding and scowling over his wrongs, the giant
oliver de clisson, the captal de buch, pink of knighthood, the
sprightly sir perducas d'albert, the red-bearded lord d'esparre,
and a long train of needy and grasping border nobles, with long
pedigrees and short purses, who had come down from their hill-
side strongholds, all hungering for the spoils and the ransoms of
spain. by the thursday morning the whole army was encamped in
the vale of pampeluna, and the prince had called his council to
meet him in the old palace of the ancient city of navarre.
chapter xxxiv.
how the company made sport in the vale of pampeluna.
whilst the council was sitting in pampeluna the white company,
having encamped in a neighboring valley, close to the companies
of la nuit and of black ortingo, were amusing themselves with
sword-play, wrestling, and shooting at the shields, which they
had placed upon the hillside to serve them as butts. the younger
archers, with their coats of mail thrown aside, their brown or
flaxen hair tossing in the wind, and their jerkins turned back to
give free play to their brawny chests and arms, stood in lines,
each loosing his shaft in turn, while johnston, aylward, black
simon, and half-a-score of the elders lounged up and down with
critical eyes, and a word of rough praise or of curt censure for
the marksmen. behind stood knots of gascon and brabant
crossbowmen from the companies of ortingo and of la nuit, leaning
upon their unsightly weapons and watching the practice of the
englishmen.
"a good shot, hewett, a good shot!" said old johnston to a young
bowman, who stood with his bow in his left hand, gazing with
parted lips after his flying shaft. "you see, she finds the
ring, as i knew she would from the moment that your string
twanged."
"loose it easy, steady, and yet sharp," said aylward. "by my
hilt! mon gar., it is very well when you do but shoot at a
shield. but when there is a man behind the shield, and he rides
at you with wave of sword and glint of eyes from behind his
vizor, you may find him a less easy mark."
"it is a mark that i have found before now," answered the young
bowman.
"and shall again, camarade, i doubt not. but hola! johnston, who
is this who holds his bow like a crow-keeper?"
"it is silas peterson, of horsham. do not wink with one eye and
look with the other, silas, and do not hop and dance after you
shoot, with your tongue out, for that will not speed it upon its
way. stand straight and firm, as god made you. move not the bow
arm, and steady with the drawing hand!"
"i' faith," said black simon, "i am a spearman myself, and am
more fitted for hand-strokes than for such work as this. yet i
have spent my days among bowmen, and i have seen many a brave
shaft sped. i will not say but that we have some good marksmen
here, and that this company would be accounted a fine body of
archers at any time or place. yet i do not see any men who bend
so strong a bow or shoot as true a shaft as those whom i have
known."
"you say sooth," said johnston, turning his seamed and grizzled
face upon the man-at-arms. "see yonder," he added, pointing to a
bombard which lay within the camp: "there is what hath done scath
to good bowmanship, with its filthy soot and foolish roaring
mouth. i wonder that a true knight, like our prince, should
carry such a scurvy thing in his train. robin, thou red-headed
lurden, how oft must i tell thee not to shoot straight with a
quarter-wind blowing across the mark?"
"by these ten finger-bones! there were some fine bowmen at the
intaking of calais," said aylward. "i well remember that, on
occasion of an outfall, a genoan raised his arm over his mantlet,
and shook it at us, a hundred paces from our line. there were
twenty who loosed shafts at him, and when the man was afterwards
slain it was found that he had taken eighteen through his
forearm."
"and i can call to mind," remarked johnston, "that when the great
cog 'christopher,' which the french had taken from us, was moored
two hundred paces from the shore, two archers, little robin
withstaff and elias baddles
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