"Yea,yea,"said he,"but abide awhile;they could make nought of the highway,and two of their sergeants had a message from the grey-goose feather.Abide,for they have not crossed the road to our right hand,and belike have not seen our fellows on the other side,who are now for a bushment to them."I looked hard at the man.He was a tall,wiry,and broad-shouldered fellow,clad in a handsome armour of bright steel that certainly had not been made for a yeoman,but over it he had a common linen smock-frock or gabardine,like our field workmen wear now or used to wear,and in his helmet he carried instead of a feather a wisp of wheaten straw.He bore a heavy axe in his hand besides the sword he was girt with,and round his neck hung a great horn for blowing.I should say that I knew that there were at least three "Jack Straws"among the fellowship of the discontented,one of whom was over in Essex.
As we waited there,every bowman with his shaft nocked on the string,there was a movement in the line opposite,and presently came from it a little knot of three men,the middle one on horseback,the other two armed with long-handled glaives;all three well muffled up in armour.As they came nearer I could see that the horseman had a tabard over his armour,gaily embroidered with a green tree on a gold ground,and in his hand a trumpet.
"They are come to summon us.Wilt thou that he speak,Jack?"said Will Green.
"Nay,"said the other;"yet shall he have warning first.Shoot when my horn blows!"And therewith he came up to the hedge,climbed over,slowly because of his armour,and stood some dozen yards out in the field.The man on horseback put his trumpet to his mouth and blew a long blast,and then took a scroll into his hand and made as if he were going to read;but Jack Straw lifted up his voice and cried out:
"Do it not,or thou art but dead!We will have no accursed lawyers and their sheep-skins here!Go back to those that sent thee----"But the man broke in in a loud harsh voice:
"Ho!YE PEOPLE!what will ye gathering in arms?"Then cried Jack Straw:
"Sir Fool,hold your peace till ye have heard me,or else we shoot at once.Go back to those that sent thee,and tell them that we free men of Kent are on the way to London to speak with King Richard,and to tell him that which he wots not;to wit,that there is a certain sort of fools and traitors to the realm who would put collars on our necks and make beasts of us,and that it is his right and his devoir to do as he swore when he was crowned and anointed at Westminster on the Stone of Doom,and gainsay these thieves and traitors;and if he be too weak,then shall we help him;and if he will not be king,then shall we have one who will be,and that is the King's Son of Heaven.Now,therefore,if any withstand us on our lawful errand as we go to speak with our own king and lord,let him look to it.Bear back this word to them that sent thee.But for thee,hearken,thou bastard of an inky sheep-skin!get thee gone and tarry not;three times shall I lift up my hand,and the third time look to thyself,for then shalt thou hear the loose of our bowstrings,and after that nought else till thou hearest the devil bidding thee welcome to hell!"Our fellows shouted,but the summoner began again,yet in a quavering voice:
"Ho!YE PEOPLE!what will ye gathering in arms?Wot ye not that ye are doing or shall do great harm,loss,and hurt to the king's lieges----"He stopped;Jack Straw's hand was lowered for the second time.
He looked to his men right and left,and then turned rein and turned tail,and scuttled back to the main body at his swiftest.
Huge laughter rattled out all along our line as Jack Straw climbed back into the orchard grinning also.
Then we noted more movement in the enemy's line.They were spreading the archers and arbalestiers to our left,and the men-at-arms and others also spread some,what under the three pennons of which Long Gregory had told us,and which were plain enough to us in the dear evening.Presently the moving line faced us,and the archers set off at a smart pace toward us,the men-at-arms holding back a little behind them.I knew now that they had been within bowshot all along,but our men were loth to shoot before their first shots would tell,like those half-dozen in the road when,as they told me afterwards,a plump of their men-at-arms had made a show of falling on.
But now as soon as those men began to move on us directly in face,Jack Straw put his horn to his lips and blew a loud rough blast that was echoed by five or six others along the orchard hedge.Every man had his shaft nocked on the string;I watched them,and Will Green specially;he and his bow and its string seemed all of a piece,so easily by seeming did he draw the nock of the arrow to his ear.A moment,as he took his aim,and then--O then did I understand the meaning of the awe with which the ancient poet speaks of the loose of the god Apollo's bow;for terrible indeed was the mingled sound of the twanging bowstring and the whirring shaft so close to me.
I was now on my knees right in front of Will and saw all clearly;the arbalestiers (for no long-bow men were over against our stead)had all of them bright headpieces,and stout body-armour of boiled leather with metal studs,and as they came towards us,I could see over their shoulders great wooden shields hanging at their backs.Further to our left their long-bow men had shot almost as soon as ours,and I heard or seemed to hear the rush of the arrows through the apple-boughs and a man's cry therewith;but with us the long-bow had been before the cross-bow;one of the arbalestiers fell outright,his great shield clattering down on him,and moved no more;while three others were hit and were crawling to the rear.The rest had shouldered their bows and were aiming,but I thought unsteadily;and before the triggers were drawn again Will Green had nocked and loosed,and not a few others of our folk;then came the wooden hail of the bolts rattling through the boughs,but all overhead and no one hit.