Abide us here, brother John Ball, and pray for us if thou
wilt; but for me, if God will not do for Jack Straw what Jack Straw
would do for God were he in like case, I can see no help for it."

"Yea, forsooth," said the priest, "here will I abide you my fellows if
ye come back; or if ye come not back, here will I abide the foe.
Depart, and the blessing of the Fellowship be with you."

Down then leapt Jack Straw from the cross, and the whole throng set off
without noise or hurry, soberly and steadily in outward seeming. Will
Green led me by the hand as if I were a boy, yet nothing he said, being
forsooth intent on his charge. We were some four hundred men in all;
but I said to myself that without some advantage of the ground we were
lost men before the men-at-arms that long Gregory Tailor had told us
of; for I had not seen as yet the yard-long shaft at its work.

We and somewhat more than half of our band turned into the orchards on
the left of the road, through which the level rays of the low sun shone
brightly. The others took up their position on the right side of it.
We kept pretty near to the road till we had got through all the closes
save the last, where we were brought up by a hedge and a dyke, beyond
which lay a wide-open nearly treeless space, not of tillage, as at the
other side of the place, but of pasture, the common grazing ground of
the township. A little stream wound about through the ground, with a
few willows here and there; there was only a thread of water in it in
this hot summer tide, but its course could easily be traced by the deep
blue-green of the rushes that grew plenteously in the bed. Geese were
lazily wandering about and near this brook, and a herd of cows,
accompanied by the town bull, were feeding on quietly, their heads all
turned one way; while half a dozen calves marched close together side
by side like a plump of soldiers, their tails swinging in a kind of
measure to keep off the flies, of which there was great plenty. Three
or four lads and girls were sauntering about, heeding or not heeding
the cattle. They looked up toward us as we crowded into the last
close, and slowly loitered off toward the village. Nothing looked like
battle; yet battle sounded in the air; for now we heard the beat of the
horse-hoofs of the men-at-arms coming on towards us like the rolling of
distant thunder, and growing louder and louder every minute; we were
none too soon in turning to face them. Jack