Straw was on our side of
the road, and with a few gestures and a word or two he got his men into
their places. Six archers lined the hedge along the road where the
banner of Adam and Eve, rising above the grey leaves of the
apple-trees, challenged the new-comers; and of the billmen also he kept
a good few ready to guard the road in case the enemy should try to rush
it with the horsemen. The road, not being a Roman one, was, you must
remember, little like the firm smooth country roads that you are used
to; it was a mere track between the hedges and fields, partly
grass-grown, and cut up by the deep-sunk ruts hardened by the drought
of summer. There was a stack of fagot and small wood on the other
side, and our men threw themselves upon it and set to work to stake the
road across for a rough defence against the horsemen.

What befell more on the road itself I had not much time to note, for
our bowmen spread themselves out along the hedge that looked into the
pasture-field, leaving some six feet between man and man; the rest of
the billmen went along with the bowmen, and halted in clumps of some
half-dozen along their line, holding themselves ready to help the
bowmen if the enemy should run up under their shafts, or to run on to
lengthen the line in case they should try to break in on our flank.
The hedge in front of us was of quick. It had been strongly plashed in
the past February, and was stiff and stout. It stood on a low bank;
moreover, the level of the orchard was some thirty inches higher than
that of the field and the ditch some two foot deeper than the face of
the field. The field went winding round to beyond the church, making a
quarter of a circle about the village, and at the western end of it
were the butts whence the folk were coming from shooting when I first
came into the village street.

Altogether, to me who knew nothing of war the place seemed defensible
enough. I have said that the road down which Long Gregory came with
his tidings went north; and that was its general direction; but its
first reach was nearly east, so that the low sun was not in the eyes of
any of us, and where Will Green took his stand, and I with him, it was
nearly at our backs.

[1] Probably one of the Calverlys, a Cheshire family, one of whom was a
noted captain in the French wars.

CHAPTER VI

THE BATTLE AT THE TOWNSHIP'S END

Our men had got into their places leisurely and coolly enough, and with
no lack o