y the smoking dish which
held the savory supper. The archer settled himself to it like one who
had known what it was to find good food scarce; but his tongue still
went as merrily as his teeth.

"It passes me," he cried, "how all you lusty fellows can bide scratching
your backs at home when there are such doings over the seas. Look at
me--what have I to do? It is but the eye to the cord, the cord to the
shaft, and the shaft to the mark. There is the whole song of it. It is
but what you do yourselves for pleasure upon a Sunday evening at the
parish village butts."

"And the wage?" asked a laborer.

"You see what the wage brings," he answered. "I eat of the best, and I
drink deep. I treat my friend, and I ask no friend to treat me. I clap
a silk gown on my girl's back. Never a knight's lady shall be better
betrimmed and betrinketed. How of all that, mon garcon? And how of the
heap of trifles that you can see for yourselves in yonder corner? They
are from the South French, every one, upon whom I have been making
war. By my hilt! camarades, I think that I may let my plunder speak for
itself."

"It seems indeed to be a goodly service," said the tooth-drawer.

"Tete bleu! yes, indeed. Then there is the chance of a ransom. Why, look
you, in the affair at Brignais some four years back, when the companies
slew James of Bourbon, and put his army to the sword, there was scarce a
man of ours who had not count, baron, or knight. Peter Karsdale, who
was but a common country lout newly brought over, with the English fleas
still hopping under his doublet, laid his great hands upon the Sieur
Amaury de Chatonville, who owns half Picardy, and had five thousand
crowns out of him, with his horse and harness. 'Tis true that a French
wench took it all off Peter as quick as the Frenchman paid it; but what
then? By the twang of string! it would be a bad thing if money was not
made to be spent; and how better than on woman--eh, ma belle?"

"It would indeed be a bad thing if we had not our brave archers to bring
wealth and kindly customs into the country," quoth Dame Eliza, on whom
the soldier's free and open ways had made a deep impression.

"A toi, ma cherie!" said he, with his hand over his heart. "Hola! there
is la petite peeping from behind the door. A toi, aussi, ma petite! Mon
Dieu! but the lass has a good color!"

"There is one thing, fair sir," said the Cambridge student in his
piping voice, "which I would fain that you would ma