ill men to trifle
with, and it were easier to pluck a bone from a hungry bear than to lead
a bowman out of a land of plenty and of pleasure."

"Then I pray you to gather them together," said Sir Nigel, "and I will
tell them what is in my mind; for if I am their leader they must to Dax,
and if I am not then I know not what I am doing in Auvergne. Have my
horse ready, Alleyne; for, by St. Paul! come what may, I must be upon
the homeward road ere mid-day."

A blast upon the bugle summoned the bowmen to counsel, and they gathered
in little knots and groups around a great fallen tree which lay athwart
the glade. Sir Nigel sprang lightly upon the trunk, and stood with
blinking eye and firm lips looking down at the ring of upturned warlike
faces.

"They tell me, bowmen," said he, "that ye have grown so fond of ease and
plunder and high living that ye are not to be moved from this pleasant
country. But, by Saint Paul! I will believe no such thing of you, for
I can readily see that you are all very valiant men, who would scorn to
live here in peace when your prince hath so great a venture before him.
Ye have chosen me as a leader, and a leader I will be if ye come with
me to Spain; and I vow to you that my pennon of the five roses shall, if
God give me strength and life, be ever where there is most honor to
be gained. But if it be your wish to loll and loiter in these glades,
bartering glory and renown for vile gold and ill-gotten riches, then
ye must find another leader; for I have lived in honor, and in honor I
trust that I shall die. If there be forest men or Hampshire men amongst
ye, I call upon them to say whether they will follow the banner of
Loring."

"Here's a Romsey man for you!" cried a young bowman with a sprig of
evergreen set in his helmet.

"And a lad from Alresford!" shouted another.

"And from Milton!"

"And from Burley!"

"And from Lymington!"

"And a little one from Brockenhurst!" shouted a huge-limbed fellow who
sprawled beneath a tree.

"By my hilt! lads," cried Aylward, jumping upon the fallen trunk, "I
think that we could not look the girls in the eyes if we let the prince
cross the mountains and did not pull string to clear a path for him.
It is very well in time of peace to lead such a life as we have had
together, but now the war-banner is in the wind once more, and, by these
ten finger-bones! if he go alone, old Samkin Aylward will walk beside
it."

These words from a man as popular as