target was to be shot at, to decide the title of the best
archer in all England; and any man there present was privileged to try
for it. But so keen had been the previous shooting, that many yeomen who
had come to enter the lists now would not do so; and only a dozen men
stepped forth to give in their names.

"By my halidom!" said the King, "these must be hardy men to pit
themselves against my archers!"

"Think you that your ten chosen fellows are the best bowmen in all
England?" asked the Queen.

"Aye, and in all the world beside," answered the King; "and thereunto I
would stake five hundred pounds."

"I am minded to take your wager," said the Queen musingly, "and will
e'en do so if you grant me a boon."

"What is it?" asked the King.

"If I produce five archers who can out-shoot your ten, will you grant my
men full grace and amnesty?"

"Assuredly!" quoth the King in right good humor. "Nathless, I tell you
now, your wager is in jeopardy, for there never were such bowmen as
Tepus and Clifton and Gilbert!"

"Hum!" said the Queen puckering her brow, still as though lost in
thought. "I must see if there be none present to aid me in my wager.
Boy, call hither Sir Richard of the Lea and my lord Bishop of Hereford!"

The two summoned ones, who had been witnessing the sport, came forward.

"Sir Richard," said she, "thou art a full knight and good. Would'st
advise me to meet a wager of the King's, that I can produce other
archers as good as Tepus and Gilbert and Clifton?"

"Nay, Your Majesty," he said, bending his knee. "There be none present
that can match them. Howbeit,"--he added dropping his voice--"I have
heard of some who lie hid in Sherwood Forest who could show them strange
targets."

The Queen smiled and dismissed him.

"Come hither, my lord Bishop of Hereford," quoth she, "would'st thou
advance a sum to support my wager 'gainst the King?"

"Nay, Your Majesty," said the fat Bishop, "an you pardon me, I'd not lay
down a penny on such a bet. For by my silver mitre, the King's archers
are men who have no peers."

"But suppose I found men whom _thou knewest_ to be masters at the bow,"
she insisted roguishly, "would'st thou not back them? Belike, I have
heard that there be men round about Nottingham and Plympton who carry
such matters with a high hand!"

The Bishop glanced nervously around, as if half expecting to see Robin
Hood's men standing near; then turned to find the Queen looking at him
with much