an but do his
best. Nevertheless, my grandsire drew a good bow----"

"The foul fiend on thy grandsire and all his generation!" interrupted
John; "shoot, knave, and shoot thy best, or it shall be the worse for
thee!"

Thus exhorted, Hubert resumed his place, and making the necessary
allowance for a very light air of wind, which had just arisen, shot so
successfully that his arrow alighted in the very centre of the target.

"Thou canst not mend that shot, Locksley," said the Prince with an
insulting smile.

"I will notch his shaft for him, however," replied Locksley.

And letting fly his arrow with a little more precaution than before, it
lighted right upon that of his competitor, which it split to shivers.

"And now," said Locksley, "I will crave your Grace's permission to plant
such a mark as is used in the North Country, and welcome every brave
yeoman who shall try a shot at it."

He then turned to leave the lists. "Let your guards attend me," he said,
"if you please--I go but to cut a rod from the next willow-bush."

Locksley returned almost instantly with a willow wand about six feet in
length, perfectly straight, and rather thicker than a man's thumb. He
began to peel this, observing that to ask a good woodman to shoot at a
target so broad as had hitherto been used, was to put shame upon his
skill. "For my own part," he said, "and in the land where I was bred,
men would as soon take for their mark King Arthur's round table, which
held sixty knights around it. A child of seven years old," he said,
"might hit yonder target with a headless shaft; but," added he, walking
deliberately to the other end of the lists, and sticking the willow wand
upright in the ground, "he that hits that rod at five-score yards, I
call him an archer fit to bear bow and quiver before a king."

"My grandsire," said Hubert, "drew a good bow at the battle of Hastings,
and never shot at such a mark in his life--and neither will I. If this
yeoman can cleave that rod, I give him the bucklers--or rather, I yield
to the devil that is in his jerkin, and not to any human skill; a man
can but do his best, and I will not shoot where I am sure to miss. I
might as well shoot at a sunbeam, as at a twinkling white streak which I
can hardly see."

"Cowardly dog!" said Prince John--"Sirrah Locksley, do thou shoot; but,
if thou hittest such a mark, I will say thou art the first man ever did
so. Howe'er it be, thou shalt not crow over us with a mere