“The yeomen and commons,” said De Bracy, “must not be dismissed
discontented for lack of their share in the sports.”
“The day,” said Waldemar, “is not yet very far spent--let the archers
shoot a few rounds at the target, and the prize be adjudged. This will
be an abundant fulfilment of the Prince’s promises, so far as this herd
of Saxon serfs is concerned.”
[Illustration: SIR WALTER SCOTT]
“I thank thee, Waldemar,” said Prince John; “thou remindest me, too,
that I have a debt to pay to that insolent peasant who yesterday
insulted my person. The banquet also shall go forward to-night as we
proposed. Were this my last hour of power, it should be an hour sacred
to revenge and to pleasure--let new cares come with to-morrow’s new
day.”
The sound of the trumpet soon recalled those spectators who had already
begun to leave the field; and proclamation was made that the Prince,
suddenly called by high public duties, was obliged to discontinue the
entertainments of to-morrow’s festival; nevertheless, unwilling that so
many good yeomen should depart without a trial of skill, he was pleased
to appoint that the archery competition intended for to-morrow should
take place at once. To the best archer a prize was to be awarded,--a
bugle-horn, mounted with silver, and a silken baldric, richly ornamented
with a medallion of St. Hubert, the patron of woodland sport.
More than thirty yeomen at first presented themselves as competitors,
several of whom were rangers and underkeepers in the royal forests.
When, however, the archers understood with whom they were to be matched,
upwards of twenty withdrew from the contest, unwilling to encounter the
dishonor of almost certain defeat. The diminished list of competitors,
however, still amounted to eight. Prince John, before the contest began,
stepped from his royal seat to view more nearly the persons of these
chosen yeomen, several of whom wore the royal livery. Having satisfied
his curiosity, he looked for the object of his resentment, whom he
observed standing on the same spot, and with the same composed
countenance which he had shown upon the preceding day.
“Fellow,” said Prince John, “I guessed by thy insolent babble thou wert
no true lover of the longbow, and I see thou darest not adventure thy
skill among such merry men as stand yonder.”
“Under favor, sir,” replied the yeoman, “I have another reason for
refraining to shoot, besides the fearing discomfiture and disgrace.”
“And what is thy other reason?” said Prince John, who, for some cause
which perhaps he could not himself have explained, felt a painful
curiosity respecting this individual.
“Because,” replied the woodsman, “I know not if these yeomen and I are
used to shoot at the same marks; and because, moreover, I know not how
your Grace might relish the winning of a third prize by one who has
unwittingly fallen under your displeasure.”
Prince John colored as he put the question, “What is thy name, yeoman?”
“Locksley,” answered the yeoman.
“Then, Locksley,” said Prince John, “thou shalt shoot in thy turn, when
these yeomen have displayed their skill. If thou carriest the prize, I
shall add to it twenty nobles; but if thou losest it, thou shalt be
stripped of thy Lincoln green, and scourged out of the lists with
bowstrings, for a wordy and insolent braggart.”
“And how if I refuse to shoot on such a wager?” said the yeoman. “Your
Grace’s power, supported as it is by so many men-at-arms, may indeed
easily strip and scourge me, but cannot compel me to bend or to draw my
bow.”
“If thou refusest my fair proffer,” said the Prince, “the provost of the
lists shall cut thy bowstring, break thy bow and arrows, and expel thee
from the presence as a faint-hearted craven.”
“This is no fair chance you put on me, proud Prince,” said the yeoman,
“to compel me to peril myself against the best archers of Leicester and
Staffordshire, under the penalty of infamy if they should overshoot me.
Nevertheless, I shall obey your will.”
[Illustration: LOCKSLEY DISCHARGING HIS ARROW]
“Look to him close, men-at-arms,” said Prince John; “his heart is
sinking; I am jealous lest he attempt to escape the trial. And do you,
good fellows, shoot boldly round; a buck and a butt of wine are ready
for your refreshment in yonder tent when the prize is won.”
A target was placed at the upper end of the southern avenue which led to
the lists. One by one the archers, stepping forward, delivered their
shafts yeomanlike and bravely. Of twenty-four arrows, shot in
succession, ten were fixed in the target, and the others ranged so near
it that, considering the distance of the mark, it was accounted good
archery. Of the ten shafts which hit the target, two within the inner
ring were shot by Hubert, a forester, who was accordingly pronounced
victorious.
“Now, Locksley,” said Prince John to the bold yeoman, with a bitter
smile, “wilt thou try conclusions with Hubert?”
“Since it be no better,” said Locksley, “I am content to try my fortune;
on condition that when I have shot two shafts at yonder mark of
Hubert’s, he shall be bound to shoot one at that which I shall propose.”
“That is but fair,” answered Prince John, “and it shall not be refused
thee. If thou dost beat this braggart, Hubert, I shall fill the bugle
with silver pennies for thee.”
“A man can but do his best,” answered Hubert; “but my grandsire drew a
good longbow at Hastings, and I trust not to dishonor his memory.”
The former target was now removed, and a fresh one of the same size
placed in its room. Hubert, who, as victor in the first trial of skill,
had the right to shoot first, took his aim with great deliberation. At
length he made a step forward, and raising the bow at the full stretch
of his left arm, till the centre or grasping place was nigh level with
his face, he drew the bowstring to his ear. The arrow whistled through
the air, and lighted within the inner ring of the target, but not
exactly in the centre.
“You have not allowed for the wind, Hubert,” said his antagonist,
bending his bow, “or that had been a better shot.”
So saying, and without showing the least anxiety to pause upon his aim,
Locksley stepped to the appointed station, and shot his arrow as
carelessly in appearance as if he had not even looked at the mark. He
was speaking almost at the instant that the shaft left the bowstring,
yet it alighted in the target two inches nearer to the white spot which
marked the centre than that of Hubert.
“By the light of heaven!” said Prince John to Hubert, “an thou suffer
that runagate knave to overcome thee, thou art worthy of the gallows.”
Hubert had but one set speech for all occasions.
“An your highness were to hang me,” he said, “a man can 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 not neglecting the caution
which he had received from his adversary, he made the necessary
allowance for a very light air of wind, which had just arisen, and shot
so successfully that his arrow alighted in the very centre of the
target.
“A Hubert! a Hubert!” shouted the populace, more interested in a known
person than in a stranger. “In the clout!--in the clout!--a Hubert
forever!”
“Thou canst not mend that shot, Locksley,” said the Prince, with an
insulting smile.
“I shall 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.
The people who stood around were so astonished at his wonderful
dexterity that they could not even give vent to their surprise in their
usual clamor. “This must be the fiend, and no man of flesh and blood,”
whispered the yeomen to each other; “such archery has never been seen
since a bow was first bent in Britain.”
“And now,” said Locksley, “I 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 to win a smile from the bonnie lass he loves
best.”
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 nearest willow bush.”
Prince John made a signal that some attendants should follow him in
case of his escape; but the cry of “Shame! shame!” which burst from the
multitude, induced him to alter his ungenerous purpose.
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 with great composure, observing, at the same time,
that to ask a good woodsman to shoot at a target so broad as had
hitherto been used, was to put shame upon his skill. A child of seven
years old, he said, might hit it with a headless shaft; but, he added,
walking deliberately to the other end of the lists, and sticking the
willow wand upright in the ground, “he that hits that rod at fivescore
yards, I call him an archer fit to bear both bow and quiver before a
king, even if it were the stout King Richard himself.”
“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 shall I. If this
yeoman can cleave that rod, I give him the bucklers--or rather, I yield
to the fiend that is in his jerkin, and not to any human skill. I might
as well shoot at the edge of our parson’s whittle, or at a wheat straw,
or 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 shall say thou art the first man ever did
so. Howe’er it be, thou shalt not crow over us with a mere show of
superior skill.”
“I shall do my best, as Hubert says,” said Locksley; “no man can do
more.”
So saying, he again bent his bow, but on the present occasion looked
with attention to his weapon, and changed the string which he thought
was no longer truly round, having been a little frayed by the two former
shots. He then took his aim with some deliberation, and the multitude
awaited the event in breathless silence. The archer vindicated their
opinion of his skill; his arrow split the willow rod against which it
was aimed. A jubilee of acclamations followed; and even Prince John, in
admiration of Locksley’s skill, lost for an instant his dislike to his
person. “These twenty nobles,” he said, “which, with the bugle thou hast
fairly won, are thine own; we shall make them fifty, if thou wilt take
livery and service with us as a yeoman of our bodyguard, and be near to
our person. For never did so strong a hand bend a bow, or so true an eye
direct a shaft.”
“Pardon me, noble Prince,” said Locksley; “but I have vowed that if ever
I take service, it shall be with your royal brother, King Richard. These
twenty nobles I leave to Hubert, who has this day drawn as brave a bow
as his grandsire did at Hastings. Had he not refused the trial, he would
have hit the wand as well as I.”
Hubert shook his head as he received with reluctance the bounty of the
stranger; and Locksley, anxious to escape further observation, mixed
with the crowd and was seen no more.--SIR WALTER SCOTT.