THE BATTLE AT THE TOWNSHIP'S END
Our men had got into their places leisurely and coolly enough, and with no
lack of jesting and laughter. As we went along the hedge by the road, the
leaders tore off leafy twigs from the low oak bushes therein, and set them for a
rallying sign in their hats and headpieces, and two or three of them had horns
for blowing.
Will Green, when he got into his place, which was thirty yards from where
Jack Straw and the billmen stood in the corner of the two hedges, the road hedge
and the hedge between the close and field, looked to right and left of him a
moment, then turned to the man on the left and said:
"Look you, mate, when you hear our horns blow ask no more questions, but
shoot straight and strong at whatso cometh towards us, till ye hear more tidings
from Jack Straw or from me. Pass that word onward."
Then he looked at me and said:
"Now, lad from Essex, thou hadst best sit down out of the way at once:
forsooth I wot not why I brought thee hither. Wilt thou not back to the cross,
for thou art little of a fighting-man?"
"Nay," said I, "I would see the play. What shall come of it?"
"Little," said he; "we shall slay a horse or twain maybe. I will tell thee,
since thou hast not seen a fight belike, as I have seen some, that these
men-at-arms cannot run fast either to the play or from it, if they be a-foot;
and if they come on a- horseback, what shall hinder me to put a shaft into the
poor beast? But down with thee on the daisies, for some shot there will be
first."
As he spoke he was pulling off his belts and other gear, and his coat, which
done, he laid his quiver on the ground, girt him again, did his axe and buckler
on to his girdle, and hung up his other attire on the nearest tree behind us.
Then he opened his quiver and took out of it some two dozen of arrows, which he
stuck in the ground beside him ready to his hand. Most of the bowmen within
sight were doing the like.
As I glanced toward the houses I saw three or four bright figures moving
through the orchards, and presently noted that they were women, all clad more or
less like the girl in the Rose, except that two of them wore white coifs on
their heads. Their errand there was clear, for each carried a bundle of arrows
under her arm.
One of them came straight up to Will Green, and I could see at once that she
was his daughter. She was tall and strongly made, with black hair like her
father, somewhat comely, though no great beauty; but as they met, her eyes
smiled even more than her mouth, and made her face look very sweet and kind, and
the smile was answered back in a way so quaintly like to her father's face, that
I too smiled for goodwill and pleasure.
"Well, well, lass," said he, "dost thou think that here is Crecy field
toward, that ye bring all this artillery? Turn back, my girl, and set the pot on
the fire; for that shall we need when we come home, I and this ballad-maker
here."
"Nay," she said, nodding kindly at me, "if this is to be no Crecy, then may I
stop to see, as well as the ballad-maker, since he hath neither sword nor
staff?"
"Sweetling," he said, "get thee home in haste. This play is but little, yet
mightest thou be hurt in it; and trust me the time may come, sweetheart, when
even thou and such as thou shalt hold a sword or a staff. Ere the moon throws a
shadow we shall be back."
She turned away lingering, not without tears on her face, laid the sheaf of
arrows at the foot of the tree, and hastened off through the orchard. I was
going to say something, when Will Green held up his hand as who would bid us
hearken. The noise of the horse-hoofs, after growing nearer and nearer, had
ceased suddenly, and a confused murmur of voices had taken the place of it.
"Get thee down, and take cover, old lad," said Will Green; "the dance will
soon begin, and ye shall hear the music presently."
Sure enough as I slipped down by the hedge close to which I had been
standing, I heard the harsh twang of the bow-strings, one, two, three, almost
together, from the road, and even the whew of the shafts, though that was
drowned in a moment by a confused but loud and threatening shout from the other
side, and again the bowstrings clanged, and this time a far-off clash of arms
followed, and therewithal that cry of a strong man that comes without his will,
and is so different from his wonted voice that one has a guess thereby of the
change that death is. Then for a while was almost silence; nor did our horns
blow up, though some half-dozen of the billmen had leapt into the road when the
bows first shot. But presently came a great blare of trumpets and horns from the
other side, and therewith as it were a river of steel and bright coats poured
into the field before us, and still their horns blew as they spread out toward
the left of our line; the cattle in the pasture-field, heretofore feeding
quietly, seemed frightened silly by the sudden noise, and ran about tail in air
and lowing loudly; the old bull with his head a little lowered, and his stubborn
legs planted firmly, growling threateningly; while the geese about the brook
waddled away gobbling and squeaking; all which seemed so strange to us along
with the threat of sudden death that rang out from the bright array over against
us, that we laughed outright, the most of us, and Will Green put down his head
in mockery of the bull and grunted like him, whereat we laughed yet more. He
turned round to me as he nocked his arrow, and said:
"I would they were just fifty paces nigher, and they move not. Ho! Jack
Straw, shall we shoot?"
For the latter-named was nigh us now; he shook his head and said nothing as
he stood looking at the enemy's line.
"Fear not but they are the right folk, Jack," quoth Will Green.
"Yea, yea," said he, "but abide awhile; they could make nought of the
highway, and two of their sergeants had a message from the grey-goose feather.
Abide, for they have not crossed the road to our right hand, and belike have not
seen our fellows on the other side, who are now for a bushment to them."
I looked hard at the man. He was a tall, wiry, and broad- shouldered fellow,
clad in a handsome armour of bright steel that certainly had not been made for a
yeoman, but over it he had a common linen smock-frock or gabardine, like our
field workmen wear now or used to wear, and in his helmet he carried instead of
a feather a wisp of wheaten straw. He bore a heavy axe in his hand besides the
sword he was girt with, and round his neck hung a great horn for blowing. I
should say that I knew that there were at least three "Jack Straws" among the
fellowship of the discontented, one of whom was over in Essex.
As we waited there, every bowman with his shaft nocked on the string, there
was a movement in the line opposite, and presently came from it a little knot of
three men, the middle one on horseback, the other two armed with long-handled
glaives; all three well muffled up in armour. As they came nearer I could see
that the horseman had a tabard over his armour, gaily embroidered with a green
tree on a gold ground, and in his hand a trumpet.
"They are come to summon us. Wilt thou that he speak, Jack?" said Will Green.
"Nay," said the other; "yet shall he have warning first. Shoot when my horn
blows!"
And therewith he came up to the hedge, climbed over, slowly because of his
armour, and stood some dozen yards out in the field. The man on horseback put
his trumpet to his mouth and blew a long blast, and then took a scroll into his
hand and made as if he were going to read; but Jack Straw lifted up his voice
and cried out:
"Do it not, or thou art but dead! We will have no accursed lawyers and their
sheep-skins here! Go back to those that sent thee----"
But the man broke in in a loud harsh voice:
"Ho! YE PEOPLE! what will ye gathering in arms?"
Then cried Jack Straw:
"Sir Fool, hold your peace till ye have heard me, or else we shoot at once.
Go back to those that sent thee, and tell them that we free men of Kent are on
the way to London to speak with King Richard, and to tell him that which he wots
not; to wit, that there is a certain sort of fools and traitors to the realm who
would put collars on our necks and make beasts of us, and that it is his right
and his devoir to do as he swore when he was crowned and anointed at Westminster
on the Stone of Doom, and gainsay these thieves and traitors; and if he be too
weak, then shall we help him; and if he will not be king, then shall we have one
who will be, and that is the King's Son of Heaven. Now, therefore, if any
withstand us on our lawful errand as we go to speak with our own king and lord,
let him look to it. Bear back this word to them that sent thee. But for thee,
hearken, thou bastard of an inky sheep-skin! get thee gone and tarry not; three
times shall I lift up my hand, and the third time look to thyself, for then
shalt thou hear the loose of our bowstrings, and after that nought else till
thou hearest the devil bidding thee welcome to hell!"
Our fellows shouted, but the summoner began again, yet in a quavering voice:
"Ho! YE PEOPLE! what will ye gathering in arms? Wot ye not that ye are doing
or shall do great harm, loss, and hurt to the king's lieges----"
He stopped; Jack Straw's hand was lowered for the second time. He looked to
his men right and left, and then turned rein and turned tail, and scuttled back
to the main body at his swiftest. Huge laughter rattled out all along our line
as Jack Straw climbed back into the orchard grinning also.
Then we noted more movement in the enemy's line. They were spreading the
archers and arbalestiers to our left, and the men- at-arms and others also
spread some, what under the three pennons of which Long Gregory had told us, and
which were plain enough to us in the dear evening. Presently the moving line
faced us, and the archers set off at a smart pace toward us, the men-at-arms
holding back a little behind them. I knew now that they had been within bowshot
all along, but our men were loth to shoot before their first shots would tell,
like those half-dozen in the road when, as they told me afterwards, a plump of
their men-at-arms had made a show of falling on.
But now as soon as those men began to move on us directly in face, Jack Straw
put his horn to his lips and blew a loud rough blast that was echoed by five or
six others along the orchard hedge. Every man had his shaft nocked on the
string; I watched them, and Will Green specially; he and his bow and its string
seemed all of a piece, so easily by seeming did he draw the nock of the arrow to
his ear. A moment, as he took his aim, and then--O then did I understand the
meaning of the awe with which the ancient poet speaks of the loose of the god
Apollo's bow; for terrible indeed was the mingled sound of the twanging
bowstring and the whirring shaft so close to me.
I was now on my knees right in front of Will and saw all clearly; the
arbalestiers (for no long-bow men were over against our stead) had all of them
bright headpieces, and stout body-armour of boiled leather with metal studs, and
as they came towards us, I could see over their shoulders great wooden shields
hanging at their backs. Further to our left their long-bow men had shot almost
as soon as ours, and I heard or seemed to hear the rush of the arrows through
the apple-boughs and a man's cry therewith; but with us the long-bow had been
before the cross-bow; one of the arbalestiers fell outright, his great shield
clattering down on him, and moved no more; while three others were hit and were
crawling to the rear. The rest had shouldered their bows and were aiming, but I
thought unsteadily; and before the triggers were drawn again Will Green had
nocked and loosed, and not a few others of our folk; then came the wooden hail
of the bolts rattling through the boughs, but all overhead and no one hit.
The next time Will Green nocked his arrow he drew with a great shout, which
all our fellows took up; for the arbalestiers instead of turning about in their
places covered by their great shields and winding up their cross-bows for a
second shot, as is the custom of such soldiers, ran huddling together toward
their men-at-arms, our arrows driving thump-thump into their shields as they
ran: I saw four lying on the field dead or sore wounded.
But our archers shouted again, and kept on each plucking the arrows from the
ground, and nocking and loosing swiftly but deliberately at the line before
them; indeed now was the time for these terrible bowmen, for as Will Green told
me afterwards they always reckoned to kill through cloth or leather at five
hundred yards, and they had let the cross-bow men come nearly within three
hundred, and these were now all mingled and muddled up with the men-at-arms at
scant five hundred yards' distance; and belike, too, the latter were not
treating them too well, but seemed to be belabouring them with their
spear-staves in their anger at the poorness of the play; so that as Will Green
said it was like shooting at hay-ricks.
All this you must understand lasted but a few minutes, and when our men had
been shooting quite coolly, like good workmen at peaceful work, for a few
minutes more, the enemy's line seemed to clear somewhat; the pennon with the
three red kine showed in front and three men armed from head to foot in gleaming
steel, except for their short coats bright with heraldry, were with it. One of
them (and he bore the three kine on his coat) turned round and gave some word of
command, and an angry shout went up from them, and they came on steadily towards
us, the man with the red kine on his coat leading them, a great naked sword in
his hand: you must note that they were all on foot; but as they drew nearer I
saw their horses led by grooms and pages coming on slowly behind them.
Sooth said Will Green that the men-at-arms run not fast either to or fro the
fray; they came on no faster than a hasty walk, their arms clashing about them
and the twang of the bows and whistle of the arrows never failing all the while,
but going on like the push of the westerly gale, as from time to time the
men-at-arms shouted, "Ha! ha! out! out! Kentish thieves!"
But when they began to fall on, Jack Straw shouted out, "Bills to the field!
bills to the field!"
Then all our billmen ran up and leapt over the hedge into the meadow and
stood stoutly along the ditch under our bows, Jack Straw in the forefront
handling his great axe. Then he cast it into his left hand, caught up his horn
and winded it loudly. The men-at-arms drew near steadily, some fell under the
arrow-storm, but not a many; for though the target was big, it was hard, since
not even the cloth-yard shaft could pierce well-wrought armour of plate, and
there was much armour among them. Withal the arbalestiers were shooting again,
but high and at a venture, so they did us no hurt.
But as these soldiers made wise by the French war were now drawing near, and
our bowmen were casting down their bows and drawing their short swords, or
handling their axes, as did Will Green, muttering, "Now must Hob Wright's gear
end this play"-- while this was a-doing, lo, on a sudden a flight of arrows from
our right on the flank of the sergeants' array, which stayed them somewhat; not
because it slew many men, but because they began to bethink them that their foes
were many and all around them; then the road-hedge on the right seemed alive
with armed men, for whatever could hold sword or staff amongst us was there;
every bowman also leapt our orchard-hedge sword or axe in hand, and with a great
shout, billmen, archers, and all, ran in on them; half-armed, yea, and
half-naked some of them; strong and stout and lithe and light withal, the wrath
of battle and the hope of better times lifting up their hearts till nothing
could withstand them. So was all mingled together, and for a minute or two was a
confused clamour over which rose a clatter like the riveting of iron plates, or
the noise of the street of coppersmiths at Florence; then the throng burst open
and the steel-clad sergeants and squires and knights ran huddling and shuffling
towards their horses; but some cast down their weapons and threw up their hands
and cried for peace and ransom; and some stood and fought desperately, and slew
some till they were hammered down by many strokes, and of these were the
bailiffs and tipstaves, and the lawyers and their men, who could not run and
hoped for no mercy.
I looked as on a picture and wondered, and my mind was at strain to remember
something forgotten, which yet had left its mark on it. I heard the noise of the
horse-hoofs of the fleeing men-at- arms (the archers and arbalestiers had
scattered before the last minutes of the play), I heard the confused sound of
laughter and rejoicing down in the meadow, and close by me the evening wind
lifting the lighter twigs of the trees, and far away the many noises of the
quiet country, till light and sound both began to fade from me and I saw and
heard nothing.
I leapt up to my feet presently and there was Will Green before me as I had
first seen him in the street with coat and hood and the gear at his girdle and
his unstrung bow in his hand; his face smiling and kind again, but maybe a
thought sad.
"Well," quoth I, "what is the tale for the ballad-maker?"
"As Jack Straw said it would be," said he, "`the end of the day and the end
of the fray;'" and he pointed to the brave show of the sky over the sunken sun;
"the knights fled and the sheriff dead: two of the lawyer kind slain afield, and
one hanged: and cruel was he to make them cruel: and three bailiffs knocked on
the head--stout men, and so witless, that none found their brains in their
skulls; and five arbalestiers and one archer slain, and a score and a half of
others, mostly men come back from the French wars, men of the Companions there,
knowing no other craft than fighting for gold; and this is the end they are paid
for. Well, brother, saving the lawyers who belike had no souls, but only
parchment deeds and libels of the same, God rest their souls!"
He fell a-musing; but I said, "And of our Fellowship were any slain?"
"Two good men of the township," he said, "Hob Horner and Antony Webber, were
slain outright, Hob with a shaft and Antony in the hand-play, and John Pargetter
hurt very sore on the shoulder with a glaive; and five more men of the
Fellowship slain in the hand-play, and some few hurt, but not sorely. And as to
those slain, if God give their souls rest it is well; for little rest they had
on the earth belike; but for me, I desire rest no more."
I looked at him and our eyes met with no little love; and I wondered to see
how wrath and grief within him were contending with the kindness of the man, and
how clear the tokens of it were in his face.
"Come now, old lad," said he, "for I deem that John Ball and Jack Straw have
a word to say to us at the cross yet, since these men broke off the telling of
the tale; there shall we know what we are to take in hand to-morrow. And
afterwards thou shalt eat and drink in my house this once, if never again "
So we went through the orchard closes again; and others were about and anigh
us, all turned towards the cross as we went over the dewy grass, whereon the
moon was just beginning to throw shadows.
|