good shoot for you also, John! The villain hath fallen forward into the fire. But I pray you, John, to loose gently, and not to pluck with the drawing-hand, for it is a trick that hath marred many a fine bowman.'
Whilst the two archers were keeping up a brisk fire upon the mob beneath them, Du Guesclin and his lady were consulting with Sir Nigel upon their desperate situation.
''Tis a strange end for one who has seen so many stricken fields,' said the French chieftain. 'For me one death is as another, but it is the thought of my sweet lady which goes to my heart.'
'Nay, Bertrand, I fear it as little as you,' said she. 'Had I my dearest wish, it would be that we should go together.'
'Well answered, fair lady!' cried Sir Nigel. 'And very sure I am that my own sweet wife would have said the same. If the end be now come, I have had great good fortune in having lived in times when so much glory was to be won, and in knowing so many valiant gentlemen and knights. But why do you pluck my sleeve, Alleyne?'
'If it please you, my fair lord, there are in this corner two great tubes of iron, with many heavy balls, which may perchance be those bombards and shot of which I have heard.'
'By Saint Ives! it is true,' cried Sir Bertrand, striding across to the recess where the ungainly, funnel-shaped, thick-ribbed engines were standing. 'Bombards they are, and of good size. We may shoot down upon them.'
'Shoot with them, quotha?' cried Aylward in high disdain, for pressing danger is the great leveller of classes. 'How is a man to take aim with these fool's toys, and how can he hope to do scath with them?'
'I will show you,' answered Sir Nigel; 'for here is the great box of powder, and if you will raise it for me, John, I will show you how it may be used. Come hither, where the folk are thickest round the fire. Now, Aylward, crane thy peck and see what would have been deemed an old wife's
