All this I saw, and also that there was a goodish many people about,
women and children, and a few old men at the doors, many of them
somewhat gaily clad, and that men were coming into the village street
by the other end to that by which I had entered, by twos and threes,
most of them carrying what I could see were bows in cases of linen
yellow with wax or oil; they had quivers at their backs, and most of
them a short sword by their left side, and a pouch and knife on the
right; they were mostly dressed in red or brightish green or blue
cloth jerkins, with a hood on the head generally of another colour.
As they came nearer I saw that the cloth of their garments was
somewhat coarse, but stout and serviceable. I knew, somehow, that
they had been shooting at the butts, and, indeed, I could still hear a
noise of men thereabout, and even now and again when the wind set from
that quarter the twang of the bowstring and the plump of the shaft in
the target.
I leaned against the churchyard wall and watched these men, some of
whom went straight into their houses and some loitered about still;
they were rough-looking fellows, tall and stout, very black some of
them, and some red-haired, but most had hair burnt by the sun into the
colour of tow; and, indeed, they were all burned and tanned and
freckled variously.
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