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.
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