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. "For his own part,"
he said, "and in the land where he was bred, men would as soon take for
their mark King Arthur's round-table, which held sixty knights around
it. A child of seven years old," he said, "might hit yonder target with
a headless shaft; but," added he, walking deliberately to the other end
of the lists, and sticking the willow wand upright in the ground, "he
that hits that rod at five-score yards, I call him an archer fit to bear
both bow and quiver before a king, an 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 will I. If this
yeoman can cleave that rod, I give him the bucklers--or rather, I yield
to the devil that is in his jerkin, and not to any human skill; a man
can but do his best, and I will not shoot where I am sure to miss. 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 will say thou art the first man ever
did so. However it be, thou shalt not crow over us with a mere show of
superior skill."
"I will do my best, as Hubert says," answered 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 will make them fifty, if thou wilt
take livery and service with us as a yeoman of our body guard, and be
near to our person. For never did so strong a hand bend a bow, or so
true an eye direct a shaft."