be seen; far better Gerard went supperless than ill should come to you,
faithful Martin."

The required promise given, Martin took his bow and three arrows, and
stole cautiously into the wood: it was scarce a furlong distant. The
horns were heard faintly in the distance, and all the game was afoot.
"Come," thought Martin, "I shall soon fill the pot, and no one be the
wiser." He took his stand behind a thick oak that commanded a view of
an open glade, and strung his bow, a truly formidable weapon. It was
of English yew, six feet two inches high, and thick in proportion; and
Martin, broad-chested, with arms all iron and cord, and used to the bow
from infancy, could draw a three-foot arrow to the head, and, when
it flew, the eye could scarce follow it, and the bowstring twanged as
musical as a harp. This bow had laid many a stout soldier low in the
wars of the Hoecks and Cabbel-jaws. In those days a battlefield was not
a cloud of smoke; the combatants were few, but the deaths many--for they
saw what they were about; and fewer bloodless arrows flew than bloodless
bullets now. A hare came cantering, then sat sprightly, and her ears
made a capital V. Martin levelled his tremendous weapon at her. The
arrow flew, the string twanged; but Martin had been in a hurry to pot
her, and lost her by an inch: the arrow seemed to hit her, but it struck
the ground close to her, and passed under her belly like a flash, and
hissed along the short grass and disappeared. She jumped three feet
perpendicular and away at the top of her speed. "Bungler!" said Martin.
A sure proof he was not an habitual bungler, or he would have blamed
the hare. He had scarcely fitted another arrow to his string when a
wood-pigeon settled on the very tree he stood under. "Aha!" thought he,
"you are small, but dainty." This time he took more pains; drew his arrow
carefully, loosed it smoothly, and saw it, to all appearance, go clean
through the bird, carrying feathers skyward like dust. Instead of