back the yellow horse, and I have seen you face the Abbot of
Waverley, and you are such a master as I would very gladly serve
if you have by chance a place for such a man. I have seen your
following, and I doubt not that they were stout fellows in your
grandfather's time; but which of them now would draw a bow-string
to his ear? Through you I have left the service of the Abbey of
Waverley, and where can I look now for a post? If I stay here I
am all undone like a fretted bow-string."

"Nay, there can be no difficulty there," said Chandos. "Pardieu!
a roistering, swaggering dare-devil archer is worth his price on
the French border. There are two hundred such who march behind my
own person, and I would ask nothing better than to see you among
them."

"I thank you, noble sir, for your offer," said Aylward, "and I
had rather follow your banner than many another one, for it is
well known that it goes ever forward, and I have heard enough of
the wars to know that there are small pickings for the man who
lags behind. Yet, if the Squire will have me, I would choose to
fight under the five roses of Loring, for though I was born in the
hundred of Easebourne and the rape of Chichester, yet I have grown
up and learned to use the longbow in these parts, and as the free
son of a free franklin I had rather serve my own neighbor than a
stranger."

"My good fellow," said Nigel, "I have told you that I could in no
wise reward you for such service."

"If you will but take me to the wars I will see to my own reward,"