Woodyer shall be under me Jack Straw in ordering of the staves.
Gregory Tailor and John Clerk, fair and fine are ye clad in the arms
of the Canterbury bailiffs; ye shall shine from afar; go ye with the
banner into the highway, and the bows on either side shall ward you;
yet jump, lads, and over the hedge with you when the bolts begin to
fly your way! Take heed, good fellows all, that our business is to
bestride the highway, and not let them get in on our flank the while;
so half to the right, half to the left of the highway. Shoot straight
and strong, and waste no breath with noise; let the loose of the
bowstring cry for you! and look you! think it no loss of manhood to
cover your bodies with tree and bush; for one of us who know is worth
a hundred of those proud fools. To it, lads, and let them see what
the grey goose bears between his wings! Abide us here, brother John
Ball, and pray for us if thou wilt; but for me, if God will not do for
Jack Straw what Jack Straw would do for God were he in like case, I
can see no help for it."

"Yea, forsooth," said the priest, "here will I abide you my fellows if
ye come back; or if ye come not back, here will I abide the foe.
Depart, and the blessing of the Fellowship be with you."

Down then leapt Jack Straw from the cross, and the whole throng set
off without noise or hurry, soberly and steadily in outward seeming.
Will Green led me by the hand as if I were a boy, yet nothing he said,
being forsooth intent on his charge. We were some four hundred men in
all; but I said to myself that without some advantage of the ground we
were lost men before the men-at-arms that long Gregory Tailor had told
us of; for I had not seen as yet the yard-long shaft at its work.

We and somewhat more than half of our band turned into the orchards on