for them with a tall horse which he held by the bridle. "I would fain
see both of you vault over him," he said.

Josceline advanced, put one hand on the saddlebow and the other on the
horse's neck, and vaulted over fairly well. After him came Hugo, whose
performance was about equal to Josceline's.

"It was the cousin to the king that could not do so well as that,"
commented Robert Sadler.

"And how knowest thou that?" asked Josceline, complacently. "Didst thou
see him?"

"See him!" exclaimed Robert Sadler. "I have seen him more times than
thou art years old. And never did he do so well as thou and Hugo."

With hearts full of pride the two went from vaulting over the horse to
striking heavy blows with a battle axe.

"Ah!" cried Robert Sadler. "Could the cousin to the king see the
strokes that ye make, he were fit to die from shame. He can strike not
much better than a baby. I could wish that all mine enemies might
strike me no more heavily than the cousin to the king."

"This cousin to the king must be worthless," observed Josceline, his
face red from the exertion of striking.

"Worthless!" exclaimed Robert Sadler. "It were not well that the king
heard that word, but a true word it is. Worthless he is."