Then Eric o' Lincoln laughed aloud. "Well spoken for one who fears to
meet me fairly, man to man," said he. "Saucy art thou thine own self,
and if thou puttest foot upon these boards, I will make thy saucy tongue
rattle within thy teeth!"

"Now," quoth Little John, "is there never a man here that will lend me
a good stout staff till I try the mettle of yon fellow?" At this, half a
score reached him their staves, and he took the stoutest and heaviest of
them all. Then, looking up and down the cudgel, he said, "Now, I have in
my hand but a splint of wood--a barley straw, as it were--yet I trow it
will have to serve me, so here goeth." Thereupon he cast the cudgel
upon the stand and, leaping lightly after it, snatched it up in his hand
again.

Then each man stood in his place and measured the other with fell looks
until he that directed the sport cried, "Play!" At this they stepped
forth, each grasping his staff tightly in the middle. Then those that
stood around saw the stoutest game of quarterstaff that e'er Nottingham
Town beheld. At first Eric o' Lincoln thought that he would gain an easy
advantage, so he came forth as if he would say, "Watch, good people, how
that I carve you this cockerel right speedily;" but he presently found
it to be no such speedy matter. Right deftly he struck, and with great
skill of fence, but he had found his match in Little John. Once, twice,
thrice, he struck, and three times Little John turned the blows to the
left hand and to the right. Then quickly and with a dainty backhanded
blow, he rapped Eric beneath his guard so shrewdly that it made his head
ring again. Then Eric stepped back to gather his wits, while a great
shout went up and all were glad that Nottingham had cracked Lincoln's
crown; and thus ended the first bout of the game.