“It may not be, Dick,” replied Hugh, shaking his head doubtfully. “See, here they come to fetch us.”
In a glade of the forest of Windsor situated near to the castle and measuring some twenty-five score yards of open level ground, stood Grey Dick, a strange, uncouth figure, at whom the archers of the guard laughed, nudging each other. In his bony hand, however, he held that at which they did not laugh, namely, the great black bow, six feet six inches long, which he said had come to him “from the sea,” and was fashioned, not of yew, but of some heavy, close-grained wood, grown perhaps in Southern or even in far Eastern lands. Still, one of them, who had tried to draw this bow to his ear and could not, said aloud that “the Suffolk man would do naught with that clumsy pole.” Whereat, Grey Dick, who heard him, grinning, showing his white teeth like an angry dog.
Near by, on horseback and on foot, were the King, the young Prince Edward, and many knights and ladies; while on the other side stood scores of soldiers and other folk from the castle, who came to see this ugly fellow well beaten at his own game.
“Dick,” whispered Hugh, “shoot now as you never shot before. Teach them a lesson for the honour of Suffolk.”
“Let me be, master,” he grumbled. “I told you I would do my best.”
Then he sat himself down on the grass and began to examine his arrows one by one, to all appearance taking no heed of anything else.
Presently came the first test. At a distance of five score yards was set a little “clout,” or target, of white wood, not more than two feet square. This clout had a red mark, or eye, three inches across, painted in its centre, and stood not very high above the sward.
“Now, Richard,” said the King, “three of the best archers that we have about us have been chosen to shoot against you and each other by their fellows. Say, will you draw first or last?”
“Last, Sire,” he answered, “that I may know their mettle.”
Then a man stepped forward, a strong and gallant looking fellow, and loosed his three arrows. The first missed the clout, the second pierced the white wood, and the third hit the red eye.