FACING
PAGE
Firm as a rock stood the young warrior[Frontispiece]
Loudly twanged the bow[102]
"Yield thee, De Renly!" he shouted[132]
Up went the ladder, and on it the English climbed fast[177]
Soon the air was full of the roaring[224]
"Arise, Sir Richard of Wartmont!"[230]

WITH THE BLACK PRINCE.

CHAPTER I. THE KING'S DEER.

There came a sudden sound, breaking the shadowy silence of Longwood forest.

Crash followed crash, at short intervals, with the snapping of dry twigs and bush branches, and then came ringing, clear and sweet, three notes of a hunting horn.

Out into an open glade, where the sunlight fell upon the long, green grass of midsummer, there bounded a splendid stag—a stag royal, a stag of ten—fit to be the antlered monarch of the king's deer in Longwood.

Three leaps, and then the beautiful animal stood still; but as he turned, panting, and lowered his horns, it could be seen that he was wounded. The feather of an arrow in his flank told how deeply the shaft was driven.