Forsooth,my masters,there had I been but a minute,ere the big knight broke off his talk,and cried out to the music to blow up,`And let us go look on these villeins,'said he;and withal the men began to gather in a due and ordered company,and their faces turned hitherward;forsooth,I got to my horse,and led him out of the wood on the other side,and so to saddle and away along the green roads;neither was I seen or chased.So look ye to it,my masters,for these men will be coming to speak with us;nor is there need for haste,but rather for good speed;for in some twenty or thirty minutes will be more tidings to hand."By this time one of our best-armed men had got through the throng and was standing on the cross beside John Ball.When the long man had done,there was confused noise of talk for a while,and the throng spread itself out more and more,but not in a disorderly manner;the bowmen drawing together toward the outside,and the billmen forming behind them.Will Green was still standing beside me and had hold of my arm,as though he knew both where he and I were to go.
"Fellows,"quoth the captain from the cross,"belike this stour shall not live to be older than the day,if ye get not into a plump together for their arbalestiers to shoot bolts into,and their men-at-arms to thrust spears into.Get you to the edge of the crofts and spread out there six feet between man and man,and shoot,ye bowmen,from the hedges,and ye with the staves keep your heads below the level of the hedges,or else for all they be thick a bolt may win its way in."He grinned as he said this,and there was laughter enough in the throng to have done honour to a better joke.
Then he sung out,"Hob Wright,Rafe Wood,John Pargetter,and thou Will Green,bestir ye and marshal the bowshot;and thou Nicholas 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 Iabide 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.
