be a salve to your pride. On the other hand I should judge that
you have led a life of ease for some months back, and that my
muscle is harder than your own. I am ready to wager upon myself
against you if you are not afeard."

"Afeard, thou lurden!" growled big John. "I never saw the face
yet of the man that I was afeard of. Come out, and we shall see
who is the better man."

"But the wager?"

"I have nought to wager. Come out for the love and the lust of
the thing."

"Nought to wager!" cried the soldier. "Why, you have that which
I covet above all things. It is that big body of thine that I am
after. See, now, mon garcon. I have a French feather-bed there,
which I have been at pains to keep these years back. I had it at
the sacking of Issodun, and the King himself hath not such a bed.
If you throw me, it is thine; but, if I throw you, then you are
under a vow to take bow and bill and hie with me to France, there
to serve in the White Company as long as we be enrolled."

"A fair wager!" cried all the travellers, moving back their
benches and trestles, so as to give fair field for the wrestlers.

"Then you may bid farewell to your bed, soldier," said Hordle
John.

"Nay; I shall keep the bed, and I shall have you to France in