spite of your teeth, and you shall live to thank me for it. How
shall it be, then, mon enfant? Collar and elbow, or close-lock,
or catch how you can?"

"To the devil with your tricks," said John, opening and shutting
his great red hands. "Stand forth, and let me clip thee."

"Shalt clip me as best you can then," quoth the archer, moving
out into the open space, and keeping a most wary eye upon his
opponent. He had thrown off his green jerkin, and his chest was
covered only by a pink silk jupon, or undershirt, cut low in the
neck and sleeveless. Hordle John was stripped from his waist
upwards, and his huge body, with his great muscles swelling out
like the gnarled roots of an oak, towered high above the soldier.
The other, however, though near a foot shorter, was a man of
great strength; and there was a gloss upon his white skin which
was wanting in the heavier limbs of the renegade monk. He was
quick on his feet, too, and skilled at the game; so that it was
clear, from the poise of head and shine of eye, that he counted
the chances to be in his favor. It would have been hard that
night, through the whole length of England, to set up a finer
pair in face of each other.

Big John stood waiting in the centre with a sullen, menacing eye,
and his red hair in a bristle, while the archer paced lightly and
swiftly to the right and the left with crooked knee and hands
advanced. Then with a sudden dash, so swift and fierce that the
eye could scarce follow it, he flew in upon his man and locked
his leg round him. It was a grip that, between men of equal
strength, would mean a fall; but Hordle John tore him off from