It was of English yew, six feet two inches high, and thick in proportion; and Martin, broad-chested, with arms all iron and cord, and used to the bow from infancy, could draw a three-foot arrow to the head, and, when it flew, the eye could scarce follow it, and the bowstring twanged as musical as a harp.

This bow had laid many a stout soldier low in the wars of the Hoecks and Cabbel-jaws.

In those days a battlefield was not a cloud of smoke; the combatants were few, but the deaths many--for they saw what they were about; and fewer bloodless arrows flew than bloodless bullets now.

A hare came cantering, then sat sprightly, and her ears made a capital V.Martin levelled his tremendous weapon at her.

The arrow flew, the string twanged; but Martin had been in a hurry to pot her, and lost her by an inch: the arrow seemed to hit her, but it struck the ground close to her, and passed under her belly like a flash, and hissed along the short grass and disappeared.