298 FIELD AND HEDGEROW. 



with the string drawn, the eye and the hand would not 

 go true together. The quicker the arrow left the bow 

 the moment that it was full drawn, the better the result. 

 On the other hand, the arblast was in no haste, but was 

 adjusted deliberately — so deliberately that it gave rise 

 to a proverb, ' A fool's bolt is soon shot.' This could 

 not apply to the long-bow, with which the arrow was 

 discharged swiftly, while an arblast was slowly brought 

 to the level like a rifle. As it was hard to draw again, 

 that added strength to the saying ; but it arose from 

 the deliberation with which a good cross-bowman aimed. 

 To the long-bow the cross-bow was the express rifle. 

 The express delivers its bullet accurately point-blank — 

 the bullet flies straight to its mark up to a certain 

 distance. So the cross-bow bolt flew point-blank, and 

 thus its application to hunting when the deer were really 

 killed for their venison. The hunter stole through the 

 fern, or crept about the thickets — thickets and fern 

 exactly like those here to-day — or waited Indian-like 

 in ambush behind an oak as the herd fed that way, and, 

 choosing the finest buck, aimed his bolt so as either to 

 slay at once or to break the fore-leg. Like the hare, if 

 the fore-leg is injured, deer cannot progress ; if only the 

 hind-quarter is hit, there is no telling how far they may 

 go. Therefore the cross-bow, as enabling the hunter to 

 choose the exact spot where his bolt should strike, 

 became the weapon of the chase, and by its very perfec- 

 tion began the extermination of the deer. Instead of 

 the hounds and the noisy hunt, any man who could use 

 the cross-bow could kill a buck. The long-bow, of all 

 weapons, requires the most practice, and practice begun 

 in early youth. Some of the extraordinary feats attri- 

 buted to the outlaws in the woods and to the archers of 

 the ancient English army are quite possible, but must 



