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 
hhind-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 
