and is not this his good bow of yew, and is not this his bugle horn?
Thinkest thou he would have given them to Guy of Gisbourne of his
own free will?"
Then the Sheriff laughed aloud for joy. "This is a good day!" cried he.
"The great
outlaw dead and his
right-hand man in my hands!
Ask what thou wilt of me, Guy of Gisbourne, and it is thine!"
"Then this I ask of thee," said Robin. "As I have slain the master I would
now kill the man. Give this fellow's life into my hands, Sir Sheriff."
"Now thou art a fool!" cried the Sheriff. "Thou mightst have had
money enough for a
knight's
ransom if thou hadst asked for it.
I like ill to let this fellow pass from my hands, but as I have promised,
thou shalt have him."
"I thank thee right
heartily for thy gift," cried Robin. "Take the rogue
down from the horse, men, and lean him against yonder tree, while I show
you how we stick a porker
whence I come!"
At these words some of the Sheriff's men shook their heads;
for, though they cared not a whit whether Little John were
hanged or not, they hated to see him
butchered in cold blood.
But the Sheriff called to them in a loud voice, ordering them
to take the
yeoman down from the horse and lean him against
the tree, as the other bade.
While they were doing this Robin Hood strung both his bow
and that of Guy of Gisbourne,
albeit none of them took notice
of his doing so. Then, when Little John stood against the tree,
he drew Guy of Gisbourne's sharp, double-edged dagger.
"Fall back! fall back!" cried he. "Would ye crowd so on
my pleasure, ye unmannerly knaves? Back, I say! Farther yet!"
So they
crowded back, as he ordered, many of them turning their
faces away, that they might not see what was about to happen.
"Come!" cried Little John. "Here is my breast. It is meet that
the same hand that slew my dear master should
butcher me also!
I know thee, Guy of Gisbourne!"
"Peace, Little John!" said Robin in a low voice. "Twice thou
hast said thou knowest me, and yet thou knowest me not at all.
Couldst thou not tell me beneath this wild beast's hide? Yonder, just in
front of thee, lie my bow and arrows,
likewise my broadsword.
Take them when I cut thy bonds. Now! Get them quickly!"
So
saying, he cut the bonds, and Little John, quick as a wink,
leaped forward and caught up the bow and arrows and the broadsword.
At the same time Robin Hood threw back the cowl of horse's hide
from his face and bent Guy of Gisbourne's bow, with a keen,
barbed arrow fitted to the string. "Stand back!" cried he sternly.
"The first man that toucheth finger to bowstring dieth!
I have slain thy man, Sheriff; take heed that it is not thy
turn next." Then,
seeing that Little John had armed himself,
he clapped his bugle horn to his lips and blew three blasts
both loud and shrill.
Now when the Sheriff of Nottingham saw whose face it was
beneath Guy of Gisbourne's hood, and when he heard those bugle
notes ring in his ear, he felt as if his hour had come.
"Robin Hood!" roared he, and without another word he wheeled
his horse in the road and went off in a cloud of dust.
The Sheriff's men,
seeing their master thus fleeing for his life,
thought that it was not their business to tarry longer, so,
clapping spurs to their horses, they also dashed away after him.
But though the Sheriff of Nottingham went fast, he could not
outstrip a clothyard arrow. Little John twanged his bowstring
with a shout, and when the Sheriff dashed in through the gates
of Nottingham Town at full speed, a gray goose shaft stuck out
behind him like a moulting
sparrow with one
feather in its tail.
For a month afterward the poor Sheriff could sit upon
noughtbut the softest cushions that could be
gotten for him.
Thus the Sheriff and a score of men ran away from Robin Hood and Little John;
so that when Will Stutely and a dozen or more of stout yeomen burst
from out the
covert, they saw
nought of their master's enemies,
for the Sheriff and his men were scurrying away in the distance,
hidden within a cloud of dust like a little thunderstorm.
Then they all went back into the forest once more, where they found
the widow's three sons, who ran to Little John and kissed his hands.
But it would not do for them to roam the forest at large any more;
so they promised that, after they had gone and told their mother
of their escape, they would come that night to the
greenwood tree,
and thenceforth become men of the band.
King Richard Comes to Sherwood Forest
NOT MORE than two months had passed and gone since these stirring
adventures
befell Robin Hood and Little John, when all Nottinghamshire
was a
mighty stir and
tumult, for King Richard of the Lion's Heart
was making a royal progress through merry England, and everyone
expected him to come to Nottingham Town in his journeying.
Messengers went riding back and forth between the Sheriff and the King,
until at last the time was fixed upon when His Majesty was to stop
in Nottingham, as the guest of his worship.
And now came more
bustle than ever; a great
runninghither and t
hither,
a rapping of hammers and a
babble of voices sounded everywhere
through the place, for the folk were building great arches across
the streets, beneath which the King was to pass, and were draping
these arches with
silkenbanners and streamers of many colors.
Great hubbub was going on in the Guild Hall of the town, also, for here
a grand
banquet was to be given to the King and the nobles of his train,
and the best master carpenters were busy building a
throne where
the King and the Sheriff were to sit at the head of the table,
side by side.
It seemed to many of the good folk of the place as if the day
that should bring the King into the town would never come;
but all the same it did come in its own season, and bright
shone the sun down into the stony streets, which were all alive
with a
restless sea of people. On either side of the way
great crowds of town and country folk stood packed as close
together as dried
herring in a box, so that the Sheriffs men,
halberds in hands, could hardly press them back to leave space
for the King's riding.
"Take care whom thou pushest against!" cried a great, burly friar
to one of these men. "Wouldst thou dig thine elbows into me, sirrah?
By'r Lady of the Fountain, an thou dost not treat me with more
deference I will crack thy knave's pate for thee, even though thou
be one of the
mighty Sheriff's men."
At this a great shout of
laughter arose from a number of tall yeomen in
Lincoln green that were scattered through the crowd thereabouts; but one that
seemed of more authority than the others nudged the holy man with his elbow.
"Peace, Tuck," said he, "didst thou not promise me, ere thou camest here,
that thou wouldst put a check upon thy tongue?"
"Ay, marry," grumbled the other, "but 'a did not think to have
a hard-footed knave
trample all over my poor toes as though they
were no more than so many acorns in the forest."
But of a sudden all this bickering ceased, for a clear sound of many
bugle horns came winding down the street. Then all the people
craned their necks and gazed in the direction
whence the sound came,
and the crowding and the pushing and the swaying grew greater than ever.
And now a
gallant array of men came gleaming into sight, and the cheering
of the people ran down the crowd as the fire runs in dry grass.
Eight and twenty heralds in
velvet and cloth of gold came riding forward.
Over their heads fluttered a cloud of snow-white
feathers, and each
herald bore in his hand a long silver
trumpet, which he blew musically.
From each
trumpet hung a heavy
banner of
velvet and cloth of gold,
with the royal arms of England emblazoned thereon. After these came
riding fivescore noble
knights, two by two, all fully armed, saving that
their heads were uncovered. In their hands they bore tall lances,
from the tops of which fluttered pennons of many colors and devices.
By the side of each
knight walked a page clad in rich clothes of silk
and
velvet, and each page bore in his hands his master's helmet,
from which waved long, floating plumes of
feathers. Never had Nottingham seen
a fairer sight than those fivescore noble
knights, from whose armor the sun
blazed in dazzling light as they came riding on their great war horses,
with clashing of arms and jingling of chains. Behind the
knights came
the barons and the nobles of the mid-country, in robes of silk and cloth
of gold, with golden chains about their necks and jewels at their girdles.
Behind these again came a great array of men-at-arms, with spears and halberds
in their hands, and, in the midst of these, two riders side by side.
One of the horsemen was the Sheriff of Nottingham in his robes of office.
The other, who was a head taller than the Sheriff, was clad in a rich but
simple garb, with a broad, heavy chain about his neck. His hair and beard
were like threads of gold, and his eyes were as blue as the summer sky.
As he rode along he bowed to the right hand and the left, and a
mightyroar of voices followed him as he passed; for this was King Richard.
Then, above all the
tumult and the shouting a great voice was
heard roaring, "Heaven, its saints bless thee, our gracious
King Richard! and
likewise Our Lady of the Fountain, bless thee!"
Then King Richard, looking toward the spot
whence the sound came,
saw a tall, burly, strapping
prieststanding in front of all the crowd
with his legs wide apart as he backed against those behind.
"By my soul, Sheriff," said the King, laughing, "ye have the tallest
priests in Nottinghamshire that e'er I saw in all my life.
If Heaven never answered prayers because of deafness,
methinks I would
nevertheless have blessings bestowed upon me, for that man yonder would make
the great stone image of Saint Peter rub its ears and
hearken unto him.
I would that I had an army of such as he."
To this the Sheriff answered never a word, but all the blood left
his cheeks, and he caught at the pommel of his
saddle to keep
himself from falling; for he also saw the fellow that so shouted,
and knew him to be Friar Tuck; and,
moreover, behind Friar Tuck
he saw the faces of Robin Hood and Little John and Will Scarlet
and Will Stutely and Allan a Dale and others of the band.
"How now," said the King
hastily, "art thou ill, Sheriff, that thou
growest so white?"
"Nay, Your Majesty," said the Sheriff, "it was
nought but a sudden pain
that will soon pass by." Thus he spake, for he was
ashamed that the King
should know that Robin Hood feared him so little that he thus dared to come
within the very gates of Nottingham Town.
Thus rode the King into Nottingham Town on that bright afternoon
in the early fall season; and none rejoiced more than Robin Hood
and his merry men to see him come so royally unto his own.
Eventide had come; the great feast in the Guild Hall
at Nottingham Town was done, and the wine passed freely.
A thousand waxen lights gleamed along the board, at which sat
lord and noble and
knight and
squire in
goodly array.
At the head of the table, upon a
throne all hung with cloth of gold,
sat King Richard with the Sheriff of Nottingham beside him.
Quoth the King to the Sheriff, laughing as he spoke, "I have heard
much
spokenconcerning the
doings of certain fellows hereabouts,
one Robin Hood and his band, who are
outlaws and abide
in Sherwood Forest. Canst thou not tell me somewhat of them,
Sir Sheriff? For I hear that thou hast had dealings with them
more than once."
At these words the Sheriff of Nottingham looked down gloomily,
and the Bishop of Hereford, who was present, gnawed his
nether lip.
Quoth the Sheriff, "I can tell Your Majesty but little
concerningthe
doings of those
naughty fellows, saving that they are the boldest
lawbreakers in all the land."
Then up spake young Sir Henry of the Lea, a great favorite with the King,
under whom he had fought in Palestine. "May it please Your Majesty,"
said he, "when I was away in Palestine I heard ofttimes from my father,
and in most cases I heard of this very fellow, Robin Hood. If Your Majesty
would like I will tell you a certain adventure of this
outlaw."
Then the King laughingly bade him tell his tale,
whereupon he told
how Robin Hood had aided Sir Richard of the Lea with money that he had
borrowed from the Bishop of Hereford. Again and again the King and those
present roared with
laughter, while the poor Bishop waxed
cherry red
in the face with
vexation, for the matter was a sore thing with him.
When Sir Henry of the Lea was done, others of those present,
seeing how
the King enjoyed this merry tale, told other tales
concerning Robin
and his merry men.