Ye pleasant sights of leaf and flower:
Ye pleasant sounds of bird and bee:

Ye sports of deer in sylvan bower:
Ye feasts beneath the greenwood tree:

Ye baskings in the vernal sun:
Ye slumbers in the summer dell:

Ye trophies that this arm has won:
And must ye hear your friar's farewell?

But the friar's farewell was not destined to be eternal.
He was domiciled as the family confessor of the earl and

countess of Huntingdon, who led a discreet and courtly life,
and kept up old hospitality in all its munificence,

till the death of King Richard and the usurpation of John,
by placing their enemy in power, compelled them to return to

their greenwoodsovereignty; which, it is probable, they would
have before done from choice, if their love of sylvan liberty

had not been counteracted by their desire to retain the friendship
of Coeur-de-Lion. Their old and tried adherents, the friar

among the foremost, flocked again round their forest-banner;
and in merry Sherwood they long lived together, the lady still

retaining her former name of Maid Marian, though the appellation
was then as much a misnomer as that of Little John.

THE END.

• farewell [feə´wel] int.再见 n.&a.告别 (初中英语单词)
• probable [´prɔbəbəl] a.大概的n.很可能的事 (初中英语单词)
• retain [ri´tein] vt.保持；保留；留住 (初中英语单词)
• hospitality [,hɔspi´tæliti] n.好客，殷勤 (高中英语单词)
• foremost [´fɔ:məust] a.最重要的；最先的 (高中英语单词)
• sovereignty [´sɔvrinti] n.主权；君权 (英语四级单词)
• greenwood [´gri:nwud] n.绿林 (英语六级单词)
• discreet [di´skri:t] a.谨慎的，考虑周到的 (英语六级单词)