and his enemy in power?"

"Not so, father," said Marian; "I will always be your true daughter:
I will always love, and serve, and watch, and defend you: but neither

will I forsake my plighted love, and my own liege lord, who was your
choice before he was mine, for you made him my associate in infancy;

and that he continued to be mine when he ceased to be yours, does not
in any way show remissness in my duties or falling off in my affections.

And though I here plight my troth at the altar to Robin, in the presence
of this holy priest and pious clerk, yet.... Father, when Richard

returns from Palestine, he will restore you to your barony, and perhaps,
for your sake, your daughter's husband to the earldom of Huntingdon:

should that never be, should it be the will of fate that we must live
and die in the greenwood, I will live and die MAID MARIAN."[4]

[4] And therefore is she called Maid Marian
Because she leads a spotless maiden life

And shall till Robin's outlaw life have end.
Old Play.

"A pretty resolution," said the baron, "if Robin will let you keep it."
"I have sworn it," said Robin. "Should I expose her tenderness

to the perils of maternity, when life and death may hang on shifting
at a moment's notice from Sherwood to Barnsdale, and from Barnsdale

to the sea-shore? And why should I banquet when my merry men starve?
Chastity is our forest law, and even the friar has kept it since

he has been here."
"Truly so," said the friar: "for temptation dwells with ease and luxury:

but the hunter is Hippolytus, and the huntress is Dian. And now,
dearly beloved----"

The friar went through the ceremony with great unction,
and Little John was most clerical in the intonation of his responses.

After which, the friar sang, and Little John fiddled, and the
foresters danced, Robin with Marian, and Scarlet with the baron;

and the venison smoked, and the ale frothed, and the wine sparkled,
and the sun went down on their unwearied festivity:

which they wound up with the following song, the friar leading
and the foresters joining chorus:

Oh! bold Robin Hood is a forester good,
As ever drew bow in the merry greenwood:

At his bugle's shrill singing the echoes are ringing,
The wild deer are springing for many a rood:

Its summons we follow, through brake, over hollow,
The thrice-blown shrill summons of bold Robin Hood.

And what eye hath e'er seen such a sweet Maiden Queen,
As Marian, the pride of the forester's green?

A sweet garden-flower, she blooms in the bower,
Where alone to this hour the wild rose has been:

We hail her in duty the queen of all beauty:
We will live, we will die, by our sweet Maiden queen.

And here's a grey friar, good as heart can desire,
To absolve all our sins as the case may require:

Who with courage so stout, lays his oak-plant about,
And puts to the rout all the foes of his choir:

For we are his choristers, we merry foresters,
Chorussing thus with our militant friar

And Scarlet cloth bring his good yew-bough and string,
Prime minister is he of Robin our king:

No mark is too narrow for little John's arrow,
That hits a cock sparrow a mile on the wing;

Robin and Marion, Scarlet, and Little John,
Long with their glory old Sherwood shall ring.

Each a good liver, for well-feathered quiver
Doth furnish brawn, venison, and fowl of the river:

But the best game we dish up, it is a fat bishop:
When his angels we fish up, he proves a free giver:

For a prelate so lowly has angels more holy,
And should this world's false angels to sinners deliver.

Robin and Marion, Scarlet and Little John,
Drink to them one by one, drink as ye sing:

Robin and Marion, Scarlet and Little John,
Echo to echo through Sherwood shall fling:

Robin and Marion, Scarlet and Little John,
Long with their glory old Sherwood shall ring.

CHAPTER XII
A single volumeparamount: a code:

A master spirit: a determined road.
WORDSWORTH.

The next morning Robin Hood convened his foresters, and desired Little John,
for the baron's edification, to read over the laws of their forest society.

Little John read aloud with a stentorophonic voice.
"At a high court of foresters, held under the greenwood tree,

an hour after sun-rise, Robin Hood President, William Scarlet
Vice-President, Little John Secretary: the following articles,

moved by Friar Tuck in his capacity of Peer Spiritual,
and seconded by Much the Miller, were unanimously agreed to.

"The principles of our society are six:
Legitimacy, Equity, Hospitality, Chivalry, Chastity, and Courtesy.

"The articles of Legitimacy are four:
"I. Our government is legitimate, and our society is founded on the one

golden rule of right, consecrated by the universal consent of mankind,
and by the practice of all ages, individuals, and nations: namely, To keep

what we have, and to catch what we can.
"II. Our government being legitimate, all our proceedings shall

be legitimate: wherefore we declare war against the whole world,
and every forester is by this legitimatedeclarationlegitimately

invested with a roving commission, to make lawful prize of every
thing that comes in his way.

"III. All forest laws but our own we declare to be null and void.
"IV. All such of the old laws of England as do not in any

way interfere with, or militate against, the views of this
honourable assembly, we will loyally adhere to and maintain.

The rest we declare null and void as far as relates to ourselves,
in all cases wherein a vigour beyond the law may be conducive

to our own interest and preservation."
"The articles of Equity are three:

"I. The balance of power among the people being very much deranged,
by one having too much and another nothing, we herebyresolve ourselves

into a congress or court of equity, to restore as far as in us lies
the said natural balance of power, by taking from all who have

too much as much of the said too much as we can lay our hands on;
and giving to those who have nothing such a portion thereof as it

may seem to us expedient to part with.
"II. In all cases a quorum of foresters shall constitute a court of equity,

and as many as may be strong enough to manage the matter in hand shall
constitute a quorum.

"III. All usurers, monks, courtiers, and other drones of the great hive
of society, who shall be found laden with any portion of the honey

whereof they have wrongfully despoiled the industrious bee, shall be
rightfully despoiled thereof in turn; and all bishops and abbots

shall be bound and beaten,[5] especially the abbot of Doncaster;
as shall also all sheriffs, especially the sheriff of Nottingham.

[5] "These byshoppes and these archbyshoppes Ye shall them bete and bynde,"
says Robin Hood, in an old ballad. Perhaps, however, thus is to be

taken not in a literal, but in a figurative sense from the binding
and beating of wheat: for as all rich men were Robin's harvest,

the bishops and archbishops must have been the finest and fattest
ears among them, from which Robin merely proposes to thresh

the grain when he directs them to be bound and beaten:
and as Pharaoh's fat kine were typical of fat ears of wheat,

so may fat ears of wheat, mutatis mutandis, be typical of fat kine.
"The articles of Hospitality are two:

"I. Postmen, carriers and market-folk, peasants and mechanics,
farmers and millers, shall pass through our forest dominions