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Файл:The Merry Adventures Of Robin Hood Of Great Renown, In Nottinghamshire
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‘and mayst thou reach thy hiding in safety.’ So each shook
the other’s hand, and the lad, turning his horse’s head, rode
back toward London, while Robin entered the inn once
more.
ere he found his yeomen sitting in silence, waiting his
coming; likewise the landlord was there, for he was curious
to know what Master Partington had to do with the fellow
in blue. ‘Up, my merry men!’ quoth Robin, ‘this is no place
for us, for those are aer us with whom we will stand but
an
ill chance an we fall into their hands. So we will go forward
once more, nor will we stop this night till we reach Saint Albans.’ Hereupon, taking out his purse, he paid the landlord
his score, and so they le the inn.
When they had come
to the highroad without the town,
Robin stopped and told them all that had passed between
young Partington and himself, and how that the King’s men
were aer them with hot heels. en he told them that here
they should part company; they three going to the eastwar
d
and he to the westward, and so, skirting the main high-
roads, would come by devious paths to Sherwood. ‘So, be ye
wily,’ said Robin Hood, ‘and keep well away from the northward roads till ye have gotten well to the eastward.
And
thou, Will Scarlet, take the lead of the others, for thou hast
a cunning turn to thy wits.’ en Robin kissed the three
upon the cheeks, and they kissed him, and so they parted
company.
Not long aer this, a score or more of the King’s men
came
clattering up to the door of the inn at Barnet Tow n.
Here they leaped from their horses and quickly surrounded
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the place, the leader of the band and four others entering
the room where the yeomen had been. But they found that
their birds had own again, and that the King had been
balked a second time.
‘Methought that they were naughty fellows,’ said the
host, when he heard whom the men-at-arms sought. ‘But I
heard that blue-clad knave say that they would go straight
forward to Saint Albans; so, an ye hurry forward, ye may,
perchance, catch them on the highroad betwixt here and
there.’ For this news
the leader of the band thanked mine
host right heartily, and, calling his men together, mounted
and set forth again, galloping forward to Saint Albans upon
a wild goose chase.
Aer Little John and Will Scarlet and Allan a Dale
had
le the highway near garnet, they traveled toward the eastward, without stopping, as long as their legs could carry
them, until they came to Chelmsford, in Essex. ence
they turned northward, and came through Cambridge and
Lincolnshire, to the good
town of Gainsborough. en,
striking to the westward and the south, they came at last
to the northern borders of Sherwood Forest, without in all
that time having met so much as a single band of the King’s
men. Eight days they journeyed thus ere they reached the
dlands in safety, but when they got to the greenwood
woo
glade, they found that Robin had not yet returned.
For Robin was not as lucky in getting back as his men
had been, as you shall presently hear.
Aer having le the great northern road
, he turned his
face to the westward, and so came past Aylesbury, to fair
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321
Woodstock, in Oxfordshire. ence he turned his footsteps
northward, traveling for a great distance by way of War-
wick Tow n, till he came to Dudley, in Staordshire. Seven
days it took him to journey thus far, and then he thought he
had gotten
far enough to the north, so, turning toward the
eastward, shunning the main roads, and choosing byways
and grassy lanes, he went, by way of Litcheld and Ashby de
la Zouch, toward Sherwood, until he came to a place called
Stanton. And now Robin’s
heart began to laugh aloud, for
he thought that his danger had gone by, and that his nostrils
would soon snu the spicy air of the woodlands once again.
But there is many a slip betwixt the cup and the lip, and this
Robin
was to nd. For thus it was:
When the King’s men found themselves foiled at Saint
Albans, and that Robin and his men were not to be found
high nor low, they knew not what to do. Presently another
band of horsemen came, and another, unti
l all the moonlit
streets were full of armed men. Betwixt midnight and dawn
another band came to the town, and with them came the
Bishop of Hereford. When he heard that Robin Hood had
once more slipped out of the trap, he stayed not a
minute,
but, gathering his bands together, he pushed forward to the
northward with speed, leaving orders for all the troops that
came to Saint Albans to follow aer him without tarrying.
On the evening of the fourth day he reached Nottingham
Town, and there straightway
divided his men into bands
of six or seven, and sent them all through the countryside,
blocking every highway and byway to the eastward and the
southward and the westward of Sherwood. e Sheri of
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Nottingham called forth all his men likewise, and joined
with the Bishop, for he saw that this was the best chance that
had ever befallen of paying back his score in full to Robin
Hood. Will Scarlet and Little John and Allan a Dal
e had just
missed the King’s men to the eastward, for the very next
day aer they had passed the line and entered Sherwood
the roads through which they had traveled were blocked, so
that, had they tarried in their journeying, they would
surely
have fallen into the Bishop’s hands.
But of all this Robin knew not a whit; so he whistled
merrily as he trudged along the road beyond Stanton, with
his heart as free from care as the yolk of an egg is from
cobwebs. At last he came to where a little stream spread across
the road in a shallow sheet, tinkling and sparkling as it fretted over its bed of golden gravel. Here Robin stopped, being
athirst, and, kneeling down, he ma
de a cup of the palms of
his hands, and began to drink. On either side of the road,
for a long distance, stood tangled thickets of bushes and
young trees, and it pleased Robin’s heart to hear the little
birds singing
therein, for it made him think of Sherwood,
and it seemed as though it had been a lifetime since he had
breathed the air of the woodlands. But of a sudden, as he
thus stooped, drinking, something hissed past his ear, and
struck with a
splash into the gravel and water beside him.
Quick as a wink Robin sprang to his feet, and, at one bound,
crossed the stream and the roadside, and plunged headlong
into the thicket, without looking around, for he knew right
that that which had hissed so venomously beside his
well
ear was a gray goose sha, and that to tarry so much as
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323
a moment meant death. Even as he leaped into the thicket
six more arrows rattled among the branches aer him, one
of which pierced his doublet, and would have struck deeply into his side but for the tough coat of steel that he wore.
up the road came riding some of the King’s men at
en
headlong speed. ey leaped from their horses and plunged
straightway into the thicket aer Robin. But Robin knew
the ground better than they did, so crawling here, stooping
there, and, anon, running
across some little open, he soon
le them far behind, coming out, at last, upon another road
about eight hundred paces distant from the one he had le.
Here he stood for a moment, listening to the distant shouts
of the seven men as they
beat up and down in the thickets like hounds that had lost the scent of the quarry. en,
buckling his belt more tightly around his waist, he ran eetly down the road toward the eastward and Sherwood.
But Robin had not gone more than
three furlongs in that
direction when he came suddenly to the brow of a hill, and
saw beneath him another band of the King’s men seated in
the shade along the roadside in the valley beneath. en he
paused not a
moment, but, seeing that they had not caught
sight of him, he turned and ran back whence he had come,
knowing that it was better to run the chance of escaping
those fellows that were yet in the thickets than to rush into
the arms of those in the
valley. So back he ran with all speed,
and had gotten safely past the thickets, when the seven men
came forth into the open road. ey raised a great shout
when they saw him, such as the hunter gives when the
deer breaks cover, but Robin
was then a quarter of a mile
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and more away from them, coursing over the ground like
a greyhound. He never slackened his pace, but ran along,
mile aer mile, till he had come
nigh to Mackworth, over beyond the Derwent River, nigh
to Derby Town. Here, seeing that he was out
of present danger, he slackened in his running, and at last sat him down
beneath a hedge where the grass was the longest and the
shade the coolest, there to rest and catch his wind. ‘By my
soul, Robin,’ quoth he to himself,
‘that was the narrowest
miss that e’er thou hadst in all thy life. I do say most sol-
emnly that the feather of that wicked sha tickled mine ear
as it whizzed past. is same running hath given me a most
craving appetite for victuals and d
rink. Now I pray Saint
Dunstan that he send me speedily some meat and beer.’
It seemed as though Saint Dunstan was like to answer
his prayer, for along the road came plodding a certain cob-
bler, one Quince, of Derby, who had been to
take a pair of
shoes to a farmer nigh Kirk Langly, and was now coming
back home again, with a fair boiled capon in his pouch and
a stout pottle of beer by his side, which same the farmer
had given him for joy of such a
stout pair of shoon. Good
Quince was an honest fellow, but his wits were somewhat
of the heavy sort, like unbaked dough, so that the only
thing that was in his mind was, ‘ree shillings sixpence
ha’penny for thy shoon, good Quince—three shillings sixpence ha’penny for thy shoon,’ and this traveled round and
round inside of his head, without another thought getting
into his noddle, as a pea rolls round and round inside an
empty quart pot.
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325
‘Halloa, good friend,’ quoth Robin, from beneath the
hedge, when the other had gotten nigh enough, ‘whither
away so merrily this bright day?’
Hearing himself so called upon, the Cobbler stopped,
and, seeing a well-clad stranger in blue,
he spoke to him in
seemly wise. ‘Give ye good den, fair sir, and I would say that
I come from Kirk Langly, where I ha’ sold my shoon and got
three shillings sixpence ha’penny for them in as sweet money as ever thou sawest, and honestly
earned too, I would ha’
thee know. But an I may be so bold, thou pretty fellow, what
dost thou there beneath the hedge?’
‘Marry,’ quoth merry Robin, ‘I sit beneath the hedge here
to drop salt on the tails of golden birds; but in
sooth thou
art the rst chick of any worth I ha’ seen this blessed day.’
At these words the Cobbler’s eyes opened big and wide,
and his mouth grew round with wonder, like a knothole in
a board fence. ‘slack-a-day,’ quoth he, ‘look
ye, now! I ha’
never seen those same golden birds. And dost thou in sooth
nd them in these hedges, good fellow? Prythee, tell me, are
there many of them? I would fain nd them mine own self.’
‘Ay, truly,’ quoth Robin, ‘they are as thick
here as fresh
herring in Cannock Chase.’
‘Look ye, now!’ said the Cobbler, all drowned in wonder.
‘And dost thou in sooth catch them by dropping salt on their
pretty tails?’
‘Yea,’ quoth Robin, ‘but this salt is of an odd kind, let me
tell thee, for it can only be gotten by boiling down a quart
of moonbeams in a wooden platter, and then one hath but
a pinch. But tell me, now, thou witty man, what hast thou
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gotten there in that pouch by thy side and in that pottle?’
At these words the Cobbler looked down at those things
of which merry Robin spoke, for the thoughts of the golden
bird had driven them from his mind, and it took him some
time to scrape the memory of them back again. ‘Why,’ said
he at last, ‘in the one is good March beer, and in the other
is a fat capon. Truly, Quince the Cobbler will ha’ a ne feast
this day an I mistake not.’
‘But tell me, good Quince,’ sai
d Robin, ‘hast thou a mind
to sell those things to me? For the hearing of them sounds
sweet in mine ears. I will give thee these gay clothes of blue
that I have upon my body and ten shillings to boot for thy
clothes and thy l
eather apron and thy beer and thy capon.
What sayst thou, bully boy?’
‘Nay, thou dost jest with me,’ said the Cobbler, ‘for my
clothes are coarse and patched, and thine are of ne stu
and very pretty.’
‘Never a jest do I speak,’ quoth Robin. ‘Come, strip
thy
jacket o and I will show thee, for I tell thee I like thy
clothes well. Moreover, I will be kind to thee, for I will feast
straightway upon the good things thou hast with thee, and
thou shalt be bidden to the eating.’ At these words he began
slipping o his doublet, and the Cobbler, seeing him so in
earnest, began pulling o his clothes also, for Robin Hood’s
garb tickled his eye. So each put on the other fellow’s clothes,
and Robin gave the honest Cobbler
ten bright new shillings.
Quoth merry Robin, ‘I ha’ been a many things in my life before, but never have I been an honest cobbler. Come, friend,
let us fall to and eat, for something within me cackles aloud
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for that good fat capon.’ So both sat down and began to feast
right lustily, so that when they were done the bones of the
capon were picked as bare as charity.
en Robin stretched his legs out with a sweet feeling
of comfort within him. Quoth he, ‘By
the turn of thy voice,
good Quince, I know that thou hast a fair song or two running loose in thy head like colts in a meadow. I prythee,
turn one of them out for me.’
‘A song or two I ha’,’ quoth the Cobbler, ‘poor things,
poor things, but
such as they are thou art welcome to one
of them.’ So, moistening his throat with a swallow of beer,
he sang:
‘Of all the joys, the best I love,
Sing hey my frisking Nan, O,
And that which most my soul doth move,
It is the clinking can, O.
‘All other bliss I’d throw away,
Sing hey my frisking Nan, O,
But this—‘
e stout Cobbler got no further in his song, for of a
sudden six horsemen burst upon them where they sat,
and
seized roughly upon the honest crasman, hauling him to
his feet, and nearly plucking the clothes from him as they
did so. ‘Ha!’ roared the leader of the band in a great big
voice of joy, ‘have we then caught thee
at last, thou blue-clad
knave? Now, blessed be the name of Saint Hubert, for we are
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fourscore pounds richer this minute than we were before,
for the good Bishop of Hereford hath promised that much
to the band that shall bring thee to him. Oho! thou cunning rascal! thou wouldst look so innocent, forsooth! We
know thee, thou old fox. But o
thou goest with us to have
thy brush clipped forthwith.’ At these words the poor Cob-
bler gazed all around him with his great blue eyes as round
as those of a dead sh, while his mouth gaped as though he
had swallowed
all his words and so lost his speech.
Robin also gaped and stared in a wondering way, just as
the Cobbler would have done in his place. ‘Alack-a-daisy,
me,’ quoth he. ‘I know not whether I be sitting here or in Noman’s-land!
What meaneth all this stir i’ th’ pot, dear good
gentlemen? Surely this is a sweet, honest fellow.’
‘Honest fellow,’ sayst thou, clown?’ quoth one of the men
‘Why, I tell thee that this is that same rogue that men call
Robin Hood.’
At this speech
the Cobbler stared and gaped more than
ever, for there was such a threshing of thoughts going on
within his poor head that his wits were all befogged with
the dust and cha thereof. Moreover, as he looked at Robin
Hood, and saw the yeoman look so like
what he knew him-
self to be, he began to doubt and to think that mayhap he
was the great outlaw in real sooth. Said he in a slow, wondering voice, ‘Am I in very truth that fellow?— Now I had
thought—but nay, Quince, thou art
mistook—yet—am I?—
Nay, I must indeed be Robin Hood! Yet, truly, I had never
thought to pass from an honest crasman to such a great
yeoman.’
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