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Файл:The Merry Adventures Of Robin Hood Of Great Renown, In Nottinghamshire
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one time betwixt me and death; wherefore I would pardon
thee for his sake even if thou hadst done more than thou
hast. Rise all of you, for ye shall suer no harm through me
this day, for it were pity that a merry time should end in a
manner as to mar its joyousness.’
en all arose and the King beckoned Robin Hood to
come to him. ‘How now,’ quoth he, ‘is thine ear still too deaf
to hear me speak?’
‘Mine ears would be deafened in death ere they would
cease to hear Your Majesty’s voice,’ sai
d Robin. ‘As for the
blow that Your Majesty struck me, I would say that though
my sins are haply many, methinks they have been paid up
in full thereby.’
‘inkest thou so?’ said the King with somewhat of stern-
ness in his voice. ‘Now I tell thee that but
for three things,
to wit, my mercifulness, my love for a stout woodsman, and
the loyalty thou hast avowed for me, thine ears, mayhap,
might have been more tightly closed than ever a buet from
me could have shut them. Ta lk not lightly of
thy sins, good
Robin. But come, look up. y danger is past, for hereby
I give thee and all thy band free pardon. But, in sooth, I
cannot let you roam the forest as ye have done in the past;
therefore I will take thee at thy word, when thou di
dst say
thou wouldst give thy service to me, and thou shalt go back
to London with me. We will take that bold knave Little John
also, and likewise thy cousin, Will Scarlet, and thy minstrel,
Allan a Dale. As for
the rest of thy band, we will take their
names and have them duly recorded as royal rangers; for
methinks it were wiser to have them changed to law-abid-
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ing caretakers of our deer in Sherwood than to leave them
to run at large as outlawed slayers thereof. But now get a
feast ready; I would see how ye live in the woodlands.’
So Robin bade his men make ready a grand feast.
Straightway
great res were kindled and burned brightly,
at which savory things roasted sweetly. While this was going forward, the King bade Robin call Allan a Dale, for he
would hear him sing. So word was passed for Allan, and
presently
he came, bringing his harp.
‘Marry,’ said King Richard, ‘if thy singing match thy
looks it is fair enough. Prythee, strike up a ditty and let us
have a taste of thy skill.’
en Allan touched his harp lightly, and all words were
hushed whil
e he sang thus:
‘Oh, where has thou been, my daughter?
Oh, where hast thou been this day
Daughter, my daughter?’
‘Oh, I have been to the river’s side,
Where the waters lie all gray and wide,
And the gray sky broods o’er the leaden tide,
And the shrill wind sighs a straining.’
‘What sawest thou there, my daughter?
What sawest thou there this day,
Daughter, my daughter?’
‘Oh, I saw a boat come driing nigh,
Where the quivering rushes hiss and sigh,
And the water soughs as it gurgles by,
THE MERRY ADVENTURES OF R OBIN H OOD382
381
And the shrill wind sighs a straining.’
‘What sailed in the boat, my daughter?
What sailed in the boat this day,
Daughter, my daughter?’
‘Oh, there was one all clad in white,
And about his face hung a pallid light,
And his eyes gleamed sharp like the stars at night,
And the shrill wind sighed a straining.’
‘And what said he, my daughter?
What said he to thee this day,
Daughter, my daughter?’
‘Oh, said he nought, but did he this:
rice on my lips did he press a kiss,
And my heartstrings shrunk with an awful bliss,
And the shrill wind sighed a straining,.’
‘Why growest thou so cold, my daughter?
Why growest thou so cold and white,
Daughter, my daughter?’
Oh, never a word the daughter said,
But she sat all straight with a drooping head,
For her heart was stilled and her face was dead:
And the shrill wind sighed a straining.’
All listened in silence; and when Allan a Dale had done
King Richard heaved a sigh. ‘By the breath of my body, Al-
lan,’ quoth he, ‘thou hast such a wondrous sweet voice that
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T M A R H
383
it strangely moves my heart. But what doleful ditty is this
for the lips of a stout yeoman? I would rather hear thee sing
a song of love and battle than a sad thing like that. Moreover, I understand it not; what meanest thou by the words?’
‘I know not, Your Majesty,’ said Allan, shaking his head,
‘for otimes I sing that which I do not clearly understand
mine own self.’
‘Well, well,’ quoth the King, ‘let it pass; only I tell thee
this, Allan, thou shouldst turn
thy songs to such matters
as I spoke of, to wit, love or war; for in sooth thou hast a
sweeter voice than Blondell, and methought he was the best
minstrel that ever I heard.’
But now one came forward and said that the feast was
ready; so
Robin Hood brought King Richard and those with
him to where it lay all spread out on fair white linen cloths
which lay upon the so green grass. en King Richard sat
him down and feasted and drank, and when he was done he
swore roundly that he
had never sat at such a lusty repast in
all his life before.
at night he lay in Sherwood Forest upon a bed of sweet
green leaves, and early the next morning he set forth from
the woodlands for Nottingham Town, Robin Hood and all
band going with him. You may guess what a stir there
of his
was in the good town when all these famous outlaws came
marching into the streets. As for the Sheri, he knew not
what to say nor where to look when he saw Robin Hood in
such high favor with
the King, while all his heart was lled
with gall because of the vexation that lay upon him.
e next day the King took leave of Nottingham Tow n;
THE MERRY ADVENTURES OF R OBIN H OOD384
383
so Robin Hood and Little John and Will Scarlet and Allan
a Dale shook hands with all the rest of the band, kissing
the cheeks of each man, and swearing that they would oen
come to Sherwood and see them. en each mounted his
horse and rode away in the train of the King.
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T M A R H
385
Epilogue
HUS END the Merry Adventures of Robin Hood; for, in
T
spite of his promise, it was many a year ere he saw Sher-
wood again.
Aer a year or two at court Little John came back to Nottinghamshire, where he lived in an orderly way,
within sight of Sherwood, and where he achieved great fame
as the champion of all England with the quartersta. Will
Scarlet aer a time came back to his own home, whence he
had been driven by his unlucky killing of his father’s stew-
ard. e rest of the band did their duty as royal rangers
right well. But Robin Hood and Allan a Dale did not come
again to Sherwood so quickly, for thus it was:
Robin, through his great fame as an archer, became a favorite with
the chief of all the yeomen. At last the King, seeing how
faithful and how loyal he was, created him Earl of Huntingdon; so Robin followed the King to the wars, and found
his time
wood for even so much as a day. As for Allan a Dale and his
wife, the fair Ellen, they followed Robin Hood and shared in
all his ups and downs of life.
And now,
me in all these merry doings, I will not bid you follow me
further, but will drop your hand here with a ‘good den,’ if
the King, so that he speedily rose in rank to be
so full that he had no chance to come back to Sher-
dear friend, you who have journeyed with
though
THE MERRY ADVENTURES OF R OBIN H OOD386
385
you wish it; for that which cometh hereaer speaks of the
breaking up of things, and shows how joys and pleasures
that are dead and gone can never be set upon their feet to
walk again. I will not dwell upon the matter overlong, but
will tell as
speedily as may be of how that stout fellow, Robin
Hood, died as he had lived, not at court as Earl of Hunting-
don, but with bow in hand, his heart in the greenwood, and
he himself a right yeoman.
King Richar
d died upon the battleeld, in such a way as
properly became a lion-hearted king, as you yourself, no
doubt, know; so, aer a time, the Earl of Huntingdon—or
Robin Hood, as we still call him as of old— nding
nothing
for his doing abroad, came back to merry England again.
With him came Allan a Dale and his wife, the fair Ellen, for
these two had been chief of Robin’s household ever since he
had le Sherwood Forest.
It was in the springtime when
they landed once more on
the shores of England. e leaves were green and the small
birds sang blithely, just as they used to do in fair Sherwood
when Robin Hood roamed the woodland shades with a free
heart and a light hee
l. All the sweetness of the time and the
joyousness of everything brought back to Robin’s mind his
forest life, so that a great longing came upon him to behold
the woodlands once more. So he went straightway to King
John and besought leave of him to visit
Nottingham for a
short season. e King gave him leave to come and to go,
but bade him not stay longer than three days at Sherwood.
So Robin Hood and Allan a Dale set forth without delay to
Nottinghamshire and Sherwood Forest.
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T M A R H
387
e rst night they took up their inn at Nottingham
Town, yet they did not go to pay their duty to the Sheri,
for his worship bore many a bitter grudge against Robin
Hood, which grudges had not been lessened by Robin’s rise
in the world.
e next day at an early hour they mounted
their horses and set forth for the woodlands. As they passed
along the road it seemed to Robin that he knew every stick
and stone that his eyes looked upon. Yonder was a path that
had otimes trod of a mellow evening, with Little John
he
beside him; here was one, now nigh choked with brambles,
along which he and a little band had walked when they went
forth to seek a certain curtal friar.
us they rode
slowly onward, talking about these old, familiar things; old and yet new, for they found more in them
than they had ever thought of before. us at last they came
to the open glade, and the broad, wide-spread
ing greenwood tree which was their home for so many years. Neither
of the two spoke when they stood beneath that tree. Robin
looked all about him at the well-known things, so like what
they used to be and yet so dierent; for, where once was
the bustl
e of many busy fellows was now the quietness of
solitude; and, as he looked, the woodlands, the greensward,
and the sky all blurred together in his sight through salt
tears, for such a great yearning came upon him as he
looked
on these things (as well known to him as the ngers of his
right hand) that he could not keep back the water from his
eyes.
at morning he had slung his good old bugle horn over
his shoulder, and now, with the yearning, came a
great long-
THE MERRY ADVENTURES OF R OBIN H OOD388
387
ing to sound his bugle once more. He raised it to his lips;
he blew a blast. ‘Tirila, lirila,’ the sweet, clear notes went
winding down the forest paths, coming back again from the
more distant bosky shades in faint echoes of soun
d, ‘Tirila,
lirila, tirila, lirila,’ until it faded away and was lost.
Now it chanced that on that very morn Little John was
walking through a spur of the forest upon certain mat-
ters of business, and as he paced along, sunk
in meditation,
the faint, clear notes of a distant bugle horn came to his
ear. As leaps the stag when it feels the arrow at its heart, so
leaped Little John when that distant sound met his ear. All
the blood in his bod
y seemed to rush like a ame into his
cheeks as he bent his head and listened. Again came the
bugle note, thin and clear, and yet again it sounded. en
Little John gave a great, wild cry of yearning, of joy, and
grief, and, putting down his head, he dashed into the
yet of
thicket. Onward he plunged, crackling and rending, as the
wild boar rushes through the underbrush. Little recked he
of thorns and briers that scratched his esh and tore his
clothing, for
all he thought of was to get, by the shortest
way, to the greenwood glade whence he knew the sound of
the bugle horn came. Out he burst from the covert, at last, a
shower of little broken twigs falling about him, and, with-
pausing a moment, rushed forward and ung himself at
out
Robin’s feet. en he clasped his arms around the master’s
knees, and all his body was shaken with great sobs; neither could Robin nor Allan a Dale speak, but stood looking
down at Little
John, the tears rolling down their cheeks.
While they thus stood, seven royal rangers rushed into
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T M A R H
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the open glade and raised a great shout of joy at the sight
of Robin; and at their head was Will Stutely. en, aer a
while, came four more, panting with their running, and
two of these four were Will Scathelock and Midge, the
Mill-
er; for all of these had heard the sound of Robin Hood’s
horn. All these ran to Robin and kissed his hands and his
clothing, with great sound of weeping.
Aer a while Robin looked around him with tear-
dimmed eyes and said,
in a husky voice, ‘Now, I swear that
never again will I leave these dear woodlands. I have been
away from them and from you too long. Now do I lay by
the name of Robert, Earl of Huntingdon, and take upon me
once again that nobler title, Robin Hoo
d, the Yeoman.’ At
this a great shout went up, and all the yeomen shook one
another’s hands for joy.
e news that Robin Hood had come back again to dwell
in Sherwood as of old spread like wildre all over the countryside, so that ere a
se’ennight had passed nearly all of his
old yeomen had gathered about him again. But when the
news of all this reached the ears of King John, he swore both
loud and deep, and took a solemn vow that he would not
rest until he had Robin Hoo
d in his power, dead or alive.
Now there was present at court a certain knight, Sir William Dale, as gallant a soldier as ever donned harness. Sir
William Dale was well acquainted with Sherwood Forest,
for he was head keeper over that
part of it that lay nigh to
good Manseld Tow n; so to him the King turned, and bade
him take an army of men and go straightway to seek Robin
Hood. Likewise the King gave Sir William his signet ring to
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