He hears voices in the thicket.
Thus spoke Robin Hood to himself, all his anger passing away like a breath from the window-pane, at the thought that perhaps his trusty right-hand man was in some danger of his life. So cautiously he made his way through the thickets whence the voices came, and, pushing aside the leaves, peeped into the little open space where the two men, staff in hand, were coming slowly together.
He seeth Little John and Arthur a Bland making ready to fight.
“Ha!” quoth Robin to himself, “here is merry sport afoot. Now I would give three golden angels from my own pocket if yon stout fellow would give Little John a right sound drubbing! It would please me to see him well thumped for having failed in my bidding. I fear me, though, there is but poor chance of my seeing such a pleasant sight.” So saying, he stretched himself at length upon the ground, that he might not only see the sport the better, but that he might enjoy the merry sight at his ease.
Little John and Arthur a Bland fight.
As you may have seen two dogs that think to fight, walking slowly round and round each other, neither cur wishing to begin the combat, so those two stout yeomen moved slowly around, each watching for a chance to take the other unaware, and so get in the first blow. At last Little John struck like a flash, and, “rap,” the Tanner met the blow and turned it aside, and then smote back at Little John, who also turned the blow; and so this mighty battle began. Then up and down and back and forth they trod, the blows falling so thick and fast that, at a distance, one would have thought that half a score of men were fighting. Thus they fought for nigh a half an hour, until the ground was all ploughed up with the digging of their heels, and their breathing grew labored like the ox in the furrow. But Little John suffered the most, for he had become unused to such stiff labor, and his joints were not as supple as they had been before he went to dwell with the Sheriff.
All this time Robin Hood lay beneath the bush, rejoicing at such a comely bout of quarterstaff. “By my faith!” quoth he to himself, “never had I thought to see Little John so evenly matched in all my life. Belike, though, he would have overcome yon stout fellow before this had he been in his former trim.”
At last Little John saw his chance, and, throwing all the strength he felt going from him into one blow that might have felled an ox, he struck at the Tanner with might and main. And now did the Tanner’s cowhide cap stand him in good stead, and but for it he might never have held staff in hand again. As it was, the blow he caught beside the head was so shrewd that it sent him staggering across the little glade, so that, if Little John had had the strength to follow up his vantage, it would have been ill for stout Arthur. But he regained himself quickly, and, at arm’s length, struck back a blow at Little John, and this time the stroke reached its mark, and down went Little John at full length, his cudgel flying from his hand as he fell. Then, raising his staff, stout Arthur dealt him another blow upon the ribs.
Arthur a Bland smiteth Little John to the grass.
“Hold!” roared Little John. “Wouldst thou strike a man when he is down?”
“Ay, marry would I,” quoth the Tanner, giving him another thwack with his staff.
“Stop!” roared Little John. “Help! hold, I say! I yield me! I yield me, I say, good fellow!”
“Hast thou had enough?” asked the Tanner, grimly, holding his staff aloft.
“Ay, marry, and more than enough.”
“And thou dost own that I am the better man of the two?”
“Yea, truly, and a murrain seize thee!” said Little John, the first aloud and the last to his beard.
Little John yitldeth himself to Arthur a Bland.
“Then thou mayst go thy ways; and thank thy patron saint that I am a merciful man,” said the Tanner.
“A plague o’ such mercy as thine!” said Little John, sitting up and feeling his ribs where the Tanner had cudgelled him. “I make my vow, my ribs feel as though every one of them were broken in twain. I tell thee, good fellow, I did think there was never a man in all Nottinghamshire could do to me what thou hast done this day.”
“And so thought I, also,” cried Robin Hood, bursting out of the thicket and shouting with laughter till the tears ran down his cheeks. “O man, man!” said he, as well as he could for his mirth, “‘a didst go over like a bottle knocked from a wall. I did see the whole merry bout, and never did I think to see thee yield thyself so, hand and foot, to any man in all merry England. I was seeking thee, to chide thee for leaving my bidding undone; but thou hast been paid all I owed thee, full measure, pressed down and overflowing, by this good fellow. Marry, ’a did reach out his arm full length whilst thou stood gaping at him, and, with a pretty rap, tumbled thee over as never have I seen one tumbled before.” So spoke bold Robin, and all the time Little John sat upon the ground, looking as though he had sour curds in his mouth. “What may be thy name, good fellow?” said Robin, next, turning to the Tanner.
Robin Hood galleth Little John by jesting at his mishap.
“Men do call me Arthur a Bland,” spoke up the Tanner, boldly; “and now what may be thy name?”
“Ha, Arthur a Bland!” quoth Robin, “I have heard thy name before, good fellow. Thou didst break the crown of a friend of mine at the fair at Ely last October. The folk there call him Jock o’ Nottingham; we call him Will Scathelock. This poor fellow whom thou hast so belabored is counted the best hand at the quarterstaff in all merry England. His name is Little John, and mine Robin Hood.”
“How!” cried the Tanner, “art thou indeed the great Robin Hood, and is this the famous Little John? Marry, had I known who thou art, I would never have been so bold as to lift my hand against thee. Let me help thee to thy feet, good Master Little John, and let me brush the dust from off thy coat.”
“Nay,” quoth Little John, testily, at the same time rising carefully, as though his bones had been made of glass, “I can help myself, good fellow, without thy aid; and, let me tell thee, had it not been for that vile cowskin cap of thine, it would have been ill for thee this day.”
At this Robin laughed again, and, turning to the Tanner, he said, “Wilt thou join my band, good Arthur? for I make my vow thou art one of the stoutest men that ever mine eyes beheld.”
“Will I join thy band?” cried the Tanner, joyfully; “ay, marry, will I! Hey for a merry life!” cried he, leaping aloft and snapping his fingers, “and hey for the life I love! Away with tanbark and filthy vats and foul cowhides! I will follow thee to the ends of the earth, good master, and not a herd of dun deer in all the forest but shall know the sound of the twang of my bowstring.”
Arthur a Bland joineth Robin Hood’s band of merry men.
“As for thee, Little John,” said Robin, turning to him and laughing, “thou wilt start once more for Ancaster, and we will go part way with thee, for I will not have thee turn again to either the right hand or the left till thou hast fairly gotten away from Sherwood. There are other inns that thou knowest yet, hereabouts.” Thereupon, leaving the thickets, they took once more to the highway, and departed upon their business.
II.
Robin Hood and Will Scarlet.
THUS they travelled along the sunny road, three stout fellows such as you could hardly match anywhere else in all merry England. Many stopped to gaze after them as they strode along, so broad were their shoulders and so sturdy their gait.
Quoth Robin Hood to Little John, “Why didst thou not go straight to Ancaster, yesterday, as I told thee? Thou hadst not gotten thyself into such a coil hadst thou done as I ordered.”
Robin Hood, Little John, and Arthur a Bland travel onward together, talking.
“I feared the rain that threatened,” said Little John in a sullen tone, for he was vexed at being so chafed by Robin with what had happened to him.
“The rain!” cried Robin, stopping of a sudden in the middle of the road, and looking at Little John in wonder. “Why, thou great oaf! not a drop of rain has fallen these three days, neither has any threatened, nor hath the
re been a sign of foul weather in earth or sky or water.”
“Nevertheless,” growled Little John, “the holy Saint Swithin holdeth the waters of the heavens in his pewter pot, and he could have poured them out, had he chosen, even from a clear sky; and wouldst thou have had me wet to the skin?”
At this Robin Hood burst into a roar of laughter. “O Little John!” said he, “what butter wits hast thou in that head of thine! Who could hold anger against such a one as thou art?”
So saying, they all stepped out once more, with the right foot foremost, as the saying is.
After they had travelled some distance, the day being warm and the road dusty, Robin Hood waxed thirsty; so, there being a fountain of water as cold as ice, just behind the hedgerow, they crossed the stile and came to where the water bubbled up from beneath a mossy stone. Here, kneeling and making cups of the palms of their hands, they drank their fill, and then, the spot being cool and shady, they stretched their limbs and rested them for a space.
The three yeomen, growing tired, rest beneath the shade, nigh to the highroad.
In front of them, over beyond the hedge, the dusty road stretched away across the plain; behind them the meadow lands and bright green fields of tender young corn lay broadly in the sun, and overhead spread the shade of the cool, rustling leaves of the beechen tree. Pleasantly to their nostrils came the tender fragrance of the purple violets and wild thyme that grew within the dewy moisture of the edge of the little fountain, and pleasantly came the soft gurgle of the water; all else was sunny silence, broken only now and then by the crow of a distant cock, borne up to them on the wings of the soft and gentle breeze, or the drowsy drone of the humble-bee burrowing in the clover blossoms that grew in the sun, or the voice of the busy housewife in the nearest farmhouse. All was so pleasant and so full of the gentle joy of the bright Maytime, that for a long time neither of the three cared to speak, but each lay on his back, gazing up through the trembling leaves of the trees to the bright sky overhead. At last, Robin, whose thoughts were not quite so busy wool-gathering as those of the others, and who had been gazing around him now and then, broke the silence.
“Heyday!” quoth he, “yon is a gayly-feathered bird, I take my vow.”
The others looked and saw a young man walking slowly down the highway. Gay was he, indeed, as Robin had said, and a fine figure he cut, for his doublet was of scarlet silk and his stockings also; a handsome sword hung by his side, the embossed leathern scabbard being picked out with fine threads of gold; his cap was of scarlet velvet, and a broad feather hung down behind and back of one ear. His hair was long and yellow and curled upon his shoulders, and in his hand he bore an early rose, which he smelt at daintily now and then.
Robin seeth a stranger clad in scarlet.
“By my life!” quoth Robin Hood, laughing, “saw ye e’er such a pretty, mincing fellow?”
“Truly, his clothes have overmuch prettiness for my taste,” quoth Arthur a Bland; “but, ne’ertheless, his shoulders are broad and his loins are narrow. And seest thou, good master, how that his arms hang from his body? They dangle not down like spindles, but hang stiff and bend at the elbow. I take my vow, there be no bread and milk limbs in those find clothes, but stiff joints and tough thews.”
“Methinks thou art right, friend Arthur,” said Little John. “I do verily think that yon is no such rose-leaf and whipped-cream gallant as he would have one take him to be.”
“Pah!” quoth Robin Hood, “the sight of such a fellow doth put a nasty taste into my mouth! Look how he doth hold that fair flower betwixt his thumb and finger, as he would say, ‘Good rose, I like thee not so ill but I can bear thy odor for a little while.’ I take it ye are both wrong, and verily believe that were a furious mouse to run across his path, he would cry, ‘La!’ or ‘Alack-a-day!’ and fall straightway into a swoom. I wonder who he may be.”
“Some great baron’s son, I doubt not,” answered Little John, “with good and true men’s money lining his purse.”
“Ay, marry, that is true, I make no doubt,” quoth Robin. “What a pity that such men as he, that have no thought but to go abroad in gay clothes, should have good fellows, whose shoes they are not fit to tie, dancing at their bidding. By Saint Dunstan, Saint Alfred, Saint Withold, and all the good men in the Saxon calendar, it doth make me mad to see such gay lordlings from over the sea go stepping on the necks of good Saxons who owned this land before ever their great-grandsires chewed rind of brawn! By the bright bow of Heaven, I will have their ill-gotten gains from them, even though I hang for it as high as e’er a forest tree in Sherwood!”
“Why, how now, master,” quoth Little John, “what heat is this? Thou dost set thy pot-a-boiling, and mayhap no bacon to cook! Methinks yon fellow’s hair is over light for Norman locks. He may be a good man and true for aught thou knowest.”
“Nay,” said Robin, “my head against a leaden farthing, he is what I say. Whenever saw ye Saxon mince along like that, as though he feared to muddy the toes of his shoes? At least, I will go forth and stop him, and see whether his purse be free of foul money. If I am wrong, then he may go forward upon his journey without the loss of so much as a groat; but if I am right, I will pluck him as close as ever a goose was plucked for live feathers in midsummer. Thou sayst he is a sturdy fellow, Little John. Lie thou here and watch till I show thee how woodland life toughens a man, as easy living, such as thine hath been of late, drags him down. So, like ye both here, I say, till I show you how I drub this fellow.” So saying, Robin Hood stepped forth from the shade of the beech tree, crossed the stile, and stood in the middle of the road, with his hands on his hips, in the stranger’s path.
Robin Hood goeth forth to show Little John and Arthur a Bland how to use the quarterstaff.
Meantime the stranger, who had been walking so slowly that all this talk was held before he came opposite the place where they were, neither quickened his pace nor seemed to see that such a man as Robin Hood was in the world. So Robin stood in the middle of the road, waiting while the other walked slowly forward, smelling his rose, and looking this way and that, and everywhere except at Robin.
“Hold!” cried Robin, when at last the other had come close to him. “Hold! stand where thou art!”
“Wherefore should I hold, good fellow?” said the stranger in soft and gentle voice; “and wherefore should I stand where I am? Ne’ertheless, as thou dost desire that I should stay, I will abide for a short time, that I may hear what thou mayst have to say to me.”
Robin Hood biddeth the stranger to stand.
“Then,” quoth Robin, “as thou dost so fairly do as I tell thee, and dost give me such soft speech, I will also treat thee with all due courtesy. I would have thee know, fair friend, that I am, as it were, a votary at the shrine of Saint Wilfred, who, thou mayst know, took, willy-nilly, all their gold from the heathen, and melted it up into candlesticks. Wherefore, upon such as come hereabouts, I levy a certain toll, which I use for a better purpose, I hope, than to make candlesticks withal. Therefore, sweet chuck, I would have thee deliver to me thy purse, that I may look into it, and judge, to the best of any poor powers, whether thou hast more wealth about thee than our law allows. For, as our good Gaffer Swanthold sayeth, ‘He who is fat from overliving must needs lose blood.’ ”
All this time the youth had been sniffing at the rose that he held betwixt his thumb and finger. “Nay,” said he with a gentle smile, when Robin Hood had done, “I do love to hear thee talk, thou pretty fellow, and if, haply, thou art not yet done, finish, I beseech thee. I have yet some little time to stay.”
“I have said all,” quoth Robin; “and now, if thou wilt give me thy purse, I will let thee go thy way without let or hindrance so soon as I shall see what it may hold. I will take none from thee if thou has but little.”
“Alas! it doth grieve me much,” said the other, “that I cannot do as thou dost wish. I have nothing to give thee. Let me go my way, I prythee. I have done thee no harm.”
“Nay, thou
goest not,” quoth Robin, “till thou hast shown me thy purse.”
“Good friend,” said the other, gently, “I have business elsewhere. I have given thee much time and have heard thee patiently. Prythee, let me now depart in peace.”
He will not let the stranger go.
“I have spoken to thee, friend,” said Robin, sternly, “and I now tell thee again, that thou goest not one step forward till thou hast done as I bid thee.” So saying, he raised his quarterstaff above his head in a threatening way.
“Alas!” said the stranger, sadly, “it doth grieve me that this thing must be. I fear much that I must slay thee, thou poor fellow!” So saying, he drew his sword.
“Put by thy weapon,” quoth Robin; “I would take no vantage of thee. Thy sword cannot stand against an oaken staff such as mine. I could snap it like a barley straw. Yonder is a good oaken thicket by the roadside; take thee a cudgel thence and defend thyself fairly, if thou hast a taste for a sound drubbing.”