Page 38 - the-merry-adventures-of-robin-hood

and many folks stopped, as they journeyed along, and gazed
at the show they made riding along the highways with their
flashing armor and gay plumes and trappings.
In London King Henry and his fair Queen Eleanor held
their court, gay with ladies in silks and satins and velvets
and cloth of gold, and also brave knights and gallant court-
iers.
Thither came the Sheriff and was shown into the King’s
presence.
‘A boon, a boon,’ quoth he, as he knelt upon the ground.
‘Now what wouldst thou have?’ said the King. ‘Let us
hear what may be thy desires.’
‘O good my Lord and Sovereign,’ spake the Sheriff, ‘in
Sherwood Forest in our own good shire of Nottingham,
liveth a bold outlaw whose name is Robin Hood.’
‘In good sooth,’ said the King, ‘his doings have reached
even our own royal ears. He is a saucy, rebellious varlet, yet,
I am fain to own, a right merry soul withal.’
‘But hearken, O my most gracious Sovereign,’ said the
Sheriff. ‘I sent a warrant to him with thine own royal seal
attached, by a right lusty knave, but he beat the messenger
and stole the warrant. And he killeth thy deer and robbeth
thine own liege subjects even upon the great highways.’
‘Why, how now,’ quoth the King wrathfully. ‘What
wouldst thou have me do? Comest thou not to me with a
great array of men-at-arms and retainers, and yet art not
able to take a single band of lusty knaves without armor on
breast, in thine own county! What wouldst thou have me
do? Art thou not my Sheriff? Are not my laws in force in