Page 384 - the-merry-adventures-of-robin-hood

Epilogue

HUS END the Merry Adventures of Robin Hood; for, in
Tspite of his promise, it was many a year ere he saw Sher-
wood again.
After a year or two at court Little John came back to Not-
tinghamshire, where he lived in an orderly way, though
within sight of Sherwood, and where he achieved great fame
as the champion of all England with the quarterstaff. Will
Scarlet after a time came back to his own home, whence he
had been driven by his unlucky killing of his father’s stew-
ard. The 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 fa-
vorite with the King, so that he speedily rose in rank to be
the chief of all the yeomen. At last the King, seeing how
faithful and how loyal he was, created him Earl of Hunt-
ingdon; so Robin followed the King to the wars, and found
his time so full that he had no chance to come back to Sher-
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, dear friend, you who have journeyed with
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