Page 54 - the-merry-adventures-of-robin-hood

will go and find what the Sheriff’s men are at by this time?
For I know right well they will not bide forever within Sher-
wood shades.’
At this a great shout arose, and each man waved his bow
aloft and cried that he might be the one to go. Then Rob-
in Hood’s heart was proud when he looked around on his
stout, brave fellows, and he said, ‘Brave and true are ye all,
my merry men, and a right stout band of good fellows are ye,
but ye cannot all go, so I will choose one from among you,
and it shall be good Will Stutely, for he is as sly as e’er an old
dog fox in Sherwood Forest.’
Then Will Stutely leaped high aloft and laughed loudly,
clapping his hands for pure joy that he should have been
chosen from among them all. ‘Now thanks, good master,’
quoth he, ‘and if I bring not news of those knaves to thee,
call me no more thy sly Will Stutely.’
Then he clad himself in a friar’s gown, and underneath
the robe he hung a good broadsword in such a place that he
could easily lay hands upon it. Thus clad, he set forth upon
his quest, until he came to the verge of the forest, and so to
the highway. He saw two bands of the Sheriff’s men, yet he
turned neither to the right nor the left, but only drew his
cowl the closer over his face, folding his hands as if in medi-
tation. So at last he came to the Sign of the Blue Boar. ‘For,’
quoth he to himself, ‘our good friend Eadom will tell me all
the news.’
At the Sign of the Blue Boar he found a band of the Sheriffs
men drinking right lustily; so, without speaking to anyone,
he sat down upon a distant bench, his staff in his hand, and