Page 55 - the-merry-adventures-of-robin-hood

his head bowed forward as though he were meditating. Thus
he sat waiting until he might see the landlord apart, and Ea-
dom did not know him, but thought him to be some poor
tired friar, so he let him sit without saying a word to him or
molesting him, though he liked not the cloth. ‘For,’ said he
to himself, ‘it is a hard heart that kicks the lame dog from
off the sill.’ As Stutely sat thus, there came a great house
cat and rubbed against his knee, raising his robe a palm’s-
breadth high. Stutely pushed his robe quickly down again,
but the constable who commanded the Sheriffs men saw
what had passed, and saw also fair Lincoln green beneath
the friar’s robe. He said nothing at the time, but communed
within himself in this wise: ‘Yon is no friar of orders gray,
and also, I wot, no honest yeoman goeth about in priest’s
garb, nor doth a thief go so for nought. Now I think in good
sooth that is one of Robin Hood’s own men.’ So, presently,
he said aloud, ‘O holy father, wilt thou not take a good pot
of March beer to slake thy thirsty soul withal?’
But Stutely shook his head silently, for he said to himself,
‘Maybe there be those here who know my voice.’
Then the constable said again, ‘Whither goest thou, holy
friar, upon this hot summer’s day?’
‘I go a pilgrim to Canterbury Town,’ answered Will Stute-
ly, speaking gruffly, so that none might know his voice.
Then the constable said, for the third time, ‘Now tell me,
holy father, do pilgrims to Canterbury wear good Lincoln
green beneath their robes? Ha! By my faith, I take thee to
be some lusty thief, and perhaps one of Robin Hood’s own
band! Now, by Our Lady’s grace, if thou movest hand or

The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood