Page 57 - the-merry-adventures-of-robin-hood

‘Will Stutely hath been taken,’ cried they, when they had
come to where he stood.
‘And is it thou that hast brought such doleful news?’ said
Robin to the lass.
‘Ay, marry, for I saw it all,’ cried she, panting as the
hare pants when it has escaped the hounds, ‘and I fear he
is wounded sore, for one smote him main shrewdly i’ the
crown. They have bound him and taken him to Nottingham
Town, and ere I left the Blue Boar I heard that he should be
hanged tomorrow day.’
‘He shall not be hanged tomorrow day,’ cried Robin; ‘or,
if he be, full many a one shall gnaw the sod, and many shall
have cause to cry Alack-a-day!’
Then he clapped his horn to his lips and blew three blasts
right loudly, and presently his good yeomen came running
through the greenwood until sevenscore bold blades were
gathered around him.
‘Now hark you all!’ cried Robin. ‘Our dear compan-
ion Will Stutely hath been taken by that vile Sheriff’s men,
therefore doth it behoove us to take bow and brand in hand
to bring him off again; for I wot that we ought to risk life
and limb for him, as he hath risked life and limb for us. Is it
not so, my merry men all?’ Then all cried, ‘Ay!’ with a great
voice.
So the next day they all wended their way from Sher-
wood Forest, but by different paths, for it behooved them
to be very crafty; so the band separated into parties of twos
and threes, which were all to meet again in a tangled dell
that lay near to Nottingham Town. Then, when they had

The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood