Page 199 - the-merry-adventures-of-robin-hood

come.’
Said the Bishop to himself, while he looked grimly at
Robin, ‘When this wedding is gone by I will have this fellow
well whipped for his saucy tongue and bold speech.’
And now fair Ellen and Sir Stephen stood before the altar,
and the Bishop himself came in his robes and opened his
book, whereat fair Ellen looked up and about her in bitter
despair, like the fawn that finds the hounds on her haunch.
Then, in all his fluttering tags and ribbons of red and yellow,
Robin Hood strode forward. Three steps he took from the
pillar whereby he leaned, and stood between the bride and
bridegroom.
‘Let me look upon this lass,’ he said in a loud voice. ‘Why,
how now! What have we here? Here be lilies in the cheeks,
and not roses such as befit a bonny bride. This is no fit wed-
ding. Thou, Sir Knight, so old, and she so young, and thou
thinkest to make her thy wife? I tell thee it may not be, for
thou art not her own true love.’
At this all stood amazed, and knew not where to look nor
what to think or say, for they were all bewildered with the
happening; so, while everyone looked at Robin as though
they had been changed to stone, he clapped his bugle horn
to his lips and blew three blasts so loud and clear, they
echoed from floor to rafter as though they were sounded by
the trump of doom. Then straightway Little John and Will
Stutely came leaping and stood upon either side of Robin
Hood, and quickly drew their broadswords, the while a
mighty voice rolled over the heads of all, ‘Here be I, good
master, when thou wantest me”; for it was Friar Tuck that so

1 The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood