Page 215 - the-merry-adventures-of-robin-hood

with our pack horses, and a half score of men to guard them,
when up comes a great strapping fellow full seven feet high,
with fourscore or more men back of him, and calls upon
me to stop—me, the Lord Bishop of Hereford, mark thou!
Whereupon my armed guards—beshrew them for cow-
ards!—straight ran away. But look ye; not only did this fellow
stop me, but he threatened me, saying that Robin Hood
would strip me as bare as a winter hedge. Then, besides all
this, he called me such vile names as ‘fat priest,‘man-eating
bishop,‘money-gorging usurer,’ and what not, as though I
were no more than a strolling beggar or tinker.’
At this, the Bishop glared like an angry cat, while even
Sir Richard laughed; only Robin kept a grave face. ‘Alas! my
lord,’ said he, ‘that thou hast been so ill-treated by my band!
I tell thee truly that we greatly reverence thy cloth. Little
John, stand forth straightway.’
At these words Little John came forward, twisting his
face into a whimsical look, as though he would say, ‘Ha’
mercy upon me, good master.’ Then Robin turned to the
Bishop of Hereford and said, ‘Was this the man who spake
so boldly to Your Lordship?’
‘Ay, truly it was the same,’ said the Bishop, ‘a naughty fel-
low, I wot.
‘And didst thou, Little John,’ said Robin in a sad voice,
‘call his lordship a fat priest?’
‘Ay,’ said Little John sorrowfully.
‘And a man-eating bishop?’
‘Ay,’ said Little John, more sorrowfully than before.
‘And a money-gorging usurer?’

1 The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood