Page 328 - the-merry-adventures-of-robin-hood

fourscore pounds richer this minute than we were before,
for the good Bishop of Hereford hath promised that much
to the band that shall bring thee to him. Oho! thou cun-
ning rascal! thou wouldst look so innocent, forsooth! We
know thee, thou old fox. But off thou goest with us to have
thy brush clipped forthwith.’ At these words the poor Cob-
bler gazed all around him with his great blue eyes as round
as those of a dead fish, while his mouth gaped as though he
had swallowed all his words and so lost his speech.
Robin also gaped and stared in a wondering way, just as
the Cobbler would have done in his place. ‘Alack-a-daisy,
me,’ quoth he. ‘I know not whether I be sitting here or in No-
man’s-land! What meaneth all this stir i’ th’ pot, dear good
gentlemen? Surely this is a sweet, honest fellow.’
‘Honest fellow,’ sayst thou, clown?’ quoth one of the men
‘Why, I tell thee that this is that same rogue that men call
Robin Hood.’
At this speech the Cobbler stared and gaped more than
ever, for there was such a threshing of thoughts going on
within his poor head that his wits were all befogged with
the dust and chaff thereof. Moreover, as he looked at Robin
Hood, and saw the yeoman look so like what he knew him-
self to be, he began to doubt and to think that mayhap he
was the great outlaw in real sooth. Said he in a slow, won-
dering voice, ‘Am I in very truth that fellow?— Now I had
thought—but nay, Quince, thou art mistook—yet—am I?—
Nay, I must indeed be Robin Hood! Yet, truly, I had never
thought to pass from an honest craftsman to such a great
yeoman.’