Page 350 - the-merry-adventures-of-robin-hood

cosy inn bearing the sign of the King’s Head. Here was a
great bustle and stir on this bright morning, for the Sher-
iff and a score of his men had come to stop there and await
Guy of Gisbourne’s return from the forest. Great hiss and
fuss of cooking was going on in the kitchen, and great rap-
ping and tapping of wine kegs and beer barrels was going
on in the cellar. The Sheriff sat within, feasting merrily of
the best the place afforded, and the Sheriff’s men sat upon
the bench before the door, quaffing ale, or lay beneath the
shade of the broad-spreading oak trees, talking and jest-
ing and laughing. All around stood the horses of the band,
with a great noise of stamping feet and a great switching of
tails. To this inn came the King’s rangers, driving the wid-
ow’s three sons before them. The hands of the three youths
were tied tightly behind their backs, and a cord from neck
to neck fastened them all together. So they were marched to
the room where the Sheriff sat at meat, and stood trembling
before him as he scowled sternly upon them.
‘So,’ quoth he, in a great, loud, angry voice, ‘ye have been
poaching upon the King’s deer, have you? Now I will make
short work of you this day, for I will hang up all three of you
as a farmer would hang up three crows to scare others of the
kind from the field. Our fair county of Nottingham hath
been too long a breeding place for such naughty knaves as
ye are. I have put up with these things for many years, but
now I will stamp them out once for all, and with you I will
begin.’
Then one of the poor fellows opened his mouth to speak,
but the Sheriff roared at him in a loud voice to be silent, and