Page 379 - the-merry-adventures-of-robin-hood

one time betwixt me and death; wherefore I would pardon
thee for his sake even if thou hadst done more than thou
hast. Rise all of you, for ye shall suffer no harm through me
this day, for it were pity that a merry time should end in a
manner as to mar its joyousness.’
Then all arose and the King beckoned Robin Hood to
come to him. ‘How now,’ quoth he, ‘is thine ear still too deaf
to hear me speak?’
‘Mine ears would be deafened in death ere they would
cease to hear Your Majesty’s voice,’ said Robin. ‘As for the
blow that Your Majesty struck me, I would say that though
my sins are haply many, methinks they have been paid up
in full thereby.’
‘Thinkest thou so?’ said the King with somewhat of stern-
ness in his voice. ‘Now I tell thee that but for three things,
to wit, my mercifulness, my love for a stout woodsman, and
the loyalty thou hast avowed for me, thine ears, mayhap,
might have been more tightly closed than ever a buffet from
me could have shut them. Talk not lightly of thy sins, good
Robin. But come, look up. Thy danger is past, for hereby
I give thee and all thy band free pardon. But, in sooth, I
cannot let you roam the forest as ye have done in the past;
therefore I will take thee at thy word, when thou didst say
thou wouldst give thy service to me, and thou shalt go back
to London with me. We will take that bold knave Little John
also, and likewise thy cousin, Will Scarlet, and thy minstrel,
Allan a Dale. As for the rest of thy band, we will take their
names and have them duly recorded as royal rangers; for
methinks it were wiser to have them changed to law-abid-

The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood