Page 385 - the-merry-adventures-of-robin-hood

you wish it; for that which cometh hereafter speaks of the
breaking up of things, and shows how joys and pleasures
that are dead and gone can never be set upon their feet to
walk again. I will not dwell upon the matter overlong, but
will tell as speedily as may be of how that stout fellow, Robin
Hood, died as he had lived, not at court as Earl of Hunting-
don, but with bow in hand, his heart in the greenwood, and
he himself a right yeoman.
King Richard died upon the battlefield, in such a way as
properly became a lion-hearted king, as you yourself, no
doubt, know; so, after a time, the Earl of Huntingdon—or
Robin Hood, as we still call him as of old— finding nothing
for his doing abroad, came back to merry England again.
With him came Allan a Dale and his wife, the fair Ellen, for
these two had been chief of Robin’s household ever since he
had left Sherwood Forest.
It was in the springtime when they landed once more on
the shores of England. The leaves were green and the small
birds sang blithely, just as they used to do in fair Sherwood
when Robin Hood roamed the woodland shades with a free
heart and a light heel. All the sweetness of the time and the
joyousness of everything brought back to Robin’s mind his
forest life, so that a great longing came upon him to behold
the woodlands once more. So he went straightway to King
John and besought leave of him to visit Nottingham for a
short season. The King gave him leave to come and to go,
but bade him not stay longer than three days at Sherwood.
So Robin Hood and Allan a Dale set forth without delay to
Nottinghamshire and Sherwood Forest.

The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood