Page 396 - the-merry-adventures-of-robin-hood

and pity for the weak through all the time of his living
His yeomen were scattered henceforth, but no great ill
befell them thereafter, for a more merciful sheriff and one
who knew them not so well succeeding the one that had
gone, and they being separated here and there throughout
the countryside, they abided in peace and quietness, so that
many lived to hand down these tales to their children and
their children’s children.
A certain one sayeth that upon a stone at Kirklees is an
old inscription. This I give in the ancient English in which
it was written, and thus it runs:
HEAR UNDERNEAD DIS LAITL STEAN LAIS ROB-
ERT EARL OF HUNTINGTUN NEA ARCIR VER AS HIE
SAE GEUD AN PIPL KAULD IM ROBIN HEUD SICK
UTLAWS AS HI AN IS MEN VIL ENGLAND NIDIR SI
AGEN OBIIT 24 KAL. DEKEMBRIS 1247.
And now, dear friend, we also must part, for our mer-
ry journeyings have ended, and here, at the grave of Robin
Hood, we turn, each going his own way.