"But," said the king himself, "we are messengers from the king, who is but a little away, waiting to speak with you."

"God save the king," said Robin Hood, "and all his well-wishers. And accursed be every one who may deny his sovereignty."

"You are cursing yourself," said the king, "for you are a traitor."

"Now," said Robin Hood, "if you were not the king's messenger, I would make you rue that word of yours. I am as true a man to the king as lives. And I never yet injured any honest man and true, but only those who make their living by stealing from others. I have never in my life harmed either husbandman or huntsman. But my chief spite lies against the clergy, who have in these days great power. But I am right glad to have met you here. Come with me, and you shall taste our greenwood cheer."

But the king and his lords marveled, wondering what kind of cheer Robin might provide for them. And Robin took the king's horse by the head, and led him towards his tent. "It is because thou comest from the king," said he, "that I use you in this wise; and hadst thou as much gold as ever I had, it should be all of it safe for good King Richard's sake." And with that he took out his horn, and blew on it a loud blast. And thereat came marching forth from the wood five score and ten of Robin's followers, and each one bent the knee before Robin Hood.

"Surely," thought the king, "it is a goodly sight to see; for they are more humble to their master than my servants are to me. Here may the court learn something from the greenwood."

And here they laid a dinner for the king and his lords, and the king swore that he had never feasted better. Then Robin Hood, taking a can of ale, said, "Let us now begin, each man with his can. Here's a health to the king." And they all

drank the health to the king, the king himself, as well as another.

And after the dinner they all took their bows, and showed the king such archery that the king said he had never seen such men as they in any foreign land. And then said the king to Robin Hood, "If I could get thee a pardon from King Richard, wouldst thou serve the king well in everything?"

"Yes, with all my heart," said Robin. And so said all his

men.

And with that the king declared himself to them, and said, "I am the king, your sovereign, that is now before you." And at this Robin and all his men fell down on their knees; but the king raised them up, saying to them that he pardoned each one of them, and that they should every one of them be in his service. So the king returned to Nottingham, and with him returned Robin Hood and his men, to the great joy of the townspeople, whom they had for a long time sorely vexed.

-Thomas Bulfinch

Words: assail-attack; sovereignty-royal authority; rue-regret;

husbandman-farmer.

THE SHOOTING MATCH IN LONDON
TOWN

(The legendary nature of the Robin Hood tales is shown clearly in this story. For it was more than three hundred years after the death of King Richard before Henry VIII-the king in this story-was born. Truth to tell, these Robin Hood stories appealed so strongly to the English people that the story-tellers and ballad-makers fitted the tales to this monarch or that, pretty much as they pleased.)

R

OBIN HOOD on one occasion sent a present to Queen Katherine with which she was so pleased that she swore she would be a friend to the noble outlaw as long as she might live. So one day the queen went to her chamber and called to her a page of her company and bade him make haste and pre

pare to ride to Nottinghamshire to find Robin Hood in Sherwood Forest; for the queen had made a match with the king, her archers against his archers, and the queen proposed to have Robin Hood and his band to shoot on her side against the king's archers.

Now as for the page, he started for Nottingham and posted° all the way, and inquired on the road for Robin Hood, where he might be, but he could not find any one who could let him know exactly. So he took up his quarters at an inn at Nottingham. And in the room of the inn he sat him down and called for a bottle of Rhenish wine, and he drank the queen's health out of it.

Now at his side was sitting a yeoman of the country, clad in Lincoln green, with a long bow in his hand. And he turned to the page and asked him, "What is thy business, my sweet boy, so far in the north country, for methinks you must come from London ?"

So then the page told him that it was his business to find Robin Hood the outlaw, and for that he asked every yeoman that he met. And he asked his friend if he knew anything which might help him.

"Truly," said the yeoman, "that I do. And if you will get to horse early to-morrow morning, I will show you Robin Hood and all his gay yeomen."

So the next morning they got them to horse and rode out into the forest, and the yeoman brought the page to where were Robin Hood and his yeomen. And the page fell down on his knee and said to Robin Hood, "Queen Katherine greets you well by me, and hath sent you this ring as a token. She bids you post up to London town, for that there shall be some sport there in which she has a mind you shall have a hand." And at this Robin took off his mantle of Lincoln green from his back and sent it by the page to Queen Katherine with a promise that he and his band would follow him as soon as they might. So Robin Hood clothed all his men in Lincoln green and

himself in scarlet, and each man wore a black hat with a white feather stuck therein. And thus Robin Hood and his band came up to London. And Robin fell down on his knees before the queen, and she bade him welcome with all his band. For the match between the queen's archers and the king's was to come off the next day in Finsbury fields.

Here first came the king's archers marching with bold bearing, and then came Robin Hood and his archers for the queen. And they laid out the marks there. And the king laid a wager with the queen on the shooting. Now the wager was three hundred tun° of Rhenish, and three hundred tun of good English beer, and three hundred fat harts.

So then the queen asked if there were any knights with the king who would take her side. But they were unwilling, for said they, "How shall we bet on these men whom we have never seen, when we know Clifton and the rest of the king's archers, and have seen him shoot?"

Now this Clifton was one of the king's archers and a great boaster. And when he had reached the shooting field he had cried out, "Measure no marks for us, my lord the king, for we will shoot at the sun and moon." But for all that Robin Hood beat him at the shooting.

And the queen asked the Bishop of Herfordshire to back her archers. But he swore by his miter that he would not bet a single penny on the queen's archers, for he knew them not.

"What will you bet against them," asked Robin Hood at this, "since you think our shooting is the worse?"

"Truly," said the bishop, "I will bet all the money that may be in my purse," and he pulled it up from where it hung at his side.

"What is in your purse?" asked Robin Hood.

And the bishop tossed it down on the ground, saying, "Fifteen rose-nobles, and that's an hundred pound." So Robin Hood tossed out a bag beside the bishop's purse on the green.

And with that they began shooting, and shot three bouts

And so

and they came out even; the king's and the queen's. "The next three shots," said the king, "shall pay for all." the king's archers shot, and then Robin Hood, and Little John, and Midge the miller's son shot for the queen, and came every man of them nearer the mark in the willow wand than did any of the king's men.

So the queen's archers having beaten, Queen Katherine asked a boon of the king, and he granted it. "Give me, I pray you," said the queen, "safe conduct for the archers of my party to come and to go home, and to stay in London here some time to enjoy themselves."

"I grant it," said the king.

"Then you are welcome, Robin Hood," said the queen, "and so is Little John, and Midge the miller's son, and every one of you."

"Is this Robin Hood?" asked the king, "for I had heard that he was killed in a quarrel in the north country."

And the bishop too asked, "Is this Robin Hood? If I had known that I would not have bet a penny with him. He took me one Saturday evening and bound me fast to a tree, and there made me sing a mass for him and his yeomanry about." "Well, if I did," said Robin Hood, "surely I needed all the masses that I might get for my soul."

And with that he and his yeomanry departed, and when safe conduct was expired they journeyed north again to Sherwood Forest.

-Thomas Bulfinch

Words: posted-traveled rapidly by coach and horses; tun-a tub or barrel holding two hundred fifty gallons; miter-official headdress of a bishop, sign of his office; boon-favor.

Questions: Do you recall any archery contests in the stories of the Greeks and the Romans? What was the principal weapon of footsoldiers for many centuries? Does this fact have a bearing on the tales of Robin Hood's skill with the long-bow?

Pleasure Reading:

Mabie's Heroes Every Child Should Know