+Argument.+--Robin Hood will not dine until he has 'his pay,' and he
therefore sends Little John with Much and Scarlok to wait for an 'unketh
gest.' They capture a monk of St. Mary Abbey, and Robin Hood makes him
disgorge eight hundred pounds. The monk, we are told, was on his way to
London to take proceedings against the knight.
In due course the knight, who was left at the end of the second fytte at
the wrestling-match, arrives to pay his debt to Robin Hood; who,
however, refuses to receive it, saying that Our Lady had discharged the
loan already.
The admirable, naïvely-told episode of Our Lady's method of repaying
money lent on her security, is not without parallels, some of which
Child points out (III. 53-4).