ROBIN HOOD
When the wicked John tried to sway England many honest men turned
outlaws rather than obey or suffer his evil rule. For John and his
noblemen tortured and oppressed the poor, driving them from house and
hearth to make a hunting ground, and taxing them so heavily that they
frequently starved to death. Forests were plentiful in England in those
days, but John often tore down houses of his subjects to make the
forests even greater so that he might have more sport in hunting the
deer and the boar that ran wild there. And while he did not scruple to
take the peasants' lands for such a purpose, it was a terrible crime
for a peasant to shoot the deer that often fed upon his crops. Even
were he starving, he might not slay a deer in his own yard. And if he
so transgressed he was punished with the most inhuman cruelty.
Now, as has been said, many men were too high-spirited to suffer the
injustice that John laid upon them. They fled into the forests instead
and formed armed bands, setting upon travelers and robbing them of
their goods; and they lived by shooting the King's deer and whatever
game they could catch and kill.
Among these men was an outlaw called Robin Hood, whose fame was known
through the length and breadth of England. Although many men at-arms
had pursued him, they never could catch him, and his daring surpassed
belief. He surrounded himself with the bravest and boldest young men in
all England, and if he encountered any stout-hearted man among those
whom he robbed, or even among those that the Sheriff sent to pursue
him, that man was often added to his band of outlaws.
Robin Hood became an outlaw through no fault of his own, but through
the common injustice of the day. When he was a very young man he was
journeying to the town of Nottingham, where the Sheriff had prepared a
bout in archery and had promised a butt of ale to whatever man should
draw the best bow and shoot the most skilful arrow.
As Robin Hood was passing through the forest on his way to Nottingham,
he met a group of the King's foresters, who were there to see that
nobody transgressed the laws; and they made fun of his beardless face
and boyish figure--still more of the bow he carried, since they knew he
was on his way to shoot at Nottingham and they did not believe that
such a youth could ever hope to gain the prize.
After bearing their jests for a time Robin became angry, and challenged
any one of them to test his skill with the bow. They replied that he
did but boast, for they had no target. And then, looking down the
glade, Robin espied a herd of the King's deer a great distance away and
he cried:
"Look you, now, if you think that I am no archer, I shall slay the
noblest of that herd at a single shot, and I'll wager twenty marks upon
it into the bargain!"
"Done!" cried one of the foresters. Whereupon Robin laid an arrow to
his bow and shot so cleverly that the deer lay dead in its tracks.
The foresters were greatly angered that he had succeeded, and not only
refused to pay him, but when he set forth again one of them sprang to
his feet and sent an arrow after him. Whereupon Robin turned like a
flash and made even a better shot than his first one--for the fellow
who had loosed his bow upon him lay dead on the greensward with an
arrow in his heart.
The King's foresters could not be slain with impunity in those days and
Robin was made an outlaw--not only because he had slain his man, but
because he had killed the King's deer; and in such a way it came to
pass that he gathered a band of followers about him in Sherwood Forest
and his fame as an outlaw soon became known throughout the land.
But although Robin Hood was a robber, the common people soon learned to
love him, for no poor man was ever the poorer on account of his
outlawry--rather were the countryfolk in the neighborhood of Sherwood
Forest better off than before, because he made it a point of honor to
rob the rich only to bestow large gifts upon the poor--and many a
present of food and gold was brought by him to the starving serfs and
humble people in the neighborhood.
Now the Sheriff of Nottingham was eager for the King's favor and the
deeds of Robin Hood were soon brought to his notice. He sought more
than once to capture the bold outlaw, but always failed, and he was so
clumsy and so cowardly that Robin Hood became emboldened to defy him
openly, and enter the town of Nottingham under his very eyes. On one
occasion an outlaw who had been taken by the Sheriff was rescued by
Robin from a formidable array of men-at-arms just as the hangman was
about to string him up on the gallows.
There are so many tales about Robin Hood that it would be impossible to
tell them all here, and one or two will have to suffice, to show what
manner of life he led and what sort of men his followers were. One of
these was called "Little John," because he was seven feet tall and
broad to match, and in all England there could scarce be found his
equal with the cudgel. Another was a great, brawny priest or friar, who
loved his wine better than prayers, and believed a pasty made of the
King's deer was better for the heart than any amount of fasting. This
jovial priest was named Friar Tuck and took upon himself the task of
looking after the spiritual welfare of Robin's band--which he
accomplished more by a free use of his cudgel on the heads of the
offenders than by prayer or divine exhortation. But of all the men in
the band, Will Scarlet was the strongest.
[Illustration: ROBIN HOOD'S BAND MADE MERRY BY KILLING THE KING'S DEER]
Will Scarlet came among Robin's outlaws in a curious manner. One day
when Robin and Little John were strolling through the woods, they saw a
stranger sauntering down a road and he was clad in the most brilliant
manner imaginable in rosy scarlet from head to heel. He seemed a very
ladylike kind of person and carried in his hand a rose of which he
smelled now and then as he walked along, and he sang a little song that
sounded for all the world as though it were being sung by a girl in her
teens. And Robin's gorge rose at the sight of him for he hated
unmanliness and thought that this gaily clad ladylike fellow who seemed
to turn his nose up at the ground he walked upon must be a courtier or
some nobleman that had never done an honest day's work or robbery in
his life.
"When he comes nearer," said Robin to Little John, "I'll show him that
there be some honest folk abroad who are not afraid to earn their
living, for by my faith I'll take his purse and use the gold therein to
far better advantage than he could do." So, when the young man
approached, Robin stepped out into the path to meet him with his trusty
cudgel in his hand.
The young man, however, seemed in no way to be afraid of the bold and
resolute outlaw who stood in front of him, and when Robin demanded his
purse he smiled and said it would be better to fight for that article
and the better man should have it. Whereupon he went to the side of the
road, still humming his snatch of a tune, and to the amazement of Robin
and Little John, laid hold of a young oak tree and tore it up by the
roots, with apparently but little exertion of his strength. Then,
trimming off the branches, he stood on guard.
Robin was warned by this exhibition of power and approached him warily,
but the stranger struck with such force that nobody could stand up to
him, and although Robin put up a long and furious fight his guard was
at last beaten down and he was knocked senseless on the ground.
With an aching head, but with admiration of the strange young man in
his heart, Robin asked him to join his band, promising him food, booty
and good Lincoln green to wear; and the stranger, after learning who
Robin was, disclosed himself as no other than Robin's own nephew, Will
Scarlet, whom the outlaw had not seen since he was a baby. Delighted at
the meeting, Will Scarlet, Little John and Robin Hood made haste to
join the rest of the band beneath the greenwood tree, where a feast was
set forth and good brown ale poured out in honor of the newcomer.
On another occasion Robin and his band married two lovers who had been
forced to part because the maiden's father had determined that she was
to become the bride of a wicked but wealthy old nobleman. The outlaws
surrounded the chapel in which the wedding was to take place and when
the ceremony was begun Robin stepped between the bride and groom and
declared that the ceremony could not continue. When the wedding guests
learned that it was indeed Robin Hood that stood before them, they were
greatly frightened, and the outlaws with drawn weapons made their
appearance among them. Friar Tuck himself finished the wedding--only
this time a different groom was substituted and one more after the
maiden's heart, for they gave her the man she loved.
There are many tales about the English King Richard, the Lion Hearted,
and none is more interesting than that of his meeting with Robin Hood
in Sherwood Forest. King Richard was the brother of the base-hearted
John--who tried to steal the throne from him when he was imprisoned on
the continent after the Crusades. But Richard won back his kingdom and
pardoned his brother, and later on John regained the English throne.
Richard traveled a great deal in England, and in the course of his
journeying came to Nottingham, which was near the woodland retreat of
Robin Hood. Now although Robin Hood was an outlaw and had transgressed
the King's laws, Richard held something approaching admiration for him,
because Robin's adventures greatly resembled his own, when he had been
wandering as a knight errant, without a kingdom. So Richard told the
Sheriff of Nottingham that he himself would do what the Sheriff had so
often tried to do and always failed in--namely drive Robin Hood's band
away from the woods. And with some followers he disguised himself as a
monk and started across the forest, hoping that Robin Hood and his
outlaws would fall on him and attempt to rob him.
This is just what happened. The outlaws fell on Richard and took him
prisoner, and after taking his purse they led him to their secluded
hiding-place and set before him a feast of meat and wine, a custom of
theirs whenever they robbed a worthy monk or priest, to remove some of
the sting from the consciousness of his loss.
"I have heard," said the supposed monk, after he had eaten and drunk
his fill, "that you have good archers in your band. I fain would see
some of them at work."
In answer Robin Hood called for his men to set up a mark, telling them
that they must shoot to good purpose, for he that missed, were it only
by a hair, should be knocked down by Will Scarlet.
One after one of the outlaws shot, and they all struck the mark. But
when Robin himself shot something happened that his band had never
before seen, for a gust of wind blew his arrow aside, and he himself,
who was the finest bowman in England, had missed the target. With
shouts of delight the outlaws called upon their leader to pay the
penalty. Robin disliked to do this, for he was the leader of the others
and did not think it good for discipline that his men should behold
their leader undergo such an indignity; however, he ended the matter by
asking the monk, who was Richard, to administer his punishment himself,
since he could take from a member of the church what he could not take
from one of his own band. Richard consented gladly. He always had loved
such adventures,--and the strength of his arm was twice that of Will
Scarlet's,--for the English King was the strongest man in all
Christendom, if not in the entire world. Rising to his feet he drew
back his heavy fist and gave Robin so terrible a buffet that it hurled
him senseless on the ground, doubly stunned from the force with which
he had hit the earth.
The outlaws were amazed when they saw what had befallen their
leader--still more so when a band of the King's horsemen rode up and
surrounded them, and called the monk who had so lately been feasting
with them, "Your Majesty." Then Richard took off his monk's dress and
appeared in his own royal garments; he gave the outlaws a free pardon
on condition that they serve with him thenceforward and be archers in
his army, for he ever had liked brave men, and he knew that these would
lay down their lives to serve him, even if they did cut purses and rob
priests in the seclusion of the woods.
In Richard's service many adventures befell Robin Hood even greater
than what had befallen to him in Sherwood forest. He returned to his
old haunts, however, and again became an outlaw when King Richard died
and the wicked John came to the throne once more.
One day Robin Hood was stricken with a fever and he went to a woman who
lived nearby to be bled, which he believed would lessen his pain and
cure his sickness. But this woman was an enemy of Robin's, although he
knew it not; and she rejoiced at her chance to do him evil. So she
opened a vein in his arm and gave him a drink that threw him into a
deep slumber--and when he awoke he saw that he had lost so much blood
that he had not long to live.
With the last of his strength the dying outlaw blew his horn that
called his followers around him, and as they supported him he asked for
his bow and an arrow, saying that where the arrow fell he desired to be
buried. Bending the bow with the last of his power, he let loose the
arrow which flew out of the window and struck the ground beside a
little path at the edge of the greenwood. And here was laid to rest the
bravest heart that England had known for many a day, and one whose fame
has lived to the present time. For if we should tell you all of the
adventures of Robin, there would be no room left for any other tales,
so our counsel is to find the books about him and read these adventures
for yourselves.