Tales of Romance. Lang Andrew

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СКАЧАТЬ fill a cup of the best wine and tell me, Sir Knight, whether it is your own ill doings which have brought you to this sorry pass."

      "For an hundred years my fathers have dwelt in the forest," answered the Knight, "and four hundred pounds might they spend yearly. But within two years misfortune has befallen me, and my wife and children also."

      "How did this evil come to pass?" asked Robin.

      "Through my own folly," answered the Knight, "and because of the great love I bore my son, who would never be guided of my counsel, and slew, ere he was twenty years old, a Knight of Lancaster and his Squire. For their deaths I had to pay a large sum, which I could not raise without giving my lands in pledge to the rich Abbot of St. Mary's. If I cannot bring him the money by a certain day they will be lost to me for ever."

      "What is the sum?" asked Robin. "Tell me truly."

      "It is four hundred pounds," said the Knight.

      "And what will you do if you lose your lands?" asked Robin again.

      "Hide myself over the sea," said the Knight, "and bid farewell to my friends and country. There is no better way open to me."

      At this tears fell from his eyes, and he turned him to depart. "Good day, my friend," he said to Robin, "I cannot pay you what I should – " But Robin held him fast. "Where are your friends?" asked he.

      "Sir, they have all forsaken me since I became poor, and they turn away their heads if we meet upon the road, though when I was rich they were ever in my castle."

      When Little John and Will Scarlett and the rest heard this, they wept for very shame and fury, and Robin bade them fill a cup of the best wine, and give it to the Knight.

      "Have you no one who would stay surety for you?" said he.

      "None," answered the Knight, "but only Our Lady, who has never yet failed to help me."

      "You speak well," said Robin, "and you, Little John, go to my treasure chest, and bring me thence four hundred pounds. And be sure you count it truly."

      So Little John went, and Will Scarlett, and they brought back the money.

      "Sir," said Little John, when Robin had counted it and found it no more nor no less, "look at his clothes, how thin they are! You have stores of garments, green and scarlet, in your coffers – no merchant in England can boast the like. I will measure some out with my bow." And thus he did.

      "Master," spoke Little John again, "there is still something else. You must give him a horse, that he may go as beseems his quality to the Abbey."

      "Take the grey horse," said Robin, "and put a new saddle on it, and take likewise a good palfrey and a pair of boots, with gilt spurs on them. And as it would be a shame for a Knight to ride by himself on this errand, I will lend you Little John as Squire – perchance he may stand you in yeoman's stead."

      "When shall we meet again?" asked the Knight.

      "This day twelve months," said Robin, "under the greenwood tree."

      Then the Knight rode on his way, with Little John behind him, and as he went he thought of Robin Hood and his men, and blessed them for the goodness they had shown towards him.

      "To-morrow," he said to Little John, "I must be at the Abbey of St. Mary, which is in the city of York, for if I am but so much as a day late my lands are lost forever, and though I were to bring the money I should not be suffered to redeem them."

      PART IV

      Now the Abbot had been counting the days as well as the Knight, and the next morning he said to his monks: "This day year there came a Knight and borrowed of me four hundred pounds, giving his lands in surety. And if he come not to pay his debt ere midnight tolls they will be ours for ever."

      "It is full early yet," answered the Prior, "he may still be coming."

      "He is far beyond the sea," said the Abbot, "and suffers from hunger and cold. How is he to get here?"

      "It were a shame," said the Prior, "for you to take his lands. And you do him much wrong if you drive such a hard bargain."

      "He is dead or hanged," spake a fat-headed monk who was the cellarer, "and we shall have his four hundred pounds to spend on our gardens and our wines," and he went with the Abbot to attend the court of justice, wherein the Knight's lands would be declared forfeited by the High Justiciar.

      "If he come not this day," cried the Abbot, rubbing his hands, "if he come not this day, they will be ours."

      "He will not come yet," said the Justiciar, but he knew not that the Knight was already at the outer gate, and Little John with him.

      "Welcome, Sir Knight," said the porter. "The horse that you ride is the noblest that ever I saw. Let me lead them both to the stable, that they may have food and rest."

      "They shall not pass these gates," answered the Knight sternly, and he entered the hall alone, where the monks were sitting at meat, and knelt down and bowed to them.

      "I have come back, my lord," he said to the Abbot, who had just returned from the court. "I have come back this day as I promised."

      "Have you brought my money?" was all the Abbot said.

      "Not a penny," answered the Knight, who wished to see how the Abbot would treat him.

      "Then what do you here without it?" cried the Abbot in angry tones.

      "I have come to pray you for a longer day," answered the Knight meekly.

      "The day was fixed and cannot be gainsaid," replied the Justiciar; but the Knight only begged that he would stand his friend and help him in his strait. "I am with the Abbot," was all the Justiciar would answer.

      "Good Sir Abbot, be my friend," prayed the Knight again, "and give me one chance more to get the money and free my lands. I will serve you day and night till I have four hundred pounds to redeem them."

      But the Abbot only vowed that the money must be paid that day or the lands be forfeited.

      The Knight stood up straight and tall: "It is well," said he, "to prove one's friends against the hour of need," and he looked the Abbot full in the face, and the Abbot felt uneasy, he did not know why, and hated the Knight more than ever. "Out of my hall, false Knight!" cried he, pretending to a courage which he did not feel. But the Knight stayed where he was, and answered him, "You lie, Abbot. Never was I false, and that I have shown in jousts and in tourneys."

      "Give him two hundred pounds more," said the Justiciar to the Abbot, "and keep the lands yourself."

      "No, by Heaven!" answered the Knight, "not if you offered me a thousand pounds would I do it! Neither Justiciar, Abbot, nor Monk shall be heir of mine." Then he strode up to a table and emptied out four hundred pounds. "Take your gold, Sir Abbot, which you lent to me a year agone. Had you but received me civilly, I would have paid you something more.

      "Sir Abbot, and ye men of law,

      Now have I kept my day!

      Now shall I have my land again,

      For aught that you may say."

      So he passed out of the hall singing merrily, leaving the Abbot staring silently after him, and rode back to his house, where СКАЧАТЬ