might see the landlord apart, and Eadom did not know him, but thought him to be some poor tired friar, so he let him sit without saying a word to him or molesting him, though he liked not the cloth; “for,” said he to himself, “it is a hard heart that kicks the lame dog from off the sill.”

He cometh unto the good Sign of the Blue Boar.

As Stutely sat thus, there came a great house cat and rubbed against his knee, raising his robe a palm’s breadth high. Stutely pushed his robe quickly down again, but the constable who commanded the Sheriffs men saw what had passed, and saw also fair Lincoln green beneath the friar’s robe. He said nothing at the time, but communed within himself in this wise: “Yon is no friar of orders gray, and also, I wot, no honest yeoman goeth about in priest’s garb, nor doth a thief go so for naught. Now I think in good sooth that is one of Robin Hood’s own men.” So, presently, he said aloud:—

The constable suspicioneth him.

“O holy father, wilt thou not take a good pot of March beer to slake thy thirsty soul withal?” But. Stutely shook his head silently, for he said to himself, “Maybe there be those here who know my voice.”

Then the constable said again, “Whither goest thou, holy friar, upon this hot summer’s day?”

“I go a pilgrim to Canterbury Town,” answered Will Stutely, speaking gruffly, so that none might know his voice.

Then the constable said, for the third time, “Now tell me, holy father, do pilgrims to Canterbury wear good Lincoln green beneath their robes? Ha! by my faith, I take thee to be some lusty thief, and perhaps one of Robin Hood’s own band! Now, by Our Lady’s grace, if thou movest hand or foot, I will run thee through the body with my sword!”

They fight, and Will Stutely is taken.

Then he flashed forth his bright sword and leaped upon Will Stutely, thinking he would take him unaware; but Stutely had his own sword tightly held in his hand, beneath his robe, so he drew it forth before the constable came upon him. Then the stout constable struck a mighty blow; but he struck no more in all that fight, for Stutely, parrying the blow right deftly, smote the constable back again with all his might. Then he would have escaped, but could not, for the other, all dizzy with the wound and with the flowing blood, seized him by the knees with his arms even as he reeled and fell. Then the others rushed upon him, and Stutely struck again at another of the Sheriffs men, but the steel cap glanced the blow, and though the blade bit deep, it did not kill. Meanwhile, the constable, fainting as he was, drew Stutely downward, and the others, seeing the yeoman hampered so, rushed upon him again, and one smote him a blow upon the crown so that the blood ran down his face and blinded him. Then, staggering, he fell, and all sprang upon him, though he struggled so manfully that they could hardly hold him fast. Then they bound him with stout hempen cords so that he could not move either hand or foot, and thus they overcame him. But it was a doleful day’s doings for two of that band; for the constable was sorely wounded, and the other, that Stutely smote upon the crown, lay sick for many a day ere he was the stout man that he had been before this famous fight.

Robin Hood stood under the greenwood tree, thinking of Will Stutely and how he might be faring, when suddenly he saw two of his stout yeomen come running down the forest path, and betwixt them ran buxom Maken of the Blue Boar. Then Robin’s heart fell, for he knew they were the bearers of ill tidings.

The news is brought to Robin Hood.

“Will Stutely hath been taken,” cried they, when they had come to where he stood.

“And is it thou that hast brought such doleful news?” said Robin to the lass.

“Ay, marry, for I saw it all,” cried she, panting as the hare pants when it has escaped the hounds; “and I fear he is wounded sore, for one smote him main shrewdly i’ the crown. They have bound him and taken him to Nottingham Town, and ere I left the Blue Boar I heard that he should be hanged to-morrow day.”

“He shall not be hanged