er Robin o' th' Hood, a good yeoman and right Saxon. Some
call him Robin of Locksley. Let me fill your goblet, excellence, for you
have spilled all the wine."

Monceux glared at the speaker, a handsome lad dressed gaily in page's
costume. The Sheriff's frown would have frightened most people, but the
dark-haired boy only laughed and tossed his head in a queerly
fascinating way. The Sheriff, relaxing, held out his goblet, and smiled
back upon the page.

"Well done, Master Gilbert of Blois!" cried Robin, who sat at the
Sheriff's left hand. "Now tell me how you discovered me, and I will love
you----"

The lad blushed furiously. "I knew you from the first, Robin o' th'
Hood," he answered, defiantly.

"In truth?" questioned Robin, slily, and with his own suspicions
growing. No wonder he had seen nothing of Marian in Nottingham town.

"In truth--well, no," submitted the page. "Let me fill your tankard,
friend. But very soon I did discover you. Is this the stag that you
killed, Robin o' th' Hood?" he added, innocently.

Robin nodded; and the Sheriff flashed another look of anger upon him.
"Sit you beside me, Gilbert," Robin ordered; "I am very fain to have
speech with you."

Marian, with her woman's intuition, knew from his tone that she also was
discovered. Yet she braved it out. "I will fill all the cups, Robin o'
th' Hood," she said, firmly, with an adorable little shake of her black
curls; "then will hear your adventures as a Nottingham butcher, which I
see you are dying to tell to us."

The page skipped lightly from under Robin's threatening hand, and the
merry men laughed loud and long. "He calls you Robin o' th' Hood,
master!" cried John Berry, roaring like a bull. For some reason this
nick-name tickled him mightily. He kept repeating it in all kinds of
tones, and those about him began to laugh also.

"'Tis a very excellent name," said Robin, a little vexed. "A merry name,
a man's name, and a name to my heart! I do adopt it from this day; for
is not Robin Fitzooth of Locksley dead? My lord the Sheriff can tell you
that he is, for he has burned him. Laugh at it, or like it, friends,
which you will. But pledge me in it, for I have paid the reckoning."

Little John, Stuteley, and Much rose to their feet together in their
hurry to be first. The others were not slow in following them.

"Long life to you and happiness, Robin o' th' Hood! Here's fortune's
best and confusion to all your enemies! Huzza, Robin o' th'