"Give you good-den, my lord Bishop," piped she; "and
what make _you_ at so humble a door as this? Do you come to bless me and
give me alms?"

"Ay, marry, that does he!" said Stuteley, coming forward. "To you,
mother, and to us also. You must know that my lord bears with him a bag
of four hundred pieces from Sir Richard of the Lee, who did borrow this
money from us to lend it to my lord."

"Now, by all the saints----" began the Bishop.

"They are watching you, brother," said Stuteley, impudently, "so be wary
in your speech. Give into my hand the four hundred pieces which you
took from the knight I have named. You cannot deny that you _did_ take
them from him in the June of last year?"

"The knight owed them to me, villain," said the Bishop, furiously. He
saw that his men were outnumbered, and that all the outlaws had drawn
bows aimed against them and him. A word not to the liking of these
desperate fellows would loosen fifty horrid shafts upon him. "Sir
Richard did owe them to me," he repeated, omitting the epithet.

"Hark now to that!" said Robin, still in his disguise. "Listen to it,
friends, for ye all were witnesses that Sir Richard swore to me that the
Bishop had robbed him, and sought to rob him more. Did not you, in
honest truth, lend the knight four hundred pieces, my lord?"

"I did not lend him that precise amount," admitted the Bishop. "Four
hundred pieces included also the interest of the sum I gave."

"Ho! you gave?" Robin snapped up the word. "You gave it, my lord?"

"I will not bandy words with you, you false villain," shouted the
Bishop, suddenly losing control of himself. "Why do you not charge them,
men? Take the word from me, and hew these fellows down as they stand."

"They will be well advised to remain as they are," spoke Robin. "See now
how we command you all!" He took a bow and arrow out of Much's hands,
and sped a shaft so truly towards the purpling Bishop that his mitred
cap was sent spinning from off his bald head.

My lord turned green and yellow. He had thought himself dead almost.
"Take my money, rascals," he quavered, feebly; and Stuteley approached
him, cap in hand.

"Tied to the saddle of my palfrey you will find my all," murmured the
Bishop, sighing deeply.

Stuteley took a well-filled bag from under my lord's empty saddle. He
spread his cloak upon the road and counted out four hundred pieces into
it. "The interest, master?" asked Will, twinkling to Robin.

"Pay that to th