service had been to myself."

"And here," said the knight, "is thy four hundred pound; and my men have
brought thee an hundred bows and as many well-furnished quivers; which
I beseech thee to receive and to use as a poor token of my grateful
kindness to thee: for me and my wife and children didst thou redeem from
beggary."

"Thy bows and arrows," said Robin, "will I joyfully receive: but of thy
money, not a penny. It is paid already. My Lady, who was thy security,
hath sent it me for thee."

Sir William pressed, but Robin was inflexible.

"It is paid," said Robin, "as this good knight can testify, who saw my
Lady's messenger depart but now."

Sir William looked round to the stranger knight, and instantly fell on
his knee, saying, "God save King Richard."

The foresters, friar and all, dropped on their knees together, and
repeated in chorus: "God save King Richard."

"Rise, rise," said Richard, smiling: "Robin is king here, as his lady
hath shown. I have heard much of thee, Robin, both of thy present and
thy former state. And this, thy fair forest-queen, is, if tales say
true, the lady Matilda Fitzwater."

Marian signed acknowledgment.

"Your father," said the king, "has approved his fidelity to me, by
the loss of his lands, which the newness of my return, and many public
cares, have not yet given me time to restore: but this justice shall be
done to him, and to thee also, Robin, if thou wilt leave thy forest-life
and resume thy earldom, and be a peer of Coeur-de-Lion: for braver heart
and juster hand I never yet found."

Robin looked round on his men.

"Your followers," said the king, "shall have free pardon, and such of
them as thou wilt part with shall have maintenance from me; and if ever
I confess to priest, it shall be to thy friar."

"Gramercy to your majesty," said the friar; "and my inflictions shall
be flasks of canary; and if the number be (as in grave cases I may,
peradventure, make it) too great for one frail mortality, I will relieve
you by vicarious penance, and pour down my own throat the redundancy of
the burden."

Robin and his followers embraced the king's proposal. A joyful meeting
soon followed with the baron and Sir Guy of Gamwell: and Richard himself
honoured with his own presence a formal solemnization of the nuptials of
our lovers, whom he constantly distinguished with his peculiar regard.

The friar could not say, Farewell to the forest, without something of
a heavy heart: and