. There they talked of the day's shooting as they ate
their meat and quaffed their ale. The Sheriff sat at the head of the
table upon a raised seat under a canopy, and beside him sat his dame.

(1) Bond-servants.

"By my troth," said he, "I did reckon full roundly that that knave Robin
Hood would be at the game today. I did not think that he was such a
coward. But who could that saucy knave be who answered me to my beard
so bravely? I wonder that I did not have him beaten; but there was
something about him that spoke of other things than rags and tatters."

Then, even as he finished speaking, something fell rattling among the
dishes on the table, while those that sat near started up wondering
what it might be. After a while one of the men-at-arms gathered courage
enough to pick it up and bring it to the Sheriff. Then everyone saw
that it was a blunted gray goose shaft, with a fine scroll, about the
thickness of a goose quill, tied near to its head. The Sheriff opened
the scroll and glanced at it, while the veins upon his forehead swelled
and his cheeks grew ruddy with rage as he read, for this was what he
saw:

"_Now Heaven bless Thy Grace this day
Say all in sweet Sherwood
For thou didst give the prize away
To merry Robin Hood_."

"Whence came this?" cried the Sheriff in a mighty voice.

"Even through the window, Your Worship," quoth the man who had handed
the shaft to him.

Will Stutely Rescued by His Companions

NOW WHEN THE SHERIFF found that neither law nor guile could overcome
Robin Hood, he was much perplexed, and said to himself, "Fool that I am!
Had I not told our King of Robin Hood, I would not have gotten myself
into such a coil; but now I must either take him captive or have wrath
visited upon my head from his most gracious Majesty. I have tried law,
and I have tried guile, and I have failed in both; so I will try what
may be done with might."

Thus communing within himself, he called his constables together and
told them what was in his mind. "Now take ye each four men, all armed
in proof," said he, "and get ye gone to the forest, at different points,
and lie in wait for this same Robin Hood. But if any constable finds
too many men against him, let him sound a horn, and then let each band
within hearing come with all speed and join the party that calls them.
Thus, I think, shall we take this green-clad knave. Furthermore, to him
that first meeteth with Robin Hood s