DOW SCARLET Mother of Will Scarlet.
PRIORESS OF KIRKLEE.

Fairies, merry men, serfs, peasants, mercenaries, an abbot, a baron, a
novice, nuns, courtiers, soldiers, retainers, etc.

ACT I

SCENE I. _Night. The borders of the forest. The smouldering embers of a
Saxon homestead. The SHERIFF and his men are struggling with a SERF._

SERF

No, no, not that! not that! If you should blind me
God will repay you. Kill me out of hand!

[_Enter PRINCE JOHN and several of his retainers._]

JOHN

Who is this night-jar?

[_The retainers laugh._]

Surely, master Sheriff,
You should have cut its tongue out, first. Its cries
Tingle so hideously across the wood
They'll wake the King in Palestine. Small wonder
That Robin Hood evades you.

SHERIFF

[_To the SERF._]

Silence, dog,
Know you not better than to make this clamour
Before Prince John?

SERF

Prince John! It is Prince John!
For God's love save me, sir!

JOHN

Whose thrall is he?

SHERIFF

I know not, sir, but he was caught red-handed
Killing the king's deer. By the forest law
He should of rights be blinded; for, as you see,

[_He indicates the SERF'S right hand._]

'Tis not his first deer at King Richard's cost.

JOHN

'Twill save you trouble if you say at mine.

SHERIFF

Ay, sir, I pray your pardon--at _your_ cost!
His right hand lacks the thumb and arrow-finger,
And though he vows it was a falling tree
That crushed them, you may trust your Sheriff, sir,
It was the law that clipped them when he last
Hunted your deer.

SERF

Prince, when the Conqueror came,
They burned my father's homestead with the rest
To make the King a broader hunting-ground.
I have hunted there for food. How could I bear
To hear my hungry children crying? Prince,
They'll make good bowmen for your wars, one day.

JOHN

He is much too fond of 'Prince': he'll never live
To see a king. Whose thrall?--his iron collar,
Look, is the name not on it?

SHERIFF

Sir, the name
Is filed away, and in another hour
The ring would have been broken. He is one of those
Green adders of the moo