You will have need to travel
with caution, in disguise and without attendants; for Prince John
commands all this vicinity, and will doubtless lay the country
for you and Marian.
with caution, in disguise and without attendants; for Prince John
commands all this vicinity, and will doubtless lay the country
for you and Marian.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v19 - Oli to Phi
"
"And Father Michael, of Rubygill Abbey," said the friar,
"in Friar Tuck, of Sherwood Forest. Truly, I have a chapel
here hard by, in the shape of a hollow tree, where I put up
my prayers for travelers; and Little John holds the plate at the
door, for good praying deserves good paying. "
"I am in fine company," said the baron.
"In the very best of company," said the friar: "in the high
court of Nature, and in the midst of her own nobility. Is it
not so? This goodly grove is our palace; the oak and the beech
are its colonnade and its canopy; the sun and the moon and
the stars are its everlasting lamps; the grass and the daisy, and
the primrose and the violet, are its many-colored floor of green,
white, yellow, and blue; the mayflower and the woodbine, and
the eglantine and the ivy, are its decorations, its curtains, and its
tapestry; the lark, and the thrush, and the linnet, and the night-
ingale, are its unhired minstrels and musicians. Robin Hood is
king of the forest both by dignity of birth and by virtue of his
standing army; to say nothing of the free choice of his people,
which he has indeed, but I pass it by as an illegitimate basis of
power. He holds his dominion over the forest, and its horned
multitude of citizen-deer, and its swinish multitude or peasantry
of wild boars, by right of conquest and force of arms. He levies
## p. 11227 (#447) ##########################################
THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK
11227
contributions among them by the free consent of his archers,
their virtual representatives. If they should find a voice to com-
plain that we are 'tyrants and usurpers to kill and cook them up
in their assigned and native dwelling-place,' we should most con-
vincingly admonish them, with point of arrow, that they have.
nothing to do with our laws but to obey them. Is it not written
that the fat ribs of the herd shall be fed upon by the mighty in
the land? And have not they withal my blessing? my ortho-
dox, canonical, and archiepiscopal blessing? Do I not give thanks
for them when they are well roasted and smoking under my
nose? What title had William of Normandy to England, that
Robin of Locksley has not to merry Sherwood? William fought
for his claim. So does Robin. With whom, both? With any
that would or will dispute it. William raised contributions. So
does Robin. From whom, both? From all that they could or
can make pay them. Why did any pay them to William? Why
do any pay them to Robin ? For the same reason, to both:
because they could not or cannot help it. They differ indeed in
this,- that William took from the poor and gave to the rich, and
Robin takes from the rich and gives to the poor; and therein is
Robin illegitimate, though in all else he is true prince. Scarlet
and John, are they not peers of the forest? lords temporal of
Sherwood? And am not I lord spiritual? Am I not archbishop?
Am I not pope? Do I not consecrate their banner and absolve
their sins? Are not they State, and am not I Church? Are
not they State monarchical, and am not I Church militant? Do
I not excommunicate our enemies from venison and brawn, and
by'r Lady, when need calls, beat them down under my feet?
The State levies tax, and the Church levies tithe.
Even so
do we. 'Mass, we take all at once. What then? It is tax by
redemption, and tithe by commutation. Your William and Rich-
ard can cut and come again; but our Robin deals with slippery
subjects, that come not twice to his exchequer. What need we
then to constitute a court, except a fool and a laureate? For
the fool, his only use is to make false knaves merry by art: and
we are true men and are merry by nature. For the laureate,
his only office is to find virtues in those who have none, and to
drink sack for his pains. We have quite virtue enough to need
him not, and can drink our sack for ourselves. "
"Well preached, friar," said Robin Hood; "yet there is one
thing wanting to constitute a court, and that is a queen. And
――
## p. 11228 (#448) ##########################################
11228
THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK
now, lovely Matilda, look round upon these sylvan shades where
we have so often roused the stag from his ferny covert. The
rising sun smiles upon us through the stems of that beechen
knoll. Shall I take your hand, Matilda, in the presence of this
my court?
Shall I crown you with our wildwood coronal, and
hail you Queen of the Forest? Will you be the Queen Matilda
of your own true King Robin ? »
Matilda smiled assent.
"Not Matilda," said the friar: "the rules of our holy alliance
require new birth. We have excepted in favor of Little John,
because he is great John, and his name is a misnomer. I
sprinkle, not thy forehead with water, but thy lips with wine,
and baptize thee Marian. "
"Here is a pretty conspiracy," exclaimed the baron. "Why,
you villainous friar, think you to nickname and marry my
daughter before my face with impunity? "
"Even so, bold baron," said the friar: "we are strongest
here. Say you, might overcomes right? I say no. There is no
right but might; and to say that might overcomes right is to
say that right overcomes itself: an absurdity most palpable. Your
right was the stronger in Arlingford, and ours is the stronger in
Sherwood. Your right was right as long as you could maintain
it; so is ours. So is King Richard's, with all deference be it
spoken; and so is King Saladin's: and their two mights are
now committed in bloody fray, and that which overcomes will
be right just as long as it lasts and as far as it reaches. And
now, if any of you know any just impediment-
"Fire and fury! " said the baron.
"Fire and fury," said the friar, "are modes of that might
which constitutes right, and are just impediments to anything
against which they can be brought to bear. They are our allies
upon occasion, and would declare for us now, if you should put
them to the test. "
"Father," said Matilda, "you know the terms of our compact:
from the moment you restrained my liberty, you renounced your
claim to all but compulsory obedience. The friar argues well:
right ends with might. Thick walls, dreary galleries, and tapes-
tried chambers were indifferent to me while I could leave them
at pleasure, but have ever been hateful to me since they held
me by force. May I never again have roof but the blue sky,
nor canopy but the green leaves, nor barrier but the forest
## p. 11229 (#449) ##########################################
THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK
11229
bounds; with the foresters to my train, Little John to my page,
Friar Tuck to my ghostly adviser, and Robin Hood to my liege
lord. I am
no longer Lady Matilda Fitzwater of Arlingford
Castle, but plain Maid Marian of Sherwood Forest. "
"Long live Maid Marian! " re-echoed the foresters.
"O false girl! " said the baron, "do you renounce your name
and parentage? "
"Not my parentage," said Marian, "but my name indeed: do
not all maids renounce it at the altar? »
"The altar! " said the baron: "grant me patience! what do
you mean by the altar? »
"Pile green turf," said the friar; "wreathe it with flowers,
and crown it with fruit, and we will show the noble baron what
we mean by the altar. "
The foresters did as the friar directed.
"Now, Little John," said the friar, "on with the cloak of
the Abbot of Doubleflask. I appoint thee my clerk: thou art
here duly elected in full mote. "
"I wish you were all in full moat together," said the baron,
"and smooth wall on both sides. "
"Punnest thou? " said the friar. "A heinous, anti-Christian
offense. Why anti-Christian? Because anti-Catholic. Why anti-
Catholic? Because anti-Roman. Why anti-Roman? Because
Carthaginian. Is not pun from Punic? punica fides: the very
quintessential quiddity of bad faith; double-visaged; double-
tongued. He that will make a pun will I say no more. Fie
on it. Stand forth, clerk. Who is the bride's father? "
"There is no bride's father," said the baron. "I am the
father of Matilda Fitzwater. "
――――
"There is none such," said the friar. "This is the fair Maid
Marian. Will you make a virtue of necessity, or will you give
laws to the flowing tide? Will you give her, or shall Robin
take her? Will you be her true natural father, or shall I com-
mute paternity? Stand forth, Scarlet. "
"Stand back, Sirrah Scarlet," said the baron. "My daughter
shall have no father but me. Needs must when the Devil drives. "
"No matter who drives," said the friar, "so that, like a well-
disposed subject, you yield cheerful obedience to those who can
enforce it. "
"Mawd, sweet Mawd," said the baron, "will you then forsake
your poor old father in his distress, with his castle in ashes and
his enemy in power? "
## p. 11230 (#450) ##########################################
11230
THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK
"Not so, father," said Marian: "I will always be your true
daughter; I will always love and serve and watch and defend
you: but neither will I forsake my plighted love, and my own
liege lord, who was your choice before he was mine, for you
made him my associate in infancy; and that he continued to be
mine when he ceased to be yours, does not in any way show
remissness in my duties, or falling off in my affections. And
though I here plight my troth at the altar to Robin, in the
presence of this holy priest and pious clerk, yet- Father, when
Richard returns from Palestine, he will restore you to your
barony, and perhaps, for your sake, your daughter's husband
to the earldom of Huntingdon: should that never be, should it
be the will of fate that we must live and die in the greenwood,
I will live and die MAID MARIAN. "
"A pretty resolution," said the baron, "if Robin will let you
keep it. »
"I have sworn it," said Robin. "Should I expose her tender-
ness to the perils of maternity, when life and death may hang
on shifting at a moment's notice from Sherwood to Barnsdale,
and from Barnsdale to the sea-shore? And why should I ban-
quet when my merry-men starve? Chastity is our forest law,
and even the friar has kept it since he has been here. "
"Truly so," said the friar; "for temptation dwells with ease
and luxury: but the hunter is Hippolytus, and the huntress is
Dian. And now, dearly beloved -»
The friar went through the ceremony with great unction, and
Little John was most clerical in the intonation of his responses.
After which, the friar sang, and Little John fiddled, and the
foresters danced, Robin with Marian, and Scarlet with the baron:
and the venison smoked, and the ale frothed, and the wine.
sparkled, and the sun went down on their unwearied festivity;
which they wound up with the following song, the friar leading,
and the foresters joining chorus:-
―
Oh! bold Robin Hood is a forester good,
As ever drew bow in the merry greenwood:
At his bugle's shrill singing the echoes are ringing,
The wild deer are springing for many a rood;
Its summons we follow, through brake, over hollow,
The thrice-blown shrill summons of bold Robin Hood.
And what eye hath ere seen such a sweet Maiden Queen
As Marian, the pride of the forester's green?
## p. 11231 (#451) ##########################################
THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK
11231
A sweet garden flower, she blooms in the bower,
Where alone to this hour the wild rose has been;
We hail her in duty the queen of all beauty:
We will live, we will die, by our sweet Maiden Queen.
And here's a gray friar, good as heart can desire,
To absolve all our sins as the case may require;
Who with courage so stout lays his oak-plant about,
And puts to the rout all the foes of his choir;
For we are his choristers, we merry foresters,
Chorusing thus with our militant friar.
And Scarlet doth bring his good yew-bough and string,
Prime minister is he of Robin our king;
No mark is too narrow for Little John's arrow,
That hits a cock-sparrow a mile on the wing;
Robin and Mariòn, Scarlet and Little John,
Long with their glory old Sherwood shall ring.
Each a good liver, for well-feathered quiver
Doth furnish brawn, venison, and fowl of the river:
But the best game we dish up, it is a fat bishop;
When his angels we fish up, he proves a free giver,—
For a prelate so lowly has angels more holy,
And should this world's false angels to sinners deliver.
Robin and Mariòn, Scarlet and Little John,
Drink to them one by one, drink as ye sing:
Robin and Mariòn, Scarlet and Little John,
Echo to echo through Sherwood shall fling:
Robin and Mariòn, Scarlet and Little John,
Long with their glory old Sherwood shall ring.
A FOREST CODE
A single volume paramount; a code:
A master spirit; a determined road. -WORDSWORTH.
THE next morning Robin Hood convened his foresters, and
desired Little John, for the baron's edification, to read over the
laws of their forest society. Little John read aloud with a sten-
torophonic voice:-
AT A high court of foresters, held under the greenwood tree
an hour after sunrise, Robin Hood president, William Scarlet
## p. 11232 (#452) ##########################################
11232
THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK
vice-president, Little John secretary: the following articles, moved
by Friar Tuck in his capacity of Peer Spiritual, and seconded by
Much the Miller, were unanimously agreed to.
The principles of our society are six: Legitimacy, Equity,
Hospitality, Chivalry, Chastity, and Courtesy.
The articles of Legitimacy are four:-
I. Our government is legitimate, and our society is founded
on the one golden rule of right, consecrated by the universal
consent of mankind, and by the practice of all ages, individuals,
and nations; namely, To keep what we have, and to catch what
we can.
II. Our government being legitimate, all our proceedings
shall be legitimate: wherefore we declare war against the whole
world, and every forester is by this legitimate declaration legiti-
mately invested with a roving commission to make lawful prize of
everything that comes in his way.
III. All forest laws but our own we declare to be null and
void.
IV. All such of the old laws of England as do not in any
way interfere with, or militate against, the views of this honor-
able assembly, we will loyally adhere to and maintain. The rest
we declare null and void as far as relates to ourselves, in all
cases wherein a vigor beyond the law may be conducive to our
own interest and preservation.
The articles of Equity are three:-
I. The balance of power among the people being very
much deranged by one having too much and another nothing,
we hereby resolve ourselves into a congress or court of equity, to
restore as far as in us lies the said natural balance of power,
by taking from all who have too much as much of the said too
much as we can lay our hands on; and giving to those who have
nothing such a portion thereof as it may seem to us expedient to
part with.
II. In all cases a quorum of foresters shall constitute a court
of equity, and as many as may be strong enough to manage the
matter in hand shall constitute a quorum.
III. All usurers, monks, courtiers, and other drones of the
great hive of society, who shall be found laden with any por-
tion of the honey whereof they have wrongfully despoiled the
industrious bee, shall be rightfully despoiled thereof in turn; and
all bishops and abbots shall be bound and beaten, especially the
## p. 11233 (#453) ##########################################
THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK
11233
Abbot of Doncaster; as shall also all sheriffs, especially the
Sheriff of Nottingham.
The articles of Hospitality are two:-
I. Postmen, carriers, and market-folk, peasants and mechan-
ics, farmers and millers, shall pass through our forest dominions
without let or molestation.
II. All other travelers through the forest shall be graciously
invited to partake of Robin's hospitality; and if they come not
willingly they shall be compelled: and the rich man shall pay
well for his fare; and the poor man shall feast scot free, and
peradventure receive bounty in proportion to his desert and
necessity.
The article of Chivalry is one: -
I. Every forester shall, to the extent of his power, aid and
protect maids, widows, and orphans, and all weak and distressed
persons whomsoever; and no woman shall be impeded or molested
in any way; nor shall any company receive harm which any
woman is in.
The article of Chastity is one:-
I. Every forester, being Diana's forester and minion of the
moon, shall commend himself to the grace of the Virgin, and
shall have the gift of continency on pain of expulsion; that the
article of chivalry may be secure from infringement, and maids,
wives, and widows pass without fear through the forest.
The article of Courtesy is one:
-
I. No one shall miscall a forester. He who calls Robin,
Robert of Huntingdon, or salutes him by any other title or
designation whatsoever except plain Robin Hood; or who calls
Marian, Matilda Fitzwater, or salutes her by any other title or
designation whatsoever except plain Maid Marian, and so of all
others, shall for every such offense forfeit a mark, to be paid to
the friar.
And these articles we swear to keep as we are good men
and true.
Carried by acclamation. God save King Richard.
LITTLE JOHN, Secretary.
"Excellent laws," said the baron; "excellent, by the holy
rood. William of Normandy, with my great-great-grandfather
Fierabras at his elbow, could not have made better. And now,
sweet Mawd · >>
―
XIX-703
## p. 11234 (#454) ##########################################
11234
THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK
«<
"A fine, a fine," cried the friar, a fine, by the article of
courtesy. "
"'Od's life," said the baron, "shall I not call my own daugh-
ter Mawd? Methinks there should be a special exception in my
favor. "
«་
"It must not be," said Robin Hood: our constitution admits
no privilege. "
"But I will commute," said the friar: "for twenty marks a
year duly paid into my ghostly pocket you shall call your daugh-
ter Mawd two hundred times a day. ”
"Gramercy," said the baron, "and I agree, honest friar, when
I can get twenty marks to pay; for till Prince John be beaten
from Nottingham, my rents are like to prove but scanty. "
"I will trust," said the friar, "and thus let us ratify the stip-
ulation; so shall our laws and your infringement run together in
an amicable parallel. "
"But," said Little John, "this is a bad precedent, master
friar. It is turning discipline into profit, penalty into perquisite,
public justice into private revenue. It is rank corruption, master
friar. "
"Why are laws made? " said the friar. "For the profit of
somebody. Of whom? Of him who makes them first, and of
others as it may happen. Was not I legislator in the last article,
and shall I not thrive by my own law? »
"Well then, sweet Mawd," said the baron, "I must leave you,
Mawd: your life is very well for the young and the hearty, but
it squares not with my age or my humor. I must house, Mawd;
I must find refuge: but where? That is the question. "
"Where Sir Guy of Gamwell has found it," said Robin Hood,
«< near the borders of Barnsdale. There you may dwell in safety
with him and fair Alice, till King Richard return; and Little
John shall give you safe-conduct.
You will have need to travel
with caution, in disguise and without attendants; for Prince John
commands all this vicinity, and will doubtless lay the country
for you and Marian. Now it is first expedient to dismiss your
retainers. If there be any among them who like our life, they
may stay with us in the greenwood; the rest may return to their
homes. "
Some of the baron's men resolved to remain with Robin and
Marian; and were furnished accordingly with suits of green, of
which Robin always kept good store.
## p. 11235 (#455) ##########################################
THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK
11235
Marian now declared that as there was danger in the way to
Barnsdale, she would accompany Little John and the baron, as
she would not be happy unless she herself saw her father placed
in security. Robin was very unwilling to consent to this, and
assured her that there was more danger for her than the baron;
but Marian was absolute.
"If so, then," said Robin, "I shall be your guide instead of
Little John; and I shall leave him and Scarlet joint regents of
Sherwood during my absence, and the voice of Friar Tuck shall
be decisive between them if they differ in nice questions of State
policy. "
Marian objected to this, that there was more danger for
Robin than either herself or the baron; but Robin was absolute
in his turn.
"Talk not of my voice," said the friar; "for if Marian be a
damsel errant, I will be her ghostly esquire. ”
Robin insisted that this should not be, for number would only
expose them to greater risk of detection. The friar, after some
debate, reluctantly acquiesced.
While they were discussing these matters, they heard the dis-
tant sound of horses' feet.
"Go," said Robin to Little John, "and invite yonder horseman
to dinner. "
Little John bounded away, and soon came before a young
man, who was riding in a melancholy manner, with the bridle
hanging loose on the horse's neck, and his eyes drooping towards
the ground.
"Whither go you? " said Little John.
"Whithersoever my horse pleases," said the young man.
"And that shall be," said Little John, "whither I please to
lead him. I am commissioned to invite you to dine with my
master. "
"Who is your master? " said the young man.
"Robin Hood," said Little John.
"The bold outlaw? " said the stranger.
"Neither he nor you
should have made me turn an inch aside yesterday; but to-day I
care not. "
"Then it is better for you," said Little John, "that you came
to-day than yesterday, if you love dining in a whole skin: for my
master is the pink of courtesy; but if his guests prove stubborn,
he bastes them and his venison together, while the friar says
mass before meat. "
## p. 11236 (#456) ##########################################
11236
THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK
The young man made no answer, and scarcely seemed to
hear what Little John was saying, who therefore took the horse's
bridle and led him to where Robin and his foresters were setting
forth their dinner. Robin seated the young man next to Marian.
Recovering a little from his stupor, he looked with much amaze-
ment at her, and the baron, and Robin, and the friar; listened to
their conversation, and seemed much astonished to find himself
in such holy and courtly company. Robin helped him largely
to numble-pie and cygnet and pheasant, and the other dainties
of his table; and the friar pledged him in ale and wine, and
exhorted him to make good cheer. But the young man drank
little, ate less, spake nothing, and every now and then sighed
heavily.
When the repast was ended, "Now," said Robin, “you are at
liberty to pursue your journey; but first be pleased to pay for
your dinner. "
"That would I gladly do, Robin," said the young man, "but
all I have about me are five shillings and a ring. To the five
shillings you shall be welcome, but for the ring I will fight while
there is a drop of blood in my veins. "
"Gallantly spoken," said Robin Hood. "A love-token, without
doubt; but you must submit to our forest laws.
Little John
must search: and if he find no more than you say, not a penny
will I touch; but if you have spoken false, the whole is forfeit
to our fraternity. "
"And with reason," said the friar; "for thereby is the truth
maintained. The Abbot of Doubleflask swore there was no
money in his valise, and Little John forthwith emptied it of four
hundred pounds. Thus was the abbot's perjury but of one min-
ute's duration: for though his speech was false in the utterance,
yet was it no sooner uttered than it became true, and we should
have been participes criminis to have suffered the holy abbot to
depart in falsehood; whereas he came to us a false priest, and
we sent him away a true man. Marry, we turned his cloak to
further account, and thereby hangs a tale that may be either
said or sung: for in truth I am minstrel here as well as chap-
lain; I pray for good success to our just and necessary warfare,
and sing thanksgiving odes when our foresters bring in booty:
"Bold Robin has robed him in ghostly attire,
And forth he is gone like a holy friar,
Singing hey down, ho down, down, derry down!
## p. 11237 (#457) ##########################################
THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK
11237
And of two gray friars he soon was aware,
Regaling themselves with dainty fare,
All on the fallen leaves so brown.
"Good-morrow, good brothers,' said bold Robin Hood:
'And what make you in the good greenwood,
Singing hey down, ho down, down, derry down! '
Now give me, I pray you, wine and food;
For none can I find in the good greenwood,
All on the fallen leaves so brown. '
"Good brother,' they said, 'we would give you full fain,
But we have no more than enough for twain,
Singing hey down, ho down, down, derry down! '
'Then give me some money,' said bold Robin Hood;
'For none can I find in the good greenwood,
All on the fallen leaves so brown. '
"No money have we, good brother,' said they;
'Then,' said he, we three for money will pray,
Singing hey down, ho down, down, derry down!
And whatever shall come at the end of our prayer,
We three holy friars will piously share,
All on the fallen leaves so brown. '
"We will not pray with thee, good brother, God wot;
For truly, good brother, thou pleasest us not,
Singing hey down, ho down, down, derry down! '
Then up they both started from Robin to run,
But down on their knees Robin pulled them each one,
All on the fallen leaves so brown.
"The gray friars prayed with a doleful face,
But bold Robin prayed with a right merry grace,
Singing hey down, ho down, down, derry down!
And when they had prayed, their portmanteau he took.
And from it a hundred good angels he shook,
All on the fallen leaves so brown.
"The saints,' said bold Robin, have hearkened our prayer,
And here's a good angel apiece for your share;
If more you would have, you must win ere you wear
Singing hey down, ho down, down, derry down! '
Then he blew his good horn with a musical cheer,
And fifty green bowmen came trooping full near,
And away the gray friars they bounded like deer,
All on the fallen leaves so brown. "
## p. 11238 (#458) ##########################################
11238
THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK
CHIVALRY
What can a young lassie, what shall a young lassie,
What can a young lassie do wi' an auld man ? — BURNS.
"HERE is but five shillings and a ring," said Little John,
"and the young man has spoken true. "
"Then," said Robin to the stranger, "if want of money be
the cause of your melancholy, speak. Little John is my treas-
urer, and he shall disburse to you. "
"It is, and it is not," said the stranger: "it is, because,
had I not wanted money, I had never lost my love; it is not,
because, now that I have lost her, money would come too late
to regain her. ”
"In what way have you lost her? " said Robin: "let us
clearly know that she is past regaining before we give up our
wishes to restore her to you. "
"She is to be married this day," said the stranger,-" and
perhaps is married by this,—to a rich old knight; and yester-
day I knew it not. "
"What is your name? " said Robin.
"Allen," said the stranger.
"And where is the marriage to take place, Allen? " said
Robin.
"At Edwinstow church," said Allen, "by the Bishop of Not-
tingham. "
"I know that bishop," said Robin: "he dined with me a
month since, and paid three hundred pounds for his dinner.
He has a good ear and loves music. The friar sang to him to
some tune. Give me my harper's cloak, and I will play a part
at this wedding. "
"These are dangerous times, Robin," said Marian, "for play-
ing pranks out of the forest. "
"Fear not," said Robin: "Edwinstow lies not Nottingham-
ward, and I will take my precautions. "
Robin put on his harper's cloak, while Little John painted his
eyebrows and cheeks, tipped his nose with red, and tied him on
a comely beard. Marian confessed that had she not been pres-
ent at the metamorphosis, she should not have known her own
true Robin. Robin took his harp and went to the wedding.
Robin found the bishop and his train in the church porch,
impatiently expecting the arrival of the bride and bridegroom.
## p. 11239 (#459) ##########################################
THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK
11239
The clerk was observing to the bishop that the knight was some-
what gouty, and that the necessity of walking the last quarter
of a mile from the road to the church-yard probably detained
the lively bridegroom rather longer than had been calculated
upon.
"Oh! by my fay," said the music-loving bishop, "here comes
a harper in the nick of time; and now I care not how long they
tarry. Ho! honest friend, are you come to play at the wed-
ding? »
"I am come to play anywhere," answered Robin, "where I
can get a cup of sack; for which I will sing the praise of the
donor in lofty verse, and emblazon him with any virtue which he
may wish to have the credit of possessing, without the trouble of
practicing. "
"A most courtly harper," said the bishop; "I will fill thee
with sack, I will make thee a walking butt of sack, if thou wilt
delight my ears with thy melodies. "
"That will I," said Robin: "in what branch of my art shall I
exert my faculty? I am passing well in all, from the anthem to
the glee, and from the dirge to the coranto. "
"It would be idle," said the bishop, "to give thee sack for
playing me anthems, seeing that I myself do receive sack for
hearing them sung. Therefore, as the occasion is festive, thou
shalt play me a coranto. "
Robin struck up and played away merrily, the bishop all the
while in great delight, nodding his head and beating time with
his foot, till the bride and bridegroom appeared. The bridegroom
was richly appareled, and came slowly and painfully forward,
hobbling and leering, and pursing up his mouth into a smile of
resolute defiance to the gout, and of tender complacency towards
his lady-love, who, shining like gold at the old knight's expense,
followed slowly between her father and mother, her cheeks pale,
her head drooping, her steps faltering, and her eyes reddened
with tears.
Robin stopped his minstrelsy, and said to the bishop, "This
seems to me an unfit match. "
"What do you say, rascal? " said the old knight, hobbling up
to him.
"I say," said Robin, "this seems to me an unfit match.
What in the devil's name can you want with a young wife, who
have one foot in flannels and the other in the grave? »
## p. 11240 (#460) ##########################################
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THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK
"What is that to thee, sirrah varlet? " said the old knight:
“stand away from the porch, or I will fracture thy sconce with
my cane. "
"I will not stand away from the porch," said Robin, "unless
the bride bid me, and tell me that you are her own true love. "
"Speak," » said the bride's father, in a severe tone, and with
a look of significant menace. The girl looked alternately at her
father and Robin. She attempted to speak, but her voice failed
in the effort, and she burst into tears.
"Here is lawful cause and just impediment," said Robin,
"and I forbid the banns. "
«< Who are you, villain? " said the old knight, stamping his
sound foot with rage.
"I am the Roman law," said Robin, "which says that there
shall not be more than ten years between a man and his wife;
and here are five times ten: and so says the law of nature. "
"Honest harper," said the bishop, "you are somewhat over-
officious here, and less courtly than I deemed you. If you love
sack, forbear; for this course will never bring you a drop: As to
your Roman law, and your law of nature, what right have they
to say anything which the law of Holy Writ says not? "
"The law of Holy Writ does say it," said Robin: "I expound
it so to say; and I will produce sixty commentators to establish
my exposition. »
And so saying he produced a horn from beneath his cloak,
and blew three blasts, and threescore bowmen in green came
leaping from the bushes and trees; and young Allen was the first
among them to give Robin his sword, while Friar Tuck and Lit-
tle John marched up to the altar. Robin stripped the bishop and
clerk of their robes, and put them on the friar and Little John;
and Allen advanced to take the hand of the bride. Her cheeks
grew red and her eyes grew bright, as she locked her hand in
her lover's and tripped lightly with him into the church.
"This marriage will not stand," said the bishop, "for they
have not been thrice asked in church. "
"We will ask them seven times," said Little John, "lest three
should not suffice. "
"And in the mean time," said Robin, "the knight and the
bishop shall dance to my harping. "
So Robin sat in the church porch and played away merrily,
while his foresters formed a ring, in the centre of which the
## p. 11241 (#461) ##########################################
THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK
11241
knight and bishop danced with exemplary alacrity; and if they
relaxed their exertions, Scarlet gently touched them up with the
point of an arrow.
The knight grimaced ruefully, and begged Robin to think of
his gout.
"So I do," said Robin: "this is the true antipodagron; you
shall dance the gout away, and be thankful to me while you live.
I told you," he added to the bishop, "I would play at this wed-
ding, but you did not tell me that you would dance at it. The
next couple you marry, think of the Roman law. "
The bishop was too much out of breath to reply: and now
the young couple issued from church, and the bride having made
a farewell obeisance to her parents, they departed together with
the foresters; the parents storming, the attendants laughing, the
bishop puffing and blowing, and the knight rubbing his gouty
foot, and uttering doleful lamentations for the gold and jewels.
with which he had so unwittingly adorned and dowered the
bride.
PILGRIMS FROM HOLY LAND
As ye came from the Holy Land
Of blessed Walsinghame,
Oh, met ye not with my true love
As by the way ye came? -OLD BALLAD.
IN PURSUANCE of the arrangement recorded in the twelfth
chapter, the baron, Robin, and Marian disguised themselves as
pilgrims returned from Palestine, and traveling from the sea-
coast of Hampshire to their home in Northumberland By dint
of staff and cockle-shell, sandal and scrip, they proceeded in
safety the greater part of the way (for Robin had many sly inns
and resting-places between Barnsdale and Sherwood), and were
already on the borders of Yorkshire, when one evening they
passed within view of a castle, where they saw a lady standing
on a turret and surveying the whole extent of the valley through
which they were passing. A servant came running from the
castle, and delivered a message to them from his lady, who was
sick with expectation of news from her lord in the Holy Land,
and entreated them to come to her, that she might question them
concerning him. This was an awkward occurrence; but there
was no pretense for refusal, and they followed the servant into
## p. 11242 (#462) ##########################################
THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK
11242
the castle. The baron, who had been in Palestine in his youth,
undertook to be spokesman on the occasion, and to relate his
own adventures to the lady as having happened to the lord in
question. This preparation enabled him to be so minute and
circumstantial in his detail, and so coherent in his replies to her
questions, that the lady fell implicitly into the delusion, and was
delighted to find that her lord was alive and in health, and in
high favor with the King, and performing prodigies of valor in
the name of his lady, whose miniature he always wore in his
bosom. The baron guessed at this circumstance from the cus-
toms of that age, and happened to be in the right.
"This miniature," added the baron, "I have had the felicity
to see, and should have known you by it among a million. " The
baron was a little embarrassed by some questions of the lady
concerning her lord's personal appearance; but Robin came to
his aid, observing a picture suspended opposite to him on the
wall, which he made a bold conjecture to be that of the lord in
question; and making a calculation of the influences of time and
war, which he weighed with a comparison of the lady's age, he
gave a description of her lord sufficiently like the picture in its
groundwork to be a true resemblance, and sufficiently differing
from it in circumstances to be more an original than a copy.
The lady was completely deceived, and entreated them to par-
take her hospitality for the night; but this they deemed it pru-
dent to decline, and with many humble thanks for her kindness,
and representations of the necessity of not delaying their home-
ward course, they proceeded on their way.
As they passed over the drawbridge they met Sir Ralph
Montfaucon and his squire, who were wandering in quest of
Marian, and were entering to claim that hospitality which the
pilgrims had declined. Their countenances struck Sir Ralph with
a kind of imperfect recognition, which would never have been
matured but that the eyes of Marian, as she passed him, encoun-
tered his; and the images of those stars of beauty continued
involuntarily twinkling in his sensorium to the exclusion of all
other ideas, till memory, love, and hope concurred with imagina-
tion to furnish a probable reason for their haunting him so per-
tinaciously. Those eyes, he thought, were certainly the eyes of
Matilda Fitzwater; and if the eyes were hers, it was extremely
probable, if not logically consecutive, that the rest of the body
they belonged to was hers also. Now, if it were really Matilda
## p. 11243 (#463) ##########################################
THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK
11243
Fitzwater, who were her two companions? The baron? Ay, and
the elder pilgrim was something like him. And the Earl of
Huntingdon? Very probably. The earl and the baron might be
good friends again, now that they were both in disgrace together.
While he was revolving these cogitations, he was introduced to
the lady, and after claiming and receiving the promise of hospi-
tality, he inquired what she knew of the pilgrims who had just
departed. The lady told him they were newly returned from
Palestine, having been long in the Holy Land. The knight ex-
pressed some skepticism on this point. The lady replied that
they had given her so minute a detail of her lord's proceedings,
and so accurate a description of his person, that she could not be
deceived in them. This staggered the knight's confidence in his
own penetration; and if it had not been a heresy in knighthood
to suppose for a moment that there could be in rerum natura
such another pair of eyes as those of his mistress, he would have
acquiesced implicitly in the lady's judgment. But while the lady
and the knight were conversing, the warder blew his bugle-horn,
and presently entered a confidential messenger from Palestine,
who gave her to understand that her lord was well; but entered
into a detail of his adventures most completely at variance with
the baron's narrative, to which not the correspondence of a single
incident gave the remotest coloring of similarity. It now became.
manifest that the pilgrims were not true men; and Sir Ralph
Montfaucon sate down to supper with his head full of cogitations,
which we shall leave him to chew and digest with his pheasant
and canary.
Meanwhile our three pilgrims proceeded on their way. The
evening set in black and lowering, when Robin turned aside.
from the main track, to seek an asylum for the night along a
narrow way that led between rocky and woody hills.
A peas-
ant observed the pilgrims as they entered that narrow pass, and
called after them, "Whither go you, my masters? there are
rogues in that direction. ”
"Can you show us a direction," said Robin, "in which there
are none? If so, we will take it in preference. " The peasant
grinned, and walked away whistling.
The pass widened as they advanced, and the woods grew
thicker and darker around them. Their path wound along the
slope of a woody declivity, which rose high above them in a
thick rampart of foliage, and descended almost precipitously to
## p. 11244 (#464) ##########################################
THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK
II244
the bed of a small river, which they heard dashing in its rocky
channel, and saw its white foam gleaming at intervals in the last
faint glimmerings of twilight. In a short time all was dark,
and the rising voice of the wind foretold a coming storm. They
turned a point of the valley, and saw a light below them in the
depth of the hollow, shining through a cottage casement, and
dancing in its reflection on the restless stream. Robin blew his
horn, which was answered from below. The cottage door opened:
a boy came forth with a torch, ascended the steep, showed tokens
of great delight at meeting with Robin, and lighted them down
a flight of steps rudely cut in the rock, and over a series of
rugged stepping-stones, that crossed the channel of the river.
They entered the cottage, which exhibited neatness, comfort, and
plenty; being amply enriched with pots, pans, and pipkins, and
adorned with flitches of bacon and sundry similar ornaments, that
gave goodly promise in the firelight that gleamed upon the
rafters.
A woman, who seemed just old enough to be the boy's mother,
had thrown down her spinning-wheel in her joy at the sound
of Robin's horn, and was bustling with singular alacrity to set
forth her festal ware and prepare an abundant supper. Her
features, though not beautiful, were agreeable and expressive;
and were now lighted up with such manifest joy at the sight
of Robin, that Marian could not help feeling a momentary touch
of jealousy, and a half-formed suspicion that Robin had broken
his forest law, and had occasionally gone out of bounds, as other
great men have done upon occasion, in order to reconcile the
breach of the spirit with the preservation of the letter of their
own legislation. However, this suspicion, if it could be said to
exist in a mind so generous as Marian's, was very soon dissi-
pated by the entrance of the woman's husband, who testified as
much joy as his wife had done at the sight of Robin; and in
a short time the whole of the party were amicably seated around
a smoking supper of river-fish and wild wood-fowl, on which the
baron fell with as much alacrity as if he had been a true pilgrim
from Palestine.
The husband produced some recondite flasks of wine, which
were laid by in a bin consecrated to Robin, whose occasional
visits to them in his wanderings were the festal days of these
warm-hearted cottagers, whose manners showed that they had not
been born to this low estate. Their story had no mystery, and
## p. 11245 (#465) ##########################################
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11245
Marian easily collected it from the tenor of their conversation.
The young man had been, like Robin, the victim of an usurious
abbot, and had been outlawed for debt, and his nut-brown maid
had accompanied him to the depths of Sherwood, where they
lived an unholy and illegitimate life, killing the king's deer and
never hearing mass. In this state, Robin, then Earl of Hunt-
ingdon, discovered them in one of his huntings, and gave them
aid and protection. When Robin himself became an outlaw, the
necessary qualification or gift of continency was too hard a law
for our lovers to subscribe to; and as they were thus disqualified
for foresters, Robin had found them a retreat in this romantic
and secluded spot. He had done similar service to other lovers
similarly circumstanced, and had disposed them in various wild
scenes which he and his men had discovered in their flittings
from place to place, supplying them with all necessaries and
comforts from the reluctant disgorgings of fat abbots and usur-
ers. The benefit was in some measure mutual: for these cottages
served him as resting-places in his removals, and enabled him to
travel untraced and unmolested; and in the delight with which
he was always received, he found himself even more welcome
than he would have been at an inn,-and this is saying very
much for gratitude and affection together. The smiles which sur-
rounded him were of his own creation, and he participated in the
happiness he had bestowed.
The casements began to rattle in the wind, and the rain to
beat upon the windows. The wind swelled to a hurricane, and
the rain dashed like a flood against the glass. The boy retired
to his little bed, the wife trimmed the lamp, the husband heaped
logs upon the fire; Robin broached another flask; and Marian
filled the baron's cup, and sweetened Robin's by touching its
edge with her lips.
-
"Well," said the baron, "give me a roof over my head, be it
never so humble. Your greenwood canopy is pretty and pleasant
in sunshine; but if I were doomed to live under it, I should
wish it were water-tight. "
«<
"But," said Robin, we have tents and caves for foul weather,
good store of wine and venison, and fuel in abundance. "
"Ay, but," said the baron, "I like to pull off my boots of a
night, which you foresters seldom do,- and to ensconce myself
thereafter in a comfortable bed. Your beech-root is over-hard
for a couch, and your mossy stump is somewhat rough for a
bolster. "
## p. 11246 (#466) ##########################################
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THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK
"Had you not dry leaves," said Robin, "with a bishop's sur-
plice over them? what would you have softer? And had you not
an abbot's traveling-cloak for a coverlet?
"And Father Michael, of Rubygill Abbey," said the friar,
"in Friar Tuck, of Sherwood Forest. Truly, I have a chapel
here hard by, in the shape of a hollow tree, where I put up
my prayers for travelers; and Little John holds the plate at the
door, for good praying deserves good paying. "
"I am in fine company," said the baron.
"In the very best of company," said the friar: "in the high
court of Nature, and in the midst of her own nobility. Is it
not so? This goodly grove is our palace; the oak and the beech
are its colonnade and its canopy; the sun and the moon and
the stars are its everlasting lamps; the grass and the daisy, and
the primrose and the violet, are its many-colored floor of green,
white, yellow, and blue; the mayflower and the woodbine, and
the eglantine and the ivy, are its decorations, its curtains, and its
tapestry; the lark, and the thrush, and the linnet, and the night-
ingale, are its unhired minstrels and musicians. Robin Hood is
king of the forest both by dignity of birth and by virtue of his
standing army; to say nothing of the free choice of his people,
which he has indeed, but I pass it by as an illegitimate basis of
power. He holds his dominion over the forest, and its horned
multitude of citizen-deer, and its swinish multitude or peasantry
of wild boars, by right of conquest and force of arms. He levies
## p. 11227 (#447) ##########################################
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11227
contributions among them by the free consent of his archers,
their virtual representatives. If they should find a voice to com-
plain that we are 'tyrants and usurpers to kill and cook them up
in their assigned and native dwelling-place,' we should most con-
vincingly admonish them, with point of arrow, that they have.
nothing to do with our laws but to obey them. Is it not written
that the fat ribs of the herd shall be fed upon by the mighty in
the land? And have not they withal my blessing? my ortho-
dox, canonical, and archiepiscopal blessing? Do I not give thanks
for them when they are well roasted and smoking under my
nose? What title had William of Normandy to England, that
Robin of Locksley has not to merry Sherwood? William fought
for his claim. So does Robin. With whom, both? With any
that would or will dispute it. William raised contributions. So
does Robin. From whom, both? From all that they could or
can make pay them. Why did any pay them to William? Why
do any pay them to Robin ? For the same reason, to both:
because they could not or cannot help it. They differ indeed in
this,- that William took from the poor and gave to the rich, and
Robin takes from the rich and gives to the poor; and therein is
Robin illegitimate, though in all else he is true prince. Scarlet
and John, are they not peers of the forest? lords temporal of
Sherwood? And am not I lord spiritual? Am I not archbishop?
Am I not pope? Do I not consecrate their banner and absolve
their sins? Are not they State, and am not I Church? Are
not they State monarchical, and am not I Church militant? Do
I not excommunicate our enemies from venison and brawn, and
by'r Lady, when need calls, beat them down under my feet?
The State levies tax, and the Church levies tithe.
Even so
do we. 'Mass, we take all at once. What then? It is tax by
redemption, and tithe by commutation. Your William and Rich-
ard can cut and come again; but our Robin deals with slippery
subjects, that come not twice to his exchequer. What need we
then to constitute a court, except a fool and a laureate? For
the fool, his only use is to make false knaves merry by art: and
we are true men and are merry by nature. For the laureate,
his only office is to find virtues in those who have none, and to
drink sack for his pains. We have quite virtue enough to need
him not, and can drink our sack for ourselves. "
"Well preached, friar," said Robin Hood; "yet there is one
thing wanting to constitute a court, and that is a queen. And
――
## p. 11228 (#448) ##########################################
11228
THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK
now, lovely Matilda, look round upon these sylvan shades where
we have so often roused the stag from his ferny covert. The
rising sun smiles upon us through the stems of that beechen
knoll. Shall I take your hand, Matilda, in the presence of this
my court?
Shall I crown you with our wildwood coronal, and
hail you Queen of the Forest? Will you be the Queen Matilda
of your own true King Robin ? »
Matilda smiled assent.
"Not Matilda," said the friar: "the rules of our holy alliance
require new birth. We have excepted in favor of Little John,
because he is great John, and his name is a misnomer. I
sprinkle, not thy forehead with water, but thy lips with wine,
and baptize thee Marian. "
"Here is a pretty conspiracy," exclaimed the baron. "Why,
you villainous friar, think you to nickname and marry my
daughter before my face with impunity? "
"Even so, bold baron," said the friar: "we are strongest
here. Say you, might overcomes right? I say no. There is no
right but might; and to say that might overcomes right is to
say that right overcomes itself: an absurdity most palpable. Your
right was the stronger in Arlingford, and ours is the stronger in
Sherwood. Your right was right as long as you could maintain
it; so is ours. So is King Richard's, with all deference be it
spoken; and so is King Saladin's: and their two mights are
now committed in bloody fray, and that which overcomes will
be right just as long as it lasts and as far as it reaches. And
now, if any of you know any just impediment-
"Fire and fury! " said the baron.
"Fire and fury," said the friar, "are modes of that might
which constitutes right, and are just impediments to anything
against which they can be brought to bear. They are our allies
upon occasion, and would declare for us now, if you should put
them to the test. "
"Father," said Matilda, "you know the terms of our compact:
from the moment you restrained my liberty, you renounced your
claim to all but compulsory obedience. The friar argues well:
right ends with might. Thick walls, dreary galleries, and tapes-
tried chambers were indifferent to me while I could leave them
at pleasure, but have ever been hateful to me since they held
me by force. May I never again have roof but the blue sky,
nor canopy but the green leaves, nor barrier but the forest
## p. 11229 (#449) ##########################################
THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK
11229
bounds; with the foresters to my train, Little John to my page,
Friar Tuck to my ghostly adviser, and Robin Hood to my liege
lord. I am
no longer Lady Matilda Fitzwater of Arlingford
Castle, but plain Maid Marian of Sherwood Forest. "
"Long live Maid Marian! " re-echoed the foresters.
"O false girl! " said the baron, "do you renounce your name
and parentage? "
"Not my parentage," said Marian, "but my name indeed: do
not all maids renounce it at the altar? »
"The altar! " said the baron: "grant me patience! what do
you mean by the altar? »
"Pile green turf," said the friar; "wreathe it with flowers,
and crown it with fruit, and we will show the noble baron what
we mean by the altar. "
The foresters did as the friar directed.
"Now, Little John," said the friar, "on with the cloak of
the Abbot of Doubleflask. I appoint thee my clerk: thou art
here duly elected in full mote. "
"I wish you were all in full moat together," said the baron,
"and smooth wall on both sides. "
"Punnest thou? " said the friar. "A heinous, anti-Christian
offense. Why anti-Christian? Because anti-Catholic. Why anti-
Catholic? Because anti-Roman. Why anti-Roman? Because
Carthaginian. Is not pun from Punic? punica fides: the very
quintessential quiddity of bad faith; double-visaged; double-
tongued. He that will make a pun will I say no more. Fie
on it. Stand forth, clerk. Who is the bride's father? "
"There is no bride's father," said the baron. "I am the
father of Matilda Fitzwater. "
――――
"There is none such," said the friar. "This is the fair Maid
Marian. Will you make a virtue of necessity, or will you give
laws to the flowing tide? Will you give her, or shall Robin
take her? Will you be her true natural father, or shall I com-
mute paternity? Stand forth, Scarlet. "
"Stand back, Sirrah Scarlet," said the baron. "My daughter
shall have no father but me. Needs must when the Devil drives. "
"No matter who drives," said the friar, "so that, like a well-
disposed subject, you yield cheerful obedience to those who can
enforce it. "
"Mawd, sweet Mawd," said the baron, "will you then forsake
your poor old father in his distress, with his castle in ashes and
his enemy in power? "
## p. 11230 (#450) ##########################################
11230
THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK
"Not so, father," said Marian: "I will always be your true
daughter; I will always love and serve and watch and defend
you: but neither will I forsake my plighted love, and my own
liege lord, who was your choice before he was mine, for you
made him my associate in infancy; and that he continued to be
mine when he ceased to be yours, does not in any way show
remissness in my duties, or falling off in my affections. And
though I here plight my troth at the altar to Robin, in the
presence of this holy priest and pious clerk, yet- Father, when
Richard returns from Palestine, he will restore you to your
barony, and perhaps, for your sake, your daughter's husband
to the earldom of Huntingdon: should that never be, should it
be the will of fate that we must live and die in the greenwood,
I will live and die MAID MARIAN. "
"A pretty resolution," said the baron, "if Robin will let you
keep it. »
"I have sworn it," said Robin. "Should I expose her tender-
ness to the perils of maternity, when life and death may hang
on shifting at a moment's notice from Sherwood to Barnsdale,
and from Barnsdale to the sea-shore? And why should I ban-
quet when my merry-men starve? Chastity is our forest law,
and even the friar has kept it since he has been here. "
"Truly so," said the friar; "for temptation dwells with ease
and luxury: but the hunter is Hippolytus, and the huntress is
Dian. And now, dearly beloved -»
The friar went through the ceremony with great unction, and
Little John was most clerical in the intonation of his responses.
After which, the friar sang, and Little John fiddled, and the
foresters danced, Robin with Marian, and Scarlet with the baron:
and the venison smoked, and the ale frothed, and the wine.
sparkled, and the sun went down on their unwearied festivity;
which they wound up with the following song, the friar leading,
and the foresters joining chorus:-
―
Oh! bold Robin Hood is a forester good,
As ever drew bow in the merry greenwood:
At his bugle's shrill singing the echoes are ringing,
The wild deer are springing for many a rood;
Its summons we follow, through brake, over hollow,
The thrice-blown shrill summons of bold Robin Hood.
And what eye hath ere seen such a sweet Maiden Queen
As Marian, the pride of the forester's green?
## p. 11231 (#451) ##########################################
THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK
11231
A sweet garden flower, she blooms in the bower,
Where alone to this hour the wild rose has been;
We hail her in duty the queen of all beauty:
We will live, we will die, by our sweet Maiden Queen.
And here's a gray friar, good as heart can desire,
To absolve all our sins as the case may require;
Who with courage so stout lays his oak-plant about,
And puts to the rout all the foes of his choir;
For we are his choristers, we merry foresters,
Chorusing thus with our militant friar.
And Scarlet doth bring his good yew-bough and string,
Prime minister is he of Robin our king;
No mark is too narrow for Little John's arrow,
That hits a cock-sparrow a mile on the wing;
Robin and Mariòn, Scarlet and Little John,
Long with their glory old Sherwood shall ring.
Each a good liver, for well-feathered quiver
Doth furnish brawn, venison, and fowl of the river:
But the best game we dish up, it is a fat bishop;
When his angels we fish up, he proves a free giver,—
For a prelate so lowly has angels more holy,
And should this world's false angels to sinners deliver.
Robin and Mariòn, Scarlet and Little John,
Drink to them one by one, drink as ye sing:
Robin and Mariòn, Scarlet and Little John,
Echo to echo through Sherwood shall fling:
Robin and Mariòn, Scarlet and Little John,
Long with their glory old Sherwood shall ring.
A FOREST CODE
A single volume paramount; a code:
A master spirit; a determined road. -WORDSWORTH.
THE next morning Robin Hood convened his foresters, and
desired Little John, for the baron's edification, to read over the
laws of their forest society. Little John read aloud with a sten-
torophonic voice:-
AT A high court of foresters, held under the greenwood tree
an hour after sunrise, Robin Hood president, William Scarlet
## p. 11232 (#452) ##########################################
11232
THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK
vice-president, Little John secretary: the following articles, moved
by Friar Tuck in his capacity of Peer Spiritual, and seconded by
Much the Miller, were unanimously agreed to.
The principles of our society are six: Legitimacy, Equity,
Hospitality, Chivalry, Chastity, and Courtesy.
The articles of Legitimacy are four:-
I. Our government is legitimate, and our society is founded
on the one golden rule of right, consecrated by the universal
consent of mankind, and by the practice of all ages, individuals,
and nations; namely, To keep what we have, and to catch what
we can.
II. Our government being legitimate, all our proceedings
shall be legitimate: wherefore we declare war against the whole
world, and every forester is by this legitimate declaration legiti-
mately invested with a roving commission to make lawful prize of
everything that comes in his way.
III. All forest laws but our own we declare to be null and
void.
IV. All such of the old laws of England as do not in any
way interfere with, or militate against, the views of this honor-
able assembly, we will loyally adhere to and maintain. The rest
we declare null and void as far as relates to ourselves, in all
cases wherein a vigor beyond the law may be conducive to our
own interest and preservation.
The articles of Equity are three:-
I. The balance of power among the people being very
much deranged by one having too much and another nothing,
we hereby resolve ourselves into a congress or court of equity, to
restore as far as in us lies the said natural balance of power,
by taking from all who have too much as much of the said too
much as we can lay our hands on; and giving to those who have
nothing such a portion thereof as it may seem to us expedient to
part with.
II. In all cases a quorum of foresters shall constitute a court
of equity, and as many as may be strong enough to manage the
matter in hand shall constitute a quorum.
III. All usurers, monks, courtiers, and other drones of the
great hive of society, who shall be found laden with any por-
tion of the honey whereof they have wrongfully despoiled the
industrious bee, shall be rightfully despoiled thereof in turn; and
all bishops and abbots shall be bound and beaten, especially the
## p. 11233 (#453) ##########################################
THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK
11233
Abbot of Doncaster; as shall also all sheriffs, especially the
Sheriff of Nottingham.
The articles of Hospitality are two:-
I. Postmen, carriers, and market-folk, peasants and mechan-
ics, farmers and millers, shall pass through our forest dominions
without let or molestation.
II. All other travelers through the forest shall be graciously
invited to partake of Robin's hospitality; and if they come not
willingly they shall be compelled: and the rich man shall pay
well for his fare; and the poor man shall feast scot free, and
peradventure receive bounty in proportion to his desert and
necessity.
The article of Chivalry is one: -
I. Every forester shall, to the extent of his power, aid and
protect maids, widows, and orphans, and all weak and distressed
persons whomsoever; and no woman shall be impeded or molested
in any way; nor shall any company receive harm which any
woman is in.
The article of Chastity is one:-
I. Every forester, being Diana's forester and minion of the
moon, shall commend himself to the grace of the Virgin, and
shall have the gift of continency on pain of expulsion; that the
article of chivalry may be secure from infringement, and maids,
wives, and widows pass without fear through the forest.
The article of Courtesy is one:
-
I. No one shall miscall a forester. He who calls Robin,
Robert of Huntingdon, or salutes him by any other title or
designation whatsoever except plain Robin Hood; or who calls
Marian, Matilda Fitzwater, or salutes her by any other title or
designation whatsoever except plain Maid Marian, and so of all
others, shall for every such offense forfeit a mark, to be paid to
the friar.
And these articles we swear to keep as we are good men
and true.
Carried by acclamation. God save King Richard.
LITTLE JOHN, Secretary.
"Excellent laws," said the baron; "excellent, by the holy
rood. William of Normandy, with my great-great-grandfather
Fierabras at his elbow, could not have made better. And now,
sweet Mawd · >>
―
XIX-703
## p. 11234 (#454) ##########################################
11234
THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK
«<
"A fine, a fine," cried the friar, a fine, by the article of
courtesy. "
"'Od's life," said the baron, "shall I not call my own daugh-
ter Mawd? Methinks there should be a special exception in my
favor. "
«་
"It must not be," said Robin Hood: our constitution admits
no privilege. "
"But I will commute," said the friar: "for twenty marks a
year duly paid into my ghostly pocket you shall call your daugh-
ter Mawd two hundred times a day. ”
"Gramercy," said the baron, "and I agree, honest friar, when
I can get twenty marks to pay; for till Prince John be beaten
from Nottingham, my rents are like to prove but scanty. "
"I will trust," said the friar, "and thus let us ratify the stip-
ulation; so shall our laws and your infringement run together in
an amicable parallel. "
"But," said Little John, "this is a bad precedent, master
friar. It is turning discipline into profit, penalty into perquisite,
public justice into private revenue. It is rank corruption, master
friar. "
"Why are laws made? " said the friar. "For the profit of
somebody. Of whom? Of him who makes them first, and of
others as it may happen. Was not I legislator in the last article,
and shall I not thrive by my own law? »
"Well then, sweet Mawd," said the baron, "I must leave you,
Mawd: your life is very well for the young and the hearty, but
it squares not with my age or my humor. I must house, Mawd;
I must find refuge: but where? That is the question. "
"Where Sir Guy of Gamwell has found it," said Robin Hood,
«< near the borders of Barnsdale. There you may dwell in safety
with him and fair Alice, till King Richard return; and Little
John shall give you safe-conduct.
You will have need to travel
with caution, in disguise and without attendants; for Prince John
commands all this vicinity, and will doubtless lay the country
for you and Marian. Now it is first expedient to dismiss your
retainers. If there be any among them who like our life, they
may stay with us in the greenwood; the rest may return to their
homes. "
Some of the baron's men resolved to remain with Robin and
Marian; and were furnished accordingly with suits of green, of
which Robin always kept good store.
## p. 11235 (#455) ##########################################
THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK
11235
Marian now declared that as there was danger in the way to
Barnsdale, she would accompany Little John and the baron, as
she would not be happy unless she herself saw her father placed
in security. Robin was very unwilling to consent to this, and
assured her that there was more danger for her than the baron;
but Marian was absolute.
"If so, then," said Robin, "I shall be your guide instead of
Little John; and I shall leave him and Scarlet joint regents of
Sherwood during my absence, and the voice of Friar Tuck shall
be decisive between them if they differ in nice questions of State
policy. "
Marian objected to this, that there was more danger for
Robin than either herself or the baron; but Robin was absolute
in his turn.
"Talk not of my voice," said the friar; "for if Marian be a
damsel errant, I will be her ghostly esquire. ”
Robin insisted that this should not be, for number would only
expose them to greater risk of detection. The friar, after some
debate, reluctantly acquiesced.
While they were discussing these matters, they heard the dis-
tant sound of horses' feet.
"Go," said Robin to Little John, "and invite yonder horseman
to dinner. "
Little John bounded away, and soon came before a young
man, who was riding in a melancholy manner, with the bridle
hanging loose on the horse's neck, and his eyes drooping towards
the ground.
"Whither go you? " said Little John.
"Whithersoever my horse pleases," said the young man.
"And that shall be," said Little John, "whither I please to
lead him. I am commissioned to invite you to dine with my
master. "
"Who is your master? " said the young man.
"Robin Hood," said Little John.
"The bold outlaw? " said the stranger.
"Neither he nor you
should have made me turn an inch aside yesterday; but to-day I
care not. "
"Then it is better for you," said Little John, "that you came
to-day than yesterday, if you love dining in a whole skin: for my
master is the pink of courtesy; but if his guests prove stubborn,
he bastes them and his venison together, while the friar says
mass before meat. "
## p. 11236 (#456) ##########################################
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THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK
The young man made no answer, and scarcely seemed to
hear what Little John was saying, who therefore took the horse's
bridle and led him to where Robin and his foresters were setting
forth their dinner. Robin seated the young man next to Marian.
Recovering a little from his stupor, he looked with much amaze-
ment at her, and the baron, and Robin, and the friar; listened to
their conversation, and seemed much astonished to find himself
in such holy and courtly company. Robin helped him largely
to numble-pie and cygnet and pheasant, and the other dainties
of his table; and the friar pledged him in ale and wine, and
exhorted him to make good cheer. But the young man drank
little, ate less, spake nothing, and every now and then sighed
heavily.
When the repast was ended, "Now," said Robin, “you are at
liberty to pursue your journey; but first be pleased to pay for
your dinner. "
"That would I gladly do, Robin," said the young man, "but
all I have about me are five shillings and a ring. To the five
shillings you shall be welcome, but for the ring I will fight while
there is a drop of blood in my veins. "
"Gallantly spoken," said Robin Hood. "A love-token, without
doubt; but you must submit to our forest laws.
Little John
must search: and if he find no more than you say, not a penny
will I touch; but if you have spoken false, the whole is forfeit
to our fraternity. "
"And with reason," said the friar; "for thereby is the truth
maintained. The Abbot of Doubleflask swore there was no
money in his valise, and Little John forthwith emptied it of four
hundred pounds. Thus was the abbot's perjury but of one min-
ute's duration: for though his speech was false in the utterance,
yet was it no sooner uttered than it became true, and we should
have been participes criminis to have suffered the holy abbot to
depart in falsehood; whereas he came to us a false priest, and
we sent him away a true man. Marry, we turned his cloak to
further account, and thereby hangs a tale that may be either
said or sung: for in truth I am minstrel here as well as chap-
lain; I pray for good success to our just and necessary warfare,
and sing thanksgiving odes when our foresters bring in booty:
"Bold Robin has robed him in ghostly attire,
And forth he is gone like a holy friar,
Singing hey down, ho down, down, derry down!
## p. 11237 (#457) ##########################################
THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK
11237
And of two gray friars he soon was aware,
Regaling themselves with dainty fare,
All on the fallen leaves so brown.
"Good-morrow, good brothers,' said bold Robin Hood:
'And what make you in the good greenwood,
Singing hey down, ho down, down, derry down! '
Now give me, I pray you, wine and food;
For none can I find in the good greenwood,
All on the fallen leaves so brown. '
"Good brother,' they said, 'we would give you full fain,
But we have no more than enough for twain,
Singing hey down, ho down, down, derry down! '
'Then give me some money,' said bold Robin Hood;
'For none can I find in the good greenwood,
All on the fallen leaves so brown. '
"No money have we, good brother,' said they;
'Then,' said he, we three for money will pray,
Singing hey down, ho down, down, derry down!
And whatever shall come at the end of our prayer,
We three holy friars will piously share,
All on the fallen leaves so brown. '
"We will not pray with thee, good brother, God wot;
For truly, good brother, thou pleasest us not,
Singing hey down, ho down, down, derry down! '
Then up they both started from Robin to run,
But down on their knees Robin pulled them each one,
All on the fallen leaves so brown.
"The gray friars prayed with a doleful face,
But bold Robin prayed with a right merry grace,
Singing hey down, ho down, down, derry down!
And when they had prayed, their portmanteau he took.
And from it a hundred good angels he shook,
All on the fallen leaves so brown.
"The saints,' said bold Robin, have hearkened our prayer,
And here's a good angel apiece for your share;
If more you would have, you must win ere you wear
Singing hey down, ho down, down, derry down! '
Then he blew his good horn with a musical cheer,
And fifty green bowmen came trooping full near,
And away the gray friars they bounded like deer,
All on the fallen leaves so brown. "
## p. 11238 (#458) ##########################################
11238
THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK
CHIVALRY
What can a young lassie, what shall a young lassie,
What can a young lassie do wi' an auld man ? — BURNS.
"HERE is but five shillings and a ring," said Little John,
"and the young man has spoken true. "
"Then," said Robin to the stranger, "if want of money be
the cause of your melancholy, speak. Little John is my treas-
urer, and he shall disburse to you. "
"It is, and it is not," said the stranger: "it is, because,
had I not wanted money, I had never lost my love; it is not,
because, now that I have lost her, money would come too late
to regain her. ”
"In what way have you lost her? " said Robin: "let us
clearly know that she is past regaining before we give up our
wishes to restore her to you. "
"She is to be married this day," said the stranger,-" and
perhaps is married by this,—to a rich old knight; and yester-
day I knew it not. "
"What is your name? " said Robin.
"Allen," said the stranger.
"And where is the marriage to take place, Allen? " said
Robin.
"At Edwinstow church," said Allen, "by the Bishop of Not-
tingham. "
"I know that bishop," said Robin: "he dined with me a
month since, and paid three hundred pounds for his dinner.
He has a good ear and loves music. The friar sang to him to
some tune. Give me my harper's cloak, and I will play a part
at this wedding. "
"These are dangerous times, Robin," said Marian, "for play-
ing pranks out of the forest. "
"Fear not," said Robin: "Edwinstow lies not Nottingham-
ward, and I will take my precautions. "
Robin put on his harper's cloak, while Little John painted his
eyebrows and cheeks, tipped his nose with red, and tied him on
a comely beard. Marian confessed that had she not been pres-
ent at the metamorphosis, she should not have known her own
true Robin. Robin took his harp and went to the wedding.
Robin found the bishop and his train in the church porch,
impatiently expecting the arrival of the bride and bridegroom.
## p. 11239 (#459) ##########################################
THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK
11239
The clerk was observing to the bishop that the knight was some-
what gouty, and that the necessity of walking the last quarter
of a mile from the road to the church-yard probably detained
the lively bridegroom rather longer than had been calculated
upon.
"Oh! by my fay," said the music-loving bishop, "here comes
a harper in the nick of time; and now I care not how long they
tarry. Ho! honest friend, are you come to play at the wed-
ding? »
"I am come to play anywhere," answered Robin, "where I
can get a cup of sack; for which I will sing the praise of the
donor in lofty verse, and emblazon him with any virtue which he
may wish to have the credit of possessing, without the trouble of
practicing. "
"A most courtly harper," said the bishop; "I will fill thee
with sack, I will make thee a walking butt of sack, if thou wilt
delight my ears with thy melodies. "
"That will I," said Robin: "in what branch of my art shall I
exert my faculty? I am passing well in all, from the anthem to
the glee, and from the dirge to the coranto. "
"It would be idle," said the bishop, "to give thee sack for
playing me anthems, seeing that I myself do receive sack for
hearing them sung. Therefore, as the occasion is festive, thou
shalt play me a coranto. "
Robin struck up and played away merrily, the bishop all the
while in great delight, nodding his head and beating time with
his foot, till the bride and bridegroom appeared. The bridegroom
was richly appareled, and came slowly and painfully forward,
hobbling and leering, and pursing up his mouth into a smile of
resolute defiance to the gout, and of tender complacency towards
his lady-love, who, shining like gold at the old knight's expense,
followed slowly between her father and mother, her cheeks pale,
her head drooping, her steps faltering, and her eyes reddened
with tears.
Robin stopped his minstrelsy, and said to the bishop, "This
seems to me an unfit match. "
"What do you say, rascal? " said the old knight, hobbling up
to him.
"I say," said Robin, "this seems to me an unfit match.
What in the devil's name can you want with a young wife, who
have one foot in flannels and the other in the grave? »
## p. 11240 (#460) ##########################################
11240
THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK
"What is that to thee, sirrah varlet? " said the old knight:
“stand away from the porch, or I will fracture thy sconce with
my cane. "
"I will not stand away from the porch," said Robin, "unless
the bride bid me, and tell me that you are her own true love. "
"Speak," » said the bride's father, in a severe tone, and with
a look of significant menace. The girl looked alternately at her
father and Robin. She attempted to speak, but her voice failed
in the effort, and she burst into tears.
"Here is lawful cause and just impediment," said Robin,
"and I forbid the banns. "
«< Who are you, villain? " said the old knight, stamping his
sound foot with rage.
"I am the Roman law," said Robin, "which says that there
shall not be more than ten years between a man and his wife;
and here are five times ten: and so says the law of nature. "
"Honest harper," said the bishop, "you are somewhat over-
officious here, and less courtly than I deemed you. If you love
sack, forbear; for this course will never bring you a drop: As to
your Roman law, and your law of nature, what right have they
to say anything which the law of Holy Writ says not? "
"The law of Holy Writ does say it," said Robin: "I expound
it so to say; and I will produce sixty commentators to establish
my exposition. »
And so saying he produced a horn from beneath his cloak,
and blew three blasts, and threescore bowmen in green came
leaping from the bushes and trees; and young Allen was the first
among them to give Robin his sword, while Friar Tuck and Lit-
tle John marched up to the altar. Robin stripped the bishop and
clerk of their robes, and put them on the friar and Little John;
and Allen advanced to take the hand of the bride. Her cheeks
grew red and her eyes grew bright, as she locked her hand in
her lover's and tripped lightly with him into the church.
"This marriage will not stand," said the bishop, "for they
have not been thrice asked in church. "
"We will ask them seven times," said Little John, "lest three
should not suffice. "
"And in the mean time," said Robin, "the knight and the
bishop shall dance to my harping. "
So Robin sat in the church porch and played away merrily,
while his foresters formed a ring, in the centre of which the
## p. 11241 (#461) ##########################################
THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK
11241
knight and bishop danced with exemplary alacrity; and if they
relaxed their exertions, Scarlet gently touched them up with the
point of an arrow.
The knight grimaced ruefully, and begged Robin to think of
his gout.
"So I do," said Robin: "this is the true antipodagron; you
shall dance the gout away, and be thankful to me while you live.
I told you," he added to the bishop, "I would play at this wed-
ding, but you did not tell me that you would dance at it. The
next couple you marry, think of the Roman law. "
The bishop was too much out of breath to reply: and now
the young couple issued from church, and the bride having made
a farewell obeisance to her parents, they departed together with
the foresters; the parents storming, the attendants laughing, the
bishop puffing and blowing, and the knight rubbing his gouty
foot, and uttering doleful lamentations for the gold and jewels.
with which he had so unwittingly adorned and dowered the
bride.
PILGRIMS FROM HOLY LAND
As ye came from the Holy Land
Of blessed Walsinghame,
Oh, met ye not with my true love
As by the way ye came? -OLD BALLAD.
IN PURSUANCE of the arrangement recorded in the twelfth
chapter, the baron, Robin, and Marian disguised themselves as
pilgrims returned from Palestine, and traveling from the sea-
coast of Hampshire to their home in Northumberland By dint
of staff and cockle-shell, sandal and scrip, they proceeded in
safety the greater part of the way (for Robin had many sly inns
and resting-places between Barnsdale and Sherwood), and were
already on the borders of Yorkshire, when one evening they
passed within view of a castle, where they saw a lady standing
on a turret and surveying the whole extent of the valley through
which they were passing. A servant came running from the
castle, and delivered a message to them from his lady, who was
sick with expectation of news from her lord in the Holy Land,
and entreated them to come to her, that she might question them
concerning him. This was an awkward occurrence; but there
was no pretense for refusal, and they followed the servant into
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THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK
11242
the castle. The baron, who had been in Palestine in his youth,
undertook to be spokesman on the occasion, and to relate his
own adventures to the lady as having happened to the lord in
question. This preparation enabled him to be so minute and
circumstantial in his detail, and so coherent in his replies to her
questions, that the lady fell implicitly into the delusion, and was
delighted to find that her lord was alive and in health, and in
high favor with the King, and performing prodigies of valor in
the name of his lady, whose miniature he always wore in his
bosom. The baron guessed at this circumstance from the cus-
toms of that age, and happened to be in the right.
"This miniature," added the baron, "I have had the felicity
to see, and should have known you by it among a million. " The
baron was a little embarrassed by some questions of the lady
concerning her lord's personal appearance; but Robin came to
his aid, observing a picture suspended opposite to him on the
wall, which he made a bold conjecture to be that of the lord in
question; and making a calculation of the influences of time and
war, which he weighed with a comparison of the lady's age, he
gave a description of her lord sufficiently like the picture in its
groundwork to be a true resemblance, and sufficiently differing
from it in circumstances to be more an original than a copy.
The lady was completely deceived, and entreated them to par-
take her hospitality for the night; but this they deemed it pru-
dent to decline, and with many humble thanks for her kindness,
and representations of the necessity of not delaying their home-
ward course, they proceeded on their way.
As they passed over the drawbridge they met Sir Ralph
Montfaucon and his squire, who were wandering in quest of
Marian, and were entering to claim that hospitality which the
pilgrims had declined. Their countenances struck Sir Ralph with
a kind of imperfect recognition, which would never have been
matured but that the eyes of Marian, as she passed him, encoun-
tered his; and the images of those stars of beauty continued
involuntarily twinkling in his sensorium to the exclusion of all
other ideas, till memory, love, and hope concurred with imagina-
tion to furnish a probable reason for their haunting him so per-
tinaciously. Those eyes, he thought, were certainly the eyes of
Matilda Fitzwater; and if the eyes were hers, it was extremely
probable, if not logically consecutive, that the rest of the body
they belonged to was hers also. Now, if it were really Matilda
## p. 11243 (#463) ##########################################
THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK
11243
Fitzwater, who were her two companions? The baron? Ay, and
the elder pilgrim was something like him. And the Earl of
Huntingdon? Very probably. The earl and the baron might be
good friends again, now that they were both in disgrace together.
While he was revolving these cogitations, he was introduced to
the lady, and after claiming and receiving the promise of hospi-
tality, he inquired what she knew of the pilgrims who had just
departed. The lady told him they were newly returned from
Palestine, having been long in the Holy Land. The knight ex-
pressed some skepticism on this point. The lady replied that
they had given her so minute a detail of her lord's proceedings,
and so accurate a description of his person, that she could not be
deceived in them. This staggered the knight's confidence in his
own penetration; and if it had not been a heresy in knighthood
to suppose for a moment that there could be in rerum natura
such another pair of eyes as those of his mistress, he would have
acquiesced implicitly in the lady's judgment. But while the lady
and the knight were conversing, the warder blew his bugle-horn,
and presently entered a confidential messenger from Palestine,
who gave her to understand that her lord was well; but entered
into a detail of his adventures most completely at variance with
the baron's narrative, to which not the correspondence of a single
incident gave the remotest coloring of similarity. It now became.
manifest that the pilgrims were not true men; and Sir Ralph
Montfaucon sate down to supper with his head full of cogitations,
which we shall leave him to chew and digest with his pheasant
and canary.
Meanwhile our three pilgrims proceeded on their way. The
evening set in black and lowering, when Robin turned aside.
from the main track, to seek an asylum for the night along a
narrow way that led between rocky and woody hills.
A peas-
ant observed the pilgrims as they entered that narrow pass, and
called after them, "Whither go you, my masters? there are
rogues in that direction. ”
"Can you show us a direction," said Robin, "in which there
are none? If so, we will take it in preference. " The peasant
grinned, and walked away whistling.
The pass widened as they advanced, and the woods grew
thicker and darker around them. Their path wound along the
slope of a woody declivity, which rose high above them in a
thick rampart of foliage, and descended almost precipitously to
## p. 11244 (#464) ##########################################
THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK
II244
the bed of a small river, which they heard dashing in its rocky
channel, and saw its white foam gleaming at intervals in the last
faint glimmerings of twilight. In a short time all was dark,
and the rising voice of the wind foretold a coming storm. They
turned a point of the valley, and saw a light below them in the
depth of the hollow, shining through a cottage casement, and
dancing in its reflection on the restless stream. Robin blew his
horn, which was answered from below. The cottage door opened:
a boy came forth with a torch, ascended the steep, showed tokens
of great delight at meeting with Robin, and lighted them down
a flight of steps rudely cut in the rock, and over a series of
rugged stepping-stones, that crossed the channel of the river.
They entered the cottage, which exhibited neatness, comfort, and
plenty; being amply enriched with pots, pans, and pipkins, and
adorned with flitches of bacon and sundry similar ornaments, that
gave goodly promise in the firelight that gleamed upon the
rafters.
A woman, who seemed just old enough to be the boy's mother,
had thrown down her spinning-wheel in her joy at the sound
of Robin's horn, and was bustling with singular alacrity to set
forth her festal ware and prepare an abundant supper. Her
features, though not beautiful, were agreeable and expressive;
and were now lighted up with such manifest joy at the sight
of Robin, that Marian could not help feeling a momentary touch
of jealousy, and a half-formed suspicion that Robin had broken
his forest law, and had occasionally gone out of bounds, as other
great men have done upon occasion, in order to reconcile the
breach of the spirit with the preservation of the letter of their
own legislation. However, this suspicion, if it could be said to
exist in a mind so generous as Marian's, was very soon dissi-
pated by the entrance of the woman's husband, who testified as
much joy as his wife had done at the sight of Robin; and in
a short time the whole of the party were amicably seated around
a smoking supper of river-fish and wild wood-fowl, on which the
baron fell with as much alacrity as if he had been a true pilgrim
from Palestine.
The husband produced some recondite flasks of wine, which
were laid by in a bin consecrated to Robin, whose occasional
visits to them in his wanderings were the festal days of these
warm-hearted cottagers, whose manners showed that they had not
been born to this low estate. Their story had no mystery, and
## p. 11245 (#465) ##########################################
THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK
11245
Marian easily collected it from the tenor of their conversation.
The young man had been, like Robin, the victim of an usurious
abbot, and had been outlawed for debt, and his nut-brown maid
had accompanied him to the depths of Sherwood, where they
lived an unholy and illegitimate life, killing the king's deer and
never hearing mass. In this state, Robin, then Earl of Hunt-
ingdon, discovered them in one of his huntings, and gave them
aid and protection. When Robin himself became an outlaw, the
necessary qualification or gift of continency was too hard a law
for our lovers to subscribe to; and as they were thus disqualified
for foresters, Robin had found them a retreat in this romantic
and secluded spot. He had done similar service to other lovers
similarly circumstanced, and had disposed them in various wild
scenes which he and his men had discovered in their flittings
from place to place, supplying them with all necessaries and
comforts from the reluctant disgorgings of fat abbots and usur-
ers. The benefit was in some measure mutual: for these cottages
served him as resting-places in his removals, and enabled him to
travel untraced and unmolested; and in the delight with which
he was always received, he found himself even more welcome
than he would have been at an inn,-and this is saying very
much for gratitude and affection together. The smiles which sur-
rounded him were of his own creation, and he participated in the
happiness he had bestowed.
The casements began to rattle in the wind, and the rain to
beat upon the windows. The wind swelled to a hurricane, and
the rain dashed like a flood against the glass. The boy retired
to his little bed, the wife trimmed the lamp, the husband heaped
logs upon the fire; Robin broached another flask; and Marian
filled the baron's cup, and sweetened Robin's by touching its
edge with her lips.
-
"Well," said the baron, "give me a roof over my head, be it
never so humble. Your greenwood canopy is pretty and pleasant
in sunshine; but if I were doomed to live under it, I should
wish it were water-tight. "
«<
"But," said Robin, we have tents and caves for foul weather,
good store of wine and venison, and fuel in abundance. "
"Ay, but," said the baron, "I like to pull off my boots of a
night, which you foresters seldom do,- and to ensconce myself
thereafter in a comfortable bed. Your beech-root is over-hard
for a couch, and your mossy stump is somewhat rough for a
bolster. "
## p. 11246 (#466) ##########################################
11246
THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK
"Had you not dry leaves," said Robin, "with a bishop's sur-
plice over them? what would you have softer? And had you not
an abbot's traveling-cloak for a coverlet?
