by Roger Green
But the Sheriff fled away in haste, and was not seen again in Nottingham while King Richard was there.
22
King John’s Revenge
Come, pick the mortar out,
Out of the walls of towers and shrines and tombs.
For now Prince John is King, and Lady Marian
In peril.
ALFRED NOYES: Robin Hood (1926)
With King Richard’s return and the pardon of Robin Hood and all his followers ended the great days in Sherwood Forest.
Robin and Marian lived quietly at Locksley, and there remained with them scarcely a dozen of their old followers, though amongst these was Little John. Friar Tuck also spent much of his time with them, but his real home was again in the Hermit’s Cell at Copmanhurst.
King Richard did not remain long in England, but was soon away to the wars again, this time fighting for his own lands in Normandy. With him went the pick of Robin’s band to serve as soldiers, and their days in Sherwood were soon forgotten, or remembered only in the songs which the minstrels were already singing of Robin Hood and his Merry Men.
Prince John, pardoned for his treacherous practices against the King, made no attempt to trouble Robin in any way or to renew his attentions to Marian. But very quietly he increased his power and gathered more and more followers – mainly in the north of England. The Sheriff of Nottingham was among these, and he slipped quietly back into power after King Richard had gone, though he too appeared to have forgotten and forgiven all that Robin had done against him.
Five happy years slipped by all too quickly for Robin and Marian, and they paid little attention to the rumours which began to float about. Little John, however, took more heed of what was going on, and more than once he warned Robin.
‘Richard has been away for a long time,’ he said, ‘and John is a man who never forgets or forgives an injury. And remember that were Richard to die, John will be King.’
Robin laughed and shrugged his shoulders.
‘I have a full and lawful pardon,’ he said. ‘John would not – he could not – move against me without fresh cause of offence: and that, since King Richard has so altered the forest laws, I have been careful not to give him.’
‘There are rumours that King Richard is dead,’ continued Little John. ‘Rumours of wars and rebellions – rumours of Prince John being in Nottingham with our old friend the Sheriff.’
‘Rumours!’ exclaimed Robin impatiently. ‘You are full of rumours, Little John – there have been so many rumours, and all of them false. Well, I go into Nottingham this day, and will find out the truth: it is a month since I was last at church, and I would go to Mass.’
‘Then,’ said Little John, ‘take a good company with you. Six men at arms at least, leaving another six here to guard the Lady Marian.’
Robin laughed. ‘Little John, you are still living in our old Sherwood days,’ he said. ‘You forget that I am again the Earl of Huntingdon – even if but in name; you forget certainly that I am the lord of Locksley, and no longer Robin Hood the outlaw!’
‘I forget nothing,’ said Little John doggedly. ‘I only know that I smell danger – and will not let you run into it alone if I can prevent it.’
‘I pray you, dear Robin, do what Little John wishes!’ begged Marian.
But Robin shook his head. ‘If there is danger,’ he answered, ‘that danger will threaten you rather than me – if it comes from Prince John. Therefore all our men must stay here to guard you, with Little John in command.’
Then Robin kissed Marian, girded on his sword, mounted his horse and rode away to Nottingham.
But Marian turned to Little John.
‘Oh, John!’ she sobbed. ‘I am suddenly afraid! May be it was your words, but I feel suddenly as if Robin were riding out of my life. Go after him, Little John, but do not let him see you: if danger threatens, surely there are many still who would stand by Robin Hood if his bugle-horn rang once more through Sherwood.’
Little John nodded, took his bow, slung a quiver of arrows over his back, and set forth on foot through the forest paths.
‘Alas!’ sighed Marian, looking round the comfortable room and out at the trim garden of Locksley Hall, ‘I fear that the good days are ending!’
Robin rode quietly into Nottingham and put up his horse at an inn. Then he walked through the streets to St Mary’s Church: he felt as he went that there was an air of suspense and excitement, but there was no sign of anything being out of the ordinary.
‘I will ask questions presently,’ he thought to himself as he brushed past a tall monk at the entrance to the church. Then he put all worldly thoughts from his mind as he knelt before the altar while the priest proffered the Holy Sacrament to him.
But the monk who had passed him in the doorway went at full speed to the Sheriff’s house.
‘Rise up, rise up, master Sheriff!’ he exclaimed. ‘Robin Hood, alone and unarmed, has even now gone into St Mary’s Church!’
‘Come with me!’ cried the Sheriff eagerly, and together they went to the Castle, where John had arrived the previous night.
‘Robert of Locksley is in Nottingham, your Majesty,’ said the Sheriff, bowing very low. ‘He does not know of Richard’s death, otherwise he would not be here.’
‘It is not known anywhere yet,’ said King John, ‘unless you have disobeyed my orders and proclaimed it – which I would not have until tomorrow… But this is truly good news. Go you, master Sheriff, with as many of my men as you think needful, and bring him here. You need have no fear – my men are all mercenaríes, hired abroad: they will obey without question. And while you are away, I will make ready for him!’
Off went the Sheriff with a dozen men at arms, and came to St Mary’s Church. And when Robin came out after Mass, his eyes cast down and thinking still of the goodness of God rather than of the sinfulness of men, they seized him before he had time even to draw his sword.
‘What means this outrage, master Sheriff?’ asked Robin indignantly, recognizing his old enemy. ‘I am a free man, and owe my allegiance to the King alone.’
‘It is by the King’s orders that I come for you, my lord of Huntingdon,’ answered the Sheriff, anxious to avoid attracting attention. ‘He has come secretly to Nottingham and bade me fetch you before him, hearing things charged against you – of which doubtless you can acquit yourself.’
So Robin came peacefully into Nottingham Castle, and followed the Sheriff up the steep spiral staircase in the keep. But as they went higher and higher, he began to have grave doubts.
‘Whither do you take me?’ he asked.
‘To the King,’ answered the Sheriff as before.
‘He surely does not hold court in a turret top,’ exclaimed Robin.
‘You forget that he has come here in secret,’ answered the Sheriff readily enough. They came at last to the top of the stair and so into a room of some size immediately under the roof. In one corner was a narrow doorway leading to a chamber about six feet across, formed by the top of the turret at the next corner, and four men with masons’ tools were building up the doorway.
‘So we meet again, Robin Hood!’ said a smooth, cruel voice.
‘If you mean any ill towards me, Prince John,’ answered Robin, ‘I bid you beware! King Richard will not lightly forgive you a second time if you fall again into treason.’
The Sheriff struck Robin across the face.
‘Mind your evil tongue, you dog!’ he cried exultantly. ‘You speak to the King now!’
‘The King!’ gasped Robin.
‘Yes,’ said John quietly. ‘Richard my brother lies dead in Normandy: the news was brought to me not two days since – and I have kept it secret as yet, the better to entrap certain traitors such as you.’
Robin looked at John steadily for a minute, and then turned away.
‘This is a cruel and a mean revenge,’ he said. ‘I wonder that a King can stoop to it, or even think that it is worth the sin upon his soul to seek it.’
; ‘Ah,’ said John, ‘but when you are dead there will be no one to stand between me and Lady Marian – as you stood that day in Sherwood Forest. When you are dead? Before you are dead! For see how merciful I am: you are not to die this night, nor indeed will I or our good friend the Sheriff permit you to be slain. But you see yonder the place prepared for you: there, good, just outlaw, you may kneel and pray – for death. When that wall is built up, with the great door locked in case of accidents, even your voice will not be heard again. A window? There is a window indeed, and were the bar out of it, a man might clamber through the space and hurl himself to death… Well, we must chance that – but self slaughter, let me remind you, my pious friend, is a deadly sin. So, fling him in. That’s it, the rope to the ring in the wall… By the time you slip that rope, friend Robin, the mortar will be hard that walls you up – and I will be at Locksley with lovely Marian!’
‘Devil!’ gasped Robin. ‘Alas, poor England, ruled by such a king as you!’
Then, while Robin strained in vain at the rope which held him to the ring in the wall of the little turret room, the masons built up the wall – a good three feet of solid stone – and until the last chink was stopped King John did not cease to taunt Robin and boast of how he would carry off Marian from Locksley that very night.
Left alone in the cell which was like to be his tomb, Robin, grown calmer, worked away desperately but more carefully at the rope which bound him. When at last he was free of this, his first thought was for the doorway. But even a rough glance told him that escape that way was hopeless.
So he turned his attention to the narrow window, and found that the one bar down its centre was rusted a little, though firmly set in the masonry at top and bottom. Seizing it by the middle, Robin put his feet against the wall and strained with all his might. Slowly, very slowly the iron bent, until at last it slipped out of its socket and Robin fell back upon the floor with it upon him.
Rising hastily he clambered up into the narrow window place and gazed out. The sun was setting red and angry over Sherwood and shining upon him. Below, the castle lay in shadow; below – so far below that he shuddered as he looked – lay the castle garden, a hundred feet or more beneath him, with smooth stone all the way.
It seemed hopeless, but Robin felt in his pouch which had not been taken from him and drew out the silver bugle-horn he had won at Ashby-de-la-Zouche. Leaning out of the window he raised it to his lips and blew the old familiar call. Then he drew back lest any in the castle should see him, and listened.
A moment later his call was answered from nearby, and by the note he knew that it was blown by Little John.
Robin took off his shirt, fastened it to the iron bar, hung it from the window, and drawing back into the cell, waited patiently.
Nearly an hour later, when the light was gone, an arrow came suddenly through the window and fell upon the stone floor.
Eagerly Robin picked it up, to find, as he had hoped, a thin thread fastened to it. Slowly and carefully he drew the thread through the window, yards and yards of it. Presently the thread brought him the end of a thin cord, and this in turn was fastened to a rope of sufficient thickness to bear him.
Swiftly he tied the rope to the ring in the wall, and then, after a short prayer, slid feet first out of the window and climbed slowly and carefully down, down towards the ground so far beneath.
It was a terrifying descent, for the rope was thin and Robin swayed perilously from side to side. Moreover he knew that sooner or later the rope would fray through where it was stretched over the rough sill of the prison window. This indeed happened when he was some twenty feet from the ground, and Robin fell, and lay insensible for a while.
When he recovered Little John was bending over him. Robin staggered to his feet, whole in his limbs, but with a burning pain that told of some internal hurt caused by the fall.
‘Quickly, come quickly, dear master,’ whispered Little John. ‘There is a secret way out, and two horses await us beyond the walls.’
‘We must hasten to Locksley!’ gasped Robin.
Little John nodded. ‘John and the Sheriff with twenty men at arms rode out of the castle half an hour since,’ he said. ‘Thanks be to Reynolde Greenleafe who was our man in Sherwood and now commands the castle guard, I discovered where you were. He knew nothing of it, but got at the truth from one of these foreign fellows whom John brings here because he fears his own countrymen. Reynolde learnt too that they ride to Locksley. When he knew all, he let me into this garden and showed me how we might go unseen out of the castle. He sent a message also to Much who now owns the mill on the high road – the horses that wait us are his.’
Together, with Little John supporting Robin, they threaded their way by dark passages from the castle and out into the Forest. There the two horses were awaiting them, tied to a tree, and they had but to mount and ride.
The angry sunset had been followed by wind and fierce squalls of rain, and the riders bent low upon their horses’ necks as they galloped by the paths which Robin knew so well.
They came to Locksley Hall before King John and his men, but only by a few minutes.
‘We cannot defend this house,’ gasped Robin. ‘My honest friends, get you gone swiftly. Marian, to horse and away: King John and the Sheriff are without and more than twenty men at arms accompany them.’
Then some of Robin’s men slipped away as he had bidden them, but others saddled horses, looked to their weapons, and vowed they would die by Robin’s side.
Ten minutes later they rode out into the night, Robin Hood, Marian, and Little John, with four followers. Their enemies had surrounded the place, and the moon shining fitfully between the clouds flashed back from armour and drawn swords.
‘Ride north,’ directed Robin. ‘Onto the Great North Road. Ready now, charge them at full gallop – it is our only hope.’
The little cavalcade set spurs to their horses and charged their attackers, who massed together to receive them. The moon shone brightly at that moment, and Robin found the Sheriff of Nottingham in front of him.
‘It is the ghost of Robin Hood!’ screamed the Sheriff, a ghastly green in the moonlight. Then Robin’s sword passed through him, and he fell and writhed upon the ground and died.
Two of Robin’s men fell in that encounter, but the rest of them broke through and galloped away.
Then began a long, long chase through the night. The King’s men gained very little, but Robin could never shake them off. Once Marian’s horse caught its foot and went lame. One of the two remaining followers gave her his horse, and with a word of farewell slipped away into the forest through which they were riding.
Once two of King John’s men outstripped the rest and came perilously near. Then the other follower, with no order from Robin, turned suddenly and charged the men, and slew both of them but was himself slain by the rest of the mercenaries.
Towards morning, somewhat in advance of their pursuers, Robin halted suddenly at a side road.
‘A mile down there,’ he gasped, ‘lies the Nunnery of Kirkleys. John, do you take Marian thither and let her seek sanctuary of the Prioress, who is a most holy woman and will not break sanctuary even for the King.’
‘I go not without you!’ cried Marian. ‘Come to sanctuary also, Robin!’
‘You may be safe there,’ said Robin, ‘but not I. Go, Marian, if you love me. And you too, John: it is my last command. If I live, I will seek you there. But I fear that I am a dead man. That fall when the rope gave has torn something inside me. I do not think I could walk many paces – but I can still lead John and his men a good chase. One kiss, sweet Marian, and then farewell – perhaps for ever in this world.’
Then they clung and kissed, and after a brief moment Marian and Little John rode away towards Kirkleys. They were scarcely out of sight when the first of King John’s men came into view and saw Robin.
Then Robin bent once more over his horse’s neck, clapped spurs into its side, and rode on into the morning.
&nbs
p; 23
Robin Hood’s Last Adventure
Now quoth Robin, I’ll to Scarborough go
That I a fisherman brave may be!
BALLAD: The Noble Fisherman
When he parted from Marian and Little John, Robin Hood rode northwards for only a little distance, and then turned towards the east, hoping to throw off the pursuit. But King John’s men were after him still, and chased him over the bleak Yorkshire moors until they came down the long slopes into Scarborough and saw the sun rising out of the grey sea.
Robin clattered over the cobbles of the little fishing town, sprang off his horse at the first inn he came to – and then stumbled away down a side street in the direction of the harbour. A few minutes later his pursuers arrived, saw his horse, and in a moment were overrunning the inn to find him.
Meanwhile, Robin stumbling with pain and weariness found a house on the quayside where lodgings were to be let to seamen. And there the widow woman who was his hostess welcomed him kindly and set food before him.
‘I am a poor fisherman,’ said Robin, in answer to her questions, ‘and I have travelled across the country from Helsby in Cheshire… My name is Simon Lee… On the way I fell in with lawless men who robbed me of all I had, and pursued me to this very place.’
All that day Robin rested at the widow’s house, and in the evening walked out through the streets, leaning on a stick. Very soon he found that all the gates were guarded, and all those going in or out were stopped and questioned.
Robin sat on the quayside and gazed out over the twilit sea, wondering what to do. There were several people to whom he might turn for help, such as Sir Richard of Legh or Allin-a-Dale: but he knew that sooner or later King John’s agents would find him out, and then his friends would suffer for sheltering him.
‘I cannot even escape to Wakefield and take service with George-a-Greene,’ thought Robin, ‘nor return to Sherwood either as a shephered with Lionel and Eglamour or to gather a fresh band of outlawed men about me…’