Maid Marian

pe for dog: le

nry

of two miles. He had fought manfully in defence of his young master, took his captivity exceedingly to heart, and fell into bitter grief and boundless rage when he heard that he had been tried in Nottingham and sentenced to die. Alice Gamwell, at Little John's request, wrote three letters of one tenour; and Little John, having attached them to three blunt arrows, saddled the fleetest steed in old Sir Guy of Gamwell's stables, mounted, and rode first to Arlingford Castle, where he shot one of the three arrows over the battlements;

er, and concealed it in her bosom before the baron had time to look round, which he did with many e

ow in the same place would have killed you; theref

? This is some of your forester's pranks. He has missed you in the forest, since I have kept watch

th a pious and consolatory reflection on the goodness of Providence in having blessed him with such a thickness of skull, to which he was now indebted for temporal preservation, as he had befo

teful monster, after I had rescued him from the fangs of civil justice, to reward

timation of the evil destiny of his cousin, whom he dete

the execution of William Gamwell. He rode to the august structure of retributive Themis, as the French call a gallows, in all the pri

he confessor provided by the sheriff, and had insisted on the privilege of choosing his own, whom Little John had promised to bring. Little John, however, had not

ord, and set any odds of your men against me, and let me die the death of a man, li

h of setting odds against you. I have sworn y

id young Gamwell; "and now, hol

ar appr

e friar of the bridge, I had as lief have the devil in

ry well know, sheriff, was father Michael of Rubygill A

heriff; "and God be th

rd prayer. A deep silence among the attendant crowd accompanied this action of the friar; interrupted only by the hollow tone of the death-bell, at long and dreary intervals. Suddenly the friar threw off his holy robes, and appeared a forester clothed in green, with a sword in his right hand and a horn in his

ly their arrows among the sheriff's men, who, after a brief resistance, fled in all directions. The forester, who had personated the friar, sent an arrow after the flying sheriff, calling with a strong voice, "To t

remained long enough to supply themselves with clothes and money, and departed, under the escort of Little John, to another seat of the Gamwells in Yorkshire. Young Gamwell, taking it for granted that his offence was past remission, d