Sir Richard Sets Out to Repay the Loan
When a year had passed all but a few days, Sir Richard of the Lea said to his wife: “Lady, I must shortly go to Barnesdale to repay Robin Hood the loan which saved my lands, and would fain take him some small gift in addition; what do you advise?” “Sir Richard, I would take a hundred bows of Spanish yew and a hundred sheaves of arrows, peacock-feathered, or grey-goose-feathered; methinks that will be to Robin a most acceptable gift.”
Sir Richard followed his wife’s advice, and on the morning of the appointed day set out to keep his tryst at the outlaws’ oak in Barnesdale, with the money duly counted, and the bows and arrows for his present to the outlaw chief.