As soon as they came to Nottingham they went to a good inn, and calling for strong ale and wine, the tinker drank so much that he forgot what he had to do, so that at night Robin made haste away, taking the tinker's warrant, and left him in the lurch to pay all the reckoning. When the tinker awoke in the morning and found that his comrade was gone, he called for the host and said, "I had a warrant from the king that might have done me good, for it was to take a bold outlaw called Robin Hood; but now my warrant is stolen away from me, and I have not money enough to pay the score, for the man that came with me last night is fled away; therefore tell me what I have got to pay, and I will leave my tools with thee in pledge till I return."
The tinker then went his way, and soon learnt in the town that the only way to find out bold Robin Hood was to seek him in the parks, killing the king's deer. Away then he went, and made no delay till he found Robin Hood chasing the deer through the woods. "What bold knave is that," said Robin, "that comes so freely to hinder my sport." "No knave am I," cried the tinker, "and that you soon will know to your cost; which of us have done wrong my crab-tree shall decide." The tinker and Robin then fought manfully, and the fray lasted three hours, or more, but at length the tinker thrashed Robin's bones so sore, that he made him cry out for peace. "One favour I have to beg," said Robin Hood, "and I pray thee to grant it me." "The only favour I will grant," said the tinker, "is to hang thee on a tree." But while the tinker turned round, Robin blew his horn, at the sound of which Little John and Will Scarlet quickly appeared, and said, "What is the matter, dear master, that you look so forlorn?" "Here is a tinker standing by," said Robin, "that has thrashed my bones sore." When they heard this they were going to seize him by the throat, but Robin said, "Let our quarrel now cease, that henceforth we may be friends with the tinker, and he with us; and if he will consent to be one of us, I will yearly give him fifty pounds, as long as he lives, which he may spend in the way which he likes best." So at last the tinker consented, and went along with them to their bower.
Chapter X.
Robin Hood's Death.
And now I must bring my stories to a close, and the unhappy death of valiant Robin Hood.
Robin fell ill, and because he required to be treated with skill, he went to Kirkley Abbey, where they sent for a monk to bleed him, and this monk being eager to get the reward that King Henry had set upon Robin Hood's head, most treacherously bled him to death.
Thus he that never feared a sword or a bow, or any man that lived, was basely killed, in letting of blood, and died without a friend to close his eyes. As soon as his men heard of his death they were filled with grief and dismay, and fled away in haste. Some of them crossed the seas and went to Flanders, some to France, and some to Spain and Rome.
Robin, Earl of Huntingdon,
Lies underneath this marble stone;
No archer ever was so good—
His name it was bold Robin Hood.
Full thirty years, and something more,
These northern parts he vexed sore.
Such outlaws as he, in any reign,
May England never see again.
HISTORY OF