Forest Days: A Romance of Old Times
in the villages round. So do the monks at their gates, and Robin Hood
will be as good as a monk, though his gates be the meres of Sherwood.
Here, cooks, here is your reward, and let the tapster take the tuns for
his pains."
Very rapidly after these words were spoken the numbers on the green
began to disperse. Some sauntered down the road, some disappeared
amongst the trees, and those that remained made themselves busy in
carrying off the platters and trenchers from the table, and piling the
whole of the simple dinner-service, stools and all, into some large
country carts which stood near. No horses, indeed, were upon the
ground, but that of Hugh de Monthermer, and the white charger which had
borne the bold forester, and which was still seen under a tree,
finishing slowly a trough of oats that had been put down for its
consumption.
The boy who had held the beast while Robin was waiting for the Earl of
Monthermer, now stood close to his master's side looking up in his
face; and, at a sign of the finger, he darted away and led up the steed
at a quick pace.
Robin laid his hand upon the urchin's head, saying, "Good boy!" and
that word, if one might judge by the smile of the young countenance,
was reward enough.
"Now I am ready," said Hugh de Monthermer; and, mounting their horses,
they rode away into the wood.
"You will sup better to-night," said Robin, as they went.
"I do not know," replied the young lord; "I am anxious about this young
lady, Robin, that is the truth; and anxiety makes but bad sauce to the
most savoury food."
"Nay--nay, take heart of grace," said Robin; "I doubt not she is well
enough wherever she may be, and it becomes not a gay gentleman to pine
for any lady till he knows that she fares hardly."
"Nay, I do not pine," replied Hugh, not liking the term; "methinks I do
not look much like a sick crow or a magpie in the moulting season; but
still I must feel somewhat anxious, as you would if you had ever seen
her."
"Is she so very beautiful, then?" said Robin Hood, with an arch smile.
"Faith is she!" answered Hugh de Monthermer, "and more than beautiful,
though you may think my description savours of extravagance. But it is
not so. I have seen others perhaps as beautiful--perhaps more so--but
there is that sort of charm about her--that sort of sparkling grace,
which is like nothing but the bright morning sunshine, giving fresh
loveliness to everything it lights upon."
"Are you sure that the charm is not love?" asked Robin Hood. "But let
us talk of other matters. Here we must turn off from the road, and I
take you through paths in Sherwood unknown to any justice, either north
or south of Trent. Although I could well trust to your knightly honour,
and to your regard for the laws of hospitality, yet I must here exact
from you a promise, which every one makes who is led where I lead you.
It is, that, upon your honour as true man and good knight, everything
you see or hear from this spot till I lead you back to the high road
again, shall be forgotten as soon as you quit me, and revealed to no
one--no, not to your confessor."
The notions which then existed of knightly honour caused Hugh de
Monthermer to give the promise exacted from him without the slightest
hesitation; and, that having been done, the bold forester led him on
through one of those narrow lanes which we have before mentioned, where
only one horse could advance at a time. This path continued for about
half a mile, and opened out into one of the wildest parts of the
forest, through which there seemed to be no track of any kind.
It was not one of those spots properly called coverts--which name was
only applied to woods so thick that the branches of the trees touched
each other,--but, on the contrary, it was a sort of wild chase,
scattered with fine old oaks, and encumbered with an immense quantity
of brushwood. There were patches of green grass to be seen here and
there, indeed, and once or twice a sandy bank peeped out amongst the
bushes, while two or three large ponds, and a small silver stream
appeared glistening at about half a mile's distance from the spot where
the horsemen issued forth from the lane.
It was as lovely a forest scene as ever the eye rested upon, for the
ground was broken, and a thousand beautiful accidents diversified the
landscape. Every here and there a tall mound of earth, sometimes
covered with turf, sometimes rounded with brushwood, would rise up,
bearing aloft a graceful clump of trees, while the setting sun, pouring
its long horizontal rays across the wild track, cast lengthened shadows
over the ground below, and brightened all the higher points with gleams
of purple light.
Beyond, again, at the distance of not less than two miles and a half,
and considerably lower than the spot where the two journeyers stood,
reappeared the thicker coverts of the forest, rolling like the waves of
a deep green sea in the calm and mellow rays of the departing day,
while a slight mist here and there marked out its separate lines,
growing fainter and more faint, till some distant objects, like towers
and pinnacles--they might be clouds--they might be parts of a far
city--closed the scene, and united the earth with the sky.
Here all trace of a road ended, but without the slightest hesitation,
bold Robin Hood led the way onward, threading with unerring steps the
different green lines which separated one mass of brushwood from
another, guiding his companion under one tall bank, and round another
high mound, between the bolls of old oaks and across the dancing
stream, without even once meeting a check, or having to pause in his
whole course through the woody labyrinth.
At length, however, the sun went down, and the twilight just sufficed
to show Hugh de Monthermer his way, as they had reached the lowest spot
of the chase, and approached a clump of several acres of thick covert.
There was a path at one angle by which Robin and his companion entered,
and winding on in darkness for some way--for the trees excluded the
whole of the remaining rays--they at length emerged into an open space
in the centre, where they could again see, though faintly, the objects
around them.
Opposite to the mouth of the road by which they came, was the first
building that they had seen upon their ride. It was of a very peculiar
architecture, consisting of round stones piled upon one another, and
cemented together, being what, I believe, is called rubble, while the
windows and doors alone, presented hewn stone lintels and transoms,
with short small columns supporting each. A quantity of ivy had grown
over the greater part of the building; but there were lights within,
and for a moment Robin Hood drew up his horse as if to listen.
"Here," he said, at length, "lived and reigned a Saxon Thane when the
trees of Sherwood were yet young. His bones lie in the little chapel
behind. The memory of the place has passed away as well as the people
that inhabited it, and it has come to be the abode of a child of the
same race, when outlawed for the love of his country."
CHAPTER XI.
Two notes, or, as they were then called, mots, upon his horn, formed
the only signal that Robin Hood gave of his return; but in an instant
those sounds brought forth a head from one of the windows, at the
height of about twelve or thirteen feet from the ground. That it was
apparently a human head, Hugh could distinguish, and also that it was a
very large one, somewhat strangely shaped; but he was not a little
surprised when the body began to follow after, with an extraordinary
serpent-like suppleness, till the knees were brought upon the window
sill; and then, the feet being swung over, the body was suddenly
dropped, and hung against the side of the house, while one hand
retained its hold of the stone work, and the other waved, what seemed
to be, an odd-looking cap, round and round in the air. The next instant
the being who had thought fit to employ this unusual method of descent,
let go the grasp of its left hand, and came down upon its feet,
bounding up again from the earth like a ball, and cutting a curious
caper in the air.
Although well accustomed to all the monsters which were then much
sought for in courts and castles, Hugh de Monthermer at first imagined
that the creature before him was an enormous ape, so extraordinary was
its agility, and such the pliancy of all its limbs. The arms, too, like
those of the Simia tribe, were of an extraordinary length, and the one
which attached it to the window as it hung from above, seemed to be
longer than the whole body. The moment after it descended, however, the
young knight was undeceived, for a human voice proceeded from the
supposed ape, of remarkable sweetness.
"Ho! Robin, Ho!" it said in English.[3] "So you have come home at
length, wicked wanderer. You have been feasting in the forest, I know,
and carried off little Harry with you to pamper him on wine and
comfits, and left Tangel behind with the women."
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[Footnote 3: It must be remembered that Norman French was at that time
the language of the court.]
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"Did I not take thee at Christmas," asked Robin, "and leave Harry
behind? It was but fair, Tangel!"
"Ay, but he's the favourite," said the dwarf, "though he can't do half
that I can. Pretty looks, Robin, pretty looks! You're like all the
world, beauty's fool. Pretty looks are everything! But I'll comb him
into worsted when he comes back again."
"Nay; thou wilt not hurt him," replied Robin; "thou lovest him as well
as we do, Tangel."
"I love him!" exclaimed the dwarf. "Scurvy little monster of whiteness!
I love him not--out upon him! I'll carve his pink cheeks for him, and
bore a hole in each of his eyes. Take care what you do with him, Robin,
and look well to your meat; for if I find you kinder to him than to me,
I'll roast him before a slow fire, baste him in his own fat, and serve
him up to you as a barbecued pig. Ha! ha! ha!--that will be fine
sport!--Come, give me the horses.--Who have you got here in the purfled
jerkin?--Give you good day, sir," and with his cap in his hand, he made
a low and grotesque bow to the young lord.
"He will take your horse, my lord," said Robin. "Now let us in," and
approaching the door, he shook it with his hand. It was locked,
however, and the stout forester was obliged to have recourse to an
instrument, in use during many centuries in England, which served the
purpose of a knocker. It consisted merely of a large ring with sundry
notches in it; and, a small iron bar, hanging beside it by a chain,
being rapidly run over the indented surface, produced a sharp and
unpleasant sound, which soon called the attention of those within, who
enquired who was there.
The door was speedily thrown open at Robin's well-known voice, and Hugh
de Monthermer followed his guide through a long dark passage into a
room at the back of the house. There were lights in it, though it was
vacant; and it was hung with tapestry, which was stained in some places
as if with damp, though in general the colours were as fresh as when
first the texture was wrought.
"Here, Cicely," said Robin Hood, pausing at the door after his guest
had entered, and speaking to a pretty young woman who had given them
admission--"Bid them prepare a chamber for this young lord; and hark!
tell old Martha--"
The rest of the sentence was lost to the ears of the young gentleman,
and after the girl had tripped away, the Outlaw remained upon the
ground, apparently in a meditative mood, till at length the sound of
some one singing seemed to rouse him from his reverie. It was a
remarkably sweet voice, and the air was one but little known in England
at the time, coming from those Southern lands where music had made