"
So David strode forth, and when he came up to the pilgrim, he saluted
him and said, "Good morrow, holy father, and canst thou tell me when
Will Stutely will be hanged upon the gallows tree? I fain would not miss
the sight, for I have come from afar to see so sturdy a rogue hanged."
"Now, out upon thee, young man," cried the Palmer, "that thou shouldst
speak so when a good stout man is to be hanged for nothing but guarding
his own life!" And he struck his staff upon the ground in anger. "Alas,
say I, that this thing should be! For even this day, toward evening,
when the sun falleth low, he shall be hanged, fourscore rods from the
great town gate of Nottingham, where three roads meet; for there
the Sheriff sweareth he shall die as a warning to all outlaws in
Nottinghamshire. But yet, I say again, Alas! For, though Robin Hood and
his band may be outlaws, yet he taketh only from the rich and the strong
and the dishonest man, while there is not a poor widow nor a peasant
with many children, nigh to Sherwood, but has barley flour enough all
the year long through him. It grieves my heart to see one as gallant as
this Stutely die, for I have been a good Saxon yeoman in my day, ere
I turned palmer, and well I know a stout hand and one that smiteth
shrewdly at a cruel Norman or a proud abbot with fat moneybags. Had good
Stutely's master but known how his man was compassed about with perils,
perchance he might send succor to bring him out of the hand of his
enemies.
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