ght, "and if Little John searches he will
find no more." "Open the coffer," said Robin, and Little John took it
away to the other side of the trysting oak, where he emptied its
contents on his outspread cloak, and found exactly ten shillings.
Returning to his master, who sat at his ease, drinking and gaily
conversing with his anxious guest, Little John whispered: "The knight
has told the truth," and thereupon Robin exclaimed aloud: "Sir Knight,
I will not take one penny from you; you may rather borrow of me if
you have need of more money, for ten shillings is but a miserable sum
for a knight. But tell me now, if it be your pleasure, how you come to
be in such distress." As he looked inquiringly at the stranger, whose
blush had faded once, only to be renewed as he found his word of
honour doubted, he noticed how thin and threadbare were his clothes
and how worn his russet leather shoes; and he was grieved to see so
noble-seeming a man in such a plight.

The Knight's Story

Yet Robin meant to fathom the cause of the knight's trouble, for then,
perhaps, he would be able to help him, so he continued pitilessly:
"Tell me just one word, which I will keep secret from all other men:
were you driven by compulsion to take up knighthood, or urged to beg
it by reason of the ownership of some small estate; or have you wasted
your old inheritance with fines for brawling and strife, or in
gambling and riotousness, or in borrowing at usury? All of these are
fatal to a good estate."

The knight replied: "Alas! good Robin, none of these hath been my
undoing. My ancestors have all been knights for over a hundred years,
and I have not lived wastefully, but soberly and sparely. As short a
time ago as last year I had over four hundred pounds saved, which I
could spend freely among my neighbours, and my income was four hundred
pounds a year, from my land; but now my only possessions are my wife
and children. This is the work of God's hand, and to Him I commit me
to amend my estate in His own good time."

How the Money was Lost

"But how have you so soon lost this great wealth?" asked Robin
incredulously; and the knight replied sadly: "Ah, Robin, you have no
son, or you would know that a father will give up all to save his
first-born. I have one gallant son, and when I went on the Crusade
with our noble Prince Edward I left him at home to guard my lands, for
he was twenty years old, and was a brave and comely youth. When I
returned,