ut to his mistress dear, his loved Marian,
Was ever constant known, which wheresoe'er she came
Was sovereign of the woods, chief lady of the game;
Her clothes tuck'd to the knee, and dainty braided hair,
With bow and quiver arm'd, she wander'd here and there
Amongst the forests wild, Diana never knew
Such pleasures, nor such harts as Mariana slew.

Robin took away the goods of rich men only, never killing any person
unless he was attacked: nor would he suffer a woman to be maltreated.
Fordun, in the fourteenth century, calls him "that most celebrated
robber;" and Major says, "I disapprove of the rapine of the man, but he
was the most humane, and prince of all robbers."

Robin Hood seems to have held bishops, abbots, priests, and monks,
indeed all the clergy, in decided aversion; and this hostility was
strongly impressed upon his men:

Thyse Byshoppes and thyse Archbyshoppes,
Ye shall them bete and bynde.

The abbot of St. Mary's, York, from possessing so much wealth, appears
to have met with Robin's especial animosity: his yearly revenues
amounted to L2,850. 1_s._ 5_d_. Robin was, however, a man of exemplary
piety, according to the notions of that age, and retained a domestic
chaplain, (friar Tuck,) no doubt, for the diurnal celebration of the
divine mysteries. This we learn from an anecdote preserved by Fordun,
"One day, as he heard mass, he was espied by a certain sheriff and
officers belonging to the king, who had frequently before molested him.
His people perceiving what was going forward, advised him to fly with
all speed, but out of reverence of the Sacrament in which he was then
engaged, he refused to do so. Most of his men fled, fearing death, but
Robin confiding in him whom he worshipped, with the few that remained,
set upon his enemies, and soon vanquished them, enriching himself with
the spoils and ransom." Robin held masses in greater veneration ever
after, stating, that Providence deserved still more from him, having
delivered him thus miraculously. At length, the infirmities of age
increasing, and having a great sickness upon him, Robin was desirous to
lose a little blood, and for that purpose he applied to the prioress of
Kirkleys Nunnery, in Yorkshire; who, though a relation, treacherously
suffered him to bleed to death, in, it is said, his 87th year. According
to Grafton's Chronicle, it is said that after his death, the prioress
caused him to be buried under a great stone "by