inging with you our
young kinsman Robin. There is a Fair toward at Nottingham for three
days of this week, and we are to expect great and astonishing
marvels to be performed at it.

"Wherefore, seeing that it will doubtless give him satisfaction and
some knowledge (for who can witness wonders without being the wiser
for them?), fail not to present yourselves as I honestly wish. I
also ask that Robin shall stay with me for the space of one year at
least, having no son _now_ and being a lonely man. Him will I treat
as my own child in all ways, and return him to you in the June of
next year.

"This I send by the hand of Warrenton, my man-at-arms, who shall
bear me your reply.

"Given under our hand at Gamewell, the 4th day of June, in the year
of grace one thousand one hundred and eighty-eight.

"(Signed) MONTFICHET."

Robin's clear voice ceased, and silence fell upon them all. Fitzooth
guessed that both his son and wife waited anxiously for his decision;
yet he had so great a pride that he could not at once agree to the
courteous invitation.

For himself he had no doubt. Nothing would move Fitzooth to mix with the
fine folk of Nottingham whilst his claims to the acres of Broadweald, in
Lancashire, went unrecognized. It was an old story, and although, by
virtue of his office as Ranger at Locksley, Hugh Fitzooth might very
properly claim an honorable position in the county, he swore not to
avail himself of it unless he could have a better one. The bar sinister
stayed him from Broadweald, so the judges had said, and haughty Fitzooth
had perforce to bear with their finding. The king had been much
interested in the suit, the estate being a large one, situated in the
County Palatine of England, and the matter had caused some stir in the
Court. When Fitzooth had failed, Henry, anxious to find favor with his
Saxon subjects, had bestowed on him the keeping of a part of the forest
of Sherwood, in Nottingham.

So Fitzooth, plain "master" now for good and aye, had come to Locksley,
a little village at the further side of the forest, and had taken up the
easy duties allotted to him. Here he had nursed his pride in loneliness
for some years; then had met one day Eleanor Montfichet a-hunting in the
woods. He had unbent to her, and she gave him her simple, true heart.

Strange pair, thrown together by Fate, in sooth; yet no man could say
that this was a