majesties, we
have hardly the wit to live in a body, and at the same time to keep our
necks out of jeopardy, while that arch-rebel and traitor John infests
the precincts of our territory."

The friar now conducted them to his peaceful cell, where he spread his
frugal board with fish, venison, wild-fowl, fruit, and canary. Under the
compound operation of this materia medica Robin's wounds healed apace,
and the friar, who hated minstrelsy, began as usual chirping in his
cups. Robin and Marian chimed in with his tuneful humour till the
midnight moon peeped in upon their revelry.

It was now the very witching time of night, when they heard a voice
shouting, "Over!" They paused to listen, and the voice repeated "Over!"
in accents clear and loud, but which at the same time either were in
themselves, or seemed to be, from the place and the hour, singularly
plaintive and dreary. The friar fidgetted about in his seat: fell into a
deep musing: shook himself, and looked about him: first at Marian, then
at Robin, then at Marian again; filled and tossed off a cup of canary,
and relapsed into his reverie.

"Will you not bring your passenger over?" said Robin. The friar shook
his head and looked mysterious.

"That passenger," said the friar, "will never come over. Every full
moon, at midnight, that voice calls, 'Over!' I and my varlet have more
than once obeyed the summons, and we have sometimes had a glimpse of a
white figure under the opposite trees: but when the boat has touched the
bank, nothing has been to be seen; and the voice has been heard no more
till the midnight of the next full moon."

"It is very strange," said Robin.

"Wondrous strange," said the friar, looking solemn.

The voice again called "Over!" in a long plaintive musical cry.

"I must go to it," said the friar, "or it will give us no peace. I would
all my customers were of this world. I begin to think that I am Charon,
and that this river is Styx."

"I will go with you, friar," said Robin.

"By my flask," said the friar, "but you shall not."

"Then I will," said Marian.

"Still less," said the friar, hurrying out of the cell. Robin and Marian
followed: but the friar outstepped them, and pushed off his boat.

A white figure was visible under the shade of the opposite trees.
The boat approached the shore, and the figure glided away. The friar
returned.

They re-entered the cottage, and sat some time conversing on the
phenomenon they had seen. The