ked for his absence."

Young Gamwell stood at the foot of the ladder. The friar approached him,
opened his book, groaned, turned up the whites of his eyes, tossed up
his arms in the air, and said "Dominus vobiscum." He then crossed both
his hands on his breast under the folds of his holy robes, and stood a
few moments as if in inward prayer. A deep silence among the attendant
crowd accompanied this action of the friar; interrupted only by the
hollow tone of the death-bell, at long and dreary intervals. Suddenly
the friar threw off his holy robes, and appeared a forester clothed in
green, with a sword in his right hand and a horn in his left. With the
sword he cut the bonds of William Gamwell, who instantly snatched a
sword from one of the sheriff's men; and with the horn he blew a loud
blast, which was answered at once by four bugles from the quarters
of the four winds, and from each quarter came five-and-twenty bowmen
running all on a row.

"Treason! treason!" cried the sheriff. Old Sir Guy sprang to his son's
side, and so did Little John; and the four setting back to back, kept
the sheriff and his men at bay till the bowmen came within shot and let
fly their arrows among the sheriff's men, who, after a brief resistance,
fled in all directions. The forester, who had personated the friar, sent
an arrow after the flying sheriff, calling with a strong voice, "To the
sheriff's left arm, as a keepsake from Robin Hood." The arrow reached
its destiny; the sheriff redoubled his speed, and, with the one arrow in
his arm, did not stop to breathe till he was out of reach of another.

The foresters did not waste time in Nottingham, but were soon at a
distance from its walls. Sir Guy returned with Alice to Gamwell-Hall;
but thinking he should not be safe there, from the share he had had in
his son's rescue, they only remained long enough to supply themselves
with clothes and money, and departed, under the escort of Little John,
to another seat of the Gamwells in Yorkshire. Young Gamwell, taking it
for granted that his offence was past remission, determined on joining
Robin Hood, and accompanied him to the forest, where it was deemed
expedient that he should change his name; and he was rechristened
without a priest, and with wine instead of water, by the immortal name
of Scarlet.

CHAPTER IX

Who set my man i' the stocks?----
I set him there, Sir but his own disorders
Deserved much less advancement.