a certain day they will be lost to me
for ever.'

'What is the sum?' asked Robin. 'Tell me truly.'

'It is four hundred pounds,' said the Knight.

'And what will you do if you lose your lands?' asked Robin again.

'Hide myself over the sea,' said the Knight, 'and bid farewell to my
friends and country. There is no better way open to me.'

At this tears fell from his eyes, and he turned him to depart. 'Good
day, my friend,' he said to Robin, 'I cannot pay you what I should--'
But Robin held him fast. 'Where _are_ your friends?' asked he.

'Sir, they have all forsaken me since I became poor, and they turn
away their heads if we meet upon the road, though when I was rich they
were ever in my castle.'

When Little John and Will Scarlett and the rest heard this they wept
for very shame and fury and Robin bade them fill a cup of the best
wine, and give it to the Knight.

'Have you no one who would stay surety for you?' said he.

'None,' answered the Knight, 'but only Our Lady, who has never yet
failed to help me.'

'You speak well,' said Robin, 'and you, Little John, go to my treasure
chest, and bring me thence four hundred pounds. And be sure you count
it truly.'

So Little John went, and Will Scarlett, and they brought back the
money.

'Sir,' said Little John, when Robin had counted it and found it no
more nor no less, 'look at his clothes, how thin they are! You have
stores of garments, green and scarlet, in your coffers--no merchant in
England can boast the like. I will measure some out with my bow.' And
thus he did.

'Master,' spoke Little John again, 'there is still something else. You
must give him a horse, that he may go as beseems his quality to the
Abbey.'

'Take the grey horse,' said Robin, 'and put a new saddle on it, and
take likewise a good palfrey and a pair of boots, with gilt spurs on
them. And as it were a shame for a Knight to ride by himself on this
errand, I will lend you Little John as Squire--perchance he may stand
you in yeoman's stead.'

'When shall we meet again?' asked the Knight.

'This day twelve months,' said Robin, 'under the greenwood tree.'

Then the Knight rode on his way, with Little John behind him, and as
he went he thought of Robin Hood and his men, and blessed them for the
goodness they had shown towards him.

'To-morrow,' he said to Little John, 'I must be at the Abbey of St.
Mary, which is in the city of York, for if I am but so much as a day
late my lands are