what are we
But tendrils of old Nature, herald sprays!
We scarce anticipate. Pick the mortar out.
Quick, there's no time to lose, although to-night
We're in advance of sun and moon and stars
And all the tackling sands in Time's turned glass.

[_With a sudden cry._]

Richard is dead!

ROBIN
Richard is dead! The King
Is dead!

SHADOW-OF-A-LEAF

Ah, dead! Come, pick the mortar out,
Out of the walls of towers and shrines and tombs!
For now Prince John is King, and Lady Marian
In peril, gossip! Yet we are in advance
Of sun and moon to-night, for sweet Prince John
Is not aware yet of his kinglihood,
Or of his brother's death.

ROBIN

[_Pausing a moment._]

Why, Shadow-of-a-Leaf,
What does this mean?

SHADOW-OF-A-LEAF

Come, pick the mortar out;
You have no time to lose. This very night
My Lady Marian must away to Sherwood.
At any moment the dread word may come
That makes John King of England. Quick, be quick!

ROBIN

She is at the masque to-night!

SHADOW-OF-A-LEAF

Then you must mask
And fetch her thence! Ah, ha, the bar works loose.
Pull it!

[_They pull at the bar, get it free, and throw it into the cell._]

Now, master, follow me down the rope.

[_Exit ROBIN thro' the window._]

SCENE IV. _Night. The garden of the King's palace (as before), but
lighted with torches for the masque. Music swells up and dies away
continually. Maskers pass to and fro between the palace and the garden.
On the broad terrace in front some of them are dancing a galliard._

[_PRINCE JOHN enters and is met by_ QUEEN ELINOR, _neither of them
masked._]

ELINOR

All safe?

PRINCE JOHN

Ay, buried and bricked up now, to think
Alone, in the black night, of all I told him.
Thank God, we have heard the last of Robin Hood.

ELINOR

[_She puts on her mask._]

You are sure?

PRINCE JOHN

I saw him entombed with my own eyes!
Six feet of solid masonry. Look there,
There's the young knight you've lately made your own.
Where is my Lady Marian? Ah, I see her!
With that old hypocrite, Fitzwalter.

[_They part. PRINCE JOHN puts on his mask as he goes._]

A LAD