er. "The fee to-day is thirteen pence; and
I will add thereunto some suits of clothing for that ragged back of
yours."

"God bless ye!" said the palmer. And he went with the soldier to the
jail to prepare his three men for execution.

Just before the stroke of noon the doors of the prison opened and the
procession of the condemned came forth. Down through the long lines of
packed people they walked to the market-place, the palmer in the lead,
and the widow's three sons marching firmly erect between soldiers.

At the gallows foot they halted. The palmer whispered to them, as though
offering last words of consolation; and the three men, with arms bound
tightly behind their backs, ascended the scaffold, followed by their
confessor.

Then Robin stepped to the edge of the scaffold, while the people grew
still as death; for they desired to hear the last words uttered to the
victims. But Robin's voice did not quaver forth weakly, as formerly,
and his figure had stiffened bolt upright beneath the black robe that
covered his rags.

"Hark ye, proud Sheriff!" he cried. "I was ne'er a hangman in all my
life, nor do I now intend to begin that trade. Accurst be he who first
set the fashion of hanging! I have but three more words to say. Listen
to them!"

And forth from the robe he drew his horn and blew three loud blasts
thereon. Then his keen hunting-knife flew forth and in a trice, Stout
Will, Lester, and merry John were free men and had sprung forward and
seized the halberds from the nearest soldiers guarding the gallows.

"Seize them! 'Tis Robin Hood!" screamed the Sheriff, "an hundred pounds
if ye hold them, dead or alive!"

"I make it two hundred!" roared the fat Bishop.

But their voices were drowned in the uproar that ensued immediately
after Robin blew his horn. He himself had drawn his sword and leaped
down the stairs from the scaffold, followed by his three men. The guard
had closed around them in vain effort to disarm them, when "A rescuer"
shouted Will Stutely's clear voice on one side of them, and "A
rescue!" bellowed Little John's on the other; and down through the
terror-stricken crowd rushed fourscore men in Lincoln green, their force
seeming twice that number in the confusion. With swords drawn they fell
upon the guard from every side at once. There was a brief clash of hot
weapons, then the guard scattered wildly, and Robin Hood's men formed in
a compact mass around their leader and forced their way slow