; "and pledge me
heartily, for these sorry times. I see that your armor is bent and that
your clothes are torn. Yet methinks I saw you at court, once upon a day,
and in more prosperous guise. Tell me now, were you a yeoman and made a
knight by force? Or, have you been a bad steward to yourself, and wasted
your property in lawsuits and the like? Be not bashful with us. We shall
not betray your secrets."

"I am a Saxon knight in my own right; and I have always lived a sober
and quiet life," the sorrowful guest replied. "'Tis true you have seen
me at court, mayhap, for I was an excited witness of your shooting
before King Harry--God rest his bones! My name is Sir Richard of the
Lea, and I dwell in a castle, not a league from one of the gates of
Nottingham, which has belonged to my father, and his father, and his
father's father before him. Within two or three years ago my neighbors
might have told you that a matter of four hundred pounds one way or
the other was as naught to me. But now I have only these ten pennies of
silver, and my wife and son."

"In what manner have you lost your riches?" asked Robin.

"Through folly and kindness," said the knight, sighing. "I went with
King Richard upon a crusade, from which I am but lately returned, in
time to find my son--a goodly youth--grown up. He was but twenty, yet he
had achieved a squire's training and could play prettily in jousts and
tournaments and other knightly games. But about this time he had the ill
luck to push his sport too far, and did accidentally kill a knight in
the open lists. To save the boy, I had to sell my lands and mortgage my
ancestral castle; and this not being enough, in the end I have had to
borrow money, at a ruinous interest, from my lord of Hereford."

"A most worthy Bishop," said Robin ironically. "What is the sum of your
debt?"

"Four hundred pounds," said Sir Richard, "and the Bishop swears he will
foreclose the mortgage if they are not paid promptly."

"Have you any friends who would become surety for you?"

"Not one. If good King Richard were here, the tale might be otherwise."

"Fill your goblet again, Sir Knight," said Robin; and he turned to
whisper a word in Marian's ear. She nodded and drew Little John and Will
Scarlet aside and talked earnestly with them, in a low tone.

"Here is health and prosperity to you, gallant Robin," said Sir Richard,
tilting his goblet. "I hope I may pay your cheer more worthily, the next
time I ride by