“Alas!” answered young Gamwell, “it is an ill story, uncle, that I have to tell thee. My father’s steward, who came to us after old Giles Crookleg died, was ever a saucy varlet, and I know not why my father kept him, saving that he did oversee with great judgment. It used to gall me to hear him speak up so boldly to my father, who, thou knowest, was ever a patient man to those about him, and slow to anger and harsh words. Well, one day—and an ill day it was for that saucy fellow—he sought to berate my father, I standing by. I could stand it no longer, good uncle, so, stepping forth, I gave him a box o’ the ear, and— wouldst thou believe it?—the fellow straightway died o’t. I think they said I broke his neck, or something o’ the like. So off they packed me to seek thee and escape the law. I was on my way when thou sawest me, and here I am.”
“Well, by the faith of my heart,” quoth Robin Hood, “for anyone escaping the law, thou wast taking it the most easily that ever I beheld in all my life. Whenever did anyone in all the world see one who had slain a man, and was escaping because of it, tripping along the highway like a dainty court damsel, sniffing at a rose the while?”