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And Guy was quick and nimble withal,

And hit him o'er the left side.

"Ah, dear Lady!" said Robin Hood,
"Thou art both mother and may!

I think it was never man's destiny
To die before his day."

Robin thought on our Lady dear,

And soon leapt up again;

160

And thus he came with an awkward stroke; 165 Good Sir Guy he has slain.

He took Sir Guy's head by the hair,
And sticked it on his bow's end;

"Thou hast been traitor all thy life,

Which thing must have an end."

Robin pulled forth an Irish knife,
And knicked Sir Guy in the face,
That he was never on a woman born
Could tell who Sir Guy was:

170

Says, "Lie there, lie there, good Sir Guy,

175

And with me be not wroth;

If thou have had the worse strokes at my hand,

Thou shalt have the better cloth."

Robin did [off] his gown of green,

[On] Sir Guy he did it throw; And he put on that capul hide That clad him top to toe.

180

"Thy bow, thy arrows, and little horn,

With me now I'll bear;
For now I will go to Barnesdale,
To see how my men do fare.”

Robin set Guy's horn to his mouth;
A loud blast in it he did blow.
That beheard the sheriff of Nottingham
As he leaned under a low;

"Hearken! hearken!" said the sheriff,
"I heard no tidings but good;
For yonder I hear Sir Guy's horn blow,
For he hath slain Robin Hood:

"For yonder I hear Sir Guy's horn blow, It blows so well in tide,

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For yonder comes that wighty yeoman,
Clad in his capul hide.

"

"Come hither, thou good Sir Guy!
Ask of me what thou wilt have!
"I'll none of thy gold," says Robin Hood,
"Nor I'll none of it have;

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"But now I have slain the master," he said,

Let

me go strike the knave; This is all the reward I ask, Nor no other will. I have."

"Thou art a

a

madman," said the sheriff;

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"Thou shouldest have had a knight's fee.

200

205

Seeing thy asking been so bad,
Well granted it shall be."

But Little John heard his master speak, Well he knew that was his steven; "Now shall I be loosed," quoth Little John, "With Christ's might in heaven.”

21C

But Robin he hied him towards Little John; 215
He thought he would loose him belive.
The sheriff and all his company

Fast after him did drive.

"Stand aback! stand aback!" said Robin;
“Why draw you me so near?

It was never the use in our country
One's shrift another should hear."

220

But Robin pulled forth an Irish knife,
And loosed John hand and foot,
And gave him Sir Guy's bow in his hand,
And bade it be his boot.

225

But John took Guy's bow in his hand,

His arrows were rawstye by the root;

The sheriff saw Little John draw a bow
And fettle him to shoot:

230

Towards his house in Nottingham

He fled full fast away,

And so did all his company,
Not one behind did stay,-

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away so fast run,

But Little John with an arrow broad
Did cleave his heart in twin.

Percy Fol. MS. (modernized).

235

KINMONT WILLIE

O HAVE ye na heard o' the fause Sakelde?
O have ye na heard o' the keen Lord
Scroope?

How they ha'e ta'en bauld Kinmont Willie,
On Haribee to hang him up?

Had Willie had but twenty men,

But twenty men as stout as he,

Fause Sakelde had never the Kinmont ta'en, score in his companie.

Wi' eight

They band his legs beneath the steed;
They tied his hands behind his back,
They guarded him, fivesome on each side,
And they brought him o'er the Liddel-rack.

They led him through the Liddel-rack,
And also through the Carlisle sands;
They brought him to Carlisle castle,
To be at my Lord Scroope's commands.

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"My hands are tied, but my tongue is free, And whae will dare this deed avow? Or answer by the Border law?

Or answer to the bauld Buccleuch?"

"Now haud thy tongue, thou rank reiver ! There's never a Scot shall set thee free: Before ye cross my castle yate,

I trow ye shall take farewell o' me."

"Fear na ye that, my lord," quo' Willie:

"By the faith o' my body, Lord Scroope," he

said,

"I never yet lodged in a hostelrie,

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But I paid my lawing before I gaed."

Now word is gane to the bauld keeper,

In Branksome Ha', where that he lay, That Lord Scroope has ta'en the Kinmont Willie,

Between the hours of night and day.

He has ta'en the table wi' his hand,

He gar'd the red wine spring on hie; 'Now Christ's curse on my head," he said, “But avenged of Lord Scroope I'll be!

“O is my basnet a widow's curch?uhan

Or my lance a wand of the willow-tree? Or my arm a lady's lily hand,

That an English lord should lightly me!

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