Page:Life and adventures of Robin Hood.pdf/23

 power. Of the luxury of the priests of his time he took particular notice, but never abused those he robbed, nor molested any woman. The priests of Bridlington, in Yorkshire, and Hubert, Archbishop of Canterbury, were his greatest enemies; for the latter set a price on his head, and several stratagems were set to catch him, but in vain. The bowmen in his retinue were all true men and honest, the terror of the rich and the protector of the poor, with whom he often associated.

Time passed on, King Richard died, and was succeeded by Prince John, under whose sovereignty the miseries of the people daily increased. Robin Hood subsequently followed King John as far as Northumberland, when the former was on his way to Edinburgh. His name got well known in the army; and whatever portion of the king's men fell in with Robin's, they were slain to a man. John quitted the north for Dover, and left commands for several bands of troops, stationed at various places, to follow and join him. Those which had to pass through Derbyshire, Yorkshire, or Lincolnshire, were mostly intercepted, and but few escaped to tell that Robin Hood had been among them.

Robin had now reached his fifty-fifth year; he began to feel dull and listless, and a presentiment was upon him that his time was at hand. An abbey which stood on the borders of the wood, called Kirkley Abbey, had once received him when wounded in an attack upon a band of Normans; the prioress claimed a relationship, and tended him very carefully until he recovered. Little John now advised him to seek her, and there be blooded—a remedy at that time, for all diseases of both body and mind—so he went, and was received with great seeming welcome. The prioress invited him to partake of refreshment, which, however, he declined, and requested to be bled forthwith.

She then showed him into a small upper room, and laid him upon a couch, while she opened a vein in his arm; she then took an enormous quantity of blood from him; so much, that he refused to allow her to take any more—she smiled, bound up his arm, and left the room, carefully locking the door after her—placing the key in her pocket, she descended the stairs.

The prioress, although affecting to be devoted to her Maker, had a most questionable love for a certain knight, who was very frequent in his visits to the abbey; and by dint of working upon her fears, he persuaded this wicked woman to destroy the brave Robin Hood. So when darkness crept on, she stealthily removed the bandage from his arm, carried