"Thou hast done thine embassy justly, and shalt have thy Lady's grace." "Alack! alack!" said the monk: "no embassy had I, luckless sinner, as well thou wottest, but to take to my abbey in safety the treasure whereof thou hast despoiled me." "Propound me his case," said Friar Tuck, "and I will give him ghostly counsel." "You well remember," said Robin Hood, "the sorrowful knight who dined with us here twelve months and a day gone by." "Well do I," said Friar Tuck.

"His lands were in jeopardy with a certain abbot, who would allow him no longer day for their redemption.

Whereupon you lent to him the four hundred pounds which he needed, and which he was to repay this day, though he had no better security to give than our Lady the Virgin." "I never desired better," said Robin, "for she never yet failed to send me my pay; and here is one of her own flock, this faithful and well-favoured monk of St.Mary's, hath brought it me duly, principal and interest to a penny, as Little John can testify, who told it forth.

To be sure, he denied having it, but that was to prove our faith.

We sought and found it." "I know nothing of your knight," said the monk: "and the money was our own, as the Virgin shall bless me." "She shall bless thee," said Friar Tuck, "for a faithful messenger." The monk resumed his wailing.