I see it now: truly I might have guessed before that the bold outlaw Robin, the most courteous Robin, the new thief of Sherwood Forest, was your lover, the earl that has been: I might have guessed it before, and what led you so much to the woods; but you hunt no more in such company.

No more May games and Gamwell feasts.

My lands and castle would be the forfeit of a few more such pranks; and I think they are as well in my hands as the king's, quite as well." "You know, father," said Matilda, "the condition of keeping me at home: I get out if I can, and not on parole." "Ay! ay!" said the baron, "if you can; very true: watch and ward, Mawd, watch and ward is my word: if you can, is yours.

The mark is set, and so start fair." The baron would have gone on in this way for an hour; but the friar made his appearance with a long oak staff in his hand, singing,-- Drink and sing, and eat and laugh, And so go forth to battle: For the top of a skull and the end of a staff Do make a ghostly rattle.
"Ho! ho! friar!" said the baron--"singing friar, laughing friar, roaring friar, fighting friar, hacking friar, thwacking friar; cracking, cracking, cracking friar; joke-cracking, bottle-cracking, skull-cracking friar!" "And ho! ho!" said the friar,--"bold baron, old baron, sturdy baron, wordy baron, long baron, strong baron, mighty baron, flighty baron, mazed baron, crazed baron, hacked baron, thwacked baron; cracked, cracked, cracked baron; bone-cracked, sconce-cracked, brain-cracked baron!" "What do you mean," said the baron, "bully friar, by calling me hacked and thwacked ?" "Were you not in the wars ?" said the friar, "where he who escapes untracked does more credit to his heels than his arms.

I pay tribute to your valour in calling you hacked and thwacked." "I never was thwacked in my life," said the baron; "I stood my ground manfully, and covered my body with my sword.