Robin Hood. Chapter 3

 Robin Hood. Chapter 3

The small group first advanced silently; The knight and the young woman were still thinking of the danger they had run, and a whole world of new ideas was stirring in our young archer's head: for the first time he admired the beauty of a woman.  

The naïve boy was already experiencing the first effects of love; he adored without knowing it the image of the beautiful stranger who rode after him, and he forgot her songs thinking of her black eyes. 

However, he finally understood the causes of his embarrassment, and said to himself, recovering his coolness: 

"Patience, I'll soon see her without her hood." 

The gentleman asked Robin about his tastes, his habits, and his occupations benevolently, but Robin answered him coldly, and did not change his tone until the moment when his self-esteem was wounded. 

"Didn't you fear," said the stranger, "that wretched outlaw would try to avenge his failure on you?" Weren't you afraid of failing? 

"No, sir, it was impossible for me to experience this last fear. 

"Impossible!" 

"Yes, habit has made the most difficult shots a game for me. 

There was too much good faith and noble pride in Robin's answers for the stranger to scoff, and he went on: 

"Would you be such a good shot as to hit fifty paces what you hit fifteen?" 

"When an opportunity presents itself you will see it.  

Silence again dominated for some minutes, and the group came to a large clearing to which the path cut diagonally. At the same moment a bird of prey was rising, and a fawn, frightened by the noise of the horses, came out of the thicket and crossed the grove to reach the other side. 

"Attention! Robin cried, holding an arrow between his teeth and placing a second one on the bow, "which do you prefer, the feather prey or the hair prey?" Choose. 

But before the knight had time to answer, the fawn fell mortally wounded, and the bird circled down into the clearing. 

"Since you have not chosen when they were alive, you will choose tonight when they are roasted." 

"Admirable!" cried the gentleman. 

"Wonderful! murmured the young woman. 

"Your Lordships have only to go straight on the road, and behind that mound you will see my father's house. Greetings!, I take the lead to announce my mother and send our old servant to gather the game. 

With that, Robin ran away. 

"A noble young man, isn't it, Mariana?" said the gentleman to his companion 

"A lovely boy, and the most beautiful English gamekeeper I ever saw. 

"He's still very young," she answered. 

"And probably much more than we might think from his tall stature and the vigour of his limbs. You cannot imagine, Mariana, what the outdoor life favors the development of our strength, and how it preserves our health; not so in the suffocating atmosphere of cities," added the knight with a sigh. 

"I think, Mr. Allan Clare," replied the young lady with a fine smile, "that your sighs have much less to do with the green trees of Sherwood Forest than with their lovely mistress, the noble daughter of the Baron of Nottingham. 

"You are right, Mariana, dear sister, and, I confess, I would prefer, if the choice depended on my will, to spend my days in these woods, living in the hut of a yeoman, and having Christ as my wife, than to sit on a throne. 

"Sss! there's the hut," Mariana said, interrupting her brother. 

An hour later Gilbert Head returned to the house carrying on his horse a wounded man whom he had met on the road; he took the stranger down with infinite caution from the place where he came and led him into the living room while calling Margaret, who was busy setting up the rooms on the first floor for the travellers. 

At Gilbert's voice, Maggie came. 

"Look, woman, there is a poor man who needs your care. A hooligan has stuck his hand in his bow with an arrow at the moment when he was aiming at a deer. Come, good Maggie, let us hurry; This man is very weakened by blood loss. How are you, mate? The old man added, addressing the wounded man. Courage, you will be cured. 

Go on, raise your head a little and don't be so dejected; Cheer up, I vote for courage!, no one dies because they have had their hand pierced. 

The wounded man, leaning back on himself and with his head between his shoulders, lowered his forehead and seemed to want to hide his face from his hosts. 

At that moment Robin entered the house and ran to his father to help him support the wounded man, but as soon as he laid eyes on him he turned away and beckoned to old Gilbert that he wanted to speak to him. 

"Father," said the young man in a low voice, "take care to conceal the presence of this wounded man in our house from the travellers above." Later you will find out why. Be prudent. 

The old man left Robin and went to the wounded man. An instant later, he uttered a prolonged cry of pain. 

"Ah! Master Robin, we have another of your masterpieces," said Gilbert, running beside his son, and holding him at the very moment when he was about to cross the threshold of the door. 

"What's wrong?" replied the young man, full of respectful indignation. Do you think that... 

"Yes, I think it's you who nailed this man's hand to the goal; in the forest there is no one but you capable of such dexterity. See, the iron of this arrow gives you away; it has our brand... Ah! I hope you won't deny your fault anymore. 

And Gilbert showed him the iron of the arrow he had torn from the wound. 

"Well, yes, my father, it was I who wounded this man," Robin replied coldly. 

The old man's expression became stern. 

"It is a horrible and criminal thing, my friend; Are you not ashamed to have so dangerously wounded, through boastfulness, a man who did you no harm? 

"I feel neither shame nor remorse for my conduct," Robin replied firmly. Shame and remorse belong to the one who attacked harmless and defenseless travelers in the shadows. 

"Who is then guilty of this felony?" 

"The man you picked up in the forest." 

And Robin told his father what had happened in all the details.  

"Did that wretch see you?" Gilbert asked uneasily. 

"No, for he fled madly and believing that it was the devil's doing. 

"Forgive me for my injustice," said the old man, shaking the boy's hands affectionately. I think the countenance of this man is not unknown to me," added Gilbert, after a moment's reflection. 

The conversation was interrupted by the arrival of Allan and Mariana, who were cordially welcomed by the owner of the house. 

By the afternoon of the same day the gamekeeper's house was in high spirits: Gilbert, Margaret, Lincoln, and Robin, especially the latter, were affected by the change and turmoil which the arrival of these guests had introduced into their quiet existence. Robin didn't move, but his heart was working. The sight of the beautiful Mariana awakened in him sensations unknown until then and he remained motionless, immersed in a mute admiration; He reddened, turned pale, trembled, when the young woman walked, talked, or looked around. 

While Robin, sitting in a corner of the room, adored Mariana in silence, Allan complimented and congratulated the old man on having such a son; but Gilbert, who expected to know things about the origin of his son at the least expected moment, always confessed that the young man was not his son and related how and at what time a stranger had brought the child to him. 

Allan was therefore astonished to learn that Robin was not Gilbert's son, and to Gilbert's explanation that the orphan's unknown protector had probably come from Huntingdon, for it was the sheriff of that place who paid the child's pension annually, the gentleman replied: 

"Huntingdon is our birthplace, and we left it only a few days ago. The story of Robin, a good gamekeeper, might be true, but I doubt it. No gentleman of Huntingdon died in Normandy at the time of this child's birth, and I never heard of a member of the noble families of the county marrying a poor commoner Frenchwoman. On my return to Huntingdon I shall inquire thoroughly and endeavour to discover Robin's family; My sister and I owe him our lives, may Heaven grant that we succeed and thus pay him the sacred debt of eternal gratitude! 

"We got lost in crossing Sherwood Forest to Nottingham," added Allan Clare, "and I expect to be on my way again to-morrow morning. Would you like to be my guide, dear Robin? My sister will remain here entrusted to your mother's good care, and we will return in the evening. Is Nottingham far from here? 

"About twelve miles," replied Gilbert; A good horse doesn't take two hours to make the trip. 

When night came and the doors were closed, our characters sat down at the table and honored the culinary talent of the good Margarita. The main dish was a quarter of roast venison; Master Robin was glowing with joy, he had killed that fawn, and she deigned to find the meat delicious to the palate! 

Suddenly a prolonged whistle from the room occupied by the sick man attracted the eyes of the diners to the staircase that led upstairs, and as soon as the whistle vanished in the air, a similar response resounded at some distance in the forest. Our six guests shuddered, one of the guard dogs howled with uneasiness, and the most absolute silence once again dominated the surroundings and the guard's hearth. 

"Something unusual is going on here," said Gilbert, "and I should be very surprised if there were not some of those characters in the woods who have no scruples about rummaging through other people's pockets. 

"Do thieves usually come here?" Allan asked. 

"Sometimes. 

Mariana, hearing these words, trembled with terror and approached Robin involuntarily. Robin tried to reassure her, but the emotion left him speechless, and Gilbert, realizing the girl's fears, said, smiling: 

"Be calm, noble lady, we have brave hearts and good bows at your service, and if the outlaws dare to appear they will flee as they have so often done, taking nothing as booty but an arrow under their coats. 

"Thank you," Mariana said. 

Robin was about to go on with reassuring words when a violent knock was heard at the outer door of the room; the building shook, the dogs thrown before the fire jumped barking, and Gilbert, Allan, and Robin rushed to the door while Mariana took refuge in Margaret's arms. 

"Hello! cried the guard. What rude visitor dares to smash my door like that? 

A second blow even more violent than the first was the response; Gilbert repeated his question, but the furious barking of the dogs made all dialogue impossible, only at last was a sonorous voice heard dominating the tumult and pronouncing this sacramental formula: 

"Open, for God's sake!" 

"Who are you?" 

"Two monks of the order of St. Benedict." 

"What do you want?" 

"Shelter during the night and something to eat; we have lost our way in the forest and we are starving. 

"However, your voice is not that of a dying man; How do you want me to know if you're telling the truth? 

"Pardiez, opening the door and looking at us," answered the same voice in a tone that impatience made less humble. Come on, you stubborn gamekeeper, are you going to open us up? Our legs buckle and our stomachs scream. 

Gilbert was consulting with his guests and hesitating when another voice, a timid, pleading old man's voice, intervened. 

"For God's sake, open the door, good gamekeeper; I swear to you by the relics of our patron saint that my brother has told you the truth. 

"Well, after all," said Gilbert, so that he could be heard outside, "there are four men here, and with the help of our dogs we shall give a good account of these people, whoever they may be." I'm going to open up. Robin, Lincoln, hold the dogs for a moment, you will release them if the evildoers attack us!