He knew full well his skill with the long-bow, for many a time in friendly trials he had beaten the King's foresters and the men of Locksley town. It was his fifteenth birthday on the morrow; he would surely win a prize, and after that- he pondered, and said to himself, "Mayhap I shall become one of the King's foresters, then an archer of the King's guard, and so off to the wars like my father before me."

Just at that moment he espied through the leafy glade a small herd of hinds and young fawns led by a broad-antlered hart passing slowly by beneath the branches of a wide-spreading oak. Instantly his bow was in place, with an arrow nocked to the string; but ere he loosed the shaft, he paused, bethinking himself of what might follow should he kill. He was sorely tempted, for he wished to make trial of his skill before to-morrow's test; yet in a moment he sighed, lowered his arm, and slacked his bow. He knew the penalty of killing the King's royal hart; not a soul that could bend a bow in all merry England but knew it well. Better by far to be shot and killed outright than to have both eyes torn from their sockets, and the forefinger and thumb cut from each hand, then to be led into the forest to bleed and die. And so, as he strode along, right glad was he that he had withheld his hand from slaying of the King's deer.

The sun was now at high noon. Since breakfast at the Dog and Partridge he had covered over twenty miles, and his stomach began to crave food. He made up his mind to rest awhile at the first spring or brook that lay in his path. At last he came to a little sparkling rivulet tumbling down a bank-side, where sat a swineherd.

"Ho, good fellow," cried Robert, "what news in these parts?"

"None that I wot of, my master, save that there be a shooting-match in the town on the morrow, and many, like thee, do wend their way to it. May our Good Lady grant thee a prize!"

"Grammercy, good man, so I trust she may."

Thereupon Robert sat down beside him, and taking from his pouch the brawn and bread, gave half to the swineherd, who swallowed it like a hungry dog, in big gulps, long before the youth had finished his share. Then, lying down at full length, Robert took deep draughts of the cold, clear water, and again started on his journey.

He had chosen to go afoot rather than on horseback because he could thus more easily make his way through the tangled mass of bracken and underbrush in the deep forest. This jaunt of over twoscore miles taxed his strength not at all, for he was both strong of limb and light of heart, and now, within half a dozen miles of Nottingham town, he was almost as fresh as when he had started. He had just heard the baying of a hound, when, as he came forth from a thick, tangled path to the open, a loud, angry voice shouted: "Hold! Who goes there that so boldly marches through the King's deer forest?"

The lad turned aside and saw a band of foresters seated and standing around the trunk of a giant oak. There were fifteen of them. All except the speaker were ranged round an immense dish of venison pie. Near by stood some barrels of ale. Leather wine-bottles and drinking-cups of horn lay scattered about on the mossy soft ground. All were dressed alike from top to toe in Lincoln green.

"My name is Robert Fitzooth," quoth Robert, boldly, "and I go to the shooting-match at Nottingham town, where I hope to win a prize, and then, perchance, become a king's forester."

At this answer there arose a loud, boisterous laugh from every throat.

"What!" cried the chief, "thou a king's forester! Alack! thou couldst no more pull that man's bow hanging at thy back than could a blind kitten! Why, thou young whippet, our company needs men who can shoot a shaft from a goodly bow, not a babe just weaned."

"Do but look at him, comrades," said one, holding up a can of ale. "I trow a babe so young could never draw that string so much as the shake of a lamb's tail."

"I'll hold the best of you twenty marks," Robert made answer, turning red with anger and shame, "that I'll hit a mark at a hundred rods."

"Wilt thou so?" jeered the chief forester. "Lay down thy money."

"Alas! I have no money."

"O-ho! This young braggart hath no money, yet he layeth a wager! Come now, my fine bantam cock, what wilt thou wager?"

At this, young Robert went clean beside himself with rage.

"I lay my head against thy purse," he cried, in a choking voice, "whatsoe'er it contain, much or little, for there down the glade, fivescore rods away, I see a herd of deer, and by the leave of our Lady I will cause a hart to die."

"Done with you, and there is my purse," roared the angry forester; and he threw his purse on the ground among a pile of bows and quivers.

Now were the herd of deer in full view to all, led by a lordly hart which, turning, seemed to sniff some danger in the air. Then Robert took up his great bow, deftly tightened the string, nocked his shaft, and drew it to his ear.

"Remember, thou boaster, 'tis thy head is wagered," cried one; but Robert's hand trembled not, nor did his eye waver.

Twang! and the broad goose-feathered arrow flew through the air like a skimming swallow. All the foresters bent forward eagerly, for they saw at once that the lad was no boaster, but as good an archer as themselves. The entire band were struck dumb when they beheld the great stag leap in the air, drop to its knees, and roll over with the arrow clean through its heart.

"The wager is mine," cried Robert, "were it a thousand pounds." Then he stepped forward to reach the purse.

"Hold!" thundered he who had lost the wager, amid the angry shouts of the foresters. "The wager thou hast won is the loss of thy two eyes. Thou art an outlaw, for thy arrow smote the King's hart royal, and all who do so must die." Thereupon they moved forward to encircle the lad, who stood ready with another shaft nocked to his bow-string.

"Beware!" said he. "He that draws one step nigher shall die like the hart."

Thereupon, one of the foresters, who had stealthily crept behind him, leaped upon his back and bore him to the ground with an arm about his neck.

"Now, by Saint Dunstan!" quoth the chief, "this naughty fellow hath come in happy time. Our good Sheriff of Nottingham hath taken it much amiss that we have brought no deer-stealers to court, though many have been killed from the coverts. He hath twice hinted that our time is spent in revels and feastings beneath the greenwood-trees. This likely tale, forsooth, will now be mended."

At this all laughed, and Robert's heart sank, but he lay still, biding his time. One lazy fellow, whose head was humming with ale, spake, and said:

"Marry, let us hang him on yon tall tree, and so an end."

"Nay, by'r Lady, we owe the Sheriff a prize," quoth the chief.

"Ay, truly," said another. "We have need of the Sheriff's good-will. If ye will do as I rede you, let us bind him up in the skin of the royal hart he hath slain and sling him from our shoulders on a stout oak limb."

"Well said! That we will," cried they all.