![]() ![]() ![]() The Sheriff arrested the Forester for treason-of which, poor man, he was as guiltless as you or I-and carried him to Nottingham jail. He and his wife and Rob, then a youth of nineteen, were descended upon, during a cold winter's evening, and dispossessed without warning. These three enemies one day got possession of the King's ear and whispered therein to such good-or evil-purpose that Hugh Fitzooth was removed from his post of King's Forester. Rob's father had two other enemies besides Fitzwalter, in the persons of the lean Sheriff of Nottingham and the fat Bishop of Hereford. Days of youth speed all too swiftly, and troubled skies come all too soon. They knew that the great green-wood was open to them, and that the wide, wide world was full of the scent of flowers and the song of birds. ![]() But little cared Rob or Marian for this enmity, however it had arisen. Some people whispered that Hugh Fitzooth was the rightful Earl of Huntingdon, but that he had been defrauded out of his lands by Fitzwalter, who had won the King's favor by a crusade to the Holy Land. The castle of Huntingdon could be seen from the top of one of the tall trees in Sherwood and on more than one bright day Rob's white signal from this tree told Marian that he awaited her there: for you must know that Rob did not visit her at the castle. The other was Marian Fitzwalter, only child of the Earl of Huntingdon. One was Will Gamewell, his father's brother's son, who lived at Gamewell Lodge, hard by Nottingham town. Two playmates had Rob in these gladsome early days. But the boy, although he took kindly to these lessons of breeding, was yet happiest when he had his beloved bow in hand and strolled at will, listening to the murmur of the trees. She taught him to read and to write, to doff his cap without awkwardness and to answer directly and truthfully both lord and peasant. She was of gentle birth, and had hoped to see her son famous at court or abbey. The fond mother sighed when she saw the boy's face light up at these woodland tales. And on other stormy days the boy learned to whittle out a straight shaft for the long bow, and tip it with gray goose feathers. While on winter evenings his greatest joy was to hear his father tell of bold Will o' the Green, the outlaw, who for many summers defied the King's Foresters and feasted with his men upon King's deer. As soon as his right arm received thew and sinew he learned to draw the long bow and speed a true arrow. He was a comely, well-knit stripling, and as soon as he was strong enough to walk his chief delight was to go with his father into the forest. The boy had been born in Lockesley town-in the year 1160, stern records say-and was often called Lockesley, or Rob of Lockesley. Here for some years dwelt one Hugh Fitzooth as Head Forester, with his good wife and son Robert. One of the greatest of royal preserves was Sherwood and Barnesdale forests near the two towns of Nottingham and Barnesdale. These forests were guarded by the King's Foresters, the chief of whom, in each wood, was no mean man but equal in authority to the Sheriff in his walled town, or even to my lord Bishop in his abbey. In the days of good King Harry the Second of England-he of the warring sons-there were certain forests in the north country set aside for the King's hunting, and no man might shoot deer therein under penalty of death. ![]()
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