DevilSissy: Apologies! Apologies to everyone all around! I had the first
chapter up again, and you all told me and I kept forgetting to change it!!!
I'm sorry! Don't hurt me!
Pammon: Better run, Sissy. Here they come.
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Now, as it turns out, Robin did not escape. He twas caught naught but
twenty feet within the gates of Nottingham. Now the Sheriff, who knew of
Lobb, thought it best to take prisoner the cobbler as well, so the outlaws
would not know of the capture of their leader.
"The rouge deserves not to live, but to die at the gallows!" quoth he, and
Sir Fitzooth of the mark quite agreed with him.
So it was many days and the outlaws had heard naught of their gentle and
kind master, for his dead body hung limp upon the gallows.
"We should not have allowed him to go his own way." Said Little John.
"Now, now Little John. If Robin Hood hath been captured Lobb would have
told us by now." Said Maid Marian, trying to sooth the giant despite her
own fear for the safety of her lover.
"Why, by our Lady!" cried Friar Tuck. "Is that not Lobb the Cobbler coming
down yonder road?"
"Why, 'tis so!" cried John Sly, for he was closest. The outlaws watched as
Lobb neared. However, they soon saw that he was taking more time then it
usually took him to cross the distance.
"Good Lobb!" cried Will Scarlet. "Why art thou so hard hearted? Hath thou
not brought us news of our master?"
"Ay, Will. I fear so." Said Lobb as he neared. No knave could have missed
the note of sorrow in the cobbler's voice. "I was captured and taken to
prison upon the same day as thee fled Nottingham. Today I was released and
I saw the gallows still erect and tall." His voice cracked. "They hath hung
Robin Hood." Maid Marian burst into tears.
"What?" cried Will Stutely, "Without even a fair trial?"
"Ay, Will." Sighed Lobb. "And they locked me up to prevent me telling you
until the act was done."
"I can't believe it." said Little John. "How darest they?"
"There's more." Said Lobb wearily. "They hath left the body to hang, and do
not let him rest in peace."
"What?" cried Little John. "As though he were no more than a mere cow's
leg? How darest they, the dirty scoundrels!"
"Calm thyself, Little John." Will Stutely said. "We will not avenge our
master by cursing the poor people of Nottingham. Remember, it is not they
to whom we owe repayment. I have an idea that it was that wily Sir Fitzooth
of the Mark, in league with the Sherriff, to whom we owe tribute. And
tribute indeed they small get!"
"Come, good Will," said Maid Marian through her tears. "What is there that
we can do? Have you some plot in mind?"
"Not a plot, Maid Marian, at least not yet." Quoth Will Stutely. "But I say
that we pay the kind Sherriff and his guest a visit." There was a chorus of
hurrah from the many men about the clearing, and never had there been a
group of persons more bent on revenge as the Marry Men of Sherwood forest.
