The baron, meanwhile, after the ministers of justice had departed,
interrogated Matilda concerning the alleged fact of the grievous
bruising of the sheriff of Nottingham. Matilda told him the whole
history of Gamwell feast, and of their battle on the bridge,
which had its origin in a design of the sheriff of Nottingham
to take one of the foresters into custody.
"Ay! ay!" said the baron, "and I guess who that forester was;
but truly this friar is a desperate fellow. I did not think
there could have been so much valour under a grey frock.
And so you wounded the knight in the arm. You are a
wild girl, Mawd,--a chip of the old block, Mawd. A wild girl,
and a wild friar, and three or four foresters, wild lads all,
to keep a bridge against a tame knight, and a tame sheriff,
and fifty tame varlets; by this light, the like was never heard!
But do you know, Mawd, you must not go about so any more,
sweet Mawd: you must stay at home, you must ensconce;
for there is your tame sheriff on the one hand, that will take
you perforce; and there is your wild forester on the other hand,
that will take you without any force at all, Mawd: your wild
forester, Robin, cousin Robin, Robin Hood of Sherwood Forest,
that beats and binds bishops, spreads nets for archbishops,
and hunts a fat abbot as if he were a buck: excellent game,
no doubt, but you must hunt no more in such company.
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