"Where was the consideration of sending it at all?
This is some of your forester's pranks. He has missed you
in the forest, since I have kept watch and ward over you,
and by way of a love-token and a remembrance to you takes
a random shot at me."
The abbot of Rubygill picked up the missile-missive or messenger arrow,
which had rebounded from his shaven crown, with a very unghostly
malediction on the sender, which he suddenly checked with a pious
and consolatory reflection on the goodness of Providence in having
blessed him with such a thickness of skull, to which he was now indebted
for temporal preservation, as he had before been for spiritual promotion.
He opened the letter, which was addressed to father Michael;
and found it to contain an intimation that William Gamwell was to be
hanged on Monday at Nottingham.
"And I wish," said the abbot, "father Michael were to be hanged with him:
an ungrateful monster, after I had rescued him from the fangs of
civil justice, to reward my lenity by not leaving a bone unbruised
among the holy brotherhood of Rubygill."
Robin Hood extracted from his venison pasty a similar intimation
of the evil destiny of his cousin, whom he determined, if possible,
to rescue from the jaws of Cerberus.
The sheriff of Nottingham, though still sore with his bruises,
was so intent on revenge, that he raised himself from his bed
to attend the execution of William Gamwell.
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