CHAPTER XIV
As ye came from the holy land
Of blessed Walsinghame,
Oh met ye not with my true love,
As by the way ye came?--Old Ballad.
In pursuance of the arrangement recorded in the twelfth chapter,
the baron, Robin, and Marian disguised themselves as pilgrims
returned from Palestine, and travelling from the sea-coast of
Hampshire to their home in Northumberland. By dint of staff and
cockle-shell, sandal and scrip, they proceeded in safety the greater
part of the way (for Robin had many sly inns and resting-places
between Barnsdale and Sherwood), and were already on the borders
of Yorkshire, when, one evening, they passed within view of a castle,
where they saw a lady standing on a turret, and surveying
the whole extent of the valley through which they were passing.
A servant came running from the castle, and delivered to them a message
from his lady, who was sick with expectation of news from her lord
in the Holy Land, and entreated them to come to her, that she might
question them concerning him. This was an awkward occurrence:
but there was no presence for refusal, and they followed the servant
into the castle. The baron, who had been in Palestine in his youth,
undertook to be spokesman on the occasion, and to relate his own
adventures to the lady as having happened to the lord in question.
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