Their story had no mystery, and Marian easily collected it from
the tenour of their conversation. The young man had been, like Robin,
the victim of an usurious abbot, and had been outlawed for debt,
and his nut-brown maid had accompanied him to the depths of Sherwood,
where they lived an unholy and illegitimate life, killing the king's deer,
and never hearing mass. In this state, Robin, then earl of Huntingdon,
discovered them in one of his huntings, and gave them aid and protection.
When Robin himself became an outlaw, the necessary qualification or gift
of continency was too hard a law for our lovers to subscribe to;
and as they were thus disqualified for foresters, Robin had found them
a retreat in this romantic and secluded spot. He had done similar
service to other lovers similarly circumstanced, and had disposed them
in various wild scenes which he and his men had discovered in their
flittings from place to place, supplying them with all necessaries
and comforts from the reluctant disgorgings of fat abbots and usurers.
The benefit was in some measure mutual; for these cottages served him
as resting-places in his removals, and enabled him to travel untraced
and unmolested; and in the delight with which he was always received
he found himself even more welcome than he would have been at an inn;
and this is saying very much for gratitude and affection together.
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