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across his saddle, and disguised in a coun- tryman’s frock. Being in want of a horse, he resolved to rob the parson, and laying I hold to the briddle, ordered him to dismount; d but the priest struck a furious blow at Robin 1 with the hut-end of his whip, which he received on his staff, and soon brought the priest to the ground.
After robbing the parson of his money and horse, and requesting to be remembered i in his prayers, Robin rode off for for Strat- ford. On the road he fell in with a rich country dealer going to purchase goods at Lancaster, with whom he soon got acquainted and they travelled together; but the mer- chant was so close, that Robin, could make nothing of him. On reaching Coventry, where they dined together, and drank some good wine and ale, Robin told his fellow- traveller, that as the roads they had to travel were so dangerous, the safest way was to conceal their money in their boots, and on seeing Robin deposit a bag of gold, the merchant did the same. They again con- tinued their journey until they came to a part of the road which crossed two ways, where Robin pulled off the merchant’s boots, in which he got three hundred pieces of gold, I and rode oft’ for Sherwood Forest.
At one time when the finances of the merry men were very low, they resolved to
