+Argument.+--The knight goes to York to pay down his four hundred pounds to the abbot of St. Mary Abbey, who has retained the services of the high justice of England ‘with cloth and fee,’ an offence defined as conspiracy by statutes of the first three Edwards (see _Notes and Queries_, First Series, vol. vi. p. 479). The knight, pretending he has not brought the money, requests an extension of time; but the abbot will not hear of it, and is supported in his refusal by the justice: the knight’s lands will be forfeited. The justice advises the abbot (117, etc.) to give the knight a sum to ‘make a release’ and prevent subsequent legal difficulties. The knight brings the matter to an end by paying down the four hundred pounds, saying that had the abbot been more courteous, he should have had interest on the loan. The knight returns to his home in Wyresdale, and saves up the sum to be repaid to Robin Hood. As he sets out for Barnsdale with a goodly company, he finds a great wrestling-match taking place at Wentbridge,[1] which delays him a while. The word ‘frembde’ (138.3) is now obsolete except in Scots and north-country dialect, and is spelled in various ways. It occurs more than once in Chaucer, and twice in Sidney’s _Arcadia_. ‘Fremit,’ the common Scots form, may be found in Burns. More recently, it appears in books of Westmoreland, Cumberland, or Northumberland dialect. Cp. Mrs. Gaskell, _Sylvia’s Lovers_: ‘There’s a fremd man i’ t’ house.’ It means ‘foreign’ or ‘strange.’ [Footnote 2: Wentbridge is mentioned in _Robin Hood and the Potter_, 6.1. The river Went is the northern boundary of Barnsdale.] THE SECOND FYTTE 82. Now is the knight gone on his way; This game hym thought full gode; Whanne he loked on Bernësdale He blessyd Robyn Hode. 83. And whanne he thought on Bernysdale, On Scarlok, Much and Johnn He blyssyd them for the best company That ever he in come. 84. Then spake that gentyll knyght, To Lytel Johan gan he saye, ‘To-morrowe I must to Yorke toune, To Saynt Mary abbay. 85. ‘And to the abbot of that place Foure hondred pounde I must pay; And but I be there upon this nyght My londe is lost for ay.’ 86. The abbot sayd to his covent, There he stode on grounde, ‘This day twelfe moneth came there a knyght And borowed foure hondred pounde. 87. [‘He borowed four hondred pounde] Upon all his londë fre; But he come this ylkë day Disherited shall he be.’ 88. ‘It is full erely,’ sayd the pryoure, The day is not yet ferre gone; I had lever to pay an hondred pounde, And lay downe anone. 89. ‘The knyght is ferre beyonde the see, In Englonde is his ryght, And suffreth honger and colde And many a sory nyght. 90. ‘It were grete pytë,’ said the pryoure, ‘So to have his londe; And ye be so lyght of your consyence, Ye do to hym moch wronge.’