SHADOW-OF-A-LEAF Then you must mask And fetch her thence! Ah, ha, the bar works loose. Pull it! [_They pull at the bar, get it free, and throw it into the cell._] Now, master, follow me down the rope. [_Exit ROBIN thro' the window._] SCENE IV. _Night. The garden of the King's palace (as before), but lighted with torches for the masque. Music swells up and dies away continually. Maskers pass to and fro between the palace and the garden. On the broad terrace in front some of them are dancing a galliard._ [_PRINCE JOHN enters and is met by_ QUEEN ELINOR, _neither of them masked._] ELINOR All safe? PRINCE JOHN Ay, buried and bricked up now, to think Alone, in the black night, of all I told him. Thank God, we have heard the last of Robin Hood. ELINOR [_She puts on her mask._] You are sure? PRINCE JOHN I saw him entombed with my own eyes! Six feet of solid masonry. Look there, There's the young knight you've lately made your own. Where is my Lady Marian? Ah, I see her! With that old hypocrite, Fitzwalter. [_They part. PRINCE JOHN puts on his mask as he goes._] A LADY But tell me Where is Prince John? A MASKER That burly-shouldered man By yonder pillar, talking with old Fitzwalter, And the masked girl, in green, with red-gold hair, Is Lady Marian! THE LADY Where is Robin Hood? I have never seen him, but from all one hears He is a wood-god and a young Apollo, And a more chaste Actaeon all in one. MASKER Oh, ay, he never watched Diana bathing, Or, if he did, all Sherwood winked at it. Who knows? Do you believe a man and maid Can sleep out in the woods all night, as these Have slept a hundred times, and put to shame Our first poor parents; throw the apple aside And float out of their leafy Paradise Like angels? LADY No; I fear the forest boughs Could tell sad tales. Oh, I imagine it-- Married to Robin, by a fat hedge-priest Under an altar of hawthorn, with a choir Of sparrows, and a spray of cuckoo-spit For holy water! Oh, the modest chime Of blue-bells from a fairy belfry, a veil Of evening mist, a robe of golden hair; A blade of grass for a ring; a band of thieves In Lincoln green to witness the sweet bans; A glow-worm for a nuptial taper, a bed Of rose-leaves, and wild thyme and wood-doves' down. Quick! Draw the bridal curtains--three tall ferns-- Across the cave mouth, lest a star should peep And make the wild rose leap into her face! Pish! A sweet maid! But where is Robin Hood? MASKER I know not; but he'd better have a care Of Mistress Marian. If I know Prince John He has marked her for his own. LADY