That our hero and his companions, while they lived in the woods, had recourse to robbery for their better support is neither to be concealed nor to be denied. Testimonies to this purpose, indeed, would be equally endless and unnecessary. Fordun, in the fourteenth century, calls him “_ille famosissimus siccarius_,” that most celebrated robber, and Major terms him and Little John “_famatissimi latrones_.” But it is to be remembered, according to the confession of the latter historian, that, in these exertions of power, he took away the goods of rich men only; never killing any person, unless he was attacked or resisted: that he would not suffer a woman to be maltreated; nor ever took anything from the poor, but charitably fed them with the wealth he drew from the abbots. I disapprove, says he, of the rapine {ix} of the man: but he was the most humane and the prince of all robbers (18). In allusion, no doubt, to this irregular and predatory course of life, he has had the honour to be compared to the illustrious Wallace, the champion and deliverer of his country; and that, it is not a little remarkable, in the latter’s own time (19). Our hero, indeed, seems to have held bishops, abbots, priests, and monks, in a word, all the clergy, regular or secular, in decided aversion. “These byshoppes and thyse archebyshoppes, Ye shall them bete and bynde,” was an injunction carefully impressed upon his followers. The Abbot of Saint Mary’s, in York (20), from some unknown cause, appears to have been distinguished by particular animosity; and the Sheriff of Nottinghamshire (21), who may have been too active and officious in his endeavours to apprehend him, was the unremitted object of his vengeance.