"I take your meaning," answered the knight, "but I am no guest for you, for I have no money. Indeed, I am in great sorrow by reason of this very thing. Having great need of money to save the life of my son, I mortgaged my estate to the prior of Emmet and, though I could raise the money if he would give me more time, he will not give me a day, but means to seize the estate and turn me out a beggar." "How much money did you borrow of him?" asked Robin Hood. "Only four hundred pounds. The estate is worth many times that but he will show no mercy." "Have you no friends who could lend you the money?" asked Robin Hood. "Alas, no," answered the knight. "When I was fortunate I had many friends who crowded around me, but now that I have come to trouble they have all deserted me." "Well, the men who are in trouble always have friends in Sherwood Forest," answered Robin Hood. "Come with me as a free guest and we will find a way to help you." So they went on until they came to the great tree where Friar Tuck and half a dozen others were preparing the feast around a huge fire. And there in the light of the flames sat the bishop of Hereford under guard, with his sumpter mules with their loaded packs tied to the trees around. "Have mercy," he whined. But Robin Hood answered sternly. "What mercy have you ever shown to the poor? Men, open his packs!" So they opened the packs, which were full of rich goods and divided them into three parts. Beside the packs of goods there was a box that held fifteen hundred pounds in gold. Robin Hood took up the portion divided out for the poor and gave it to the sorrowful knight. "Since the churchmen have despoiled you, the churchmen shall help you," he said. "Oh, I thank you," cried the knight, his sorrowful face lighting up for the first time that day. "But I will not take it as a gift but as a loan. I will pay it back to the bishop or to you." The bishop nodded and opened his mouth to say "That is well," but Robin Hood interrupted him shortly. "Pay it to me," he said. "I will help the poor with it. The bishop would but crowd it into his own coffers, and use it to gain more money." So the knight who had been so sorrowful departed with all his troubles cleared away. Sorely disappointed was the prior of Emmet for he had made sure by cheating and craft that the poor knight who had fallen into his clutches could not get the money to redeem his lands anywhere, and he counted them already in his grasp. But he had to give them up; and that is a story too, but we have not room to tell it here. ROBIN HOOD AND THE KING "I wish I could see Robin Hood," said King Richard. "I wish I could see him and his men shoot and wrestle and go through all the feats in which they have such wondrous skill. But if they heard that the king was coming, they would think it was only to arrest them, and they would flee deep into the forest and I should never get a glimpse of them."