So Little John spread out the Knight's mantle, and opened the bag, and therein lay ten shillings and naught besides. 'What tidings, Little John?' cried his master. 'Sir, the Knight speaks truly,' said Little John. 'Then fill a cup of the best wine and tell me, Sir Knight, whether it is your own ill doings which have brought you to this sorry pass.' 'For an hundred years my fathers have dwelt in the forest,' answered the Knight, 'and four hundred pounds might they spend yearly. But within two years misfortune has befallen me, and my wife and children also.' 'How did this evil come to pass?' asked Robin. 'Through my own folly,' answered the Knight, 'and because of the great love I bore my son, who would never be guided of my counsel, and slew, ere he was twenty years old, a Knight of Lancaster and his Squire. For their deaths I had to pay a large sum, which I could not raise without giving my lands in pledge to the rich Abbot of St. Mary's. If I cannot bring him the money by a certain day they will be lost to me for ever.' 'What is the sum?' asked Robin. 'Tell me truly.' 'It is four hundred pounds,' said the Knight. 'And what will you do if you lose your lands?' asked Robin again. 'Hide myself over the sea,' said the Knight, 'and bid farewell to my friends and country. There is no better way open to me.' At this tears fell from his eyes, and he turned him to depart. 'Good day, my friend,' he said to Robin, 'I cannot pay you what I should--' But Robin held him fast. 'Where _are_ your friends?' asked he. 'Sir, they have all forsaken me since I became poor, and they turn away their heads if we meet upon the road, though when I was rich they were ever in my castle.' When Little John and Will Scarlett and the rest heard this they wept for very shame and fury and Robin bade them fill a cup of the best wine, and give it to the Knight. 'Have you no one who would stay surety for you?' said he. 'None,' answered the Knight, 'but only Our Lady, who has never yet failed to help me.' 'You speak well,' said Robin, 'and you, Little John, go to my treasure chest, and bring me thence four hundred pounds. And be sure you count it truly.' So Little John went, and Will Scarlett, and they brought back the money. 'Sir,' said Little John, when Robin had counted it and found it no more nor no less, 'look at his clothes, how thin they are! You have stores of garments, green and scarlet, in your coffers--no merchant in England can boast the like. I will measure some out with my bow.' And thus he did. 'Master,' spoke Little John again, 'there is still something else. You must give him a horse, that he may go as beseems his quality to the Abbey.' 'Take the grey horse,' said Robin, 'and put a new saddle on it, and take likewise a good palfrey and a pair of boots, with gilt spurs on them. And as it were a shame for a Knight to ride by himself on this errand, I will lend you Little John as Squire--perchance he may stand you in yeoman's stead.'