Then Little John and Will Scarlet and Allan a Dale ran leaping, full of joy, to make themselves ready, while Robin also prepared himself for the journey.  After a while they all four came forth, and a right fair sight they made, for Robin was clad in blue from head to foot, and Little John and Will Scarlet in good Lincoln green, and as for Allan a Dale, he was dressed in scarlet from the crown of his head to the toes of his pointed shoes.  Each man wore beneath his cap a little head covering of burnished steel set with rivets of gold, and underneath his jerkin a coat of linked mail, as fine as carded wool, yet so tough that no arrow could pierce it.  Then, seeing all were ready, young Partington mounted his horse again, and the yeomen having shaken hands all around, the five departed upon their way.

That night they took up their inn in Melton Mowbray, in Leicestershire, and the next night they lodged at Kettering, in Northamptonshire; and the next at Bedford Town; and the next at St. Albans, in Hertfordshire.  This place they left not long after the middle of the night, and traveling fast through the tender dawning of the summer day, when the dews lay shining on the meadows and faint mists hung in the dales, when the birds sang their sweetest and the cobwebs beneath the hedges glimmered like fairy cloth of silver, they came at last to the towers and walls of famous London Town, while the morn was still young and all golden toward the east.

Queen Eleanor sat in her royal bower, through the open casements of which poured the sweet yellow sunshine in great floods of golden light.  All about her stood her ladies-in-waiting chatting in low voices, while she herself sat dreamily where the mild air came softly drifting into the room laden with the fresh perfumes of the sweet red roses that bloomed in the great garden beneath the wall.  To her came one who said that her page, Richard Partington, and four stout yeomen waited her pleasure in the court below.  Then Queen Eleanor arose joyously and bade them be straightway shown into her presence.

Thus Robin Hood and Little John and Will Scarlet and Allan a Dale came before the Queen into her own royal bower.  Then Robin kneeled before the Queen with his hands folded upon his breast, saying in simple phrase, “Here am I, Robin Hood.  Thou didst bid me come, and lo, I do thy bidding.  I give myself to thee as thy true servant, and will do thy commanding, even if it be to the shedding of the last drop of my life’s blood.”

But good Queen Eleanor smiled pleasantly upon him, bidding him to arise.  Then she made them all be seated to rest themselves after their long journey.  Rich food was brought them and noble wines, and she had her own pages to wait upon the wants of the yeomen.  At last, after they had eaten all they could, she began questioning them of their merry adventures.  Then they told her all of the lusty doings herein spoken of, and among others that concerning the Bishop of