“Lay me in the barge,” said the King.  And when Sir Bedivere had laid him there, King Arthur rested his head on the lap of the fairest queen.  And they rowed from land.

Sir Bedivere, left alone, watched the barge as it drifted out of sight, and then he went sorrowfully on his way, till he reached a hermitage.  And he lived there as a hermit for the rest of his life.

And the barge was rowed to a vale where the King was healed of his wound.

And some say that now he is dead, but others say that King Arthur will come again, and clear the country of its foes.

ROBIN HOOD

ADAPTED BY H.E.  MARSHALL

I

HOW ROBIN HOOD CAME TO LIVE IN THE GREEN WOOD

Very many years ago there ruled over England a king, who was called Richard Coeur de Lion.  Coeur de Lion is French and means lion-hearted.  It seems strange that an English king should have a French name.  But more than a hundred years before this king reigned, a French duke named William came to England, defeated the English in a great battle, and declared himself king of all that southern part of Britain called England.

He brought with him a great many Frenchmen, or Normans, as they were called from the name of the part of France over which this duke ruled.  These Normans were all poor though they were very proud and haughty.  They came with Duke William to help him to fight because he promised to give them money and lands as a reward.  Now Duke William had not a great deal of money nor many lands of his own.  So when he had beaten the English, or Saxons, as they were called in those days, he stole lands and houses, money and cattle from the Saxon nobles and gave them to the Normans.  The Saxon nobles themselves had very often to become the servants of these proud Normans.  Thus it came about that two races lived in England, each speaking their own language, and each hating the other.

This state of things lasted for a very long time.  Even when Richard became king, more than a hundred years after the coming of Duke William, there was still a great deal of hatred between the two races.

Richard Coeur de Lion, as his name tells you, was a brave and noble man.  He loved danger; he loved brave men and noble deeds.  He hated all mean and cruel acts, and the cowards who did them.  He was ever ready to help the weak against the strong, and had he stayed in England after he became king he might have done much good.  He might have taught the proud Norman nobles that true nobility rests in being kind and gentle to those less strong and less fortunate than ourselves, and not in fierceness and cruelty.

Yet Richard himself was neither meek nor gentle.  He was indeed very fierce and terrible in battle.  He loved to fight with people who were stronger or better armed than himself.  He would have been ashamed to hurt the weak and feeble.