The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood
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The shaft flew straight; the archer fell forward with a cry,
and lay on his face upon the ground, his arrows rattling about him from out of
his quiver, the gray goose shaft wet with his; heart’s blood. Then, before the
others could gather their wits about them, Robin Hood was gone into the depths
of the greenwood. Some started after him, but not with much heart, for each
feared to suffer the death of his fellow; so presently they all came and lifted
the dead man up and bore him away to Nottingham Town.
Meanwhile Robin Hood ran through the greenwood. Gone was all
the joy and brightness from everything, for his heart was sick within him, and
it was borne in upon his soul that he had slain a man.
‘Alas!’ cried he, ‘thou hast found me an archer that will
make thy wife to wring! I would that thou hadst ne’er said one word to me, or
that I had never passed thy way, or e’en that my right forefinger had been
stricken off ere that this had happened! In haste I smote, but grieve I sore at
leisure!’ And then, even in his trouble, he remembered the old saw that ‘What
is done is done; and the egg cracked cannot be cured.’
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