The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1855-02-01
FOR THE NATIONAL ERA.
SHERWOOD FOREST,
WAGER BY BATTLE.
A Tale Of Saxon Slavery in the Twelfth Century
BY HENRY WILLIAM HERBERT.
CHAP. XIV.
The Pursuit.
Now tell me thy name, good fellow, said he,
Under the leaves of lyme.
Nay, by my faith, quoth bold Robin,
Till ihou have told me thine
Il. r. =

| Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborns
Until the last glimmer of daylight had faded
out in the west, and total darkness had prevail
| cd for several hours through the forest, Fad
wulf remained prisoner in his hollow trunk,
unable to discover the whereabout OF his enc
mics, but well assured that they had not return
ed, but had taken up some bivouac for the
| night, not very far in advance of his hiding
| place, with the intention of again seeking for
his trail on the morrow, when they judged that
| he would have once more taken the road. But
as soon as looking up the chimneyhke aper-
ture of his hiding place, he discovered the foil
age silvered by the moonbeams, he scaled the
inside Of the trunk, not without some difficulty,
working his way upward with his back and
knees, after the fashion of modern chimney
sweep, and, emerging into the open air. drew a
long breath, and again lowered himself, as he
had ascended, by the dropping branches, and
once more entered the channel of the stream.
This was in this place shallow, with hard bot
tom, the current which was swift and noisy
scarce rising to his knee, so that he waded
down it without much difficulty, and at toler-
able speed.
After he had proceeded in this manner about
two miles, he discovered red light in an open
glade of the forest, at short distance ahead,
on the left bank of the river: and, as he came
abreast of it, readily discovered his enemies,
with the bloodhounds in their leashes, sitting
or lying around a fire which they had kindled,
ready, it was evident, to resume the search with
the earliest dawn. This he was enabled to dis.
Germ without quitting the bed of the stream,
whose brawling ripples drowned the sound of
his footsteps; and as the water deepened i'm
mediately ahead Of him, he again plunged
noiselessly, and swan forward at least two
miles farther; when, calculating that he had
given them a task of two or three hours at least
before they could succeed in finding where he
had quilted the watercourse, if he had not en-
tirely thrown them out, he took land on the OPP
posite sidc to that on which they were posted,
and struck at his best pace across the waste.
1t might have been ten o'clock in the even
ing when he left the oak tree, and, though
weary and hungry, he plodded forward at a
steady pace, never falling short of four miles
an hour, and often greatly exceeding that
speed, where the ground favored his running,
until perhaps an hour before daybreak. At
that darkest moment of the night, after the
moon had set, he paused in little hollow Of
the hills having placed as he calculated at least
| five Thirty miles between himself and his
hunters, lighted fire, cooked portion of his
vcnison, and again, just as the skies began to
| brighten, got under way, supposing that at
about this hour his foes would resume their
search, and might probably in a couple Of hours
get the hounds again upon the scent. Ere that,
however, he should have gained another ten
miles on them and he well knew that the scent
would be so cold that it would be many hours
more before they could hunt it up if they should
| succeed in doing so at all.
All day, until the sun was high at noon, he
strobe onward across the barren heath and wild
| moors into which the forest had now subsidized,
when, after catching from hilltop a distant
| view of . town and castle to tho northward,
which he rightly judged to be Skipton, he reach
| ed an immense tract, seeming almost interim
nable, Of green, oozy morasses, cut up by rivu-
lets and streamles, and often intersected by
dangerous bogs, from which flowed the inter-
linked tributaries of the Eyre, the Bible, and
| the Holder. Through this tract, he was well
aware, neither horse could follow nor bloodhound
track him and it was overgrown in so many
nlaces with dense brakes Of willow and alder,
that his fight could not be discovered by the
| eve from any of the surrounding eminences.
| Into this dreary region he therefore plunged
| joyously, feeling half secure, and purposely
selecting the deepest and wettest portions Of the
bog, and, where he could do so without losing
the true line of his course, wading along the
watercourses until about two in the afternoon,
| when he reached an elevated spot or island In
the marsh, covered with thrifty underwood, and
there, having fed sparingly on the provision ne
had cooked on the last evening, made himself
. bed in the heather, and slept undisturbed, and
almost lsthargically, until the moon was up in
the skies. Then he again cooked and atsi but,