" Thereupon he
rolled up his sleeve and showed an arm that made the yeomen stare. But
Robin, with his feet wide apart, stood firmly planted, waiting the
other, smiling. Then the King swung back his arm, and, balancing himself
a moment, he delivered a buffet at Robin that fell like a thunderbolt.
Down went Robin headlong upon the grass, for the stroke would have
felled a stone wall. Then how the yeomen shouted with laughter till
their sides ached, for never had they seen such a buffet given in all
their lives. As for Robin, he presently sat up and looked all around
him, as though he had dropped from a cloud and had lit in a place he had
never seen before. After a while, still gazing about him at his laughing
yeomen, he put his fingertips softly to his ear and felt all around it
tenderly. "Will Scarlet," said he, "count this fellow out his fifty
pounds; I want nothing more either of his money or of him. A murrain
seize him and his buffeting! I would that I had taken my dues from
thee, for I verily believe he hath deafened mine ear from ever hearing
again."
Then, while gusts of laughter still broke from the band, Will Scarlet
counted out the fifty pounds, and the King dropped it back into his
purse again.
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