At last the King, seeing how faithful and how loyal he was,
created him Earl of Huntingdon; so Robin followed the King to the wars,
and found his time so full that he had no chance to come back to
Sherwood for even so much as a day. As for Allan a Dale and his wife,
the fair Ellen, they followed Robin Hood and shared in all his ups and
downs of life.
And now, dear friend, you who have journeyed with me in all these merry
doings, I will not bid you follow me further, but will drop your hand
here with a "good den," if you wish it; for that which cometh hereafter
speaks of the breaking up of things, and shows how joys and pleasures
that are dead and gone can never be set upon their feet to walk again. I
will not dwell upon the matter overlong, but will tell as speedily as
may be of how that stout fellow, Robin Hood, died as he had lived, not
at court as Earl of Huntingdon, but with bow in hand, his heart in the
greenwood, and he himself a right yeoman.
King Richard died upon the battlefield, in such a way as properly became
a lion-hearted king, as you yourself, no doubt, know; so, after a time,
the Earl of Huntingdon--or Robin Hood, as we still call him as of old--
finding nothing for his doing abroad, came back to merry England again.
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