Likewise the
King gave Sir William his signet ring to show to the Sheriff, that he
might raise all his armed men to aid the others in their chase of Robin.
So Sir William and the Sheriff set forth to do the King's bidding and to
search for Robin Hood; and for seven days they hunted up and down, yet
found him not.
Now, had Robin Hood been as peaceful as of old, everything might have
ended in smoke, as other such ventures had always done before; but he
had fought for years under King Richard, and was changed from what he
used to be. It galled his pride to thus flee away before those sent
against him, as a chased fox flees from the hounds; so thus it came
about, at last, that Robin Hood and his yeomen met Sir William and the
Sheriff and their men in the forest, and a bloody fight followed. The
first man slain in that fight was the Sheriff of Nottingham, for he fell
from his horse with an arrow in his brain ere half a score of shafts had
been sped. Many a better man than the Sheriff kissed the sod that day,
but at last, Sir William Dale being wounded and most of his men slain,
he withdrew, beaten, and left the forest.
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