But scores of good fellows
were left behind him, stretched out all stiff beneath the sweet green
boughs.
But though Robin Hood had beaten off his enemies in fair fight, all this
lay heavily upon his mind, so that he brooded over it until a fever
seized upon him. For three days it held him, and though he strove to
fight it off, he was forced to yield at last. Thus it came that, on the
morning of the fourth day, he called Little John to him, and told him
that he could not shake the fever from him, and that he would go to his
cousin, the prioress of the nunnery near Kirklees, in Yorkshire, who was
a skillful leech, and he would have her open a vein in his arm and take
a little blood from him, for the bettering of his health. Then he bade
Little John make ready to go also, for he might perchance need aid in
his journeying. So Little John and he took their leave of the others,
and Robin Hood bade Will Stutely be the captain of the band until they
should come back. Thus they came by easy stages and slow journeying
until they reached the Nunnery of Kirklees.
Now Robin had done much to aid this cousin of his; for it was through
King Richard's love of him that she had been made prioress of the place.
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