"Stand back, Sheriff!" cried Little John; and even as he spoke, a bugle
horn sounded shrilly and a clothyard shaft whistled within an inch of
the Sheriff's head. Then came a swaying hither and thither, and oaths,
cries, and groans, and clashing of steel, and swords flashed in the
setting sun, and a score of arrows whistled through the air. And some
cried, "Help, help!" and some, "A rescue, a rescue!"

"Treason!" cried the Sheriff in a loud voice. "Bear back! Bear back!
Else we be all dead men!" Thereupon he reined his horse backward
through the thickest of the crowd.

Now Robin Hood and his band might have slain half of the Sheriff's men
had they desired to do so, but they let them push out of the press and
get them gone, only sending a bunch of arrows after them to hurry them
in their flight.

"Oh stay!" shouted Will Stutely after the Sheriff. "Thou wilt never
catch bold Robin Hood if thou dost not stand to meet him face to face."
But the Sheriff, bowing along his horse's back, made no answer but only
spurred the faster.

Then Will Stutely turned to Little John and looked him in the face till
the tears ran down from his eyes and he wept aloud; and kissing his
friend's cheeks, "O Little John!" quoth he, "mine own true friend, and
he that I love better than man or woman in all the world beside! Little
did I reckon to see thy face this day, or to meet thee this side
Paradise." Little John could make no answer, but wept also.

Then Robin Hood gathered his band together in a close rank, with Will