Abroad he spread a cloak of red,
A cloak of scarlet fine and gay,
Again and again, he frisked over the plain,
And merrily chanted a roundelay.

The ballad went on to tell how next day Robin saw this fine bird,
whose name was Allan-a-dale, with his feathers all moultered;
because his bonnie love had been snatched from him and was about to
be wed to a wizened old knight, at a neighbouring church, against
her will. And then how Robin Hood and Little John, and twenty-four
of their merrie men, stopped the ceremony, and Little John,
assuming the Bishop's robe, married the fair bride to Allan-a-dale,
who thereupon became their man and took to an outlaw's life with
his bonny wife.

"Well sung, my lad, but when thou shalt marry, I wish thee a better
priest than Little John; here is a guerdon for thee, a rose noble;
some day thou wilt be a famous minstrel.

"And now, my Stephen, let us sleep, if our good hosts will permit."

"There is a hut hard by, such as we all use, which I have devoted
to your service; clean straw and thick coverlets of skins, warriors
will hardly ask more."

"It was but an hour since I thought the heath would have been our
couch, and a snowball our pillow; we shall be well content."

"It is wind proof, and thou mayst rest in safety till the horn