leave being granted he gave three whistles, which were followed by the noise of a great crashing through the trees, as fifty great dogs bounded towards him.
‘Here’s a dog for each of your men,’ said the friar, ‘and I myself for you’; but the dogs did not listen to his words, for two of them rushed at Robin and tore his mantle of Lincoln green from off his back. His men were too busy defending themselves to take heed of their master’s plight, for every arrow shot at a dog was caught and held in the creature’s mouth.
Robin’s men were not used to fight with dogs, and felt they were getting beaten. At last Little John bade the friar call off his dogs, and as he did not do so at once he let fly some arrows, which this time left half a dozen dead on the ground.
‘Hold, hold, my good fellow,’ said the friar, ‘till your master and I can come to a bargain,’ and when the bargain was made this was how it ran. That the friar was to forswear Fountains Abbey and join Robin Hood, and that he should be paid a golden noble every Sunday throughout the year, besides a change of clothes on each holy day.
This Friar had kept Fountains Dale
Seven long years or more,
There was neither Knight, nor Lord, nor Earl
Could make him yield before.
But now he became one of the most famous members of Robin Hood’s men under the name of Friar Tuck.
