Collected Poems Volume II Part 61

I'm very sure it can't be Little John.

What, Shadow-of-a-Leaf!

[_SHADOW-OF-A-LEAF appears at the window._]

'Fore G.o.d, dear faithful fool, I am glad to see you.

SHADOW-OF-A-LEAF

Softly, gossip, softly, Pull up the rope a little until we break This bar away--or some kind friend may see The dangling end below. Now here's a toothpick, Six inches of grey steel, for you to work with, And here's another for me. Pick out the mortar!

[_They work to loosen the bars._]

Wait! Here's a rose I brought you in my cap And here's a spray of fern! Old Nature's keys Open all prisons, I'll throw them in for luck,

[_He throws them into the cell and begins working feverishly again._]

So that the princes of the world may know The forest let you out. Down there on earth, If any sees me, they will only think The creepers are in leaf. Pick out the mortar!

That's how the greenwood works. You know, 'twill thrust Its tendrils through these big grey stones one day And pull them down. I noticed in the courtyard The gra.s.s is creeping though the crevices Already, and yellow dandelions crouch In all the crumbling corners. Pick it out!

This is a very righteous work indeed For men in Lincoln green; for what are we But tendrils of old Nature, herald sprays!

We scarce antic.i.p.ate. Pick the mortar out.

Quick, there's no time to lose, although to-night We're in advance of sun and moon and stars And all the tackling sands in Time's turned gla.s.s.

[_With a sudden cry._]

Richard is dead!

ROBIN Richard is dead! The King Is dead!

SHADOW-OF-A-LEAF

Ah, dead! Come, pick the mortar out, Out of the walls of towers and shrines and tombs!

For now Prince John is King, and Lady Marian In peril, gossip! Yet we are in advance Of sun and moon to-night, for sweet Prince John Is not aware yet of his kinglihood, Or of his brother's death.

ROBIN

[_Pausing a moment._]

Why, Shadow-of-a-Leaf, What does this mean?

SHADOW-OF-A-LEAF

Come, pick the mortar out; You have no time to lose. This very night My Lady Marian must away to Sherwood.

At any moment the dread word may come That makes John King of England. Quick, be quick!

ROBIN

She is at the masque to-night!

SHADOW-OF-A-LEAF

Then you must mask And fetch her thence! Ah, ha, the bar works loose.

Pull it!

[_They pull at the bar, get it free, and throw it into the cell._]

Now, master, follow me down the rope.

[_Exit ROBIN thro' the window._]

SCENE IV. _Night. The garden of the King's palace (as before), but lighted with torches for the masque. Music swells up and dies away continually. Maskers pa.s.s to and fro between the palace and the garden.

On the broad terrace in front some of them are dancing a galliard._

[_PRINCE JOHN enters and is met by_ QUEEN ELINOR, _neither of them masked._]

ELINOR

All safe?

PRINCE JOHN

Ay, buried and bricked up now, to think Alone, in the black night, of all I told him.

Thank G.o.d, we have heard the last of Robin Hood.

ELINOR

[_She puts on her mask._]

You are sure?

PRINCE JOHN

I saw him entombed with my own eyes!

Six feet of solid masonry. Look there, There's the young knight you've lately made your own.

Where is my Lady Marian? Ah, I see her!

With that old hypocrite, Fitzwalter.

[_They part. PRINCE JOHN puts on his mask as he goes._]

A LADY

But tell me Where is Prince John?

A MASKER

That burly-shouldered man By yonder pillar, talking with old Fitzwalter, And the masked girl, in green, with red-gold hair, Is Lady Marian!

THE LADY