Moreover, as he looked at Robin Hood, and saw the yeoman look so like what he knew himself to be, he began to doubt and to think that mayhap he was the great outlaw in real sooth.

Said he in a slow, wondering voice, "Am I in very truth that fellow ?--Now I had thought--but nay, Quince, thou art mistook--yet--am I ?--Nay, I must indeed be Robin Hood! Yet, truly, I had never thought to pass from an honest craftsman to such a great yeoman." "Alas!" quoth Robin Hood, "look ye there, now! See how your ill-treatment hath curdled the wits of this poor lad and turned them all sour! I, myself, am Quince, the Cobbler of Derby Town." "Is it so ?" said Quince.

"Then, indeed, I am somebody else, and can be none other than Robin Hood.

Take me, fellows; but let me tell you that ye ha' laid hand upon the stoutest yeoman that ever trod the woodlands." "Thou wilt play madman, wilt thou ?" said the leader of the band.

"Here, Giles, fetch a cord and bind this knave's hands behind him.