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their will. Other outlaws did the same in forests up and down the kingdom. So why attract attention to himself?
    'Sir Peter, my manservant's question is significant.'
    The under-sheriff shrugged and spread his hands.
    'First, Sir Eustace issued a proclamation saying this Robin of Locksley or Robin Hood should be killed on sight. He also called him a coward, a caitiff and a traitor. The outlaw replied by demanding Sir Eustace do public penance for his remarks or suffer the consequences. Sir Eustace refused and…'His voice trailed off.
    'But why poison?' Corbett insisted. 'Why not in public as Sir Eustace was travelling through the town?'
    'Master Clerk, you have served as a soldier?'
    'Yes, I have.'
    'You have seen men lose their courage? Well, so did Sir Eustace. He refused to venture out of the castle. He became obsessed with the idea that there was a traitor here in the castle, perhaps in his very household. Vechey changed. He was nervous, agitated, neglecting himself and drinking far too much.'
    Corbett stared round. Too many ears here, he thought. He leant over and whispered in Sir Peter's ear. The sheriff looked at the guards and Lecroix. 'You may go.'
    The soldiers hastened from the hall but Lecroix was sluggish. Dragging at his straggling moustache, he shuffled to the door then abruptly turned round.
    'My master was tidy,' he declared as if refuting Ranulf's and Branwood's assertion.
    'What do you mean?' Corbett asked.
    'Nothing,' Lecroix replied. 'He was just tidy, especially in his own chamber.' And he shuffled out.
    Corbett waited until the door closed then turned to Roteboeuf.
    'You are the clerk of the castle as well as Vechey's secretarius?'
    The young man cheerfully nodded.
    'Did he say anything to you? Anything at all?'
    'No. Sir Eustace kept to himself, glowering and throwing dark looks at everyone.'
    'I tried to speak to him,' Father Thomas put in. 'But he told me to look after my own business and he would look after his.'
    'And you, Sir Peter, why should Robin Hood try and kill you?' Corbett caught the glint of hatred in the man's eyes. 'Sir Peter?'
    The sheriff splayed out his fingers and studied them carefully.
    'Eight years ago I was travelling north through Barnsleydale. I was and still am hoping to marry the Lady Margaret Percy. I had bought her a piece of silk, costly and very precious. Robin Hood and his outlaws stopped me, took my gifts, stripped me naked, tied me to my horse and left me to public ridicule.'
    You hate well, Corbett thought, noting a muscle flicker high in Branwood's cheek. The under-sheriff swallowed hard.
    'When Sir Eustace issued his proclamation, I openly defied Robin Hood, calling him a coward, a skulking caitiff, the illegitimate son of a yeoman farmer. I challenged him to a duel a outrance on the High Pavement of Nottingham.' He pulled a face. 'You know the outlaw's reply.'
    'You are sure,' Corbett asked, abruptly changing the conversation, 'that the outlaw himself never comes into Nottingham?'
    'Why do you ask?'
    'Because I think he might be captured by stealth, rather than by force. His Grace the King is most insistent that he is taken. Once this threat is removed, Edward intends to take the field against the Scottish rebel William Wallace.' Corbett looked at Ranulf, the strange words on the parchment his manservant had brought from Paris running through his brain. He blinked. 'Yes, as I was saying, the King needs the roads north free for supplies and men. Robin Hood is to be killed.'
    'How?' Branwood sneered. 'By you and two servants?'
    'No,' Corbett replied, stung to the quick. 'You have heard of Sir Guy of Gisborne?'
    'Yes, he holds the lands near Stifford on the Lancashire border. He was once sheriff here during Robin Hood's early depredations.'
    'Well,' Corbett replied, 'Guy has offered his services to the King and they have been accepted. No man knows the forest better than Gisborne. He is now at Southwell with a dozen trained foresters and sixty archers.' Corbett was