Note 279 — ROBIN HOOD. Part I. (continued 2)

There is no authority for imputing this execrable practice to our hero or his companions, in any one single instance. If, however, the lex talionis were at all justifiable, they certainly had sufficient provocation to exercise it—not, indeed, upon the clergy, in particular, but upon the king, his ministers, judges, and nobles. “The ancient punishment for killing the king’s deer,” says Dr. Percy, “was loss of eyes and castration: a punishment far worse than death!”