noon
`` But wherefore , '' said Marian , `` do we find you here , when we left you joint lord warden of Sherwood ? '' `` I do but retire to my devotions , '' replied the friar . `` This is my hermitage , in which I first took refuge when I escaped from my beloved brethren of Rubygill ; and to which I still retreat at times from the vanities of the world , which else might cling to me too closely , since I have been promoted to be peer-spiritual of your forest-court . For , indeed , I do find in myself certain indications and admonitions that my day has past its noon ; and none more cogent than this : that daily of bad wine I grow more intolerant , and of good wine have a keener and more fastidious relish . There is no surer symptom of receding years . The ferryman is my faithful varlet . I send him on some pious errand , that I may meditate in ghostly privacy , when my presence in the forest can best be spared : and when can it be better spared than now , seeing that the neighbourhood of Prince John , and his incessant perquisitions for Marian , have made the forest too hot to hold more of us than are needful to keep up a quorum , and preserve unbroken the continuity of our forest-dominion ?