Maid Marian

es en feut depuis q

moynerie.

earl made a resolute resistance, and put the king's force to flight under a shower of arrows: an act which the courtiers declared to be treason. At the same time, the abbot of Doncaster sued up the payment of certain moneys, which the earl, whose revenue ran a losing race with his hospitality, had borrowed at sundry times of the said abbot: for the abbots and the bishops were the chief usurers of those days, and, as the end sanctifies the means, were not in the least scrupulous of employing what would have been extortion in the profane, to accomplish the pious purpose of bringing a blessing on the land by rescuing it from the frail hold of carnal and temporal into the firmer grasp of ghostly and spiritual possessors. But the earl, confident in the number and attachment of his retainers, stoutly refused either to repay the money, which he could not, or to yield the forfeiture, which he would not: a refusal which in those days was an act of outlawry in a gentleman, as it

als. Brother Michael and the little fat friar proposed to be his guides. The proposal was courteously accepted, and they set out together, leaving Sir Ralph's followers at the abbey. The knight was mounted on a spirited charger; brother Michael on a large

along the banks of the stream, "the reason why lake-

e of the fact,"

implication for absolute, and, without looking into the FACT WHETHER, seek only the reason why? But the fact

ne in a matter of that magnitude: since, in all that appertains to the good things either of this world

found in the matter of trout. He has marked, learned, and inwardly digested the subject, twice a week

friar, "are firmness and redness: the redness, in

r Michael, "we choose

nose doth all

utward gr

inward

n the rose of a

the firmness so is the redness, and

cal-natural, but physical-historical, or natural-superinducti

stood to wa

ks of King

to her feet her

unded o

him his wou

them with m

rose fast u

that the fo

he said, "whi

el foe

sweet lips a

me in t

neck she wo

ssed his l

ore the w

der up t

to the lake

d heath frin

with him ben

were seen

od mingled in

gle on eart

hat swims in th

ith the cri

d years ago. The inference is most consecutive, that wherever you catch a red-fleshed trout, love lies bleeding under the water: an o

out shyer for that

ine valour makes the fish active and sanguineous: the infusion of maiden modesty makes him coy and hard to win: and you shall f

caused a momentary pallescence in his rosy complexion; and after a brief hesitati

ind now, brother Peter

spy him from her tower, she may testify her recognition with a cloth-yard shaft. She is not so infallible a markswoman, but th

brother Michael, "th

d I who have it shall take mine. I am not just now in the vein for being picked off at a long shot." And saying these wo

o very terrible a damsel?" sai

claw. She is as gentle as magnanimous; but it is the gentleness of the summer wind, which, however lightly it wave the tuf

father," said the knight, "I should almost

ock under in her cause. Though they be not yet one canonically, thanks to your soldiership, the earl is her liege lord, and she is his liege lady. I am her father confessor and ghostly director: I have taken on me to show her the way to the next world; and how can I do that if I lose sight of her in this? seeing that this is but the r

reason," said Sir Ralph, "for

ng her bow-string and loosing an arrow over his head; he waddled off with singular speed, and was in much awe of her for many months. I thought he had forgotten it: but let that pass. In truth, she would have had little of her lover's company, if she had liked the chaunt of the choristers better than the cry of the hounds: yet I know not; for they were compani

r beech and th

by the sha

own both at a

t down whi

t know, that as

r chang

teach either

but a gree