And he says that he is come to fight any knight
of the Court, ragged as he stands, for the fairest lady in the Court, be
she who she may, if she have not a wedded husband already."
"And what says my Lord Marquis?"
"That it is a fair challenge, and a good adventure; and that fight he
shall, if any man will answer his defiance."
"And I say, tell my Lord the Marquis, that fight he shall not: for he
shall have the fairest maiden in this Court for the trouble of carrying
her away; and that I, Adela of France, will give her to him. So let that
beggar dismount, and be brought up hither to me."
There was silence again. Torfrida looked round her once more, to see
whether or not she was dreaming, and whether there was one human being to
whom she could appeal. Her mother sat praying and weeping in a corner.
Torfrida looked at her with one glance of scorn, which she confessed and
repented, with bitter tears, many a year after, in a foreign land; and
then turned to bay with the spirit of her old Paladin ancestor, who choked
the Emir at Mont Majeur.
Married to a beggar! It was a strange accident; and an ugly one; and a
great cruelty and wrong. But it was not impossible, hardly improbable, in
days when the caprice of the strong created accidents, and when cruelty
and wrong went for nothing, even with very kindly honest folk.
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