"I would soon have beat him into courtesy," observed Brian; "I am

accustomed to deal with such spirits: Our Turkish captives are as fierce

and intractable as Odin himself could have been; yet two months in my

household, under the management of my master of the slaves, has made

them humble, submissive, serviceable, and observant of your will. Marry,

sir, you must be aware of the poison and the dagger; for they use either

with free will when you give them the slightest opportunity."

"Ay, but," answered Prior Aymer, "every land has its own manners and

fashions; and, besides that beating this fellow could procure us no

information respecting the road to Cedric's house, it would have been

sure to have established a quarrel betwixt you and him had we found our

way thither. Remember what I told you: this wealthy franklin is proud,

fierce, jealous, and irritable, a withstander of the nobility, and even

of his neighbors, Reginald Front-de-Boeuf and Philip Malvoisin, who are

no babies to strive with. He stands up sternly for the privileges of

his race, and is so proud of his uninterrupted descend from Hereward, a

renowned champion of the Heptarchy, that he is universally called Cedric

the Saxon; and makes a boast of his belonging to a people from whom

many others endeaver to hide their descent, lest they should encounter a

share of the 'vae victis,' or severities imposed upon the vanquished."

"Prior Aymer," said the Templar, "you are a man of gallantry, learned

in the study of beauty, and as expert as a troubadour in all matters

concerning the 'arrets' of love; but I shall expect much beauty in this

celebrated Rowena to counterbalance the self-denial and forbearance

which I must exert if I am to court the favor of such a seditious churl

as you have described her father Cedric."

"Cedric is not her father," replied the Prior, "and is but of remote

relation: she is descended from higher blood than even he pretends to,

and is but distantly connected with him by birth. Her guardian, however,

he is, self-constituted as I believe; but his ward is as dear to him as

if she were his own child. Of her beauty you shall soon be judge; and if

the purity of her complexion, and the majestic, yet soft expression of a

mild blue eye, do not chase from your memory the black-tressed girls of

Palestine, ay, or the houris of old Mahound's paradise, I am an infidel,

and no true son of the church."




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