"That is most true, Beatrix. I had forgotten. Still, I should not have
been met with cozenry. Here came I from starvation in the wilderness,
thirst in the desert, and from the stress of the battle-field, back to
mine own land with my heart full of yearning love for it and for all
within its boundaries. I came even from prison, captured in fair fight,
by an untaught heathen, whose men lay slain by my hand, yet with the
nobility of a true warrior, he asked neither ransom nor hostage, but
handed back my sword, saying, 'Go in peace.' That in a heathen land!
but no sooner does my foot rest on this Christian soil than I am met by
false smiles and lying tongues, and my welcome to a neighbour's house
is the clank of the inthrust bolt."

"Oh, it was a shameful act and not to be defended," cried the girl,
with moist eyes and quivering lip, the sympathetic reverberation of her
voice again arresting the impatient steps of the young man, causing him
to pause and view her with a feeling that he could not understand, and
which he found some difficulty in controlling. Suddenly all desire for
restraint left him, he sprang forward, clasped the girl in his arms and
drew her into the middle of the room, where she could not give the
signal that might open the door.

"My Lord! my Lord!" she cried in terror, struggling without avail to
free herself.

"You said all's fair in war and saying so, gave but half the proverb,
which adds, all's fair in love as well, and maiden, nymph of the
woodland, so rapidly does a man learn that which he has never been
taught, I proclaim with confidence that I love thee."

"A diffident and gentle lover you prove yourself!" she gasped with