concurred to subject the earl to the penalties of outlawry,
by which the abbot would gain his due upon the lands
of Locksley, and the rest would be confiscate to the king.
Still the king did not think it advisable to assail the earl
in his own strong-hold, but caused a diligent watch
to be kept over his motions, till at length his rumoured
marriage with the heiress of Arlingford seemed to point
out an easy method of laying violent hands on the offender.
Sir Ralph Montfaucon, a young man of good lineage and of an
aspiring temper, who readily seized the first opportunity
that offered of recommending himself to King Henry's favour
by manifesting his zeal in his service, undertook the charge:
and how he succeeded we have seen.

Sir Ralph's curiosity was strongly excited by the friar's description
of the young lady of Arlingford; and he prepared in the morning
to visit the castle, under the very plausible pretext of giving
the baron an explanation of his intervention at the nuptials.
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 heavy-trotting horse;
and the little fat friar on a plump soft-paced galloway,
so correspondent with himself in size, rotundity, and sleekness,
that if they had been amalgamated into a centaur, there would
have been nothing to alter in their proportions.

"Do you know," said the little friar, as they wound along the banks
of the stream, "the reason why lake-trout is better than river-trout,
and shyer withal?"