I sent my lieutenant with a detachment to surprise the earl's
castle in his absence, and laid my measures for intercepting
him on the way to his intended nuptials; but he seems to
have had intimation of this part of my plan, for he brought
with him a large armed retinue, and took a circuitous route,
which made him, I believe, somewhat later than his appointed hour.
When the lapse of time showed me that he had taken another track,
I pursued him to the chapel; and I would have awaited the close
of the ceremony, if I had thought that either yourself or your
daughter would have felt desirous that she should have been
the bride of an outlaw."

"Who said, sir," cried the baron, "that we were desirous of any such thing?
But truly, sir, if I had a mind to the devil for a son-in-law, I would fain
see the man that should venture to interfere."

"That would I," said the friar; "for I have undertaken to make
her renounce the devil."

"She shall not renounce the devil," said the baron, "unless I please.
You are very ready with your undertakings. Will you undertake to make
her renounce the earl, who, I believe, is the devil incarnate?
Will you undertake that?"

"Will I undertake," said the friar, "to make Trent run westward,
or to make flame burn downward, or to make a tree grow with its head
in the earth and its root in the air?"

"So then," said the baron, "a girl's mind is as hard to change as nature and
the elements, and it is easier to make her renounce the devil than a lover.