Maid Marian by Thomas Love Peacock (rooftoppers TXT) ๐
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- Author: Thomas Love Peacock
Read book online ยซMaid Marian by Thomas Love Peacock (rooftoppers TXT) ๐ยป. Author - Thomas Love Peacock
The reader who desires to know more about this oracular divinity, may consult the said doctor Alcofribas Nasier, who will usher him into the adytum through the medium of the high priestess Bacbuc.
Many moons had waxed and waned, when on the afternoon of a lovely summer day a lusty broad-boned knight was riding through the forest of Sherwood. The sun shone brilliantly on the full green foliage, and afforded the knight a fine opportunity of observing picturesque effects, of which it is to be feared he did not avail himself. But he had not proceeded far, before he had an opportunity of observing something much more interesting, namely, a fine young outlaw leaning, in the true Sherwood fashion, with his back against a tree. The knight was preparing to ask the stranger a question, the answer to which, if correctly given, would have relieved him from a doubt that pressed heavily on his mind, as to whether he was in the right road or the wrong, when the youth prevented the inquiry by saying: โIn Godโs name, sir knight, you are late to your meals. My master has tarried dinner for you these three hours.โ
โI doubt,โ said the knight, โI am not he you wot of. I am no where bidden to day and I know none in this vicinage.โ
โWe feared,โ said the youth, โyour memory would be treacherous: therefore am I stationed here to refresh it.โ
โWho is your master?โ said the knight; โand where does he abide?โ
โMy master,โ said the youth, โis called Robin Hood, and he abides hard by.โ
โAnd what knows he of me?โ said the knight.
โHe knows you,โ answered the youth โas he does every way-faring knight and friar, by instinct.โ
โGramercy,โ said the knight; โthen I understand his bidding: but how if I say I will not come?โ
โI am enjoined to bring you,โ said the youth. โIf persuasion avail not, I must use other argument.โ
โSayโst thou so?โ said the knight; โI doubt if thy stripling rhetoric would convince me.โ
โThat,โ said the young forester, โwe will see.โ
โWe are not equally matched, boy,โ said the knight. โI should get less honour by thy conquest, than grief by thy injury.โ
โPerhaps,โ said the youth, โmy strength is more than my seeming, and my cunning more than my strength. Therefore let it please your knighthood to dismount.โ
โIt shall please my knighthood to chastise thy presumption,โ said the knight, springing from his saddle.
Hereupon, which in those days was usually the result of a meeting between any two persons anywhere, they proceeded to fight.
The knight had in an uncommon degree both strength and skill: the forester had less strength, but not less skill than the knight, and showed such a mastery of his weapon as reduced the latter to great admiration.
They had not fought many minutes by the forest clock, the sun; and had as yet done each other no worse injury than that the knight had wounded the foresterโs jerkin, and the forester had disabled the knightโs plume; when they were interrupted by a voice from a thicket, exclaiming, โWell fought, girl: well fought. Mass, that had nigh been a shrewd hit. Thou owest him for that, lass. Marry, stand by, Iโll pay him for thee.โ
The knight turning to the voice, beheld a tall friar issuing from the thicket, brandishing a ponderous cudgel.
โWho art thou?โ said the knight.
โI am the church militant of Sherwood,โ answered the friar. โWhy art thou in arms against our lady queen?โ
โWhat meanest thou?โ said the knight.
โTruly, this,โ said the friar, โis our liege lady of the forest, against whom I do apprehend thee in overt act of treason. What sayest thou for thyself?โ
โI say,โ answered the knight, โthat if this be indeed a lady, man never yet held me so long.โ
โSpoken,โ said the friar, โlike one who hath done execution. Hast thou thy stomach full of steel? Wilt thou diversify thy repast with a taste of my oak-graff? Or wilt thou incline thine heart to our venison which truly is cooling? Wilt thou fight? or wilt thou dine? or wilt thou fight and dine? or wilt thou dine and fight? I am for thee, choose as thou mayest.โ
โI will dine,โ said the knight; โfor with lady I never fought before, and with friar I never fought yet, and with neither will I ever fight knowingly: and if this be the queen of the forest, I will not, being in her own dominions, be backward to do her homage.โ
So saying, he kissed the hand of Marian, who was pleased most graciously to express her approbation.
โGramercy, sir knight,โ said the friar, โI laud thee for thy courtesy, which I deem to be no less than thy valour. Now do thou follow me, while I follow my nose, which scents the pleasant odour of roast from the depth of the forest recesses. I will lead thy horse, and do thou lead my lady.โ
The knight took Marianโs hand, and followed the friar, who walked before them, singing:
When the wind blows, when the wind blows From where under buck the dry log glows, What guide can you follow, Oโer brake and oโer hollow, So true as a ghostly, ghostly nose?CHAPTER XVIII Robin and Richard were two pretty men. โMother Gooseโs Melody.
They proceeded, following their infallible guide, first along a light elastic greensward under the shade of lofty and wide-spreading trees that skirted a sunny opening of the forest, then along labyrinthine paths, which the deer, the outlaw, or the woodman had made, through the close shoots of the young coppices, through the thick undergrowth of the ancient woods, through beds of gigantic fern that filled the narrow glades and waved their green feathery heads above the plume of the knight. Along these sylvan alleys they walked in single file; the friar singing and pioneering in the van, the horse plunging and floundering behind the friar, the lady following โin maiden meditation fancy free,โ and the knight bringing up the rear, much marvelling at the strange company into which his stars had thrown him. Their path had expanded sufficiently to allow the knight to take Marianโs hand again, when they arrived in the august presence of Robin Hood and his court.
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