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Maid Marian-Part3_Thomas Love Peacock(1785-1866)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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"How, great wrong?" said the baron. "What do you mean by great wrong?

Would you have had her married to a wild fly-by-night, that accident



made an earl and nature a deer-stealer? that has not wit enough to eat

venison without picking a quarrel with monarchy? that flings away his



own lands into the clutches of rascally friars, for the sake of hunting

in other men's grounds, and feasting vagabonds that wear Lincoln green,



and would have flung away mine into the bargain if he had had my daughter?

What do you mean by great wrong?"



"True," said the friar, "great right, I meant."

"Right!" exclaimed the baron: "what right has any man to do my daughter



right but myself? What right has any man to drive my daughter's

bridegroom out of the chapel in the middle of the marriage ceremony,



and turn all our merry faces into green wounds and bloody coxcombs,

and then come and tell me he has done us great right?"



"True," said the friar: "he has done neither right nor wrong."

"But he has," said the baron, "he has done both, and I will maintain it



with my glove."

"It shall not need," said Sir Ralph; "I will concede any thing in honour."



"And I," said the baron, "will concede nothing in honour:

I will concede nothing in honour to any man."



"Neither will I, Lord Fitzwater," said Sir Ralph, "in that sense:

but hear me. I was commissioned by the king to apprehend



the Earl of Huntingdon. I brought with me a party of soldiers,

picked and tried men, knowing that he would not lightly yield.



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.

Are you a match for the devil, and no match for a man?"



"My warfare," said the friar, "is not of this world.

I am militant not against man, but the devil, who goes about



seeking what he may devour."

"Oh! does he so?" said the baron: "then I take it that makes you look for him



so often in my buttery. Will you cast out the devil whose name is Legion,

when you cannot cast out the imp whose name is Love?"



"Marriages," said the friar, "are made in heaven. Love is God's work,

and therewith I meddle not."



"God's work, indeed!" said the baron, "when the ceremony was

cut short in the church. Could men have put them asunder,



if God had joined them together? And the earl is now no earl,

but plain Robert Fitz-Ooth: therefore, I'll none of him."



"He may atone," said the friar, "and the king may mollify.

The earl is a worthy peer, and the king is a courteous king."






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