MaidMarian(女孩马丽安).pdf

Maid Marian
Maid Marian
by Thomas Love Peacock
1
Maid Marian
CHAPTER I
e ye for peace here, e ye for war? SCOTT.
"The abbot, in his alb arrayed," stood at the altar in the abbey-chapel
of Rubygill, with all his plump, sleek, rosy friars, in goodly lines disposed,
to solemnise the nuptials of the beautiful Matilda Fitzwater, daughter of
the Baron of Arlingford, with the noble Robert Fitz-Ooth, Earl of Locksley
and Huntingdon. The abbey of Rubygill stood in a picturesque valley, at
a little distance from the western boundary of Sherwood Forest, in a spot
which seemed adapted by nature to be the retreat of monastic mortification,
being on the banks of a fine trout-stream, and in the midst of woodland
coverts, abounding with excellent game. The bride, with her father and
attendant maidens, entered the chapel; but the earl had not arrived. The
baron was amazed, and the bridemaidens were disconcerted. Matilda
feared that some evil had befallen her lover, but felt no diminution of her
confidence in his honour and love. Through the open gates of the chapel
she looked down the narrow road that wound along the side of the hill; and
her ear was the first that heard the distant trampling of horses, and her eye
was the first that caught the glitter of snowy plumes, and the light of
polished spears. "It is strange," thought the baron, "that the earl should
come in this martial array to his wedding;" but he had not long to meditate
on the phenomenon, for the foaming steeds swept up to the gate like a
whirlwind, and the earl, breathless with speed, and followed by a few of
his yeomen, advanced to his smiling bride. It was then no time to ask
questions, for an was in full peal, and the choristers were in full
voice.
The abbot began to intone the ceremony in a style of modulation
impressively exalted, his voice issuing most canonically from the roof of
his mouth, through the medium of a very musical nose newly tuned for the
occasion. But he had n