"Are you willing
to barter sworn faith, the exercise of free will, and the feelings of
mutual affection to this wretched hypocritical sophistry?"
"Hear him!" said Lady Ashton, looking to the clergyman--"hear the
blasphemer!"
"May God forgive him," said Bide-the-Bent, "and enlighten his
ignorance!"
"Hear what I have sacrificed for you," said Ravenswood, still addressing
Lucy, "ere you sanction what has been done in your name. The honour of
an ancient family, the urgent advice of my best friends, have been in
vain used to sway my resolution; neither the arguments of reason nor
the portents of superstition have shaken my fidelity. The very dead have
arisen to warn me, and their warning has been despised. Are you prepared
to pierce my heart for its fidelity with the very weapon which my rash
confidence entrusted to your grasp?"
"Master of Ravenswood," said Lady Ashton, "you have asked what questions
you thought fit. You see the total incapacity of my daughter to answer
you. But I will reply for her, and in a manner which you cannot dispute.
You desire to know whether Lucy Ashton, of her own free will, desires
to annual the engagement into which she has been trepanned.
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