"
"My lover," said Matilda, "is a brave man, and a true man, and a generous man,
and a young man, and a handsome man; aye, and an honest man too."
"How can he be an honest man," said the baron, "when he has neither
house nor land, which are the better part of a man?"
"They are but the husk of a man," said Matilda, "the worthless coat
of the chesnut: the man himself is the kernel."
"The man is the grape stone," said the baron, "and the pulp of the melon.
The house and land are the true substantial fruit, and all that give him
savour and value."
"He will never want house or land," said Matilda, "while the meeting
boughs weave a green roof in the wood, and the free range of the hart
marks out the bounds of the forest."
"Vert and venison! vert and venison!" exclaimed the baron.
"Treason and flat rebellion. Confound your smiling face!
what makes you look so good-humoured? What! you think I can't
look at you, and be in a passion? You think so, do you?
We shall see. Have you no fear in talking thus, when here
is the king's liegeman come to take us all into custody,
and confiscate our goods and chattels?"
"Nay, Lord Fitzwater," said Sir Ralph, "you wrong me in your report.
My visit is one of courtesy and excuse, not of menace and authority."
"There it is," said the baron: "every one takes a pleasure
in contradicting me.
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