Matilda told him he must come again on the morrow, for she
had a very long confession to make to him. This the friar
promised to do, and departed with the knight.
Sir Ralph, on reaching the abbey, drew his followers together, and led them
to Locksley Castle, which he found in the possession of his lieutenant;
whom he again left there with a sufficient force to hold it in safe
keeping in the king's name, and proceeded to London to report the results
of his enterprise.
Now Henry our royal king was very wroth at the earl's evasion,
and swore by Saint Thomas-a-Becket (whom he had himself translated
into a saint by having him knocked on the head), that he would
give the castle and lands of Locksley to the man who should bring
in the earl. Hereupon ensued a process of thought in the mind
of the knight. The eyes of the fair huntress of Arlingford had
left a wound in his heart which only she who gave could heal.
He had seen that the baron was no longer very partial
to the outlawed earl, but that he still retained his old
affection for the lands and castle of Locksley. Now the lands
and castle were very fair things in themselves, and would be
pretty appurtenances to an adventurous knight; but they would
be doubly valuable as certain passports to the father's favour,
which was one step towards that of the daughter, or at least
towards obtaining possession of her either quietly or perforce;
for the knight was not so nice in his love as to consider
the lady's free grace a sine qua non: and to think of being,
by any means whatever, the lord of Locksley and Arlingford,
and the husband of the bewitching Matilda, was to cut in the shades
of futurity a vista very tempting to a soldier of fortune.
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