Runnymede and Lincoln Fair : $b A story of the Great CharterEdgar, John G. (John George)
History
Runnymede and Lincoln Fair : $b A story of the Great Charter
Edgar, John G. (John George)
Great Britain -- History -- John, 1199-1216 -- Fiction
“By the Holy Cross!” he exclaimed to himself, “surely that is no other
than the demoiselle who has so often been present to me in my dreams and
visions! And yet she can be none other than the daughter of my worst
woe--she whom the Lord Neville mentioned as so fascinating and so fair.
Verily, my lord was guilty of no exaggeration when he spoke so highly in
praise of her grace and comeliness!”
Beatrix de Moreville could not know what eyes were upon her, or possibly
she would not have lingered so long that July evening on “the ladies’
walk.” However, if she had known all, her vanity would perhaps have been
gratified; for, in spite of his strong antipathy to the father, Oliver
was enchanted with the daughter, and, when she vanished with her
waiting-women at the sound of the vesper bell, he devoutly prayed that
she might return again and again to cheer the solitude which he had
begun so much to abhor. In fact, although he knew it not, he was, as old
Froissart said on a similar occasion, “stricken to the heart with a
sparkle of fine love that endured long after.” All that evening she
occupied his thoughts; and, after comparing her to the various heroines
of the chivalrous romances then in vogue, always giving her the
preference, he finally fell asleep to dream that he was being put by
Hugh de Moreville into a frightful instrument of torture, and that he
was saved from the threatened infliction by De Moreville’s daughter.
Next day appeared marvellously long to Oliver, so impatiently did he
await the coming of evening and the coming of the fair being who had
made so strong an impression on his fancy. Again she appeared, and
evening after evening during August, when from the ramparts of
Chas-Chateil the rustics could be seen gathering in the yellow corn,
always remaining until the bat begun to hunt the moth and the vesper
bell sounded. Oliver grew more and more interested, and thought of her
more highly the oftener he saw her; for, as the old chronicler puts it,
“love reminded him of her day and night, and represented her beauty and
behaviour in such bewitching points of view, that he could think of
nothing else, albeit her father had done him grievous wrong.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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