“Marry, if thou must needs know,” said
De Bracy, “it was the Templar Brian de Bois-Guilbert
that shaped out the enterprise, which the adventure
of the men of Benjamin suggested to me. He is
to aid me in the onslaught, and he and his followers
will personate the outlaws, from whom my valorous
arm is, after changing my garb, to rescue the lady.”
“By my halidome,” said Fitzurse, “the
plan was worthy of your united wisdom! and thy prudence,
De Bracy, is most especially manifested in the project
of leaving the lady in the hands of thy worthy confederate.
Thou mayst, I think, succeed in taking her from her
Saxon friends, but how thou wilt rescue her afterwards
from the clutches of Bois-Guilbert seems considerably
more doubtful—–He is a falcon well
accustomed to pounce on a partridge, and to hold his
prey fast.”
“He is a Templar,” said De Bracy, “and
cannot therefore rival me in my plan of wedding this
heiress;—–and to attempt aught dishonourable
against the intended bride of De Bracy—–By
Heaven! were he a whole Chapter of his Order in his
single person, he dared not do me such an injury!”
“Then since nought that I can say,” said
Fitzurse, “will put this folly from thy imagination,
(for well I know the obstinacy of thy disposition,)
at least waste as little time as possible—–let
not thy folly be lasting as well as untimely.”
“I tell thee,” answered De Bracy, “that
it will be the work of a few hours, and I shall be
at York—–at the head of my daring
and valorous fellows, as ready to support any bold
design as thy policy can be to form one.—–But
I hear my comrades assembling, and the steeds stamping
and neighing in the outer court. —–Farewell.—–I
go, like a true knight, to win the smiles of beauty.”
“Like a true knight?” repeated Fitzurse,
looking after him; “like a fool, I should say,
or like a child, who will leave the most serious and
needful occupation, to chase the down of the thistle
that drives past him.—–But it is with
such tools that I must work;—–and
for whose advantage?—–For that of
a Prince as unwise as he is profligate, and as likely
to be an ungrateful master as he has already proved
a rebellious son and an unnatural brother. —–But
he—–he, too, is but one of the tools
with which I labour; and, proud as he is, should he
presume to separate his interest from mine, this is
a secret which he shall soon learn.”
The meditations of the statesman were here interrupted
by the voice of the Prince from an interior apartment,
calling out, “Noble Waldemar Fitzurse!”
and, with bonnet doffed, the future Chancellor (for
to such high preferment did the wily Norman aspire)
hastened to receive the orders of the future sovereign.
Far in a wild, unknown to public view,
From youth to age a reverend hermit grew;
The moss his bed, the cave his humble cell,
His food the fruits, his drink the crystal well
Remote from man, with God he pass’d his days,
Prayer all his business—–all his
pleasure praise.
Parnell
