CHAPTER I.
Now come ye for peace here, or come ye for war?
-- SCOTT.
"The abbot, in his alb arrayed," stood at the altar in the abbey-chapel of Rubygill, with all his plump, sleek, rosy friars, in goodly lines disposed, to solemnise the nuptials of the beautiful Matilda Fitzwater, daughter of the Baron of Arlingford, with the noble Robert Fitz-Ooth, Earl of Locksley and Huntingdon.

The abbey of Rubygill stood in a picturesque valley, at a little distance from the western boundary of Sherwood Forest, in a spot which seemed adapted by nature to be the retreat of monastic mortification, being on the banks of a fine trout-stream, and in the midst of woodland coverts, abounding with excellent game.

The bride, with her father and attendant maidens, entered the chapel; but the earl had not arrived.

The baron was amazed, and the bridemaidens were disconcerted.

Matilda feared that some evil had befallen her lover, but felt no diminution of her confidence in his honour and love.