"I am the father of Matilda Fitzwater." "There is none such," said the friar.

"This is the fair Maid Marian.
Will you make a virtue of necessity, or will you give laws to the flowing tide?
Will you give her, or shall Robin take her?
Will you be her true natural father, or shall I commute paternity?
Stand forth, Scarlet." "Stand back, sirrah Scarlet," said the baron.

"My daughter shall have no father but me.

Needs must when the devil drives." "No matter who drives," said the friar, "so that, like a well-disposed subject, you yield cheerful obedience to those who can enforce it." "Mawd, sweet Mawd," said the baron, "will you then forsake your poor old father in his distress, with his castle in ashes, and his enemy in power ?" "Not so, father," said Marian; "I will always be your true daughter: I will always love, and serve, and watch, and defend you: but neither will I forsake my plighted love, and my own liege lord, who was your choice before he was mine, for you made him my associate in infancy; and that he continued to be mine when he ceased to be yours, does not in any way show remissness in my duties or falling off in my affections.

And though I here plight my troth at the altar to Robin, in the presence of this holy priest and pious clerk, yet....