"What, I warrant you, to meet with the earl, and slip your neck into the same noose ?" "No," said Matilda: "I am not going out of our own woods to-day." "How do I know that ?" said the baron.

"What surety have I of that ?" "Here is the friar," said Matilda.

"He will be surety." "Not he," said the baron: "he will undertake nothing but where the devil is a party concerned." "Yes, I will," said the friar: "I will undertake any thing for the lady Matilda." "No matter for that," said the baron: "she shall not go hunting to day." "Why, father," said Matilda, "if you coop me up here in this odious castle, I shall pine and die like a lonely swan on a pool.
"No," said the baron, "the lonely swan does not die on the pool.

If there be a river at hand, she flies to the river, and finds her a mate; and so shall not you." "But," said Matilda, "you may send with me any, or as many, of your grooms as you will." "My grooms," said the baron, "are all false knaves.

There is not a rascal among them but loves you better than me.