At length, since Marie could understand what he said in French, he addressed her in Arabic, which he spoke well, but she feigned not to understand him.

Then he used the English tongue as it was talked among the common people in Essex, and said: "Lady, how sorely you misjudge me.

What is my crime against you?
I am an Essex man of good lineage, who met you in Essex and learnt to love you there.

Is that a crime, in one who is not poor, who, moreover, was knighted for his deeds by no mean hand?
Your father said me nay, and you said me nay, and, stung by my disappointment and his words--for he called me sea-thief and raked up old tales that are not true against me--I talked as I should not have done, swearing that I would wed you yet in spite of all.

For this I was called to account with justice, and your cousin, the young knight Godwin, who was then a squire, struck me in the face.