I asked her, and she had no mind to either, and as her mother married where her heart was, so I have sworn that the daughter should do, or not at all--for better a nunnery than a loveless bridal.
"Now let us see what you have to give.

You are of good blood--that of Uluin by your mother, and mine, also on one side her own.

As squires to your sponsors of yesterday, the knights Sir Anthony de Mandeville and Sir Roger de Merci, you bore yourselves bravely in the Scottish War; indeed, your liege king Henry remembered it, and that is why he granted my prayer so readily.

Since then, although you loved the life little, because I asked it of you, you have rested here at home with me, and done no feats of arms, save that great one of two months gone which made you knights, and, in truth, gives you some claim on Rosamund.
"For the rest, your father being the younger son, your lands are small, and you have no other gear.

Outside the borders of this shire you are unknown men, with all your deeds to do--for I will not count those Scottish battles when you were but boys.