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"Stay yet a moment!" said Ulrica; "leave me not now, son of my father's friend, lest the demon who has governed my life should tempt me to avenge myself of thy hard-hearted scorn Thinkest thou, if Front-de-Boeuf found Cedric the Saxon in his castle, in such a disguise, that thy life would be a long one? Already his eye has been upon thee like a falcon on his prey."
Cedric the Saxon, overjoyed at the discomfiture of the Templar, and still more so at the miscarriage of his two malevolent neighbours, Front-de-Boeuf and Malvoisin, had, with his body half stretched over the balcony, accompanied the victor in each course, not with his eyes only, but with his whole heart and soul.
"Where be these dog-priests now," growled the Baron, "who set such price on their ghostly mummery? where be all those unshod Carmelites, for whom old Front-de-Boeuf founded the convent of St Anne, robbing his heir of many a fair rood of meadow, and many a fat field and close where be the greedy hounds now?
"Nor to the Jew Isaac's daughter," said the Templar, who had now joined them. "Neither," said Front-de-Boeuf, "belong to this Saxon's company." "I were unworthy to be called Christian, if they did," replied Athelstane: "deal with the unbelievers as ye list." "Neither does the ransom include the Lady Rowena," said De Bracy.
"It shall never be said I was scared out of a fair prize without striking a blow for it." "Neither," said Front-de-Boeuf, "does our treaty refer to this wretched Jester, whom I retain, that I may make him an example to every knave who turns jest into earnest." "The Lady Rowena," answered Athelstane, with the most steady countenance, "is my affianced bride.
"That large decayed oak," he said, "marks the boundaries over which Front-de-Boeuf claims authority we are long since far from those of Malvoisin. There is now no fear of pursuit." "May the wheels of their chariots be taken off," said the Jew, "like those of the host of Pharaoh, that they may drive heavily!
So saying, she left the apartment; and Front-de-Boeuf could hear the crash of the ponderous key, as she locked and double-locked the door behind her, thus cutting off the most slender chance of escape. In the extremity of agony he shouted upon his servants and allies "Stephen and Saint Maur! Clement and Giles! I burn here unaided! To the rescue to the rescue, brave Bois-Guilbert, valiant De Bracy!
Front-de-Boeuf, a tall and strong man, whose life had been spent in public war or in private feuds and broils, and who had hesitated at no means of extending his feudal power, had features corresponding to his character, and which strongly expressed the fiercer and more malignant passions of the mind.
"The Black Knight," answered Rebecca, faintly; then instantly again shouted with joyful eagerness "But no but no! the name of the Lord of Hosts be blessed! he is on foot again, and fights as if there were twenty men's strength in his single arm His sword is broken he snatches an axe from a yeoman he presses Front-de-Boeuf with blow on blow The giant stoops and totters like an oak under the steel of the woodman he falls he falls!"
"The Templar is fled," said De Bracy; "Front-de-Boeuf you will never see more. He has found a red grave among the blazing rafters of his own castle and I alone am escaped to tell you." "Cold news," said Waldemar, "to us, though you speak of fire and conflagration."
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