THE CHRONICLE OF CLEMENDY
"or have you lost the desire to live, that you come to this house so often and so hardily. Certainly you cannot know what fashion of man my father is; but know now that the next time you hie hither will be the last, since he to-day oiled his cross-bow and bade Richard dig a grave, as he said, for a proper man." "And if you will look forth and smile upon me dying, I would it were now to-morrow and your father's bolt was sped. But understand O maiden most beauteous and adorable, that my heart and soul and life are yours altogether; I am your mere creature and desire but to gaze upon that super-excellent loveliness and worship it; and if you should scorn my service I shall indeed die more miserably than by any bolt or sword." Perhaps you may divine that while these pretty speeches, so gallantly phrased and amorously conceited were being delivered, the two were gazing either on other, and Sir Philip's eyes spoke more fairly and delivered more honest arguments than his lips; for you see he was too many feet below his mistress to make any effectual use of this latter organ; by the which a girl is more thoroughly convinced ex opere operato, in five minutes without a word being uttered than if her lover spoke like Demosthenes, Æschines, Cicero, and Chrysostom all at once. However the young knight did what he could with his fine blue eyes, and between them and his hardy and knightly orations, full of amorous doctrines and high courage, the maid began to feel a fluttering at her heart, and a strange delicious sensation that made her wish Sir Philip had a ladder. But
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