"
"That suffices," put in the Baron impatiently. "On with you, Sir
Lucas."
The thoroughly personal parts of the service were in English, and
Grisell could not but look up anxiously when the solemn charge was
given to mention whether there was any lawful "letting" to their
marriage. Her heart bounded as it were to her throat when Leonard
made no answer.
But then what lay before him if he pleaded his promise!
It went on--those betrothal vows, dictated while the two cold hands
were linked, his with a kind of limp passiveness, hers, quaking,
especially as, in the old use of York, he took her "for laither for
fairer"--laith being equivalent to loathly--"till death us do part."
And with failing heart, but still resolute heart, she faltered out
her vow to cleave to him "for better for worse, for richer for
poorer, in sickness or health, and to be bonner (debonair or
cheerful) and boughsome (obedient) till that final parting."
The troth was plighted, and the silver mark--poor Leonard's sole
available property at the moment--laid on the priest's book, as the
words were said, "with worldly cathel I thee endow," and the ring, an
old one of her mother's, was held on Grisell's finger. It was done,
though, alas! the bridegroom could hardly say with truth, "with my
body I thee worship."
Then followed the procession to the altar, the chilly hands barely
touching one another, and the mass was celebrated, when Latin did not
come home to the pair like English, though both fairly understood it.
Pages:
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125