So said Dr. Morton, her
chaplain, one of the most learned men in England. I told him all,
and he declared that no wedlock was valid without the heartfelt
consent of each party."
"Said he so?" Poor Grisell could not repress the inquiry.
"Yea, and that though no actual troth had passed between me and Lord
Audley's daughter, yet that the vows we had of our own free will
exchanged would be quite enough to annul my forced marriage."
"You think it evil in me, the more that it was I who had defaced that
countenance. I thought of that! I would have endowed her with all I
had if she would set me free. I trusted yet so to do, when, for my
misfortune as well as hers, the day of Wakefield cut off her father
and brother, and a groom was taken who was on his way to Sendal with
tidings of the other brother's death. Then, what do the Queen and
Sir Pierre de Breze but command me to ride off instantly to claim
Whitburn Tower! In vain did I refuse; in vain did I plead that if I
were about to renounce the lady it were unknightly to seize on her
inheritance. They would not hear me. They said it would serve as a
door to England, and that it must be secured for the King, or the
Dacres would hold it for York. They bade me on my allegiance, and
commanded me to take it in King Henry's name, as though it were a
mere stranger's castle, and gave me a crew of hired men-at-arms, as I
verily believe to watch over what I did.
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