Page:Maid Marian - Peacock (1822).djvu/164

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Maid Marian.

roman? Because Carthaginian. Is not pun from Punic? Punica fides: the very quintessential quiddity of bad faith: double-visaged: double-tongued. He that will make a pun will——— I say no more. Fie on it. Stand forth, clerk. Who is the bride's father?"

"There is no bride's father," said the baron. "I am the father of Matilda Fitzwater."

"There is none such," said the friar. "This is the fair Maid Marian. Will you make a virtue of necessity, or will you give laws to the flowing tide? Will you give her, or shall Robin take her? Will you be her true natural father, or shall I commute paternity? Stand forth, Scarlet."

"Stand back, sirrah Scarlet," said the baron. "My daughter shall have no father but me. Needs must when the devil drives."

"No matter who drives," said the friar,

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