The Forest Lovers

Forest Lovers, The

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Title: The Forest Lovers
Author: Maurice Hewlett
Release Date: September, 2005 [EBook #8934] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on August 26, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FOREST LOVERS ***

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THE FOREST LOVERS
A ROMANCE
BY
MAURICE HEWLETT

TO
MRS. W. K. CLIFFORD
WITH
THE AUTHOR'S HOMAGE

CONTENTS
CHAPTERS
I. PROSPER LE GAI RIDES OUT II. MORGRAUNT, AND A DEAD KNIGHT III. HOLY THORN AND HOLY CHURCH IV. DOM GALORS V. LA DESIROUS VI. THE VIRGIN MARRIAGE VII. GALORS ABJURES VIII. THE SALLY AT DAWN IX. THE BLOOD-CHASE AND THE LOVE CHASE X. FOREST ALMS XI. SANCTUARY XII. BROKEN SANCTUARY XIII. HIGH MARCH, AND A GREAT LADY XIV. A RECORDER XV. THREE AT TORTSENTIER XVI. BOY AND GIRL XVII. ROY XVIII. BOY'S LOVE XIX. LADY'S LOVE XX. HOW PROSPER HELD A REVIEW XXI. HOW THE NARRATIVE SMACKS AGAIN OF THE SOIL XXII GALORS CONQUAESTOR XXIII. FALVE THE CHARCOAL-BURNER XXIV. SECRET THINGS AT HAUTERIVE XXV. THE ROAD TO GOLTRES XXVI. GUESS-WORK AT GOLTRES XXVII. GALORS RIDES HUNTING XXVIII. MERCY WITH THE BEASTS. XXIX. WANMEETING CRIES, 'HA! SAINT JAMES!' XXX. THE CHAINED VIRGIN OF SAINT THORN XXXI. 'ENTRA PER ME' XXXII 'BIDE THE TIME' XXXIII. SALOMON IS DRIVEN HOME XXXIV. LA DESIR��E XXXV. FOREST LOVE XXXVI. THE LADY PIETOSA DE BR��AUT��

THE FOREST LOVERS
CHAPTER I
PROSPER LE GAI RIDES OUT
My story will take you into times and spaces alike rude and uncivil. Blood will be spilt, virgins suffer distresses; the horn will sound through woodland glades; dogs, wolves, deer, and men, Beauty and the Beasts, will tumble each other, seeking life or death with their proper tools. There should be mad work, not devoid of entertainment. When you read the word Explicit, if you have laboured so far, you will know something of Morgraunt Forest and the Countess Isabel; the Abbot of Holy Thorn will have postured and schemed (with you behind the arras); you will have wandered with Isoult and will know why she was called La Desirous, with Prosper le Gai, and will understand how a man may fall in love with his own wife. Finally, of Galors and his affairs, of the great difference there may be between a Christian and the brutes, of love and hate, grudging and open humour, faith and works, cloisters and thoughts uncloistered--all in the green wood--you will know as much as I do if you have cared to follow the argument. I hope you will not ask me what it all means, or what the moral of it is. I rank myself with the historian in this business of tale-telling, and consider that my sole affair is to hunt the argument dispassionately. Your romancer must be neither a lover of his heroine nor (as the fashion now sets) of his chief rascal. He must affect a genial height, that of a jigger of strings; and his attitude should be that of the Pulpiteer:--Heaven help you, gentlemen, but I know what is best for you! Leave everything to me.
It is related of Prosper le Gai, that when his brother Malise, Baron of Starning and Parrox, showed him the door of their father's house, and showed it with a meaning not to be mistaken, he stuck a sprig of green holly in his cap. He put on his armour; his horse and sword also he took: he was for the wilds. Baron Jocelyn's soul, the priests reported, was with God; his body lay indubitably under a black effigy in Starning Church. Baron Malise was lord of the fee, with a twisted face for Prosper whenever they met in the hall: had there been scores no deeper this was enough. Prosper was a youth to whom life was a very pretty thing; he could not afford to have tarnish on the glass; he must have pleasant looks about him and a sweet air, or at