Sir Piercie
Shafton, too devoted a squire of dames to consider the most lowly as
exempted from a respectful attention, independent of the claims which
the Miller's maiden possessed over him, dismounted instantly from his
horse, and received in his arms the poor girl, who still wept
bitterly, and, when placed on the ground, seemed scarce able to
support herself, or at least still clung, though, as it appeared,
unconsciously, to the support he had afforded. He carried her to a
weeping birch tree, which grew on the green-sward bank around which
the road winded, and, placing her on the ground beneath it, exhorted
her to compose herself. A strong touch of natural feeling struggled
with, and half overcame, his acquired affectation, while he said,
"Credit me, most generous damsel, the service you have done to Piercie
Shafton he would have deemed too dearly bought, had he foreseen it was
to cost you these tears and singults. Show me the cause of your grief,
and if I can do aught to remove it, believe that the rights you have
acquired over me will make your commands sacred as those of an
empress. Speak, then, fair Molinara, and command him whom fortune hath
rendered at once your debtor and your champion. What are your orders?"
"Only that you will fly and save yourself," said Mysie, mustering up her
utmost efforts to utter these few words.
"Yet," said the knight, "let me not leave you without some token of
remembrance.
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