I owned to her that hitherto I had been wild and reckless; and she told me at once that her father destined her for the son of an old friend of his, to whom it appeared she had been affianced while still a baby.

She was positive that nothing would move her father.

For the man she was to marry she entertained no kind of affection, and indeed had never seen him, as she had been brought up in a convent to the age of fifteen; and just before she had returned thence, he had gone to finish his education at Padua.
"She trembled when I proposed flight; but I assured her that I was certain of the protection of the king, and that he would, I was sure, when the marriage was once celebrated, use his influence with her father to obtain his forgiveness.
"The preparations for her flight were not long in making.

I purchased a fleet horse in addition to my own, and ordered my servant to bring it to a point a short distance from the castle gate.

I had procured a long rope with which to lower her down from her lattice to the moat below, which was at present dry, intending myself to slide after her.