Four ruffians seized me yester morn--
Alas! a maiden most forlorn!
They choked my cries with wicked might,
And bound me on a palfrey white. COLERIDGE.
Such adventures as are now only recorded in works of mere fiction,
were not uncommon in the feudal ages, when might was so
universally superior to right; and it followed that those whose
conditions exposed them to frequent violence, were more prompt in
repelling, and more patient in enduring it, than could otherwise
have been expected from their s*x and age.
The Lady Eveline felt that she was a prisoner, nor was she devoid
of fears concerning the purposes of this assault; but she suffered
neither her alarm, nor the violence with which she was hurried
along, to deprive her of the power of observing and reflecting.
From the noise
