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56

IVANHOE.

Oswald the cup-bearer modestly suggested,

"that it was scarce an hour since the tolling of the curfew;" an ill chosen apology, since it turned upon a topic so harsh to Saxon ears.

"The foul fiend," exclaimed Cedric, "take the curfew-bell, and the tyrannical bastard by whom it was devised, and the heartless slave who names it with a Saxon tongue to a Saxon ear! The curfew!" he added, pausing, "ay, the curfew; which compels true men to extinguish their lights, that thieves and robbers may work their deeds in darkness! Ay, the curfew;—Reginald de Front-de-Bœuf and Philip de Malvoisin know the use of the curfew as well as William the Bastard himself, or e'er a Norman adventurer that fought at Hastings. I shall hear, I guess, that my property has been swept off to save from starving ^[1]

↑ ordinary domestic, whether in the royal household or in those of the aldermen and thanes. But the term cnicht, now spelt knight, having been received into the English language as equivalent to the Norman chevalier, I have avoided using it in its more ancient sense, to prevent confusion.
L.T.

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[1] rdinary domestic, whether in the royal household or in those of the aldermen and thanes. But the term cnicht, now spelt knight, having been received into the English language as equivalent to the Norman chevalier, I have avoided using it in its more ancient sense, to prevent confusion.
L.T.

[1]