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he mounted his horse and rode away, without bestowing on her a single word. 

 Matilda was picked up by her attendants, carried home, and put to bed. Whe- 

 ther she was fascinated with the Duke's mode of wooing, or feared a second offer 

 of a similar character, does not appear ; but while still confined to her bed, through 

 the maltre.atment she had received from her lover, she declared to her father, 

 " that sick in health and dolorous of body from the blows she had received, she 

 had firmly decided to marry no man but Duke William." On this intimation of 

 his daughter's feelings, the Earl of Flanders withdrew his opposition to tlie match. 

 Matilda was married to the " Conqueror " at the Chateau d'Eu ; and, if we may 

 rely on Madame Guizot, "held him most dear to the very day of her death." Her 

 marriage afforded her, at least, one source of gratification. On the conquest of 

 England, William offered to endow her with the lands of any Saxon noble she 

 chose to select ; and she immediately demanded and received the estates of her 

 once loved Earl Brihtric. She also obtained possession of his person, and threw 

 him into prison, where he died mysteriously. 



In the days of our Anglo-Saxon forefathers nothing was more common, or 

 deemed more honourable, than to acquire a wife by forcibly carrying off the sister 

 or daughter of a public enemy, or private foe. The lady was said, in the rhyming 

 laws our fathers loved, to be 



'■ Legitime capta, 

 Non vi rapta ! " 



This was called "the Spai-tan form of marriage." But between the 5th and 10th 

 century English women gradually obtained the right of disposing of themselves 

 in marriage. At first both Church and State required the daughter to accept, 

 without question or comment, whomsoever her father pleased. She obtained, 

 however, at a very early period, the right of making an objection to a suitor for 

 some grave and specified cause ; but of the validity of this objection her father 

 was sole judge. The money now paid to the bride's father was no longer called 

 her "price," but "foster-lean," — a kind of charge for "unexhausted improve- 

 ments" in her education. So woman has advanced to her present proud position. 

 No doubt, as February is the month in which the day is intercalated in Leap-year, 

 and the month also of S. Valentine, some will suppose that there must be some 

 hidden connection between the 14th and the 24th. Be that as it may, we have at 

 least one instance of a lady selecting the 14th as an opportunity not to be missed 

 on which to exercise her privilege. In Vol. III. of the Paston Papers, published 

 by Professor Arber, we read that, early in 1477, there began to be entertained a 

 marriage between Mistress Margery Brews and Mr. John Paston, and here is the 

 very forward valentine the young lady addressed to her rather hesitating lover : — 

 "Right, reverend and worshipful and my right well-beloved Valentine, I recom- 

 mend me unto you, full heartily desiring to hear of your welfare, which I beseech 

 Ahnighty God long for to procure imto His pleasure and your heart's desire. 

 And, if it please you to hear of my welfare, I am not in good heal of body nor of 

 heart, nor shall be till I hear from you." 



