"
Now do not blunder on to the hasty conclusion, good reader, that
L'Isle, having, at first sight, plunged over head and ears in love
with Lady Mabel, had resolved to win and wear her with the least
possible loss of time; that he was now investing the fortress, about
to besiege it in form, and would hold himself in readiness to carry it
by storm on the first opportunity. He acknowledged to himself no such
intention; and he doubtless knew his own mind best. Without exactly
holding the opinion of Sir John, as set forth by his follower,
Bardolph, that a soldier is better accommodated than with a wife--he
had often strenuously maintained, in opposition to some love-stricken
comrade, that, in the midst of a bloody war, a soldier can give no
worse proof of devotion to the lady of his choice, than urging her to
become a promising candidate for early widowhood. He preached
exceedingly well on this text, and it is but fair to believe that he
would practice what he preached. No! in the interest he took in Lady
Mabel's situation, he was actuated by no selfish or personal
motives. He acquitted himself of that. Had he come across Lady Mabel's
old Lisbon coach, beset by robbers, in her journey through the
Alemtejo, he would have dashed in among them, sword in hand, like a
true gentleman, and a good knight.
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