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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Maid Marian by Thomas Love Peacock: cut short in the church. Could men have put them asunder,
if God had joined them together? And the earl is now no earl,
but plain Robert Fitz-Ooth: therefore, I'll none of him."
"He may atone," said the friar, "and the king may mollify.
The earl is a worthy peer, and the king is a courteous king."
"He cannot atone," said Sir Ralph. "He has killed the king's men;
and if the baron should aid and abet, he will lose his castle and land."
"Will I?" said the baron; "not while I have a drop of blood in my veins.
He that comes to take them shall first serve me as the friar serves my
flasks of canary: he shall drain me dry as hay. Am I not disparaged?
Am I not outraged? Is not my daughter vilified, and made a mockery?
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