Page:Tales from Chaucer.djvu/221

 in gentleness of blood. The name of this young nobleman was Walter.

The indiscretions in his conduct to which I have alluded, were, that he was too prone to gratify the desires of the present moment, without regard to the future: and so great was his delight in hawking and hunting, that the graver cares and duties of life were not sufficiently regarded. But what, in the minds of his subjects, gave cause for the greatest uneasiness, was, that he could by no persuasions be induced to take a wife; and, consequently, they feared that the noble line in which they took so great a pride, should become extinct in case of his death, and that the government, under which they had ever lived in great felicity, might pass into the hands of a stranger: they therefore petitioned him to take the matter into his consideration; and that for the good of his people, he would allow them to propose for him, or himself select for wife, a lady, the best and gentlest born in all the land.

The Marquis listened to their petition with much kindness of manner, and answered, that