The account of all the battles, storms, and scaladoes in which Sir
Wilfrid took part, would only weary the reader; for the chopping off
one heathen's head with an axe must be very like the decapitation of any
other unbeliever. Suffice it to say, that wherever this kind of work was
to be done, and Sir Wilfrid was in the way, he was the man to perform
it. It would astonish you were you to see the account that Wamba kept of
his master's achievements, and of the Bulgarians, Bohemians, Croatians,
slain or maimed by his hand. And as, in those days, a reputation for
valor had an immense effect upon the soft hearts of women, and even
the ugliest man, were he a stout warrior, was looked upon with favor by
Beauty: so Ivanhoe, who was by no means ill-favored, though now becoming
rather elderly, made conquests over female breasts as well as over
Saracens, and had more than one direct offer of marriage made to him
by princesses, countesses, and noble ladies possessing both charms and
money, which they were anxious to place at the disposal of a champion so
renowned. It is related that the Duchess Regent of Kartoffelberg offered
him her hand, and the ducal crown of Kartoffelberg, which he had rescued
from the unbelieving Prussians; but Ivanhoe evaded the Duchess's offer,
by riding away from her capital secretly at midnight and hiding himself
in a convent of Knights Hospitallers on the borders of Poland.
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