noon
He kissed Matilda 's lips , and consigned her to the baron , who glowered about him with an expression of countenance that showed he was mortally wroth with somebody ; but whatever he thought or felt he kept to himself . The earl , with a sign to his followers , made a sudden charge on the soldiers , with the intention of cutting his way through . The soldiers were prepared for such an occurrence , and a desperate skirmish succeeded . Some of the women screamed , but none of them fainted ; for fainting was not so much the fashion in those days , when the ladies breakfasted on brawn and ale at sunrise , as in our more refined age of green tea and muffins at noon . Matilda seemed disposed to fly again to her lover , but the baron forced her from the chapel . The earl 's bowmen at the door sent in among the assailants a volley of arrows , one of which whizzed past the ear of the abbot , who , in mortal fear of being suddenly translated from a ghostly friar into a friarly ghost , began to roll out of the chapel as fast as his bulk and his holy robes would permit , roaring `` Sacrilege ! '' with all his monks at his heels , who were , like himself , more intent to go at once than to stand upon the order of their going .