To the Rescue
Back at the castle, the situation is taut with emotion. The fair maiden's mother
is livid with fear and anxiety; she has attacks of vertigo. She talks her 
daughter's audacity in riding out into the ominous forest despite similar
kidnapings. The girl's father, a martinet who rules his family with an iron
hand, staunchly refuse to pay the ransom. iniquity should not be rewarded. At
this moment of crisis a heroic knight volunteers to rescue our heroine. He has
had a secret yen for the young beauty. Avoiding rhetoric, he pledge his all to
castigate those responsible for this ignominious deed. He holds himself as a
mere bagatelle against the duty he owes his beloved mistress. At the propitious
moment, he rides off to do or die for her.



a cat's paw--a person used as a tool or dupe.
The spy used the innocent girl as a cat's paw to get military information
from the grapevine.