More and angrier words would have been exchanged, but the marshals,

crossing their lances betwixt them, compelled them to separate. The

Disinherited Knight returned to his first station, and Bois-Guilbert

to his tent, where he remained for the rest of the day in an agony of

despair.

Without alighting from his horse, the conqueror called for a bowl of

wine, and opening the beaver, or lower part of his helmet, announced

that he quaffed it, "To all true English hearts, and to the confusion of

foreign tyrants." He then commanded his trumpet to sound a defiance

to the challengers, and desired a herald to announce to them, that he

should make no election, but was willing to encounter them in the order

in which they pleased to advance against him.

The gigantic Front-de-Boeuf, armed in sable armour, was the first who

took the field. He bore on a white shield a black bull's head, half

defaced by the numerous encounters which he had undergone, and bearing

the arrogant motto, "Cave, Adsum". Over this champion the Disinherited

Knight obtained a slight but decisive advantage. Both Knights broke

their lances fairly, but Front-de-Boeuf, who lost a stirrup in the

encounter, was adjudged to have the disadvantage.

In the stranger's third encounter with Sir Philip Malvoisin, he was

equally successful; striking that baron so forcibly on the casque, that

the laces of the helmet broke, and Malvoisin, only saved from falling by

being unhelmeted, was declared vanquished like his companions.

In his fourth combat with De Grantmesnil, the Disinherited Knight showed

as much courtesy as he had hitherto evinced courage and dexterity. De

Grantmesnil's horse, which was young and violent, reared and plunged

in the course of the career so as to disturb the rider's aim, and the

stranger, declining to take the advantage which this accident afforded

him, raised his lance, and passing his antagonist without touching

him, wheeled his horse and rode back again to his own end of the lists,

offering his antagonist, by a herald, the chance of a second encounter.

This De Grantmesnil declined, avowing himself vanquished as much by the

courtesy as by the address of his opponent.

Ralph de Vipont summed up the list of the stranger's triumphs, being

hurled to the ground with such force, that the blood gushed from his

nose and his mouth, and he was borne senseless from the lists.

The acclamations of thousands applauded the unanimous award of the

Prince and marshals, announcing that day's honours to the Disinherited

Knight.




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