e,"
and "The Talisman."

Scott may be said to have created the historical novel, and
to have quickened by means of it the national pride of his
countrymen. At the time of his death he was recognized as a
great public character, so that when in his last illness he
went abroad in search of health the British government
placed a man-of-war at his disposal.

The romance of "Ivanhoe," from which this selection has been
taken, is the most spirited and stirring picture of the age
of chivalry that English literature contains.

The lists now presented a most splendid spectacle. The sloping galleries
were crowded with all that was noble, great, wealthy, and beautiful in the
northern and midland parts of England; and the contrast of the various
dresses of these dignified spectators rendered the view as gay as it was
rich, while the interior and lower space, filled with the substantial
burgesses and yeomen of merry England, formed, in their more plain attire,
a dark fringe, or border, around this circle of brilliant embroidery,
relieving, and at the same time setting off, its splendor.

The heralds finished their proclamation with the usual cry of "Largesse,
largesse, gallant knights!" and gold and silver pieces were showered on
them from the galleries, it being a high point of chivalry to exhibit
liberality toward those whom the age accounted at once the secretaries and
the historians of honor.

The bounty of the spectators was acknowledged by the customary shouts of
"Love of Ladies--Death of Champions--Honor to the Generous--Glory to the
Brave!"--to which the more humble spectators added their acclamations, and
a numerous band of trumpeters the flourish of their martial instruments.

When these sounds had ceased, the heralds withdrew from the lists in gay
and glittering procession, and none remained within them save the
marshals of the field, who, armed cap-a-pie, sat on horseback, motionless
as statues, at the opposite end of the lists.

Meantime, the enclosed space at the northern extremity of the lists, as it
was, was now completely crowded with knights desirous to prove their skill
against the challengers, and, when viewed from the galleries, presented
the appearance of a sea of waving plumage, intermixed with glistening
helmets, and tall lances, to the extremities of which were, in many cases,
attached small pennons of about a span's breadth, which, fluttering in the
air as the