two champions stood opposed to each other at the two extremities
of the lists, the public expectation was strained to the highest pitch.
Few augured the possibility that the encounter could terminate well for
the Disinherited Knight, yet his courage and gallantry secured the general
good wishes of the spectators.

The trumpets had no sooner given the signal than the champions vanished
from their posts with the speed of lightning, and closed in the center of
the lists with the shock of a thunderbolt. The lances burst into shivers
up to the very grasp, and it seemed at the moment that both knights had
fallen, for the shock had made each horse recoil backward upon its
haunches.

The address of the riders recovered their steeds by use of the bridle and
spur; and having glared at each other for an instant with eyes which
seemed to flash fire through the bars of their vizors, each made a
demivolte, and, retiring to the extremity of the lists, received a fresh
lance from the attendants.

A loud shout from the spectators, waving of scarfs and handkerchiefs, and
general acclamations attested the interest taken by the spectators in this
encounter; the most equal, as well as the best performed, which had graced
the day. But no sooner had the knights resumed their station than the
clamor of applause was hushed into a silence so deep and so dead that it
seemed the multitude were afraid even to breathe.

A few minutes' pause having been allowed, that the combatants and their
horses might recover breath, Prince John with his truncheon signed to the
trumpets to sound the onset. The champions a second time sprung from their
stations and closed in the center of the lists, with the same speed, the
same dexterity, the same violence, but not the same equal fortune as
before.

In this second encounter the Templar aimed at the center of his
antagonist's shield, and struck it so fair and forcibly that his spear
went to shivers, and the Disinherited Knight reeled in his saddle. On the
other hand, that champion had, in the beginning of his career, directed
the point of his lance toward Bois-Guilbert's shield, but, changing his
aim almost in the moment of encounter, he addressed it to the helmet, a
mark more difficult to hit, but which, if attained, rendered the shock
more irresistible.

Fair and true he hit the Norman on the vizor, where his lance's point kept
hold of the bars. Yet, even at this disadvantage, the Templar sustained
his hig