t, urging his horse
to speed, appeared on the plain advancing towards the lists. A
hundred voices exclaimed, "A champion! a champion!" And despite the
prepossessions and prejudices of the multitude, they shouted unanimously
as the knight rode into the tiltyard, The second glance, however, served
to destroy the hope that his timely arrival had excited. His horse,
urged for many miles to its utmost speed, appeared to reel from fatigue,
and the rider, however undauntedly he presented himself in the lists,
either from weakness, weariness, or both, seemed scarce able to support
himself in the saddle.

To the summons of the herald, who demanded his rank, his name, and
purpose, the stranger knight answered readily and boldly, "I am a good
knight and noble, come hither to sustain with lance and sword the just
and lawful quarrel of this damsel, Rebecca, daughter of Isaac of York;
to uphold the doom pronounced against her to be false and truthless, and
to defy Sir Brian de Bois-Guilbert, as a traitor, murderer, and liar; as
I will prove in this field with my body against his, by the aid of God,
of Our Lady, and of Monseigneur Saint George, the good knight."

"The stranger must first show," said Malvoisin, "that he is good knight,
and of honourable lineage. The Temple sendeth not forth her champions
against nameless men."

"My name," said the Knight, raising his helmet, "is better known, my
lineage more pure, Malvoisin, than thine own. I am Wilfred of Ivanhoe."

"I will not fight with thee at present," said the Templar, in a changed
and hollow voice. "Get thy wounds healed, purvey thee a better horse,
and it may be I will hold it worth my while to scourge out of thee this
boyish spirit of bravado."

"Ha! proud Templar," said Ivanhoe, "hast thou forgotten that twice didst
thou fall before this lance? Remember the lists at Acre--remember the
Passage of Arms at Ashby--remember thy proud vaunt in the halls of
Rotherwood, and the gage of your gold chain against my reliquary, that
thou wouldst do battle with Wilfred of Ivanhoe, and recover the honour
thou hadst lost! By that reliquary and the holy relic it contains, I
will proclaim thee, Templar, a coward in every court in Europe--in every
Preceptory of thine Order--unless thou do battle without farther delay."

Bois-Guilbert turned his countenance irresolutely towards Rebecca, and
then exclaimed, looking fiercely at Ivanhoe, "Dog of a Saxon! take thy
lance, and prepare for the de