aine I will find enough to do
in guarding the marches which you have entrusted to me. It would be
a blithe day for the King of France when he heard that the seas lay
between him and us."

"By my soul! John," said the prince, "I have never known you turn
laggard before."

"The babbling hound, sire, is not always the first at the mort," the old
knight answered.

"Nay, my true-heart! I have tried you too often not to know. But, by my
soul! I have not seen so dense a throng since the day that we brought
King John down Cheapside."

It was indeed an enormous crowd which covered the whole vast plain from
the line of vineyards to the river bank. From the northern gate the
prince and his companions looked down at a dark sea of heads, brightened
here and there by the colored hoods of the women, or by the sparkling
head-pieces of archers and men-at-arms. In the centre of this vast
assemblage the lists seemed but a narrow strip of green marked out with
banners and streamers, while a gleam of white with a flutter of pennons
at either end showed where the marquees were pitched which served as the
dressing-rooms of the combatants. A path had been staked off from the
city gate to the stands which had been erected for the court and the
nobility. Down this, amid the shouts of the enormous multitude, the
prince cantered with his two attendant kings, his high officers of
state, and his long train of lords and ladies, courtiers, counsellors,
and soldiers, with toss of plume and flash of jewel, sheen of silk and
glint of gold--as rich and gallant a show as heart could wish. The head
of the cavalcade had reached the lists ere the rear had come clear of
the city gate, for the fairest and the bravest had assembled from all
the broad lands which are watered by the Dordogne and the Garonne. Here
rode dark-browed cavaliers from the sunny south, fiery soldiers from
Gascony, graceful courtiers of Limousin or Saintonge, and gallant young
Englishmen from beyond the seas. Here too were the beautiful brunettes
of the Gironde, with eyes which out-flashed their jewels, while beside
them rode their blonde sisters of England, clear cut and aquiline,
swathed in swans'-down and in ermine, for the air was biting though
the sun was bright. Slowly the long and glittering train wound into the
lists, until every horse had been tethered by the varlets in waiting,
and every lord and lady seated in the long stands which stretched, rich
in tapestry and velvet and