struck his opponent with so true an
aim that the point of the lance caught between the bars of his vizor and
tore the front of his helmet out, while the German, aiming somewhat
low, and half stunned by the shock, had the misfortune to strike his
adversary upon the thigh, a breach of the rules of the tilting-yard, by
which he not only sacrificed his chances of success, but would also
have forfeited his horse and his armor, had the English knight chosen
to claim them. A roar of applause from the English soldiers, with an
ominous silence from the vast crowd who pressed round the barriers,
announced that the balance of victory lay with the holders. Already the
ten champions had assembled in front of the prince to receive his award,
when a harsh bugle call from the further end of the lists drew all eyes
to a new and unexpected arrival.

CHAPTER XXIV. HOW A CHAMPION CAME FORTH FROM THE EAST.

The Bordeaux lists were, as has already been explained, situated
upon the plain near the river upon those great occasions when the
tilting-ground in front of the Abbey of St. Andrew's was deemed to be
too small to contain the crowd. On the eastern side of this plain the
country-side sloped upwards, thick with vines in summer, but now ridged
with the brown bare enclosures. Over the gently rising plain curved the
white road which leads inland, usually flecked with travellers, but now
with scarce a living form upon it, so completely had the lists drained
all the district of its inhabitants. Strange it was to see such a vast
concourse of people, and then to look upon that broad, white, empty
highway which wound away, bleak and deserted, until it narrowed itself
to a bare streak against the distant uplands.

Shortly after the contest had begun, any one looking from the lists
along this road might have remarked, far away in the extreme distance,
two brilliant and sparkling points which glittered and twinkled in
the bright shimmer of the winter sun. Within an hour these had become
clearer and nearer, until they might be seen to come from the reflection
from the head-pieces of two horsemen who were riding at the top of their
speed in the direction of Bordeaux. Another half-hour had brought
them so close that every point of their bearing and equipment could be
discerned. The first was a knight in full armor, mounted upon a brown
horse with a white blaze upon breast and forehead. He was a short man of
great breadth of shoulder, with vizor