blade of the skilled
swordsman. The crowd roared with delight as Sir Nigel would stoop his
head to avoid a blow, or by some slight movement of his body allow some
terrible thrust to glance harmlessly past him. Suddenly, however, his
time came. The Frenchman, whirling up his sword, showed for an instant
a chink betwixt his shoulder piece and the rerebrace which guarded his
upper arm. In dashed Sir Nigel, and out again so swiftly that the eye
could not follow the quick play of his blade, but a trickle of blood
from the stranger's shoulder, and a rapidly widening red smudge upon his
white surcoat, showed where the thrust had taken effect. The wound was,
however, but a slight one, and the Frenchman was about to renew his
onset, when, at a sign from the prince, Chandos threw down his baton,
and the marshals of the lists struck up the weapons and brought the
contest to an end.

"It were time to check it," said the prince, smiling, "for Sir Nigel is
too good a man for me to lose, and, by the five holy wounds! if one of
those cuts came home I should have fears for our champion. What think
you, Pedro?"

"I think, Edward, that the little man was very well able to take care of
himself. For my part, I should wish to see so well matched a pair fight
on while a drop of blood remained in their veins."

"We must have speech with him. Such a man must not go from my court
without rest or sup. Bring him hither, Chandos, and, certes, if the Lord
Loring hath resigned his claim upon this goblet, it is right and proper
that this cavalier should carry it to France with him as a sign of the
prowess that he has shown this day."

As he spoke, the knight-errant, who had remounted his warhorse, galloped
forward to the royal stand, with a silken kerchief bound round his
wounded arm. The setting sun cast a ruddy glare upon his burnished
arms, and sent his long black shadow streaming behind him up the level
clearing. Pulling up his steed, he slightly inclined his head, and
sat in the stern and composed fashion with which he had borne himself
throughout, heedless of the applauding shouts and the flutter of
kerchiefs from the long lines of brave men and of fair women who were
looking down upon him.

"Sir knight," said the prince, "we have all marvelled this day at this
great skill and valor with which God has been pleased to endow you.
I would fain that you should tarry at our court, for a time at least,
until your hurt is healed and your horses r