. As he stood gazing on her fortified walls, built of pure
silver; on her towers of jasper and ebony; on her glittering spires of
gold and precious stones; on her houses of marble and alabaster, the
streets between which were paved with tin--he heard the cheerful echoes
of a thousand brazen trumpets, and saw issuing from the brazen gates a
hundred armed knights, bearing blood-red streamers in their hands, and
riding on as many coal-black coursers; then came the Shah, guarded by a
hundred tawny Moors, with bows, and darts feathered with ravens' wings;
and after them rode Celestine, the Shah's fair daughter, mounted on an
unicorn, and guarded by a hundred Amazonian dames, clad in green silk.
In her hand was a javelin of silver, while her fair bosom was shielded
by a breastplate of gold, artificially wrought with the scales of a
crocodile. A vast concourse of gentlemen and squires followed, some on
horse-back and some on foot.

Thus Nebazaradan, the Shah of Persia, rode forth with his daughter to
the chase.

The country had been terribly overrun with wild beasts, and the Knight
heard it proclaimed that the Shah would give a corselet of finest steel,
inlaid with gold, to whomsoever killed the first wild beast that day.

"Come," cried Saint James, "let us after the savage beasts, and win the
corselet!"

Away scoured the Knight and his Squire over the plain till they reached
a forest, in the confines of which they beheld a monstrous wild boar,
devouring the remains of some passengers he had slain. The eyes of the
brute sparkled like a furnace; his tusks were sharper than spikes of
steel; and the breath, as it issued from his nostrils, seemed like a
whirlwind; his bristles looked like so many spear-heads, and his tail
was like a wreath of serpents.

Saint James blew his silver horn, which hung by a green silk scarf to
the pommel of his saddle. The blast aroused the boar, who made at him
furiously. His spear shivered against its bristly hide into a hundred
fragments, when, leaping from his steed, which he directed Pedrillo to
hold, he drew his falchion of Toledo steel, and valiantly on foot
assailed the monster. From side to side he sprung to avoid its fearful
tusks; but in vain did the point of his weapon seek an entrance to its
case-hardened flesh. At last, unslinging his battle-axe, he clove the
head of the monster down to the mouth, and with a second blow cut it
completely off; then placing it on the staff of hi