id Jack: "The King of Oakenrealm must rule me as well as others of
his liege-men: he must fight if he will, and be slain if he will." Then
suddenly he fell a-laughing, and beat his hand on his thigh till
the armour rattled again, and then he cried out: "Lord Gandolf, Lord
Gandolf, have a care, I bid thee! Where wilt thou please to be buried,
Lord?"

Said the other: "I wot not what thou wilt mean by thy fooling, rank
reiver. But here I take up this youngling's glove; and on his head be
his fate! Now as to this battle. My will is, that we two champions be
all alone and afoot on the eyot. How say ye?"

"Even so be it," said Jack; "but I say that half a score on each side
shall be standing on their own bank to see the play, and the rest of the
host come no nigher than now we are."

"I yea-say it," said the Baron; "and now do thou, rank reiver, go back
to thy fellowship and tell them what we have areded, and do thou, Oliver
Marson, do so much for our folk; and bid them wot this, that if any of
them break the troth, he shall lose nought more than his life for that
same."

Therewith all went ashore to either bank, save the Baron of Brimside
and Christopher. And the Baron laid him down on the ground and fell to
whistling the tune of a merry Yule dance; but as for Christopher, he
looked on his foeman, and deemed he had seldom seen so big and stalwarth
a man; and withal he was of ripe age, and had seen some forty winters.
Then he also cast himself down on the grass, and fell into a kind of
dream, as he watched a pair of wagtails that came chirping up from the
sandy spit below the eyot; till suddenly great shouting broke out, first
from his own bent, and then from the foemen's, and Christopher knew that
the folk on either side had just heard of the battle that was to be on
the holm. The Baron arose at the sound and looked to his own men, whence
were now coming that half-score who were to look on the battle from the
bank; but Christopher stirred not, but lay quietly amongst the flowers
of the grass, till he heard the splash of horse-hoofs in the ford, and
there presently was come Jack of the Tofts bearing basnet and shield for
his lord. And he got off his horse and spake to Christopher: "If I may
not fight for thee, my son and King, yet at least it is the right of
thine Earl to play the squire to thee: but a word before thy basnet is
over thine ears; the man yonder is well-nigh a giant for stature and
strength; yet I think thou