nies which followed or preceded the tournament, the
knight wore his doublet of fine cloth, overlaid with his coat-of-arms
embroidered in silk or gold thread, and an outer surcoat of velvet, often
crimson slashed with white or violet satin, made without sleeves if worn
over the cuirass and finished with a short fluted skirt of velvet. Over
this a short cloak of velvet or satin, even sometimes of cloth of gold, was
worn lightly over one shoulder.

If this was the usual style of costume, which had also to be varied on
different festivals, we can easily understand how impossible it was for
young Bayard to procure such costly luxuries on his small means, and we can
almost forgive him for the audacious trick he played on his rich relation
the Abbe of Ainay. Not only was the knight himself richly clad, but we are
told that to appear in a grand tournament even the horse had to have
sumptuous trappings of velvet or satin made by the tailor. We have not
mentioned the suit of armour, which was the most expensive item of all;
being made at this period lighter and more elaborate, with its flexible
over-lying plates of thin, tempered steel, it was far more costly than it
had ever been before. The bravest knights at the Court were proud to try
their fortune against Messire Claude. It was the rule that after the
contest each champion was to ride the whole length of the lists, with his
visor raised and his face uncovered, that it might be known who had done
well or ill. Bayard, who was scarcely eighteen and had not done growing,
was by nature somewhat thin and pale, and had by no means reached his full
strength. But with splendid courage and gallant spirit, he went in for his
first ordeal against one of the finest warriors in the world. The old
chronicler cannot tell how it happened, whether by the special grace of God
or whether Messire Claude took delight in the brave boy, but it so fell out
that no man did better in the lists, either on foot or on horseback, than
young Bayard, and when it came to his turn to ride down with his face
uncovered, the ladies of Lyons openly praised him as the finest champion of
all. He also won golden opinions of all the rest of the company, and King
Charles exclaimed at supper:

"By my faith! Picquet has made a beginning which in my opinion promises a
good end." Then, turning to the Sire de Ligny, he added: "My cousin, I
never in my life made you so good a present as when I gave him to you."
"Sire," was