smile so?"

"Because I hope to show you better sport ere you come to Tilford."

"For the hawk? For the hound?"

"A nobler sport than either."

"Is this a riddle, John? What mean you?"

"Nay, to tell all would be to spoil all. I say again that there is rare
sport betwixt here and Tilford, and I beg you, dear lord, to mend your
pace that we make the most of the daylight."

Thus adjured, the King set spurs to his horse, and the whole cavalcade
cantered over the heath in the direction which Chandos showed. Presently
as they came over a slope they saw beneath them a winding river with
an old high-backed bridge across it. On the farther side was a village
green with a fringe of cottages and one dark manor house upon the side
of the hill.

"This is Tilford," said Chandos. "Yonder is the house of the Lorings."

The King's expectations had been aroused and his face showed his
disappointment.

"Is this the sport that you have promised us, Sir John? How can you make
good your words?"

"I will make them good, my liege."

"Where then is the sport?"

On the high crown of the bridge a rider in armor was seated, lance in
hand, upon a great yellow steed. Chandos touched the King's arm and
pointed. "That is the sport," said he.

IX. HOW NIGEL HELD THE BRIDGE AT TILFORD

The King looked at the motionless figure, at the little crowd of hushed
expectant rustics beyond the bridge, and finally at the face of Chandos,
which shone with amusement.

"What is this, John?" he asked.

"You remember Sir Eustace Loring, sire?"

"Indeed I could never forget him nor the manner of his death."

"He was a knight errant in his day."

"That indeed he was--none better have I known."

"So is his son Nigel, as fierce a young war-hawk as ever yearned to use
beak and claws; but held fast in the mews up to now. This is his trial
fight. There he stands at the bridge-head, as was the wont in our
fathers' time, ready to measure himself against all comers."

Of all Englishmen there was no greater knight errant than the King
himself, and none so steeped in every quaint usage of chivalry; so that
the situation was after his own heart.

"He is not yet a knight?"

"No, sire, only a Squire."

"Then he must bear himself bravely this day if he is to make good what
he has done. Is it fitting that a young untried Squire should venture to
couch his lance against the best in England?"

"He hath given me his cartel and challenge," said Cha