ard
you she would have arraigned you to appear at a Court of Love with
a jury of virgins to answer for your sins. But I pray you to take a
tilting spear, good Sir Hubert!"

"I had as soon take a peacock's feather, my fair lord; but I will do it,
if you ask me. Here, page, hand me one of those sticks, and let me see
what I can do."

But Sir Hubert de Burgh was not destined to test either his skill or his
luck. The great bay horse which he rode was as unused to this warlike
play as was its master, and had none of its master's stoutness of heart;
so that when it saw the leveled lance, the gleaming figure and the
frenzied yellow horse rushing down upon it, it swerved, turned and
galloped furiously down the river-bank. Amid roars of laughter from the
rustics on the one side and from the courtiers on the other, Sir Hubert
was seen, tugging vainly at his bridle, and bounding onward, clearing
gorse-bushes and heather-clumps, until he was but a shimmering,
quivering gleam upon the dark hillside. Nigel, who had pulled Pommers
on to his very haunches at the instant that his opponent turned, saluted
with his lance and trotted back to the bridge-head, where he awaited his
next assailant.

"The ladies would say that a judgment hath fallen upon our good Sir
Hubert for his impious words," said the King.

"Let us hope that his charger may be broken in ere they venture to ride
out between two armies," remarked the Prince. "They might mistake the
hardness of his horse's mouth for a softness of the rider's heart. See
where he rides, still clearing every bush upon his path."

"By the rood!" said the King, "if the bold Hubert has not increased his
repute as a jouster he has gained great honor as a horseman. But the
bridge is still closed, Walter. How say you now? Is this young Squire
never to be unhorsed, or is your King himself to lay lance in rest ere
his way can be cleared? By the head of Saint Thomas! I am in the very
mood to run a course with this gentle youth."

"Nay, nay, sire, too much honor hath already been done him!" said Manny,
looking angrily at the motionless horseman. "That this untried boy
should be able to say that in one evening he has unhorsed my Squire, and
seen the back of one of the bravest knights in England is surely enough
to turn his foolish head. Fetch me a spear, Robert! I will see what I
can make of him."

The famous knight took the spear when it was brought to him as a
master-workman takes a tool. He ba