charger, loaded with the armor in which he had that day fought.

"According to the laws of chivalry," said the foremost of these men, "I,
Baldwin de Oyley, squire to the redoubted Knight Brian de Bois-Guilbert,
make offer to you, styling yourself for the present the Disinherited
Knight, of the horse and armor used by the said Brian de Bois-Guilbert
in this day's passage of arms, leaving it with your nobleness to retain
or to ransom the same, according to your pleasure; for such is the law
of arms."

The other squires repeated nearly the same formula, and then stood to
await the decision of the Disinherited Knight.

"To you four, sirs," replied the Knight, addressing those who had last
spoken, "and to your honorable and valiant masters, I have one common
reply. Commend me to the noble knights, your masters, and say, I should
do ill to deprive them of steeds and arms which can never be used by
braver cavaliers. I would I could here end my message to these gallant
knights; but being, as I term myself, in truth and earnest, the
Disinherited, I must be thus far bound to your masters, that they will,
of their courtesy, be pleased to ransom their steeds and armor, since
that which I wear I can hardly term mine own."

"We stand commissioned, each of us," answered the squire of Reginald
Front-de-Boeuf, "to offer a hundred zecchins[72-12] in ransom of
these horses and suits of armor."

"It is sufficient," said the Disinherited Knight. "Half the sum my
present necessities compel me to accept; of the remaining half,
distribute one moiety among yourselves, sir squires, and divide the
other half between the heralds and the pursuivants, and minstrels, and
attendants."

The squires, with cap in hand, and low reverences, expressed their deep
sense of a courtesy and generosity not often practiced, at least upon a
scale so extensive.

The Disinherited Knight then addressed his discourse to Baldwin, the
squire of Brian de Bois-Guilbert. "From your master," said he, "I will
accept neither arms nor ransom. Say to him in my name, that our strife
is not ended--no, not till we have fought as well with swords as with
lances, as well on foot as on horseback. To this mortal quarrel he has
himself defied me, and I shall not forget the challenge. Meantime, let
him be assured that I hold him not as one of his companions, with whom I
can with pleasure exchange courtesies; but rather as one with whom I
stand upon terms of mortal defiance."

"