higher than the others, more richly
decorated, and graced by a sort of throne and canopy, on which the royal
arms were emblazoned. Squires, pages, and yeomen in rich liveries waited
around this place of honor, which was designed for Prince John and his
attendants. Opposite to this royal gallery was another, elevated to the
same height, on the western side of the lists; and more gayly, if less
sumptuously, decorated than that destined for the Prince himself. A
train of pages and of young maidens, the most beautiful who could be
selected, gayly dressed in fancy habits of green and pink, surrounded a
throne decorated in the same colors; Among pennons and flags, bearing
wounded hearts, burning hearts, bleeding hearts, bows and quivers, and
all the commonplace emblems of the triumphs of Cupid, a blazoned
inscription informed the spectators that this seat of honor was designed
for _La Royne de la Beaute et des Amours_. But who was to represent the
Queen of Beauty and of Love on the present occasion no one was prepared
to guess.

Meanwhile, spectators of every description thronged forward to occupy
their respective stations, and not without many quarrels concerning
those which they were entitled to hold. Some of these were settled by
the men-at-arms with brief ceremony; the shafts of their battle-axes and
pummels of their swords being readily employed as arguments to convince
the more refractory. Others, which involved the rival claims of more
elevated persons, were determined by the heralds, or by the two marshals
of the field, William de Wyvil and Stephen de Martival, who, armed at
all points, rode up and down the lists to enforce and preserve good
order among the spectators.

Gradually the galleries became filled with knights and nobles, in their
robes of peace, whose long and rich-tinted mantles were contrasted with
the gayer and more splendid habits of the ladies, who, in a greater
proportion than even the men themselves, thronged to witness a sport
which one would have thought too bloody and dangerous to afford their
sex much pleasure. The lower and interior space was soon filled by
substantial yeomen and burghers, and such of the lesser gentry as, from
modesty, poverty, or dubious title, durst not assume any higher place.
It was of course amongst these that the most frequent disputes for
precedence occurred.

Suddenly the attention of every one was called to the entrance of Prince
John, who at that moment entered the