in the present day, applaud most highly the deepest tragedies were
then interested in a tournament exactly in proportion to the danger
incurred by the champions engaged.

Having intimated their more pacific purpose, the champions retreated to
the extremity of the lists, where they remained drawn up in a line;
while the challengers, sallying each from his pavilion, mounted their
horses, and, headed by Brian de Bois-Guilbert, descended from the
platform and opposed themselves individually to the knights who had
touched their respective shields.

At the flourish of clarions and trumpets, they started out against each
other at full gallop; and such was the superior dexterity or good
fortune of the challengers, that those opposed to Bois-Guilbert,
Malvoisin, and Front-de-Boeuf rolled on the ground. The antagonist of
Grantmesnil, instead of bearing his lance-point fair against the crest
or the shield of his enemy, swerved so much from the direct line as to
break the weapon athwart the person of his opponent--a circumstance
which was accounted more disgraceful than that of being actually
unhorsed, because the latter might happen from accident, whereas the
former evinced awkwardness and want of management of the weapon and of
the horse. The fifth knight alone maintained the honor of his party, and
parted fairly with the Knight of Saint John, both splintering their
lances without advantage on either side.

The shouts of the multitude, together with the acclamations of the
heralds and the clangor of the trumpets, announced the triumph of the
victors and the defeat of the vanquished. The former retreated to their
pavilions, and the latter, gathering themselves up as they could,
withdrew from the lists in disgrace and dejection, to agree with their
victors concerning the redemption of their arms and their horses, which,
according to the laws of the tournament, they had forfeited. The fifth
of their number alone tarried in the lists long enough to be greeted by
the applauses of the spectators, among whom he retreated, to the
aggravation, doubtless, of his companions' mortification.

A second and a third party of knights took the field; and although they
had various success, yet, upon the whole, the advantage decidedly
remained with the challengers, not one of them whom lost his seat or
swerved from his charge--misfortunes which befell one or two of their
antagonists in each encounter. The spirits, therefore, of those opposed
to