name passed from mouth to mouth in answer to numerous inquiries. The
girl whose token he had worn also became an object of renewed interest,
because of the result to her in case the knight should prove victor in
the contest, of which there could now scarcely be a doubt; for but
three riders remained, and it was very improbable that any one of them
would excel the last. Wagers for the remainder of the tourney stood
anywhere from five, and even from ten to one, in favor of the knight of
the crimson sash, and when the last course had been run, his backers
were jubilant. No one of those following him had displayed anything
like equal skill.

The herald now blew his bugle and declared the tournament closed. The
judges put their heads together for a moment. The bugle sounded again,
and the herald announced in a loud voice that Sir George Tryon, having
taken the greatest number of rings and split the largest number of
balls, was proclaimed victor in the tournament and entitled to the
flowery chaplet of victory.

Tryon, having bowed repeatedly in response to the liberal applause,
advanced to the judges' stand and received the trophy from the hands of
the chief judge, who exhorted him to wear the garland worthily, and to
yield it only to a better man.

"It will be your privilege, Sir George," announced the judge, "as the
chief reward of your valor, to select from the assembled beauty of
Clarence the lady whom you wish to honor, to whom we will all do homage
as the Queen of Love and Beauty."

Tryon took the wreath and bowed his thanks. Then placing the trophy on
the point of his lance, he spoke earnestly for a moment to the herald,
and rode past the grand stand, from which there was another outburst of
applause. Returning upon his tracks, the knight of the crimson sash
paused before the group where Warwick and his sister sat, and lowered
the wreath thrice before the lady whose token he had won.

"Oyez! Oyez!" cried the herald; "Sir George Tryon, the victor in the
tournament, has chosen Miss Rowena Warwick as the Queen of Love and
Beauty, and she will be crowned at the feast to-night and receive the
devoirs of all true knights."

The fair-ground was soon covered with scattered groups of the
spectators of the tournament. In one group a vanquished knight
explained in elaborate detail why it was that he had failed to win the
wreath. More than one young woman wondered why some one of the home
young men could not have ta