peak French?"

"Yea, your Majesty," answered Myles. "In some small measure do I so."

"I am glad of that," said the King; "for so I may make thee acquainted
with Sieur de la Montaigne."

He turned as he ended speaking, and beckoned to a heavy, thick-set,
black-browed chevalier who stood with the other gentlemen attendants at
a little distance. He came instantly forward in answer to the summons,
and the King introduced the two to one another. As each took the other
formally by the hand, he measured his opponent hastily, body and limb,
and perhaps each thought that he had never seen a stronger, stouter,
better-knit man than the one upon whom he looked. But nevertheless
the contrast betwixt the two was very great--Myles, young, boyish,
fresh-faced; the other, bronzed, weather beaten, and seamed with a great
white scar that ran across his forehead and cheek; the one a novice, the
other a warrior seasoned in twoscore battles.

A few polite phrases passed between the two, the King listening smiling,
but with an absent and far-away look gradually stealing upon his face.
As they ended speaking, a little pause of silence followed, and then the
King suddenly aroused himself.

"So," said he, "I am glad that ye two are acquainted. And now we will
leave our youthful champion in thy charge, Beaumont--and in thine, Mon
Sieur, as well--and so soon as the proper ceremonies are ended, we will
dub him knight with our own hands. And now, Mackworth, and thou my Lord
Count, let us walk a little; I have bethought me further concerning
these threescore extra men for Dauphiny."

Then Myles withdrew, under the charge of Lord George and the Sieur de
la Montaigne and while the King and the two nobles walked slowly up and
down the gravel path between the tall rose-bushes, Myles stood
talking with the gentlemen attendants, finding himself, with a certain
triumphant exultation, the peer of any and the hero of the hour.

That night was the last that Myles and Gascoyne spent lodging in the
dormitory in their squirehood service. The next day they were assigned
apartments in Lord George's part of the house, and thither they
transported themselves and their belongings, amid the awestruck wonder
and admiration of their fellow-squires.

CHAPTER 24

In Myles Falworth's day one of the greatest ceremonies of courtly life
was that of the bestowal of knighthood by the King, with the honors of
the Bath. By far the greater number of knights were at t