At this the challenger with fierce defy
His trumpet sounds; the challenged makes reply:
With clangour rings the field, resounds the vaulted
sky.
Their visors closed, their lances in the rest,
Or at the helmet pointed or the crest,
They vanish from the barrier, speed the race,
And spurring see decrease the middle space.
Palamon and Arcite
In the midst of Prince John’s cavalcade, he
suddenly stopt, and appealing to the Prior of Jorvaulx,
declared the principal business of the day had been
forgotten.
“By my halidom,” said he, “we have
forgotten, Sir Prior, to name the fair Sovereign of
Love and of Beauty, by whose white hand the palm is
to be distributed. For my part, I am liberal in
my ideas, and I care not if I give my vote for the
black-eyed Rebecca.”
“Holy Virgin,” answered the Prior, turning
up his eyes in horror, “a Jewess!—–We
should deserve to be stoned out of the lists; and
I am not yet old enough to be a martyr. Besides,
I swear by my patron saint, that she is far inferior
to the lovely Saxon, Rowena.”
“Saxon or Jew,” answered the Prince, “Saxon
or Jew, dog or hog, what matters it? I say, name
Rebecca, were it only to mortify the Saxon churls.”
A murmur arose even among his own immediate attendants.
“This passes a jest, my lord,” said De
Bracy; “no knight here will lay lance in rest
if such an insult is attempted.”
“It is the mere wantonness of insult,”
said one of the oldest and most important of Prince
John’s followers, Waldemar Fitzurse, “and
if your Grace attempt it, cannot but prove ruinous
to your projects.”
“I entertained you, sir,” said John, reining
up his palfrey haughtily, “for my follower,
but not for my counsellor.”
“Those who follow your Grace in the paths which
you tread,” said Waldemar, but speaking in a
low voice, “acquire the right of counsellors;
for your interest and safety are not more deeply gaged
than their own.”
From the tone in which this was spoken, John saw the
necessity of acquiescence “I did but jest,”
he said; “and you turn upon me like so many
adders! Name whom you will, in the fiend’s
name, and please yourselves.”
“Nay, nay,” said De Bracy, “let
the fair sovereign’s throne remain unoccupied,
until the conqueror shall be named, and then let him
choose the lady by whom it shall be filled. It
will add another grace to his triumph, and teach fair
ladies to prize the love of valiant knights, who can
exalt them to such distinction.”
“If Brian de Bois-Guilbert gain the prize,”
said the Prior, “I will gage my rosary that
I name the Sovereign of Love and Beauty.”
“Bois-Guilbert,” answered De Bracy, “is
a good lance; but there are others around these lists,
Sir Prior, who will not fear to encounter him.”
“Silence, sirs,” said Waldemar, “and
let the Prince assume his seat. The knights and
spectators are alike impatient, the time advances,
and highly fit it is that the sports should commence.”
