[D] Quickly.
[E] Scar.
[137] It may be as well to notice that the barriers of a town, or its outer fortification, are described by Froissart as being grated pallisades, the grates being about half a foot wide.
[138] The remainder of this knight’s story should be told, although it does not relate to the matter of the text. “In the suburbs he had a sore encounter, for, as he passed on the pavement, he found before him a bocher, a big man, who had well seen this knight pass by, and he held in his hands a sharp heavy axe, with a long point; and as the knight returned, and took no heed, this bocher came on his side and gave him such a stroke between the neck and shoulders, that he fell upon his horse, and yet he recovered; and then the bocher struck him again, so that the axe entered into his body, so that, for pain, the knight fell to the earth, and his horse ran away, and came to the squire who abode for his master at the streets; and so the squire took the horse, and had great marvel what was become of his master, for he had seen him ride to the barriers, and strike thereat with his glaive, and return again. Then he rode a little forth thitherward, and anon he saw his master laying upon the earth between four men, who were striking him as they would strike an anvil. And then the squire was so affrighted he durst not go farther, for he saw he could not help his master. Therefore he returned as fast as he might; so there the said knight was slain. And the knights that were at the gate caused him to be buried in holy ground.” Lord Berners’s Froissart, c. 281.
[139] Froissart, vol. i. c. 278.
[140] Froissart, c. 281.; Gray’s Descent of Odin.; Herbert’s Icelandic Translations, p. 39; Scott’s Minstrelsy, vol. 1. p. 45.
[141] Froissart c. 384.
[142] Froissart, c. 28. “Et si avoit entre eux plusieurs jeunes bacheliers, qui avoient chacun un œil couvert de drap, à fin qu’ils n’en puissent veoir; et disoit on que ceux là avoient voué, entre dames de leur pais, que jamais ne verroient que d’un œil jusques à ce qu’ils auroient fait aucunes prouesses de leur corps en royaume de France.” The disposition of knights to make vows was an excellent subject for Cervantes’ raillery. “Tell her,” continued I, (Don Quixote) “when she least expects it, she will come to hear how I made an oath, as the Marquis of Mantua did, when he found his nephew Baldwin ready to expire on the mountains, never to eat upon a table-cloth, and several other particulars, which he swore to observe, till he had revenged his death. So in the like solemn manner will I swear, never to desist from traversing the habitable globe, and ranging through all the seven parts of the world, more indefatigably than ever was done by Prince Pedro of Portugal, till I have freed her from her enchantment.” Don Quixote, part 2. c. 23.
[143] Every true knight said like him in the Morte d’Arthur, “Though the knight be never so false, I will never slay him sleeping; for I will never destroy the high order of knighthood.” And again, “Well, I can deem that I shall give him a fall. For it is no mastery, for my horse and I be both fresh, and so are not his horse and he, and weet ye well that he will take it for great unkindness, for every one good is loth to take another at disadvantage.”
[144] The true son of chivalry was like Banquo, of whom Macbeth says,