“I heartily thank your highness; but lest I be held a niggard by this good knight, in seeming to shun the cheer he offereth me, I will pray your courtesy to let each of us strike one blow on helm or mail in all good fellowship, that so we may in some sort prove each other’s might, even if we cannot do so blade to blade.”
The duke (to whose chivalrous spirit this offer was just suited) agreed at once. Two helmets, the strongest that could be found, were placed on two stout blocks at the tent door; and the whole party trooped out to watch the trial.
“Strike thou the first blow, good Sir Thomas,” said Bertrand; “it is what thou art ever wont to do.”
“I thank your courtesy, fair sir,” said the Englishman, who, finding himself treated with such studied courtesy after all his rudeness, was beginning to feel ashamed of it.
Down came his axe, cleaving the tempered steel like paper, and biting so deep into the hard block as well-nigh to hew it in twain. A shout of applause greeted the stroke, and Bertrand said with his usual frankness—
“Well stricken, gallant sir! He who would match thee runneth sore risk of being shamed; but, for the honour of Bretagne, I will e’en try my fortune.”
His wounded arm was sorely against him; but the thought of striking for his country’s honour in the presence of foes doubled his great strength, and the blow fell like a thunderbolt. The strong helmet flew in pieces like an egg-shell, and down went the terrible axe through steel and wood and all, burying itself a good foot in the hard earth below.
There was a pause of mute amazement (for never yet had the lookers-on, though bred where good blows were in plenty, seen such a stroke), and then broke forth a shout of hearty, manly admiration, to which the duke himself added the full might of his voice.
Sir Thomas himself, with all his bluster, was too brave a man not to admire such prowess even in a foe; and he said frankly enough—
“Thou art the better man, gentle sir; and, by St. George, I have good cause to be glad that my head was not in yon helm when thine axe smote it.”