"If we do not," said the Disinherited Knight, "the fault
shall not be mine. On foot or horseback, with spear, 25
with ax, or with sword, I am alike ready to encounter thee."
More and angrier words would have been exchanged,
but the marshals, crossing their lances betwixt them,
compelled them to separate. The Disinherited Knight
returned to his first station, and Bois-Guilbert to his 30
tent, where he remained for the rest of the day in an
agony of despair.
Without alighting from his horse, the conqueror called
for a bowl of wine, and opening the beaver, or lower part
of his helmet, announced that he quaffed it "To all true
English hearts, and to the confusion of foreign tyrants."
He then commanded his trumpet to sound a defiance to 5
the challengers, and desired a herald to announce to them
that he should make no election, but was willing to encounter
them in the order in which they pleased to advance
against him.
The gigantic Front-de-Bœuf, armed in sable armor, was 10
the first who took the field. He bore on a white shield a
black bull's head, half defaced by the numerous encounters
which he had undergone, and bearing the arrogant motto,
Cave, adsum. Over this champion the Disinherited
Knight obtained a slight but decisive advantage. Both 15
knights broke their lances fairly, but Front-de-Bœuf, who
lost a stirrup in the encounter, was adjudged to have the
disadvantage.
In the stranger's third encounter, with Sir Philip Malvoisin,
he was equally successful; striking that baron so 20
forcibly on the casque that the laces of the helmet broke,
and Malvoisin, only saved from falling by being unhelmeted,
was declared vanquished like his companions.
In his fourth combat, with De Grantmesnil, the Disinherited
Knight showed as much courtesy as he had 25
hitherto evinced courage and dexterity. De Grantmesnil's
horse, which was young and violent, reared and plunged in
the course of the career so as to disturb the rider's aim,
and the stranger, declining to take the advantage which
this accident afforded him, raised his lance, and passing30
his antagonist without touching him, wheeled his horse
and rode back again to his own end of the lists, offering
his antagonist, by a herald, the chance of a second encounter.
This De Grantmesnil declined, avowing himself
vanquished as much by the courtesy as by the address of
his opponent.
Ralph de Vipont summed up the list of the stranger's 5
triumphs, being hurled to the ground with such force that
the blood gushed from his nose and his mouth and he was
borne senseless from the lists.
The acclamations of thousands applauded the unanimous
award of the prince and marshals, announcing that day's 10
honors to the Disinherited Knight.
—Ivanhoe.
1. Describe the lists as Scott makes you see them. What was the order of proceeding at the outset?