At this moment there was a loud murmur from the crowd. Shouts of derision and astonishment were heard on all sides.
"Mercy on us, what a rusty suit of armour! Surely he might have spent a little more money on his outside!" said one.
"'Tis one he's fished out o' the sea, and forgot to scrape the whelks off!" cried another.
"But he's surely no knight--only a poor hobbler," said Humphrey.
"Nay, he's a knight, sure enough; look at his gold spurs, and the collar round his neck--why, 'tis the 'suns' of York. He'd best be well befriended if he wears that; who can he be?" said Tom o' Kingston, eyeing the martial figure, firm seat, and knightly bearing of the new-comer, who, in spite of his somewhat old armour, which had been furbished up as brightly as possible, but which long use and many rough campaigns had soiled with rust and dints beyond all the labour of a diligent esquire to eradicate, looked every inch a tough man-at-arms.
"'Tis a powerful vicious-looking beast he rides, too; but where can he have come from? I never saw him go into the tent. The only man as I see go in was that mountebank sort of chap in that old hood," said Humphrey.
"Well, 'tis a parlous strange matter! We shall see something though," answered Tom o' Kingston.
One of the sailor-looking men accompanied him, carrying another strong spear. The other man had gone into the crowd again, and soon returned leading a girl by the hand; and, elbowing his way to the front, he secured a good position for his young companion and himself close to the lists, and not far from the Judges' gallery.
"Why, Lord Captain," said Yolande, "there's the little damsel with the large eyes we met at Appuldurcombe Priory."
Lord Woodville looked in the direction indicated, and was immediately moved in the same unaccountable way he had been at the time when he first saw her. "The same eyes, the very same eyes and brow," he murmured.