"
"'Fore God!" said Manny, "if this be the Devil, then the Devil
hath a very courtly tongue. I will have him out of his armor, if
he blast me!"
So saying he sprang once more from his horse and plunging his hand
down the slit in the collapsed gorget he closed it tightly upon a
fistful of Nigel's yellow curls. The groan that came forth was
enough to convince him that it was indeed a man who lurked within.
At the same time his eyes fell upon the hole in the mail corselet
which had served the Squire as a visor, and he burst into
deep-chested mirth. The King, the Prince and Chandos, who had
watched the scene from a distance, too much amused by it to
explain or interfere, rode up weary with laughter, now that all
was discovered.
"Let him out!" said the King, with his hand to his side. "I pray
you to unlace him and let him out! I have shared in many a
spear-running, but never have I been nearer falling from my horse
than as I watched this one. I feared the fall had struck him
senseless, since he lay so still."
Nigel had indeed lain with all the breath shaken from his body,
and as he was unaware that his helmet had been carried off, he had
not understood either the alarm or the amusement that he had
caused. Now freed from the great hauberk in which he had been
shut like a pea in a pod, he stood blinking in the light, blushing
deeply with shame that the shifts to which his poverty had reduced
him should be exposed to all these laughing courtiers.
Pages:
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159