"
"Richard, your words are fair and good. It shall be even as you
say. For the rest, each shall fight as pleases him best from the
time that the herald calls the word. If any man from without
shall break in upon us he shall be hanged on yonder oak."
With a salute he drew down his visor and returned to his own men,
who were kneeling in a twinkling, many colored group whilst the
old bishop gave them his blessing.
The heralds rode round with a warning to the spectators. Then
they halted at the side of the two bands of men who now stood in a
long line facing each other with fifty yards of grass between.
The visors had been closed, and every man was now cased in metal
from head to foot, some few glowing in brass, the greater number
shining in steel. Only their fierce eyes could be seen smoldering
in the dark shadow of their helmets. So for an instant they stood
glaring and crouching.
Then with a loud cry of "Allez!" the herald dropped his upraised
hand, and the two lines of men shuffled as fast as their heavy
armor would permit until they met with a sharp clang of metal in
the middle of the field. There was a sound as of sixty smiths
working upon their anvils. Then the babel of yells and shouts
from the spectators, cheering on this party or that, rose and
swelled until even the uproar of the combat was drowned in that
mighty surge.
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