CHAPTER VII
Knights, with a long retinue of their squires, In gaudy liveries march and quaint attires; One laced the helm, another held the lance, A third the shining buckler did advance. The courser paw'd the ground with restless feet, And snorting foam'd and champ'd the golden bit. The smiths and armourers on palfreys ride, Files in their hands, and hammers at their side; And nails for loosen'd spears, and thongs for shields provide. The yeomen guard the streets in seemly bands; And clowns come crowding on, with cudgels in their hands.
_Palamon and Arcite_.
The condition of the English nation was at this time sufficiently miserable. King Richard was absent a prisoner, and in the power of the perfidious and cruel Duke of Austria. Even the very place of his captivity was uncertain, and his fate but very imperfectly known to the generality of his subjects, who were, in the meantime, a prey to every species of subaltern oppression.
Prince John, in league with Philip of France,
C
Under the various burdens imposed by this unhappy
state of affairs, the people of England suffered
deeply for the present, and had yet more
dreadful cause to fear for the future. To augment
their misery, a contagious disorder of a dangerous
nature spread through the land; and, rendered
more virulent by the uncleanness, the indifferent
food, and the wretched lodging of the lower classes,
swept off many whose fate the survivors were tempted
to envy, as exempting them from the evils which
were to come.
Yet amid these accumulated distresses, the poor
as well as the rich, the vulgar as well as the noble,
in the event of a tournament, which was the grand
spectacle of that age, felt as much interested as the
half-starved citizen of Madrid, who has not a real
left to buy provisions for his family, feels in the
issue of a bull-feast. Neither duty nor infirmity
could keep youth or age from such exhibitions.
The Passage of Arms, as it was called, which was
to take place at Ashby, in the county of Leicester,
as champions of the first renown were to take the
field in the presence of Prince John himself, who
was expected to grace the lists, had attracted universal
attention, and an immense confluence of persons
of all ranks hastened upon the appointed morning
to the place of combat.
The scene was singularly romantic. On the verge
of a wood, which approached to within a mile of
the town of Ashby, was an extensive meadow, of
the finest and most beautiful green turf, surrounded
on one side by the forest, and fringed on the
other by straggling oak-trees, some of which had
grown to an immense size. The ground, as if fashioned
on purpose for the martial display which
was intended, sloped gradually down on all sides
to a level bottom, which was enclosed for the lists
with strong palisades, forming a space of a quarter
of a mile in length, and about half as broad. The
form of the enclosure was an oblong square, save
that the corners were considerably rounded off, in
order to afford more convenience for the spectators.
The openings for the entry of the combatants were
at the northern and southern extremities of the lists,
accessible by strong wooden gates, each wide enough
to admit two horsemen riding abreast. At each of
these portals were stationed two heralds, attended
by six trumpets, as many pursuivants, and a strong
body of men-at-arms for maintaining order, and
ascertaining the quality of the knights who proposed
to engage in this martial game.
On a platform beyond the southern entrance,
formed by a natural elevation of the ground, were
pitched five magnificent pavilions, adorned with
pennons of russet and black, the chosen colours of
the five knights challengers. The cords of the tents
were of the same colour. Before each pavilion was
suspended the shield of the knight by whom it was
occupied, and beside it stood his squire, quaintly
disguised as a salvage or silvan man, or in some
other fantastic dress, according to the taste of his
master, and the character he was pleased to assume
daring the game.* The central pavilion, as the
* This sort of masquerade is supposed to have occasioned the
* introduction of supporters into the science of heraldry.
place of honour, had been assigned to Brian be Bois-Guilbert,
whose renown in all games of chivalry,
no less than his connexions with the knights who
had undertaken this Passage of Arms, had occasioned
him to be eagerly received into the company
of the challengers, and even adopted as their chief
and leader, though he had so recently joined them.
On one side of his tent were pitched those of Reginald
Front-de-B
The northern access to the lists terminated in a
similar entrance of thirty feet in breadth, at the
extremity of which was a large enclosed space for
such knights as might be disposed to enter the lists
with the challengers, behind which were placed
tents containing refreshments of every kind for
their accommodation, with armourers, tarriers, and
other attendants, in readiness to give their services
wherever they might be necessary.
The exterior of the lists was in part occupied by
temporary galleries, spread with tapestry and carpets,
and accommodated with cushions for the convenience
of those ladies and nobles who were expected
to attend the tournament. A narrow space,
betwixt these galleries and the lists, gave accommodation
for yeomanry and spectators of a better
degree than the mere vulgar, and might be compared
to the pit of a theatre. The promiscuous
multitude arranged themselves upon large banks
of turf prepared for the purpose, which, aided by
the natural elevation of the ground, enabled them
to overlook the galleries, and obtain a fair view
into the lists. Besides the accommodation which
these stations afforded, many hundreds had perched
themselves on the branches of the trees which
surrounded the meadow; and even the steeple of
a country church, at some distance, was crowded
with spectators.
It only remains to notice respecting the general
arrangement, that one gallery in the very centre
of the eastern side of the lists, and consequently
exactly opposite to the spot where the shock of the
combat was to take place, was raised higher than
the others, more richly decorated, and graced by a
sort of throne and canopy, on which the royal arms
were emblazoned. Squires, pages, and yeomen in
rich liveries, waited around this place of honour,
which was designed for Prince John and his attendants.
Opposite to this royal gallery was another,
elevated to the same height, on the western
side of the lists; and more gaily, if less sumptuously
decorated, than that destined for the Prince himself.
A train of pages and of young maidens, the
most beautiful who could be selected, gaily dressed
in fancy habits of green and pink, surrounded a
throne decorated in the same colours. Among pennons
and flags bearing wounded hearts, burning
hearts, bleeding hearts, bows and quivers, and all
the commonplace emblems of the triumphs of Cupid,
a blazoned inscription informed the spectators,
that this seat of honour was designed for _La
Royne de la Beault
Meanwhile, spectators of every description thronged
forward to occupy their respective stations, and
not without many quarrels concerning those which
they were entitled to hold. Some of these were settled
by the men-at-arms with brief ceremony; the
shafts of their battle-axes, and pummels of their
swords, being readily employed as arguments to
convince the more refractory. Others, which involved
the rival claims of more elevated persons,
were determined by the heralds, or by the two
marshals of the field, William de Wyvil, and Stephen
de Martival, who, armed at all points, rode
up and down the lists to enforce and preserve good
order among the spectators.
Gradually the galleries became filled with knights
and nobles, in their robes of peace, whose long and
rich-tinted mantles were contrasted with the gayer
and more splendid habits of the ladies, who, in a
greater proportion than even the men themselves,
thronged to witness a sport, which one would have
thought too bloody and dangerous to afford their
sex much pleasure. The lower and interior space
was soon filled by substantial yeomen and burghers,
and such of the lesser gentry, as, from modesty,
poverty, or dubious title, durst not assume any
higher place. It was of course amongst these that
the most frequent disputes for precedence occurred.
``Dog of an unbeliever,'' said an old man, whose
threadbare tunic bore witness to his poverty, as
his sword, and dagger, and golden chain intimated
his pretensions to rank,---``whelp of a she-wolf !
darest thou press upon a Christian, and a Norman
gentleman of the blood of Montdidier ?''
This rough expostulation was addressed to no
other than our acquaintance Isaac, who, richly and
even magnificently dressed in a gaberdine ornamented
with lace and lined with fur, was endeavouring
to make place in the foremost row beneath
the gallery for his daughter, the beautiful Rebecca,
who had joined him at Ashby, and who was now
hanging on her father's arm, not a little terrified
by the popular displeasure which seemed generally
excited by her parent's presumption. But Isaac,
though we have seen him sufficiently timid on other
occasions, knew well that at present he had nothing
to fear. It was not in places of general resort, or
where their equals were assembled, that any avaricious
or malevolent noble durst offer him injury.
At such meetings the Jews were under the protection
of the general law; and if that proved a weak
assurance, it usually happened that there were
among the persons assembled some barons, who, for
their own interested motives, were ready to act as
their protectors. On the present occasion, Isaac
felt more than usually confident, being aware that
Prince John was even then in the very act of negotiating
a large loan from the Jews of York, to be
secured upon certain jewels and lands. Isaac's own
share in this transaction was considerable, and he
well knew that the Prince's eager desire to bring
it to a conclusion would ensure him his protection
in the dilemma in which he stood.
Emboldened by these considerations, the Jew
pursued his point, and jostled the Norman Christian,
without respect either to his descent, quality,
or religion. The complaints of the old man, however,
excited the indignation of the bystanders.
One of these, a stout well-set yeoman, arrayed in
Lincoln green, having twelve arrows stuck in his
belt, with a baldric and badge of silver, and a bow
of six feet length in his hand, turned short round,
and while his countenance, which his constant exposure
to weather had rendered brown as a hazel
nut, grew darker with anger, he advised the Jew
to remember that all the wealth he had acquired
by sucking the blood of his miserable victims had
but swelled him like a bloated spider, which might
be overlooked while he kept in a comer, but would
be crushed if it ventured into the light. This intimation,
delivered in Norman-English with a firm
voice and a stern aspect, made the Jew shrink back;
and he would have probably withdrawn himself altogether
from a vicinity so dangerous, had not the
attention of every one been called to the sudden
entrance of Prince John, who at that moment entered
the lists, attended by a numerous and gay
train, consisting partly of laymen, partly of churchmen,
as light in their dress, and as gay in their demeanour,
as their companions. Among the latter
was the Prior of Jorvaulx, in the most gallant trim
which a dignitary of the church could venture to exhibit.
Fur and gold were not spared in his garments;
and the points of his boots, out-heroding the
preposterous fashion of the time, turned up so very
far, as to be attached, not to his knees merely, but
to his very girdle, and effectually prevented him
from putting his foot into the stirrup. This, however,
was a slight inconvenience to the gallant Abbot,
who, perhaps, even rejoicing in the opportunity
to display his accomplished horsemanship before
so many spectators, especially of the fair sex,
dispensed with the use of these supports to a timid
rider. The rest of Prince John's retinue consisted
of the favourite leaders of his mercenary troops,
some marauding barons and profligate attendants
upon the court, with several Knights Templars and
Knights of St John.
It may be here remarked, that the knights of
these two orders were accounted hostile to King
Richard, having adopted the side of Philip of France
in the long train of disputes which took place in
Palestine betwixt that monarch and the lion-hearted
King of England. It was the well-known consequence
of this discord that Richard's repeated victories
had been rendered fruitless, his romantic attempts
to besiege Jerusalem disappointed, and the
fruit of all the glory which he had acquired had
dwindled into an uncertain truce with the Sultan
Saladin. With the same policy which had dictated
the conduct of their brethren in the Holy Land, the
Templars and Hospitallers in England and Normandy
attached themselves to the faction of Prince
John, having little reason to desire the return of
Richard to England, or the succession of Arthur,
his legitimate heir. For the opposite reason, Prince
John hated and contemned the few Saxon families
of consequence which subsisted in England, and
omitted no opportunity of mortifying and affronting
them; being conscious that his person and pretensions
were disliked by them, as well as by the
greater part of the English commons, who feared
farther innovation upon their rights and liberties,
from a sovereign of John's licentious and tyrannical
disposition.
Attended by this gallant equipage, himself well
mounted, and splendidly dressed in crimson and
in gold, bearing upon his hand a falcon, and having
his head covered by a rich fur bonnet, adorned with
a circle of precious stones, from which his long
curled hair escaped and overspread his shoulders,
Prince John, upon a grey and high-mettled palfrey,
caracoled within the lists at the head of his jovial
party, laughing loud with his train, and eyeing with
all the boldness of royal criticism the beauties who
adorned the lofty galleries.
Those who remarked in the physiognomy of the
Prince a dissolute audacity, mingled with extreme
haughtiness and indifference to, the feelings of
others could not yet deny to his countenance that
sort of comeliness which belongs to an open set of
features, well formed by nature, modelled by art
to the usual rules of courtesy, yet so far frank and
honest, that they seemed as if they disclaimed to
conceal the natural workings of the soul. Such an
expression is often mistaken for manly frankness,
when in truth it arises from the reckless indifference
of a libertine disposition, conscious of superiority
of birth, of wealth, or of some other adventitious
advantage, totally unconnected with personal
merit. To those who did not think so deeply, and
they were the greater number by a hundred to one,
the splendour of Prince John's _rheno_, (_i.e_. fur tippet,)
the richness of his cloak, lined with the most
costly sables, his maroquin boots and golden spurs,
together with the grace with which he managed
his palfrey, were sufficient to merit clamorous applause.
In his joyous caracole round the lists, the attention
of the Prince was called by the commotion,
not yet subsided, which had attended the ambitious
movement of Isaac towards the higher places of
the assembly. The quick eye of Prince John instantly
recognised the Jew, but was much more
agreeably attracted by the beautiful daughter of
Zion, who, terrified by the tumult, clung close to
the arm of her aged father.
The figure of Rebecca might indeed have compared
with the proudest beauties of England, even
though it had been judged by as shrewd a connoisseur
as Prince John. Her form was exquisitely
symmetrical, and was shown to advantage by a sort
of Eastern dress, which she wore according to the
fashion of the females of her nation. Her turban
of yellow silk suited well with the darkness of her
complexion. The brilliancy of her eyes, the superb
arch of her eyebrows, her well-formed aquiline
nose, her teeth as white as pearl, and the profusion
of her sable tresses, which, each arranged in its
own little spiral of twisted curls, fell down upon as
much of a lovely neck and bosom as a simarre of
the richest Persian silk, exhibiting flowers in their
natural colours embossed upon a purple ground,
permitted to be visible---all these constituted a
combination of loveliness, which yielded not to the
most beautiful of the maidens who surrounded her.
It is true, that of the golden and pearl-studded
clasps, which closed her vest from the throat to the
waist, the three uppermost were left unfastened on
account of the heat, which something enlarged the
prospect to which we allude. A diamond necklace,
with pendants of inestimable value, were by this
means also made more conspicuous. The feather
of an ostrich, fastened in her turban by an agraffe
set with brilliants, was another distinction of the
beautiful Jewess, scoffed and sneered at by the
proud dames who sat above her, but secretly envied
by those who affected to deride them.
``By the bald scalp of Abraham,'' said Prince
John, ``yonder Jewess must be the very model of
that perfection, whose charms drove frantic the
wisest king that ever lived ! What sayest thou,
Prior Aymer?---By the Temple of that wise king,
which our wiser brother Richard proved unable to
recover, she is the very Bride of the Canticles !''
``The Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the Valley,''
---answered the Prior, in a sort of snuffling
tone; ``but your Grace must remember she is still
but a Jewess.''
``Ay!'' added Prince John, without heeding
him, ``and there is my Mammon of unrighteousness
too---the Marquis of Marks, the Baron of
Byzants, contesting for place with penniless dogs,
whose threadbare cloaks have not a single cross
in their pouches to keep the devil from dancing
there. By the body of St Mark, my prince of supplies,
with his lovely Jewess, shall have a place in
the gallery!---What is she, Isaac? Thy wife or thy
daughter, that Eastern houri that thou lockest under
thy arm as thou wouldst thy treasure-casket?''
``My daughter Rebecca, so please your Grace,''
answered Isaac, with a low congee, nothing embarrassed
by the Prince's salutation, in which, however,
there was at least as much mockery as courtesy.
``The wiser man thou,'' said John, with a peal
of laughter, in which his gay followers obsequiously
joined. ``But, daughter or wife, she should be
preferred according to her beauty and thy merits.
---Who sits above there?'' he continued, bending
his eye on the gallery. ``Saxon churls, lolling at
their lazy length!---out upon them!---let them sit
close, and make room for my prince of usurers and
his lovely daughter. I'll make the hinds know they
must share the high places of the synagogue with
those whom the synagogue properly belongs to.''
Those who occupied the gallery to whom this
injurious and unpolite speech was addressed, were
the family of Cedric the Saxon, with that of his
ally and kinsman, Athelstane of Coningsburgh, a
personage, who, on account of his descent from the
last Saxon monarchs of England, was held in the
highest respect by all the Saxon natives of the
north of England. But with the blood of this ancient
royal race, many of their infirmities had descended
to Athelstane. He was comely in countenance,
bulky and strong in person, and in the flower
of his age---yet inanimate in expression, dull-eyed,
heavy-browed, inactive and sluggish in all his motions,
and so slow in resolution, that the soubriquet
of one of his ancestors was conferred upon him,
and he was very generally called Athelstane the
Unready. His friends, and he had many, who, as
well as Cedric, were passionately attached to him,
contended that this sluggish temper arose not from
want of courage, but from mere want of decision;
others alleged that his hereditary vice of drunkenness
had obscured his faculties, never of a very
acute order, and that the passive courage and meek
good-nature which remained behind, were merely
the dregs of a character that might have been deserving
of praise, but of which all the valuable parts
had flown off in the progress of a long course of
brutal debauchery.
It was to this person, such as we have described
him, that the Prince addressed his imperious command
to make place for Isaac and Rebecca. Athelstane,
utterly confounded at an order which the
manners and feelings of the times rendered so injuriously
insulting, unwilling to obey, yet undetermined
how to resist, opposed only the _vis inerti
``The Saxon porker,'' he said, ``is either asleep
or minds me not---Prick him with your lance, De
Bracy,'' speaking to a knight who rode near him,
the leader of a band of Free Companions, or Condottieri;
that is, of mercenaries belonging to no
particular nation, but attached for the time to any
prince by whom they were paid. There was a murmur
even among the attendants of Prince John;
but De Bracy, whose profession freed him from all
scruples, extended his long lance over the space
which separated the gallery from the lists, and
would have executed the commands of the Prince
before Athelstane the Unready had recovered presence
of mind sufficient even to draw back his person
from the weapon, had not Cedric, as prompt
as his companion was tardy, unsheathed, with the
speed of lightning, the short sword which he wore,
and at a single blow severed the point of the lance
from the handle. The blood rushed into the countenance
of Prince John. He swore one of his deepest
oaths, and was about to utter some threat corresponding
in violence, when he was diverted from
his purpose, partly by his own attendants, who
gathered around him conjuring him to be patient,
partly by a general exclamation of the crowd, uttered
in loud applause of the spirited conduct of
Cedric. The Prince rolled his eyes in indignation,
as if to collect some safe and easy victim; and
chancing to encounter the firm glance of the same
archer whom we have already noticed, and who
seemed to persist in his gesture of applause, in spite
of the frowning aspect which the Prince bent upon
him, he demanded his reason for clamouring thus.
``I always add my hollo,'' said the yeoman,
``when I see a good shot, or a gallant blow.''
``Sayst thou?'' answered the Prince; ``then
thou canst hit the white thyself, I'll warrant.''
``A woodsman's mark, and at woodsman's distance,
I can hit,'' answered the yeoman.
``And Wat Tyrrel's mark, at a hundred yards,''
said a voice from behind, but by whom uttered
could not be discerned.
This allusion to the fate of William Rufus, his
Relative, at once incensed and alarmed Prince
John. He satisfied himself, however, with commanding
the men-at-arms, who surrounded the
lists, to keep an eye on the braggart, pointing to
the yeoman.
``By St Grizzel,'' he added, ``we will try his
own skill, who is so ready to give his voice to the
feats of others!''
``I shall not fly the trial,'' said the yeoman, with
the composure which marked his whole deportment.
``Meanwhile, stand up, ye Saxon churls,'' said
the fiery Prince; ``for, by the light of Heaven,
since I have said it, the Jew shall have his seat
amongst ye!''
``By no means, an it please your Grace!---it is
not fit for such as we to sit with the rulers of the
land,'' said the Jew; whose ambition for precedence
though it had led him to dispute Place with
the extenuated and impoverished descendant of the
line of Montdidier, by no means stimulated him
to an intrusion upon the privileges of the wealthy
Saxons.
``Up, infidel dog when I command you,'' said
Prince John, ``or I will have thy swarthy hide
stript off, and tanned for horse-furniture.''
Thus urged, the Jew began to ascend the steep
and narrow steps which led up to the gallery.
``Let me see,'' said the Prince, ``who dare stop
him,'' fixing his eye on Cedric, whose attitude intimated
his intention to hurl the Jew down headlong.
The catastrophe was prevented by the clown
Wamba, who, springing betwixt his master and
Isaac, and exclaiming, in answer to the Prince's defiance,
``Marry, that will I!'' opposed to the beard
of the Jew a shield of brawn, which he plucked
from beneath his cloak, and with which, doubtless,
he had furnished himself, lest the tournament should
have proved longer than his appetite could endure
abstinence. Finding the abomination of his tribe
opposed to his very nose, while the Jester, at the
same time, flourished his wooden sword above his
head, the Jew recoiled, missed his footing, and rolled
down the steps,---an excellent jest to the spectators,
who set up a loud laughter, in which Prince
John and his attendants heartily joined.
``Deal me the prize, cousin Prince,'' said Wamba;
``I have vanquished my foe in fair fight with
sword and shield,'' he added, brandishing the brawn
in one hand and the wooden sword in the other.
``Who, and what art thou, noble champion?''
said Prince John, still laughing.
``A fool by right of descent,'' answered the
Jester; ``I am Wamba, the son of Witless, who
was the son of Weatherbrain, who was the son of
an Alderman.''
``Make room for the Jew in front of the lower
ring,'' said Prince John, not unwilling perhaps to,
seize an apology to desist from his original purpose;
``to place the vanquished beside the victor
were false heraldry.''
``Knave upon fool were worse,'' answered the
Jester, ``and Jew upon bacon worst of all.''
``Gramercy! good fellow,'' cried Prince John,
``thou pleasest me---Here, Isaac, lend me a handful
of byzants.''
As the Jew, stunned by the request, afraid to
refuse, and unwilling to comply, fumbled in the
furred bag which hung by his girdle, and was perhaps
endeavouring to ascertain how few coins might
pass for a handful, the Prince stooped from his
jennet and settled Isaac's doubts by snatching the
pouch itself from his side; and flinging to Wamba
a couple of the gold pieces which it contained, he
pursued his career round the lists, leaving the Jew
to the derision of those around him, and himself
receiving as much applause from the spectators as
if he had done some honest and honourable action.
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