For a moment Myles did not reply; then he looked up. "My Lord," said he,
"the favor was given to me by the Lady Alice."
Lord George looked grave for the moment; then he laughed. "Marry, thou
art a bold archer to shoot for such high game."
Myles did not answer, and at that moment two grooms led his horse up to
the door of the pavilion. Gascoyne and Wilkes helped him to his saddle,
and then, Gascoyne holding his horse by the bridle-rein, he rode slowly
across the lists to the little open space in front of the scaffolding
and the King's seat just as the Sieur de la Montaigne approached from
the opposite direction.
As soon as the two knights champion had reached each his appointed
station in front of the scaffolding, the Marshal bade the speaker read
the challenge, which, unrolling the parchment, he began to do in a loud,
clear voice, so that all might hear. It was a quaint document, wrapped
up in the tangled heraldic verbiage of the time.
The pith of the matter was that the Sieur Brian Philip Francis de la
Montaigne proclaimed before all men the greater chivalry and skill at
arms of the knights of France and of Dauphiny, and likewise the greater
fairness of the ladies of France and Dauphiny, and would there defend
those sayings with his body without fear or attaint as to the truth of
the same. As soon as the speaker had ended, the Marshal bade him call
the defendant of the other side.
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