'Ha, John!' cried the prince, craning his neck, 'who is this cavalier, and what is it that he desires?'
'On my word, sire,' replied Chandos, with the utmost surprise upon his face, 'it is my opinion that he is a Frenchman.'
'A Frenchman!' repeated Don Pedro. 'And how can you tell that, my Lord Chandos, when he has neither coat-armour, crest, nor blazonry?'
'By his armour, sire, which is rounder at elbow and at shoulder than any of Bordeaux or of England. Italian he might be were his bassinet more sloped, but I will swear that those plates were welded betwixt this and Rhine. Here comes his squire, however, and we shall hear what strange fortune hath brought him over the marches.'
As he spoke the attendant cantered up the grassy enclosure, and pulling up his steed in front of the royal stand, blew a second fanfare upon his bugle. He was a raw-boned, swarthy-cheeked man, with black bristling beard and a swaggering bearing. Having sounded his call, he thrust the bugle into his belt, and pushing his way betwixt the groups of English and of Gascon knights, he reined up within a spear's length of the royal party.
'I come,' he shouted in a hoarse thick voice, with a strong Breton accent, 'as squire and herald from my master, who is a very valiant pursuivant-of-arms, and a liegeman to the great and powerful monarch, Charles, king of the French. My master has heard that there is jousting here, and prospect of honourable advancement, so he has come to ask that some English cavalier will vouchsafe for the love of his lady to run a course with sharpened lances with him, or to meet him with sword, mace, battle-axe, or dagger. He bade me say, however, that he would fight only with a true Englishman, and not with any mongrel who is neither English nor French, but speaks with the tongue of the one, and fights under the banner of the other.'
'Sir!' cried De Clisson, with a voice of thunder, while his countrymen clapped their hands to their swords. The
