At length, owing to the girths and the poitrail breaking, the steed got away, leaving the knight and his saddle suspended from the tree. This horse the Sire de Hemricourt kept, though an ignominious fate awaited it. When the knight and his associates came to the place appointed for the combat, the Arragonese did not appear, and the King of Sicily, taking advantage of the circumstance, meanly required that the horses should be returned. When the messenger came to De Hemricourt, 'What,' cried he, 'has the king, your master, only lent me this carrion to defend his honour at the risk of my life—I who am no subject of his? Is it thus he shows his gratitude? By the eyes of God, he shall have his present back again, but in such a state that no knight shall ever mount him again with honour!' So saying, he had the horse brought out of the stable, and, with his own hands cutting off the mane and tail, desired the groom to lead him away.[1]
'In those times of war,' writes the old author, Hamericourt,[2]' and even ten years after the peace was made, knights and squires of honour rode great horses (d'astriers) or coursers (corseirs) of the greatest value they could procure, and they had very high tourneying saddles without foresaltiers. They were covered with caparisons wrought in embroidery with their armorial blasons. They were armed with breast-plates with good armour of thin iron pieces, and upon the plate they had rich wardcoats bearing their blasons. Each had a helmet upon his
- ↑ Miroir des Nobles de la Hesbaye. The Valley of the Meuse, by Dudley Costello.
- ↑ De Bellis Leodunsibus, cap. 41.
