Page:Stilfrid and Brunswik (1879).pdf/21

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STILFRID.
11

against Stilfrid, I will give thee a thousand marks.” Then Symforian speedily sprang upon his horse and went into the meadow, and began to call on Stilfrid, asking him whether he dare meet him with sharp weapons.

Stilfrid, seeing that the time was now come, commanded twelve lances to be placed in readiness for him, with a pennon of a different colour on each. And when he had armed himself, he commanded his cream-coloured horse to be brought, and mounting him, said: “O Almighty God and S. Wenceslas! be pleased to aid me this day, for I do this not for any vain-gloriousness nor for money, but for the honour of my Bohemian nation.” And he said: “Give me the white pennon, for that colour betokeneth the cheerfulness and joy of every brave man.”

So taking the lance with the pennon, on one side of which was a golden cross and on the other the name of S. Wenceslas, he rode merrily into the meadow against Symforian. And when these two good knights charged each other, they let their horses run furiously. Stilfrid smote Symforian so hard, that he fell from his horse on one