THE CANTERBURY TALES
and hard by, the armourers running to and fro with file and hammer; yeomen on foot, and many commons with short staves, thick as they may go; pipes, drums, clarions, trumps, that blow bloody sounds in battle; the palace up and down full of people holding talk, here three, there ten, surmising of these two Theban knights. Some say this, some say it shall be thus, some hold with him of the black beard, some with the bald one, some with him of the thick hair; some say this man looketh grim and he will fight; that one hath a battle-ax twenty pound of weight. Thus was the hall full of surmises long after the sun gan spring.
The great Theseus, that was waked from his sleep by the minstrelsy and noise, held yet his chamber till the Theban knights, both alike honoured, were fetched into the palace. Duke Theseus was set at a window, arrayed as he were a god on throne. Full quickly the people pressed thitherward to see him and do high reverence, and eke to hearken his behest and decree. An herald on a scaffold cried "Ho!" till all the noise of the people was done, and when he saw them quiet he showed the pleasure of the mighty duke.
"The lord hath considered in his high wisdom that it were destruction to gentle blood to fight in this emprise in the manner of mortal battle; wherefore to ordain that they shall not die, he will change his first purpose. Let no man therefore, on pain of death, send or bring into the lists any manner of shot or pole-ax or short knife, nor short sword with sharp point for to stab; let no man draw it or bear it by him. And no man shall ride against his fellow but one course with sharp-ground spear, but on foot he may thrust, if he will, to defend himself. And he that is put to the worse shall be seized, and not slain but
brought unto the stake that shall be ordained on either side;
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