If this was the usual style of costume, which had also to be varied on different festivals, we can easily understand how impossible it was for young Bayard to procure such costly luxuries on his small means, and we can almost forgive him for the audacious trick he played on his rich relation the Abbé of Ainay. Not only was the knight himself richly clad, but we are told that to appear in a grand tournament even the horse had to have sumptuous trappings of velvet or satin made by the tailor. We have not mentioned the suit of armour, which was the most expensive item of all; being made at this period lighter and more elaborate, with its flexible over-lying plates of thin, tempered steel, it was far more costly than it had ever been before. The bravest knights at the Court were proud to try their fortune against Messire Claude. It was the rule that after the contest each champion was to ride the whole length of the lists, with his visor raised and his face uncovered, that it might be known who had done well or ill. Bayard, who was scarcely eighteen and had not done growing, was by nature somewhat thin and pale, and had by no means reached his full strength. But with splendid courage and gallant spirit, he went in for his first ordeal against one of the finest warriors in the world. The old chronicler cannot tell how it happened, whether by the special grace of God or whether Messire Claude took delight in the brave boy, but it so fell out that no man did better in the lists, either on foot or on horseback, than young Bayard, and when it came to his turn to ride down with his face uncovered, the ladies of Lyons openly praised him as the finest champion of all. He also won golden opinions of all the rest of the company, and King Charles exclaimed at supper: "By my faith! Picquet has made a beginning which in my opinion promises a good end." Then, turning to the Sire de Ligny, he added: "My cousin, I never in my life made you so good a present as when I gave him to you." "Sire," was the reply, "if he proves himself a worthy knight it will be more to your honour than mine, for it is your kind praise which has encouraged him to undertake such a feat of arms as this. May God give him grace to continue as he has begun." Then the General added, turning round with a smile to the assembled company: