“So let it be,” said the King. “This cause shall be tried by wager of battle, here and now. Sir Philip De Latiere, the conditions are at your will, so they be fair and equal.” “Let him take a sword like unto this,” said De Latiere, carelessly, “and if he chooses one a handsbreadth longer, I care not. Then let him lay aside all other weapons, as I do; and I trust, with the favor of Heaven, to be the means of affirming the righteousness of thy judgment.” With this speech, he made a low bow to the King and another to the assembled knights, and, loosening his sword-belt, handed it with his scabbard and his outer cloak to a squire. Then I found voice for a thought that had been boiling within me. “’Twere well, my lord,” I said to the King, “to have this champion searched for hidden armor. I have grievous knowledge that the Carletons scruple not to gain that vantage.” Some of the friends of Mountjoy raised a shout: “Ay! Well spoken! Let him be searched.” The King quelled the tumult with a royal gesture. “Sir Hugh of Leicester,” he said to an aged knight of his train, “make search of both these champions, and tell us whether they wear other arms or armor than the terms permit.” In the meantime my father had thrown aside his cloak and belt; and his sword being far heavier than De Latiere’s, had received the loan of a lighter weapon from one of the King’s attendants. Sir Hugh approached and lightly struck the shoulders and breast and waist of both the combatants, and announced to the King that neither carried other weapons of offense or defense than the swords in their hands. Thereupon a space some twelve paces across was cleared in the center of the hall, and Sir Philip and Lord Mountjoy stood facing one another, awaiting the word. On a signal from the King, the herald shouted, and instantly the blades struck fire, and the champions whirled about one another in mortal combat. The Frenchman danced and dodged with a quickness that minded me, even then, of the beast he so resembled. My father had much ado to continue facing him; and soon ’twas plain to see that the Carleton champion was such a master of fence as would find few to equal him in all England. His blade so flashed in thrust and parry that the eye could not follow its motions; and my father, of whom always I had thought as the finest of swordsmen, soon had all he could do, and more, in defending his breast from the assault, and had no instant’s leisure to threaten his enemy.