Adventure stories; Spain -- History -- Ferdinand and Isabella, 1479-1516 -- Fiction
Again the trumpets sounded, and a herald appeared, while after him,
mounted on a white horse, and clad in his white armour that glistened
in the sun, with white plumes rising from his casque, and on his shield
the stooping falcon blazoned in gold with the motto of “For love and
honour” beneath it, appeared the tall, grim shape of Sir Peter Brome.
He, too, rode out into the centre of the arena, and, turning his horse
quite soberly, as though it were on a road, lifted his lance in salute.
Now there was no cheering, for this knight was a foreigner, yet
soldiers who were there said to each other that he looked like one who
would not easily be overthrown.
A third time the trumpets sounded, and the two champions, advancing
from their respective stations, drew rein side by side in front of
their Majesties, where the conditions of the combat were read aloud to
them by the chief herald. They were short. That the fray should be to
the death unless the king and queen willed otherwise and the victor
consented; that it should be on horse or on foot, with lance or sword
or dagger, but that no broken weapon might be replaced and no horse or
armour changed; that the victor should be escorted from the place of
combat with all honour, and allowed to depart whither he would, in the
kingdom or out of it, and no suit or blood-feud raised against him; and
that the body of the fallen be handed over to his friends for burial,
also with all honour. That the issue of this fray should in no way
affect any cause pleaded in Courts ecclesiastical or civil, by the lady
who asserted herself to be the Marchioness of Morella, or by the most
noble Marquis of Morella, whom she claimed as her husband.
These conditions having been read, the champions were asked if they
assented to them, whereon each of them answered, “Aye!” in a clear
voice. Then the herald, speaking on behalf of Sir Peter Brome, by
creation a knight of St. Iago and a Don of Spain, solemnly challenged
the noble Marquis of Morella to single combat to the death, in that he,
the said marquis, had aspersed the name of his relative, the English
lady, Elizabeth Dene, who claimed to be his wife, duly united to him in
holy wedlock, and for sundry other causes and injuries worked towards
him, the said Sir Peter Brome, and his wife, Dame Margaret Brome, and
in token thereof, threw down a gauntlet, which gauntlet the Marquis of
Morella lifted upon the point of his lance and cast over his shoulder,
thus accepting the challenge.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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