the prize; which being come from so far a place to disgrace her servants, Palladius, who himself had never used arms, persuaded the queen Andromana to be content for the honour sake of her court, to suffer us two to have our horse and armour, that he with us might undertake the recovery of their lost honour; which she granted, taking our oath to go no further than her son, nor ever to abandon him. Which she did not more for saving him, than keeping us: and yet not satisfied with our oath, appointed a band of horsemen to have an eye that we should not go beyond appointed limits. We were willing to gratify the young prince, who, we saw, loved us. And so the fourth day of that exercise we came into the field: where, I remember, the manner was, that the forenoon they should run a tilt, one after the other; the afternoon in a broad field in manner of a battle, till either the strangers, or that country knights won the field. “The first that ran was a brave knight, whose device was to come in all chained, with a nymph leading him. Against him came forth an Iberian, whose manner of entering was with bagpipes instead of trumpets; a shepherd’s boy before him for a page, and by him a dozen apparelled like shepherds for the fashion, though rich in stuff, who carried his lances, which though strong to give a lancely blow indeed, yet so were they coloured with hooks near the mourn, that they prettily represented sheephooks. His own furniture was dressed over with wool, so enriched with jewels artificially placed, that one would have thought it a marriage between the lowest and the highest. His impresa was a sheep marked with pitch, with those words, ‘Spotted to be known.’ And because I may tell you out his conceit, though that were not done, till the running of that time was ended, before the ladies’ departure from the windows, among whom there was one, they say, that was the Star whereby his course was only directed, the shepherds attending upon Philisides went among them, and sang an eclogue; one of them answering another, while the other shepherds pulling out recorders, which possessed the place of pipes, accorded their music to the others’ voice. The eclogue had great praise: I only remember six verses, while having questioned one with the other of their fellow-shepherd’s sudden growing a man of arms, and the cause of his doing, they thus said: {234} Me thought some staves he miss’d: if so, not much amiss; For where he most would hit, he ever yet did miss. One said he broke a cross; full well it so might be: For never was there man more crossly crossed than he. But most cried, ‘O well broke’; O fool full gaily blest: Where failing is a shame, and breaking is his best.