"Do you think," he asked, "that any one will kill me to-night for
killing you this morning?"
Sir Jaufre spoke again, not to Guy, but still to the constrained,
attentive circle:
"I do not know the Latin for 'braggart,'" he said, thoughtfully, "but I
know the French for 'fool.'"
"Why, so do I," Sir Guy agreed, instantly; "it is Jaufre de Brabant."
Every one of the hearers laughed at this, coming so crisp and pat, but
Sir Jaufre sprang to his feet.
"Up sword, and out!" he cried, and drew his weapon.
Sir Guy as swiftly bared his blade, and it seemed for a moment as if
to the many images of life the court-yard presented that of a battle
to the death was to be added. Only for a moment, for instantly Count
Ernault thrust his white staff of marshalship between the combatants.
"House your swords, gentlemen," he insisted, peremptorily. "Do you
not know the day's law? There shall be no challenge taken, no quarrel
honored in arms, save in the tourney and under the eye of Duke Baldwin.
For to-day the duke's son marries the Duchess Esclaramonde of Thebes,
and on such a day there may be no brawling; wherefore, close hands in
amity."
Sir Jaufre sulkily calm, Sir Guy seraphically affable, extended each a
hand, and clasped in sign of formal peace. The somewhat awkward silence
that followed on this stifled brawl and seeming reconciliation was
strangely interrupted. Outside the great gate came the clear sound of
the note of a horn, which immediately attracted the attention of every
man in the court-yard and every woman at the palace windows.
"What belated knight is this?" cried Ambrose of Blois, pleased at the
interruption, for he liked both the disputants.
The lord-marshal shook his head.
"I thought that every expected knight was in the castle," he answered,
and had hardly finished speaking when the horn was wound a second time.
"It is a baron's summons," Ximenes exclaimed, pleased to air his
intimacy with Frankish etiquette, and on the heels of his exclamation
came a third time, louder and clearer, the note of the great horn.
"By the Lord!" cried Count Ernault, "this is a prince's parley," and he
turned to the giants at the gate.
XIII
THE KNIGHT OF ELEUSIS
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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