to the combatants, that if they had jested, one would well have been contented to view all the long day: but the good Prince was too hard for the other, for with his ready blows he urged the great Slave out of his cell, and made him sit behind the arson[101] of the saddle, and if this chance had not happened, he had surely made him sit behind the arson of his Elephant’s Tail. For as soon as the Elephant had but touched the lists, the Christian Marshals of the field came galloping and parted the Combatants, holding the Turk as vanquished, whilst betwixt the contrary and adverse part there was four Negatives,[102] so that well-nigh they had fallen to blows, for ye case seemed to the Christian plain, to the Turk unjust. That because the Beast whereon he rode went to the Lists’ end, therefore the stopper should be blamed. Well, Heralds whose office it is to deal in such royal matters, had the discussing of it, and it was deferred to arbiters, with this condition, that if the Turk was found vanquished, he should be yielded as recreant (and miscreant he was). So the matter was posted off whilst it never was concluded, and both the parties departed, the one to ye camp, the other to the city, in no less solemn pomp than they entered accompanied into the sands, where so rare a chance fortuned betwixt so puissaunt Emperors. And because the matter was as strange as true, I have sojourned a little too long in it. But in the next Inn you shall have a better refreshment or a newer choice. [Footnote 83: Force.] [Footnote 84: Subtlety, trick.] [Footnote 85: Applied to sounds suggesting angry vehemence.] [Footnote 86: Bitter?] [Footnote 87: Enticing.] [Footnote 88: Forcing, pressing.] [Footnote 89: Nimbly.] [Footnote 90: Ring, or circle.] [Footnote 91: Cutlass.] [Footnote 92: Encounter.] [Footnote 93: Releasing.] [Footnote 94: Smoke, vapour.] [Footnote 95: Irascible.] [Footnote 96: In spite of himself; reluctantly (Ital.)] [Footnote 97: Impudent.] [Footnote 98: A form of _sanctus_; an outcry.] [Footnote 99: Frightened.] [Footnote 100: A person sitting on something (in this case, the elephant’s rider).] [Footnote 101: Saddle-bow.] [Footnote 102: i.e. The Turkish umpires.] CHAPTER XXIII