w him to be a
knight of great ability. I had scarce time in which to draw my sword
ere he was upon me, hacking at my head so rapidly as to take all my
time, and the use of all my knowledge, in defending myself. Round and
round we rode, striking furiously at each other, which blows we guarded
with equal quickness. Neither had any advantage, as we seemed to be
both of nearly equal strength and skill. After forcing him closely he
at length began to give ground, though whether from necessity or guile
I do not know. I aimed a terrible blow at his head; he caught it upon
the hilt of his sword. The force of the blow was so great that my
weapon was broken in two, and I was unarmed. Verily I thought mine end
had come, and that I should never see the Lady Hazel again. To my
surprise the knight called out, in French, something to the effect that
we should meet again, and rode off.

[Illustration: "Both our lances flew into a thousand pieces."]

"That accounts for it," said I; "he is a Frenchman; and had he been a
Scotchman, I had now been a corpse."

The enemy was now commencing to give way in places; yet the fight was
still a goodly one.

Sir Frederick was nowhere to be seen; so I quickly secured a sword from
a poor knight, who had still the head and part of the shaft of a lance
sticking in his side, and then did I plunge into the fight once more.
I forced my way through a struggling crowd of the enemies' foot
soldiers, cutting them down as I went; when suddenly I espied a knight
on foot, surrounded by a score or more of these rascals.

"To the rescue!" cried I, and dashed into the circle. The knight was
standing beside his horse, which was dead, and making great strokes
with his sword, in all directions. Thus he had kept a circle clear
around him. Several corpses in that deadly circle told why the rest
stood back. But, just as I came up, one of the knaves did venture to
make a dash forward, when the brave champion's head was turned. I was
upon him in an instant. "Ha! thou coward ruffian, take that!" I cried,
as, with a straight downward stroke, I cleft his head from top to chin.
Just then some of our men-at-arms came up, and the few Scots which
escaped us did so by their fleetness of foot, and their knowledge of
the country's many hiding-places.

"Thou art not too soon," said Harleston, for it was he, as he opened
his visor and wiped his brow. "Indeed I was hard pressed by that pack
of hyenas."

I quickly