ounced the entrance of four cavaliers, whose brilliant
train of followers intimated them to be persons of high degree. The four
knights were Prince Philip, the duke of Savoy, Count Egmont, and Juan
Manriquez de Lara, major-domo of the emperor. They were clothed in
complete mail, over which they wore surcoats of violet-colored velvet,
while the caparisons of their horses were of cloth of gold.

Philip ran the first course. His antagonist was the Count Mansfeldt, a
Flemish captain of great renown. At the appointed signal, the two
knights spurred against each other, and met in the centre of the lists
with a shock that shivered their lances to the very grasp. Both knights
reeled in their saddles, but neither lost his seat. The arena resounded
with the plaudits of the spectators, not the less hearty that one of the
combatants was the heir apparent.

The other cavaliers then tilted, with various success. A general
tournament followed, in which every knight eager to break a lance on
this fair occasion took part; and many a feat of arms was performed,
doubtless long remembered by the citizens of Brussels. At the end of the
seventh hour a flourish of trumpets announced the conclusion of the
contest, and the assembly broke up in admirable order, the knights
retiring to change their heavy panoplies for the lighter vestments of
the ball-room. A banquet was prepared by the municipality, in a style of
magnificence worthy of their royal guests. The emperor and his sisters
honored it with their presence, and witnessed the distribution of the
prizes. Among these, a brilliant ruby, the prize awarded for the _lanca
de las damas_,--the "ladies' lance," in the language of chivalry,--was
assigned by the loyal judges to Prince Philip of Spain.

Dancing succeeded to the banquet; and the high-bred courtesy of the
prince was as much commended in the ball-room as his prowess had been in
the lists. Maskers mingled with the dancers in Oriental costume, some in
the Turkish, others in the Albanian fashion. The merry revels were not
prolonged beyond the hour of midnight, when the company broke up, loudly
commending, as they withdrew, the good cheer afforded them by the
hospitable burghers of Brussels.[32]

[Sidenote: PUBLIC FESTIVITIES.]

Philip won the prize on another occasion, when he tilted against a
valiant knight, named Quinones. He was not so fortunate in an encounter
with the son of his old preceptor, Zuniga, in which he was struck with
s