d her mistress triumphantly.
"The duke, is one of the emperor's greatest knights."

"In this case, Madam, it is but natural your sight should be better
than my own," half-mockingly returned the maid.

And, in truth, the princess was right, for the king's guest, through
overwhelming strength and greater momentum, had lightly plucked from
his seat a stalwart adversary. Others of his following failed not in
the "attaint," and horses and troopers floundered in the sand. Apart
from the duke's victory, two especial incidents, one comic, stood out
in the confused picture.

That which partook of the humorous aspect, and was seen and appreciated
by all, had for its central figure an unwilling actor, the king's
hunchback. Like the famous steed builded by the Greeks, Triboulet's
"wooden horse" contained unknown elements of danger, and even while the
jester was congratulating himself upon absolute immunity from peril the
nag started and quivered. At the flourish of the brass instruments his
ears, that had lain back, were now pricked forward; he had once, in his
palmy, coltish time, been a battle charger, and, perhaps, some memory
of those martial days, the waving of plumes and the clashing of arms,
reawoke his combative spirit of old. Or, possibly his brute
intelligence penetrated the dwarf's knavish pusillanimity, and,
changing his tactics that he might still range on the side of
perversity, resolved himself from immobility into a rampant agency of
motion. Furiously he dashed into the thick of the conflict, and
Triboulet, paralyzed with fear and dropping his lance, was borne
helplessly onward, execrating the nag and his capricious humor.

Opposed to the hunchback rode Villot, who, upon reaching the dwarf and
observing his predicament, good-naturedly turned aside his point, but
was unable to avoid striking him with the handle as he rode by. To
Triboulet that blow, reechoing in the hollow depths of his steel shell,
sounded like the dissolution of the universe, and, not doubting his
last moment had come, mechanically he fell to earth, abandoning to its
own resources the equine Fate that had served him so ill. Striking the
ground, and, still finding consciousness had not deserted him, instinct
prompted him to demonstrate that if his armor was too heavy for him to
run away in, as the smithy-_valet de chambre_ had significantly
affirmed, yet he possessed the undoubted strength and ability to crawl.
Thus, amid the guffaws of