the peasantry and the smiles of the nobles,
he swiftly scampered from beneath the horses' feet, hurriedly left the
scene of strife, and finally reached triumphantly the haven of his tent.

The other incident, witnessed by Jacqueline, was of a more serious
nature. As the lines swept together, with the dust rising before, she
perceived that the duke's trooper had swerved from his course and was
bearing down upon the duke's fool.

"Oh," she whispered to herself, "the master now retaliates on the
jester." And held her breath.

Had he, too, observed these sudden perfidious tactics? Apparently.
Yet he seemed not to shun the issue.

"Why does he not turn aside?" thought the maid. "He might yet do it.
A fool and a knight, forsooth!"

But the fool pricked his horse deeply; it sprang to the struggle madly;
crash! like a thunderbolt, steed and rider leaped upon the trooper.
Then it was Jacqueline had murmured: "They have killed him!" not
doubting for a moment but that he had sped to destruction.

A second swift glance, and through the veil, less obscure, she saw the
jester riding, unharmed, his lance unbroken. Had he escaped, after
all? And the trooper? He lay among the trampling horses' feet. She
saw him now. How had it all come about? Her mind was bewildered, but
in spite of the princess' assertion to the contrary, her sight seemed
unusually clear.

"Good lance, fool!" cried a voice from the king's box.

"The jester rides well," said another. "The knight's lance even passed
over his head, while the fool's struck fairly with terrific force."

"But why did he select the jester as an adversary?" continued the first
speaker.

"Mistakes will happen in the confusion of a _melee_--and he has paid
for his error," was the answer. And Jacqueline knew that none would be
held accountable for the treacherous assault.

Now the fool had dismounted and she observed that he was bending over
another jester who had been unhorsed. "Why," she murmured to herself
in surprise, "Caillette! As good a soldier as a fool. Who among the
jesters could have unseated him?"

But her wonderment would have increased, could she have overheard the
conversation between the duke's fool and Caillette, as the former
lifted the other from the sands and assisted him to walk, or rather
limp, to the jesters' pavilion.

"Did I not tell you to beware of the false duke?" muttered Caillette,
not omitting a parenthesis of deceptive groans.

"Ah,