im steadily backward.
'Unhorsed! unhorsed!' cried the people; and Rosald then himself
dismounted and helped his adversary to rise.

In the confusion that followed it was easy for Rosald to slip away and
return Geirald his proper clothes. And in these, torn and dusty with the
fight, Geirald answered the king's summons to come before him.

'You have done what I expected you to do,' said he, 'and now, choose
your reward.'

'Grant me, sire, the hand of the queen, your niece,' replied the
young man, bowing low, 'and I will defend her kingdom against all her
enemies.'

'She could choose no better husband,' said the king, 'and if she
consents I do.' And he turned towards the queen, who had not been
present during the fight, but had just slipped into a seat by his right
hand. Now the queen's eyes were very sharp, and it seemed to her that
the man who stood before her, tall and handsome though he might be, was
different in many slight ways, and in one in particular, from the man
who had fought the tourney. How there could be any trickery she could
not understand, and why the real victor should be willing to give up his
prize to another was still stranger; but something in her heart warned
her to be careful. She answered: 'You may be satisfied, uncle, but I am
not. One more proof I must have; let the two young men now fight against
each other. The man I marry must be the man who killed the robbers and
the giant, and overcame my page.' Geirald's face grew pale as he heard
these words. He knew there was no escape from him now, though he did not
doubt for one moment that Rosald would keep his compact loyally to the
last. But how would it be possible that even Rosald should deceive the
watchful eyes of the king and his court, and still more those of the
young queen whom he felt uneasily had suspected him from the first?

The tourney was fought, and in spite of Geirald's fears Rosald managed
to hang back to make attacks which were never meant to succeed, and to
allow strokes which he could easily have parried to attain their end. At
length, after a great show of resistance, he fell heavily to the ground.
And as he fell he knew that it was not alone the glory that was his
rightfully which he gave up, but the hand of the queen that was more
precious still.

But Geirald did not even wait to see if he was wounded; he went straight
to the wall where the royal banner waved and claimed the reward which
was now his.

The crowd of wat