f the highest polish; and there is no character that may be
wrought to a more exquisite and unsullied brightness, than that of the
true English gentleman."

When Guy was about to depart for the army, the Squire again took him
aside, and gave him a long exhortation. He warned him against that
affectation of cool-blooded indifference, which he was told was
cultivated by the young British officers, among whom it was a study to
"sink the soldier" in the mere man of fashion. "A soldier," said he,
"without pride and enthusiasm in his profession, is a mere sanguinary
hireling. Nothing distinguishes him from the mercenary bravo, but a
spirit of patriotism, or a thirst for glory. It is the fashion
now-a-days, my son," said he, "to laugh at the spirit of chivalry;
when that spirit is really extinct, the profession of the soldier
becomes a mere trade of blood." He then set before him the conduct of
Edward the Black Prince, who is his mirror of chivalry; valiant,
generous, affable, humane; gallant in the field. But when he came to
dwell on his courtesy toward his prisoner, the king of France; how he
received him in his tent, rather as a conqueror than as a captive;
attended on him at table like one of his retinue; rode uncovered
beside him on his entry into London, mounted on a common palfrey,
while his prisoner was mounted in state on a white steed of stately
beauty; the tears of enthusiasm stood in the old gentleman's eyes.

Finally, on taking leave, the good Squire put in his son's hands, as a
manual, one of his favourite old volumes, the life of the Chevalier
Bayard, by Godefroy; on a blank page of which he had written an
extract from the Morte d'Arthur, containing the eulogy of Sir Ector
over the body of Sir Launcelot of the Lake, which the Squire considers
as comprising the excellencies of a true soldier. "Ah, Sir Launcelot!
thou wert head of all Christian knights; now there thou liest: thou
wert never matched of none earthly knights-hands. And thou wert the
curtiest knight that ever bare shield. And thou wert the truest friend
to thy lover that ever bestrood horse; and thou wert the truest lover
of a sinfull man that ever loved woman. And thou wert the kindest man
that ever strook with sword; and thou wert the goodliest person that
ever came among the presse of knights. And thou wert the meekest man
and the gentlest that ever eate in hall among ladies. And thou wert
the sternest knight to thy mortal foe that ever put speare