, seeing his cousin Hugh blush
and fumble uncomfortably at his arms.

Then to the lad himself he said: "Keep a light hand on your rein, a
good grip at the knee, and after the first shock we will ride round
them like swallows about so many bullocks."

The other two Avondale knights, William Douglas and the Marshal de
Retz, were also large men, and the latter especially, clothed in black
armour and with the royal ermines of Brittany quartered on his shield,
looked a stern and commanding figure.

The squires were well matched. These fought on foot, armed according
to custom with sword, axe, and dagger--though Sholto would much have
preferred to trust to his arrow skill even against the plate of the
knights.

The trumpets blew their warning from the judge's gallery. The six
opposing knights laid their lances in rest. The squires leaned a
little forward as if about to run a race. Lord Maxwell raised his
truncheon. The trumpets sounded again, and as their stirring
_taran-tara_ rang down the wide strath of Dee, the riders spurred
their horses into full career. It so chanced that, as they had stood,
James of Avondale was opposite the Earl, each being in the midst as
was their right as leaders. The Master of Avondale opposed his brother
Hugh, and the Marshal de Retz couched spear against young Alan
Fleming. In this order they started to ride their course. But at the
last moment, instead of riding straight for his man, the Frenchman
swerved to the left, and, raising his lance high in the air, he threw
it in the manner of his country straight at the visor bars of the
young Earl of Douglas. The spear of James of Avondale at the same time
taking him fair in the middle of his shield, the double assault caused
the young man to fall heavily from his saddle, so that the crash
sounded dully over the field.

"Treachery! Treachery!--A foul false stroke! A knave's device!" cried
nine-tenths of those who were crowded about the barriers. "Stop the
fight! Kill the Frenchman!"

"Not so," cried Lord Maxwell, "they were to fight as best they could,
and they must fight it to the end!"

And this being a decision not to be gainsaid, the combat proceeded on
very unequal terms. Sholto, who had been eagerly on the stretch to
match himself with the squire of James of Avondale, the young knight
of the Bass, found himself suddenly astride of his lord's body and
defending himself against both the French ambassador and his squire
Poitou, who had s