r with the use of the weapon, bestowed him such a blow upon the
crest that Athelstane also lay senseless on the field. Having achieved
this double feat, for which he was the more highly applauded that it was
totally unexpected from him, the knight seemed to resume the
sluggishness of his character, returning calmly to the northern
extremity of the lists, leaving his leader to cope as he best could with
Brian de Bois-Guilbert. This was no longer matter of so much difficulty
as formerly. The Templar's horse had bled much, and gave way under the
shock of the Disinherited Knight's charge. Brian de Bois-Guilbert
rolled on the field, encumbered with the stirrup, from which he was
unable to draw his foot. His antagonist sprung from horseback, waved his
fatal sword over the head of his adversary, and commanded him to yield
himself; when Prince John, more moved by the Templar's dangerous
situation than he had been by that of his rival, saved him the
mortification of confessing himself vanquished, by casting down his
warder and putting an end to the conflict.

[Illustration: PRINCE JOHN THROWS DOWN THE TRUNCHEON]

It was, indeed, only the relics and embers of the fight which continued
to burn; for of the few knights who still continued in the lists, the
greater part had, by tacit consent, forborne the conflict for some time,
leaving it to be determined by the strife of the leaders.

The squires, who had found it a matter of danger and difficulty to
attend their masters during the engagement, now thronged into the lists
to pay their dutiful attendance to the wounded, who were removed with
the utmost care and attention to the neighboring pavilions, or to the
quarters prepared for them in the adjoining village.

Thus ended the memorable field of Ashby-de-la-Zouche, one of the most
gallantly contested tournaments of that age; for although only four
knights, including one who was smothered by the heat of his armor, had
died upon the field, yet upward of thirty were desperately wounded, four
or five of whom never recovered. Several more were disabled for life;
and those who escaped best carried the marks of the conflict to the
grave with them. Hence it is always mentioned in the old records as the
"gentle and joyous passage of arms of Ashby."

It being now the duty of Prince John to name the knight who had done
best, he determined that the honor of the day remained with the knight
whom the popular voice had termed _Le Noir Faineant