econd
time across the lists. Rowena, descending from her station with a
graceful and dignified step, was about to place the chaplet which she
held in her hand upon the helmet of the champion, when the marshals
exclaimed with one voice, "It must not be thus; his head must be bare."
The knight muttered faintly a few words, which were lost in the hollow
of his helmet; but their purport seemed to be a desire that his casque
might not be removed.

[Illustration: ROWENA CROWNING DISINHERITED KNIGHT]

Whether from love of form or from curiosity, the marshals paid no
attention to his expressions of reluctance, but unhelmed him by cutting
the laces of his casque, and undoing the fastening of his gorget. When
the helmet was removed the well-formed yet sun-burned features of a
young man of twenty-five were seen, amid a profusion of short fair
hair. His countenance was as pale as death, and marked in one or two
places with streaks of blood.

Rowena had no sooner beheld him that she uttered a faint shriek; but at
once summoning up the energy of her disposition, and compelling herself,
as it were, to proceed, while her frame yet trembled with the violence
of sudden emotion, she placed upon the drooping head of the victor the
splendid chaplet which was the destined reward of the day, and
pronounced in a clear and distinct tone these words: "I bestow on thee
this chaplet, Sir Knight, as the meed of valor assigned to this day's
victor." Here she paused a moment, and then firmly added, "And upon brow
more worthy could a wreath of chivalry never be placed!"

The knight stooped his head and kissed the hand of the lovely Sovereign
by whom his valor had been rewarded; and then, sinking yet further
forward, lay prostrate at her feet.

There was a general consternation. Cedric, who had been struck mute by
the sudden appearance of his banished son, now rushed forward as if to
separate him from Rowena. But this had been already accomplished by the
marshals of the field, who, guessing the cause of Ivanhoe's swoon, had
hastened to undo his armor, and found that the head of a lance had
penetrated his breastplate and inflicted a wound in his side.

FOOTNOTES:

[39-1] A pursuivant was an attendant on a herald.

[40-2] _Salvage_ is an old form of the word _savage_.

[46-3] _Outrance_ is an old word meaning _the last extremity_.

[48-4] A largesse is a gift or donation.

[53-5] _Clowns_ here means _peasants_.

[56-6] _Gare le Corbeau