aw this, she reflected, that, if she stayed longer, the great fame
which she had acquired as a manly cavalier, by so many dangers and
labors, would be greatly hazarded. She saw that by any delay she should
expose herself to the risk of dishonor, by being turned to that native
softness which women of nature consider to be an ornament; and therefore
resisting, with great pain, the feelings which she had subjected to her
will, she rose from her seat and said,--

"'Knight of the Great Serpent, for two excellences which distinguish you
above all mortals I have made inquiry. The first, that of your great
beauty, which, if one has not seen, no relation is enough to tell the
greatness of; the other, the valor and force of your brave heart. The
one of these I have seen, which is such as I have never seen nor could
hope to see, though many years of searching should be granted me. The
other shall be made manifest on the field, against this valiant Radiaro,
Sultan of Liquia. Mine shall be shown against this mighty king your
father; and if fortune grant that we come alive from this battle, as we
hope to come from other battles, then I will talk with you, before I
return to my home, of some things of my own affairs.'

"Then, turning towards the Kings, she said to them,--

"'Kings, rest in good health. I go hence to that place where you shall
see me with very different dress from this which I now wear, hoping that
in that field the King Amadis, who trusts in fickle fortune that he may
never be conquered by any knight, however valiant, nor by any beast,
however terrible, may there be conquered by a woman.'

"Then taking the two older Kings by the hand, she permitted them to help
her mount upon her strange steed."

At this point the novel assumes a tone of high virtue (_virtus_,
mannishness, prejudice of the more brutal sex) on the subject of woman's
rights, in especial of woman's right to fight in the field with gold
armor, lance in rest, and casque closed. We will show the reader, as she
follows us, how careful she must be, if, in any island of the sea which
has been slipped by unknown by the last five centuries, she ever happen
to meet a cavalier of the true school of chivalry.

Esplandian himself would not in any way salute the Queen Calafia, as she
left him. Nor was this a copperhead prejudice of color; for that
prejudice was not yet known.

"He made no reply to her, both because he looked at her as something
strange, howeve