who can match him. And when he
has won the crown of Sussex for you, you shall redeem your pledge of
the Wishing-Well and give him what he will. Till then, be free." And he
dropped her hand again and let her go.

She turned and went quickly into the bushes and soon she came out
bearing the miserable arms of the Rusty Knight and the glorious sword.

"These are all that were in my fathers' castle for many years," she
said, "and I took them when I went away and the white hart brought me
to his own castle. But though these are big for me, they will be small
for you."

And Harding looked at them and laughed his short laugh. "The casque
alone will serve," he said. "By that and the sword men shall know me. I
have my own arms else; and I will take on myself the shame of this
ludicrous casque, and redeem it in your name. And you shall have these
in exchange." And he handed her his pouch and bade her what to do in
the morning, and went away. He still had not kissed her mouth, nor had
she offered it.

Now there is very little left to tell. On the morrow, when the roll of
knights had been called, all eyes instinctively turned to the great
gateway, by which the Rusty Knight had always come at the last moment.
And as they looked they saw whom they expected, but not what they
expected. For though his head was hidden in the rusty casque, and
though he held the sword which all men covet, he was clad from neck to
foot in arms and mail so marvelously chased and inwrought with red gold
that his whole body shone ruddy in the sunshaft. And men and women,
dazzled and confused, wondered what trick of light made him appear more
tall and broad than they remembered him; so that he seemed to dwarf all
other men. The murmur and the doubt went round, "Is it the Rusty
Knight?"

Then in a voice of thunder he replied, "Ay, if you will, it is the
Rusty Knight; or the Red Knight, or the Knight of the Royal Heart, or
of the Hart-Royal; but by any name, the knight of the Proud Rosalind,
who is the proudest and most peerless of all the maids of Sussex, as
this day's work shall prove."

And none laughed.

The joust began; and before the Rusty Knight the rest went down like
corn beaten by hail. And all men marveled at him, and all women
likewise. And the young Queen Maudlin of Bramber, a prey to her whims,
loved him as long as the tourney lasted. And when it was ended, and he
alone stood upright, she rose in her seat and held out to him the crown
of