ets,
knight-errantry, and the rescuing of encastled maidens. The modern
acceptance of the term omits all those gentle qualities of mind which go
to make the true chivalric disposition. We associate chivalry with 'fair
play' combined with 'manliness'; and humility has no part in it. Indeed
it never enters into our mind that it was a system of 'humanyte,
curtosye, and gentylnesse.' More, it was a religion deeply ingrained in
the hearts of men, a religion which spread through all grades of society,
and one which consisted in the beatifying of the noblest qualities of
human nature; and it has left an indelible mark upon our national
character. Chivalry is not dead to-day as thoughtless people so often
exclaim; it will never die so long as our national characteristics
endure, though to-day it passes under a different name. 'Sport' we call
it now, and we pride ourselves in being 'sporting' even in the hour of
death--witness the countless instances brought about by the late great
war.

Bertrand du Guesclin, one of the greatest and most fearless exponents of
the chivalric spirit, and the Black Prince's most redoubtable enemy, fell
at last into the hands of the English. One day at Bordeaux the Prince
summoned him from his prison, and asked him how he fared. 'Par may foy,
monseigneur,' replied Bertrand, 'il m'ennuye de n'entendre que le chant
des Souris de Bourdeaux; je voudrois bien ouyr les Rossignols de nostre
pais'; but he added that he loved honour better than aught else and never
had anything brought him more glory than his prison, seeing that, as all
the other prisoners had been ransomed, he was kept there only through
fear of his prowess. The Prince of Wales, touched in his honour (or
rather pride) at du Guesclin's words, agreed to liberate Bertrand upon
payment of seventy thousand florins of gold.[34] 'But what was more
extraordinary in this adventure,' says a French chronicler, 'was that the
Princess of Wales gave him thirty thousand, and Sir John Chandos, who had
taken him prisoner, took upon himself to pay what was wanting to make the
sum complete.' 'Sporting,' was it not? Truly we are a marvellous race,
and it is not to be wondered that other nations, from whom this spirit
has long passed away, despair of ever being able to understand us.

England has always been the home of chivalry. La Colombiere in his 'Vray
Theatre d'Honneur et de Chevalerie ou le Miroir Heroique de la Noblesse'
remarks that the greatest number