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IVANHOE.
this place of honour, which was designed for
Prince John and his attendants. Opposite to this royal gallery was another, elevated to the same height on the western side of the lists; and more gaily, if less sumptuously decorated, than that destined for the Prince himself. A train of pages and of young maidens, the most beautiful who could be selected, gaily dressed in fancy habits of green and pink, surrounded a throne decorated with the same colours. Among pennons and flags bearing wounded hearts, burning hearts, bleeding hearts, bows and quivers, and all the common-place emblems of the triumphs of Cupid, a blazoned inscription informed the spectators that this seat of honour was designed for La Royne de la Beaulté et des Amours. But who the Queen of Beauty and of Love was to prove, no one was prepared to guess.
Meanwhile, spectators of every description thronged forward to occupy their respective stations, and not without many quarrels concerning those which they were entitled to hold. Some of these were settled by the men-at-arms with brief ceremony; the shafts of their battle-axes, and