IVANHOE.
157
CHAPTER IX.
At this the challenger with fierce defy
His trumpet sounds; the challenged makes reply:
With clangour rings the field, resounds the vaulted sky;
Their visors closed, their lances in the rest,
Or at the helmet pointed or the crest,
They vanish from the barrier, speed the race,
And spurring see decrease the middle space.
Palamon and Arcite.
In the midst of Prince John's cavalcade, he
suddenly stopt, and, appealing to the Prior of
Jorvaulx, declared the principal business of the
day had been forgotten.
"By my halidom," said he, "we have forgotten, Sir Prior, to name the fair sovereign of Love and of Beauty, by whose white hand the palm is to be distributed. For my part, I am liberal in my ideas, and I care not if I give my vote for the black-eyed Rebecca."