234
IVANHOE.
CHAPTER XII.
The heralds left their pricking up and down.
Now ringen trumpets loud and clarion.
There is no more to say, but east and west,
In go the spears sadly in the rest,
In goth the sharp spur into the side,
There see men who can just and who can ride;
There shiver shaftes upon shieldes thick,
He feeleth through the heart-spone the prick;
Up springen speares, twenty feet in height,
Out go the swordes as the silver bright;
The helms they to-hewn and to-shred;
Out burst the blood with stern streames red.
Chaucer.
Morning arose in unclouded splendour, and
ere the sun was much above the horizon, the
idlest or the most eager of the spectators appeared on the common, moving to the lists as to a general centre, in order to secure a favourable situation for viewing the expected games.
The marshals and their attendants appeared next on the field, together with the heralds, for