Captain Tagrag was my opponent, and preciously we poked each
other, till, prancing about, I put my foot on my horse's petticoat
behind, and down I came, getting a thrust from the Captain, at the same
time, that almost broke my shoulder-bone. "This was sufficient," they
said, "for the laws of chivalry;" and I was glad to get off so.
After that the gentlemen riders, of whom there were no less than seven,
in complete armor, and the professionals, now ran at the ring; and the
Baron was far, far the most skilful.
"How sweetly the dear Baron rides," said my wife, who was always ogling
at him, smirking, smiling, and waving her handkerchief to him. "I say,
Sam," says a professional to one of his friends, as, after their course,
they came cantering up, and ranged under Jemmy's bower, as she called
it:--"I say, Sam, I'm blowed if that chap in harmer mustn't have been
one of hus." And this only made Jemmy the more pleased; for the fact is,
the Baron had chosen the best way of winning Jemimarann by courting her
mother.
The Baron was declared conqueror at the ring; and Jemmy awarded him
the prize, a wreath of white roses, which she placed on his lance; he
receiving it gracefully, and bowing, until the plumes of his helmet
mingled with the mane of his charger, which backed to the other end of
the lists; then galloping back to the place where Jemimarann was seated,
he begged her to place it on his helmet.
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