"Scepticism is but a harmless phantom in these mighty hills.We BELIEVE that with the saints is the GOOD knight's soul,and if,in the radiant unknown,the eyes of those who have gone before can pierce the little shadow that lies between,we know that the good knights of old look gladly down on these good knights of to-day.For it is good to be remembered.The tireless struggle for name and fame since the sunrise of history attests it;and the ancestry worship in the East and the world-wide hope of immortality show the fierce hunger in the human soul that the memory of it not only shall not perish from this earth,but that,across the Great Divide,it shall live on--neither forgetting nor forgotten.
You are here in memory of those good knights to prove that the age of chivalry is not gone;that though their good swords are rust,the stainless soul of them still illumines every harmless spear point before me and makes it a torch that shall reveal,in your own hearts still aflame,their courage,their chivalry,their sense of protection for the weak,and the honor in which they held pure women,brave men,and almighty God.
"The tournament,some say,goes back to the walls of Troy.The form of it passed with the windmills that Don Quixote charged.It is with you to keep the high spirit of it an ever-burning vestal fire.It was a deadly play of old--it is a harmless play to you this day.But the prowess of the game is unchanged;for the skill to strike those pendent rings is no less than was the skill to strike armor-joint,visor,or plumed crest.It was of old an exercise for deadly combat on the field of battle;it is no less an exercise now to you for the field of life--for the quick eye,the steady nerve,and the deft hand which shall help you strike the mark at which,outside these lists,you aim.And the crowning triumph is still just what it was of old--that to the victor the Rose of his world--made by him the Queen of Love and Beauty for us all--shall give her smile and with her own hands place on his brow a thornless crown.''
Perfect silence honored the Hon.Samuel Budd.The Mayor was nodding vigorous approval,the jeering ones kept still,and when after the last deep-toned word passed like music from his lips the silence held sway for a little while before the burst of applause came.Every knight had straightened in his saddle and was looking very grave.Marston's eyes never left the speaker's face,except once,when they turned with an unconscious appeal,Ithought,to the downcast face of Blight--whereat the sympathetic little sister seemed close to tears.The Knight of the Cumberland shifted in his saddle as though he did not quite understand what was going on,and once Mollie,seeing the eyes through the mask-holes fixed on her,blushed furiously,and little Buck grinned back a delighted recognition.The Hon.
Sam sat down,visibly affected by his own eloquence;slowly he wiped his face and then he rose again.
"Your colors,Sir Knights,''he said,with a commanding wave of his truncheon,and one by one the knights spurred forward and each held his lance into the grandstand that some fair one might tie thereon the colors he was to wear.Marston,without looking at the Blight,held his up to the little sister and the Blight carelessly turned her face while the demure sister was busy with her ribbons,but I noticed that the little ear next to me was tingling red for all her brave look of unconcern.
Only the Knight of the Cumberland sat still.
"What!''said the Hon.Sam,rising to his feet,his eyes twinkling and his mask of humor on again;"sees this masked springal''--the Hon.Sam seemed much enamored of that ancient word--"no maid so fair that he will not beg from her the boon of colors gay that he may carry them to victory and receive from her hands a wreath therefor?''Again the Knight of the Cumberland seemed not to know that the Hon.Sam's winged words were meant for him,so the statesman translated them into a mutual vernacular.
"Remember what I told you,son,''he said."Hold up yo'spear here to some one of these gals jes'like the other fellows are doin',''and as he sat down he tried surreptitiously to indicate the Blight with his index finger,but the knight failed to see and the Blight's face was so indignant and she rebuked him with such a knife-like whisper that,humbled,the Hon.Sam collapsed in his seat,muttering:
"The fool don't know you--he don't know you.''
For the Knight of the Cumberland had turned the black horse's head and was riding,like Ivanhoe,in front of the nobles and ladies,his eyes burning up at them through the holes in his white mask.
Again he turned,his mask still uplifted,and the behavior of the beauties there,as on the field of Ashby,was no whit changed:
"Some blushed,some assumed an air of pride and dignity,some looked straight forward and essayed to seem utterly unconscious of what was going on,some drew back in alarm which was perhaps affected,some endeavored to forbear smiling and there were two or three who laughed outright.''Only none "dropped a veil over her charms''and thus none incurred the suspicion,as on that field of Ashby,that she was "a beauty of ten years'standing''whose motive,gallant Sir Walter supposes in defence,however,was doubtless "a surfeit of such vanities and a willingness to give a fair chance to the rising beauties of the age.''But the most conscious of the fair was Mollie below,whose face was flushed and whose brown fingers were nervously twisting the ribbons in her lap,and I saw Buck nudge her and heard him whisper:
"Dave ain't going to pick YOU out,I tell ye.I heered Mr.Budd thar myself tell him he HAD to pick out some other gal.''
"You hush!''said Mollie indignantly.
It looked as though the Knight of the Cumberland had grown rebellious and meant to choose whom he pleased,but on his way back the Hon.Sam must have given more surreptitious signs,for the Knight of the Cumberland reined in before the Blight and held up his lance to her.
