登陆注册
14721800000098

第98章

That morning, at nine o'clock, as they were going to breakfast, the Rowski's trumpets sounded. Clad in complete armor, and mounted on his enormous piebald charger, he came out of his pavilion, and rode slowly up and down in front of the castle. He was ready there to meet a champion.

Three times each day did the odious trumpet sound the same notes of defiance. Thrice daily did the steel-clad Rowski come forth challenging the combat. The first day passed, and there was no answer to his summons. The second day came and went, but no champion had risen to defend. The taunt of his shrill clarion remained without answer; and the sun went down upon the wretchedest father and daughter in all the land of Christendom.

The trumpets sounded an hour after sunrise, an hour after noon, and an hour before sunset. The third day came, but with it brought no hope. The first and second summons met no response. At five o'clock the old Prince called his daughter and blessed her. "I go to meet this Rowski," said he. "It may be we shall meet no more, my Helen--my child--the innocent cause of all this grief. If Ishall fall to-night the Rowski's victim, 'twill be that life is nothing without honor." And so saying, he put into her hands a dagger, and bade her sheathe it in her own breast so soon as the terrible champion had carried the castle by storm.

This Helen most faithfully promised to do; and her aged father retired to his armory, and donned his ancient war-worn corselet.

It had borne the shock of a thousand lances ere this, but it was now so tight as almost to choke the knightly wearer.

The last trumpet sounded--tantara! tantara!--its shrill call rang over the wide plains, and the wide plains gave back no answer.

Again!--but when its notes died away, there was only a mournful, an awful silence. "Farewell, my child," said the Prince, bulkily lifting himself into his battle-saddle. "Remember the dagger.

Hark! the trumpet sounds for the third time. Open, warders!

Sound, trumpeters! and good St. Bendigo guard the right."But Puffendorff, the trumpeter, had not leisure to lift the trumpet to his lips: when, hark! from without there came another note of another clarion!--a distant note at first, then swelling fuller.

Presently, in brilliant variations, the full rich notes of the "Huntsman's Chorus" came clearly over the breeze; and a thousand voices of the crowd gazing over the gate exclaimed, "A champion! a champion!"And, indeed, a champion HAD come. Issuing from the forest came a knight and squire: the knight gracefully cantering an elegant cream-colored Arabian of prodigious power--the squire mounted on an unpretending gray cob; which, nevertheless, was an animal of considerable strength and sinew. It was the squire who blew the trumpet, through the bars of his helmet; the knight's visor was completely down. A small prince's coronet of gold, from which rose three pink ostrich-feathers, marked the warrior's rank: his blank shield bore no cognizance. As gracefully poising his lance he rode into the green space where the Rowski's tents were pitched, the hearts of all present beat with anxiety, and the poor Prince of Cleves, especially, had considerable doubts about his new champion.

"So slim a figure as that can never compete with Donnerblitz," said he, moodily, to his daughter; "but whoever he be, the fellow puts a good face on it, and rides like a man. See, he has touched the Rowski's shield with the point of his lance! By St. Bendigo, a perilous venture!"The unknown knight had indeed defied the Rowski to the death, as the Prince of Cleves remarked from the battlement where he and his daughter stood to witness the combat; and so, having defied his enemy, the Incognito galloped round under the castle wall, bowing elegantly to the lovely Princess there, and then took his ground and waited for the foe. His armor blazed in the sunshine as he sat there, motionless, on his cream-colored steed. He looked like one of those fairy knights one has read of--one of those celestial champions who decided so many victories before the invention of gun powder.

The Rowski's horse was speedily brought to the door of his pavilion; and that redoubted warrior, blazing in a suit of magnificent brass armor, clattered into his saddle. Long waves of blood-red feathers bristled over his helmet, which was farther ornamented by two huge horns of the aurochs. His lance was painted white and red, and he whirled the prodigious beam in the air and caught it with savage glee. He laughed when he saw the slim form of his antagonist; and his soul rejoiced to meet the coming battle.

He dug his spurs into the enormous horse he rode: the enormous horse snorted, and squealed, too, with fierce pleasure. He jerked and curveted him with a brutal playfulness, and after a few minutes' turning and wheeling, during which everybody had leisure to admire the perfection of his equitation, he cantered round to a point exactly opposite his enemy, and pulled up his impatient charger.

The old Prince on the battlement was so eager for the combat, that he seemed quite to forget the danger which menaced himself, should his slim champion be discomfited by the tremendous Knight of Donnerblitz. "Go it!" said he, flinging his truncheon into the ditch; and at the word, the two warriors rushed with whirling rapidity at each other.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 腹黑总裁:独宠小萌妻

    腹黑总裁:独宠小萌妻

    【新书已发-《粉嫩萌妃:陛下,亲一下》】某保镖:少爷,少奶奶要离家出走。某煜:她有没有带金卡?某保镖:带了某煜:送她离家出走。......某保镖:少爷,少奶奶要跟别的男人走了某煜暴怒:跟谁?某保镖:南爸爸.......某保镖:少爷,少奶奶抱走了隔壁家的孩子某煜:那孩子漂亮么?某保镖:漂亮某煜:看来我要努力了
  • 仙烙

    仙烙

    冰冷与黑暗的宇宙,一道道、一缕缕印记,亘古长存……神秘的印记,带来进化之路,留下长生之机……众生猜疑,这是仙在世间留下的烙印…………炼紫气,通四极,筑仙台,建道宫,汇元神,演万象,化圣体,破苍穹,洞虚无,遮天地……万古追逐,只为成仙,只为永生!
  • 灵异故事:百夜

    灵异故事:百夜

    一场诡异的“百夜”游戏,四个经历奇特的女孩,一座充满灵异的宿舍楼,一百个鬼故事后,等待她们的将是什么?她朝桌子下面瞥了一眼,立刻倒抽了一口冷气,只觉得一阵寒冷渗透了骨髓,然后随后血脉流过她的全身:她们长长的裙子下面,居然没有脚!
  • 亲让我们在一起

    亲让我们在一起

    25岁的杜展鹏去“非创意”广告公司应聘,邂逅35岁的广告部组长尹欣然,在交往中,杜展鹏不知不觉爱上了尹欣然,在他妈妈万慧如的呵斥中他才发现自己深深的陷进了感情的漩涡。可是,尹欣然是公司老总的小三,老总不放过尹欣然,尹欣然也不敢接受杜展鹏的爱。杜的妈妈也是极力阻挠,恐吓甚至上欣然的家砸物。想摆脱老总的尹欣然朝车外跑掉,却把脚扭伤了。杜展鹏为了照顾尹欣然,两人几乎朝夕相处。后来,欣然的职位被助理取代,老总也被助理攀上,工作的失去,朋友的背叛让欣然痛苦万分。杜展鹏用自己的真诚真心打动了尹欣然,尹欣然也慢慢的对杜展鹏有了依赖性,爱上了他。
  • 锦瑟年华谁与度

    锦瑟年华谁与度

    短篇青春短篇小说集。我在沧南唯一的咖啡馆里,看着屋外的雾气升腾,然后我用冰凉的手指在画着各种图案。然后,我在模糊的玻璃窗里,看到了许安生的脸,突然成熟的脸,有些许小胡渣,我以为是幻觉,我使劲地用手掌把玻璃窗擦得几净。我看到许安生背着一个大行囊冲我笑,他在做口型,骆瞳,我来了。这么简短的五个字,竟然叫我泪流满面。
  • 相思谋:妃常难娶

    相思谋:妃常难娶

    某日某王府张灯结彩,婚礼进行时,突然不知从哪冒出来一个小孩,对着新郎道:“爹爹,今天您的大婚之喜,娘亲让我来还一样东西。”说完提着手中的玉佩在新郎面前晃悠。此话一出,一府宾客哗然,然当大家看清这小孩与新郎如一个模子刻出来的面容时,顿时石化。此时某屋顶,一个绝色女子不耐烦的声音响起:“儿子,事情办完了我们走,别在那磨矶,耽误时间。”新郎一看屋顶上的女子,当下怒火攻心,扔下新娘就往女子所在的方向扑去,吼道:“女人,你给本王站住。”一场爱与被爱的追逐正式开始、、、、、、、
  • 18岁以后一定要读的心灵故事

    18岁以后一定要读的心灵故事

    本书辑录了最震撼心灵、情感跌宕的动人故事。内容包括:总有一种爱情让你无语哽咽、总有一种亲情让你涕泪交流、总有一种友情让你潸然泪下、总有一种忠诚让你热泪盈眶、总有一种理想让你心酸不已等。
  • 三绝舞娘

    三绝舞娘

    三年之后,凯旋归来。三年之后,红衣如故。三年之约,守信之人,赴约之人,何在?三年后,他为帝王。三年后,她为舞娘。她为他舞,他拥怀无数,居高临下。他非人,非魔,更非神。能实现任何人的愿望,却爱上了她。她的三独舞,为三人跳:帝王,爱人,孩子。帝王的他,虽有三千佳人,唯独缺她,却又何曾开心过?
  • 汉民族发展史

    汉民族发展史

    本书以研究汉民族发展源流为对象,对汉民族的起源、形成、发展、特征、文化进行了全方位审视,综合了几十年来学术界的研究成果,材料翔实,并有不少创见,填补了民族学研究的一项空白。可供学者、大学生和关心改革与民族前途的读者研究、参考。
  • 魔能玄天

    魔能玄天

    据传,天地间有许许多多神器,而其中,又有十二神器更是之中的佼佼者,那就是传说中的多次拯救魔能大陆的天玄十二器