Sacra, Vol. I. p. 161.

But, true or false, the incident, narrated in the ballad, is in the
genuine style of chivalry. Romances abound with similar instances, nor
are they wanting in real history. The most solemn part of a knight's
oath was to defend "all widows, orphelines, and maidens of gude
fame."[A]--LINDSAY'S _Heraldry, MS._ The love of arms was a real
passion of itself, which blazed yet more fiercely when united with the
enthusiastic admiration of the fair sex. The knight of Chaucer exclaims,
with chivalrous energy,

To fight for a lady! a benedicite!
It were a lusty sight for to see.

It was an argument, seriously urged by Sir John of Heinault, for making
war upon Edward II., in behalf of his banished wife, Isabella, that
knights were bound to aid, to their uttermost power, all distressed
damsels, living without council or comfort.

[Footnote A: Such an oath is still taken by the Knights of the Bath;
but, I believe, few of that honourable brotherhood will now consider it
quite so obligatory as the conscientious Lord Herbert of Cherbury, who
gravely alleges it as a sufficient reason for having challenged divers
cavaliers, that they had either snatched from a lady her bouquet, or
ribband, or, by some discourtesy of similar importance, placed her, as
his lordship conceived, in the predicament of a distressed damozell.]

An apt illustration of the ballad would have been the combat, undertaken
by three Spanish champions against three Moors of Granada, in defence of
the honour of the queen of Granada, wife to Mohammed Chiquito, the last