man meets a friend." The Crusader was totally indifferent
whether the infidel, who now approached on his gallant barb as if
borne on the wings of an eagle, came as friend or foe--perhaps,
as a vowed champion of the Cross, he might rather have preferred
the latter. He disengaged his lance from his saddle, seized it
with the right hand, placed it in rest with its point half
elevated, gathered up the reins in the left, waked his horse's
mettle with the spur, and prepared to encounter the stranger with
the calm self-confidence belonging to the victor in many
contests.

The Saracen came on at the speedy gallop of an Arab horseman,
managing his steed more by his limbs and the inflection of his
body than by any use of the reins, which hung loose in his left
hand; so that he was enabled to wield the light, round buckler of
the skin of the rhinoceros, ornamented with silver loops, which
he wore on his arm, swinging it as if he meant to oppose its
slender circle to the formidable thrust of the Western lance.
His own long spear was not couched or levelled like that of his
antagonist, but grasped by the middle with his right hand, and
brandished at arm's-length above his head. As the cavalier
approached his enemy at full career, he seemed to expect that the
Knight of the Leopard should put his horse to the gallop to
encounter him. But the Christian knight, well acquainted with
the customs of Eastern warriors, did not mean to exhaust his good
horse by any unnecessary exertion; and, on the contrary, made a
dead halt, confident that if the enemy advanced to the actual
shock, his own weight, and that of his powerful charger, would
give him sufficient advantage, without the additional momentum of
rapid motion. Equally sensible and apprehensive of such a