Valentine, read not at all, but among them was enacted a great scene of
chivalry which ended almost in a tragedy. Grant, his mind absorbed in
jousting and its laurels, explained the thing to Alf and induced him to
read the tales of various encounters. Alf was more or less affected by
the literature and ready to do his share toward making each of them a
proper warrior fit for any fray. They considered the situation with
much earnestness, and concluded that the only way to joust was to
joust, and that Valentine should act as marshal of the occasion, for a
marshal at a tourney, they discovered, was a prime necessity. As for
coursers, barbs, destriers, or whatever name their noble steeds might
bear, they had no choice. There were but a couple of clumsy farm mares
available to them, and these the knights secured, their only equipments
being headstalls abstracted from the harness in the barn, while the
course fixed upon was a meadow well out of sight from the houses and
the eyes of the elders. Valentine was instructed in his duties,
particularly in the manner of giving the word of command. _Laissez
aller_, as found in "Ivanhoe," Grant did not understand, but a passage
from "The Lady of the Lake":

"Now, gallants! for your ladies' sake,
Upon them with the lance!"

seemed to answer every purpose, and Valentine was instructed to commit
it to memory, as the event proved, with but indifferent success. He
comprehended, in a vague way, that the warriors were to do battle for
the honor of their true loves, but, at the critical moment, the lines
escaped him and he had to improvise. The lances were rake-handles,
and, as this was not to be a fray _a l'outrance_, about the end of each
formidable weapon was wadded and tied an empty flour bag.