fight with babes."

"Mayhap he will be as David to your Goliath, thou great gomeril!"
replied the Earl with equal good humour, seeing his cousin Hugh blush
and fumble uncomfortably at his arms.

Then to the lad himself he said: "Keep a light hand on your rein, a
good grip at the knee, and after the first shock we will ride round
them like swallows about so many bullocks."

The other two Avondale knights, William Douglas and the Marshal de
Retz, were also large men, and the latter especially, clothed in black
armour and with the royal ermines of Brittany quartered on his shield,
looked a stern and commanding figure.

The squires were well matched. These fought on foot, armed according
to custom with sword, axe, and dagger--though Sholto would much have
preferred to trust to his arrow skill even against the plate of the
knights.

The trumpets blew their warning from the judge's gallery. The six
opposing knights laid their lances in rest. The squires leaned a
little forward as if about to run a race. Lord Maxwell raised his
truncheon. The trumpets sounded again, and as their stirring
_taran-tara_ rang down the wide strath of Dee, the riders spurred
their horses into full career. It so chanced that, as they had stood,
James of Avondale was opposite the Earl, each being in the midst as
was their right as leaders. The Master of Avondale opposed his brother
Hugh, and the Marshal de Retz couched spear against young Alan
Fleming. In this order they started to ride their course. But at the