last moment, instead of riding straight for his man, the Frenchman
swerved to the left, and, raising his lance high in the air, he threw
it in the manner of his country straight at the visor bars of the
young Earl of Douglas. The spear of James of Avondale at the same time
taking him fair in the middle of his shield, the double assault caused
the young man to fall heavily from his saddle, so that the crash
sounded dully over the field.

"Treachery! Treachery!--A foul false stroke! A knave's device!" cried
nine-tenths of those who were crowded about the barriers. "Stop the
fight! Kill the Frenchman!"

"Not so," cried Lord Maxwell, "they were to fight as best they could,
and they must fight it to the end!"

And this being a decision not to be gainsaid, the combat proceeded on
very unequal terms. Sholto, who had been eagerly on the stretch to
match himself with the squire of James of Avondale, the young knight
of the Bass, found himself suddenly astride of his lord's body and
defending himself against both the French ambassador and his squire
Poitou, who had simultaneously crossed over to the attack. For the
Marshal de Retz, if not in complete defiance of the written rule of
chivalry, at least against the spirit of gallantry and the rules of
the present tourney, would have thrust the Earl through with his spear
as he lay, crying at the same time, "À outrance! À outrance!" to
excuse the foulness of his deed.

It was lucky for himself that he did not succeed, for, undoubtedly,
the Douglases then on the field would have torn him to pieces for what
they not unnaturally considered his treachery. As it was, there