FROM GREAT BOOKS

Only a few great books can be represented in this small section of your Reader. The extracts are offered in the firm belief that you will wish to read further in the volumes from which they were taken. Good books are like good friends; the better you know them the better you like them; and they stand ready always to give you genuine pleasure.

BY SIR WALTER SCOTT

The following is the larger part of chapter eight of Scott's Ivanhoe. The hero of the novel is a Saxon knight, Wilfred of Ivanhoe, son of Cedric. Ivanhoe is in love with his father's ward, Rowena, but Cedric wishes her to marry a thick-headed Saxon thane, or lord, called Athelstane. According to Scott, the period was one of unrest. England had come into the possession of the Normans, and the native Saxons hated their new masters. Richard was king. But since he had gone to the Holy Land as a leader in one of the crusades, his brother, Prince John, ruled in his stead. Both were foreigners, but the common people liked Richard and hated John, who was not only a tyrant, but was also planning to seize his brother's throne. He had had Richard imprisoned in Austria, and had surrounded himself with ambitious and dissatisfied Norman knights. The tournament at Ashby was really a trial at arms between the Prince's followers and those of Richard, of whom Ivanhoe was one.

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HE lists now presented a most splendid spectacle, The sloping galleries were crowded with all that was noble, great, wealthy, and beautiful in the northern and midland parts of England; and the contrast of the various 5 dresses of these dignified spectators rendered the view as gay as it was rich, while the interior and lower space, filled with the substantial burgesses and yeomen of merry England, formed, in their more plain attire, a dark fringe, or border, around this circle of brilliant embroidery, relieving, To and at the same time setting off, its splendor.

The heralds finished their proclamation with their usual cry of "Largess, largess, gallant knights!" and gold and

silver pieces were showered on them from the galleries, it being a high point of chivalry to exhibit liberality toward those whom the age accounted at once the secretaries and the historians of honor. The bounty of the spectators was acknowledged by the customary shouts of "Love of s Ladies Death of Champions Honor to the Generous

Glory to the Brave!" To which the more humble spectators added their acclamations, and a numerous band of trumpeters the flourish of their martial instruments. When these sounds had ceased, the heralds withdrew from 10 the lists in gay and glittering procession, and none remained within them save the marshals of the field, who, armed capa-pie, sat on horseback, motionless as statues, at the opposite ends of the lists.

Meantime, the inclosed space at the northern extremity of the lists, large as it was, was now completely crowded with knights desirous to prove their skill against the challengers, and when viewed from the galleries presented the appearance of a sea of waving plumage intermixed with glistening helmets and tall lances, to the extremities of 20 which were, in many cases, attached small pennons of about a span's breadth, which, fluttering in the air as the breeze caught them, joined with the restless motion of the feathers to add liveliness to the scene.

At length the barriers were opened, and five knights 25 chosen by lot advanced slowly into the area; a single champion riding in front and the other four following in pairs. All were splendidly armed, and my Saxon authority records at great length their devices, their colors, and the embroidery of their horse trappings. It is unnecessary to be 30 particular on these subjects. To borrow lines from a contemporary poet, who has written but too little

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"The knights are dust,

And their good swords are rust,

Their souls are with the saints, we trust."

Their escutcheons have long moldered from the walls of s their castles. Their castles themselves are but green mounds and shattered ruins — the place that once knew them knows them no more nay, many a race since theirs has died out and been forgotten in the very land which they occupied with all the authority of feudal lords. What, then, would it avail the reader to know their names or the evanescent symbols of their martial rank!

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Now, however, no whit anticipating the oblivion which awaited their names and feats, the champions advanced through the lists, restraining their fiery steeds and com15 pelling them to move slowly, while, at the same time, they exhibited their paces, together with the grace and dexterity of the riders. As the procession entered the lists, the sound of a wild barbaric music was heard from behind the tents of the challengers, where the performers were concealed. It 20 was of Eastern origin, having been brought from the Holy Land; and the mixture of the cymbals and bells seemed to bid welcome at once, and defiance, to the knights as they advanced.

With the eyes of an immense concourse of spectators 25 fixed upon them, the five knights advanced up the platform upon which the tents of the challengers stood, and there separating themselves, each touched slightly, and with the reverse of his lance, the shield of the antagonist to whom he wished to oppose himself. The lower orders of 30 spectators in general-nay, many of the higher class, and it is even said several of the ladies were rather disappointed at the champions choosing the arms of courtesy.