The mail was of finest rings of steel sewn upon soft doeskin,
fitted so closely that there was no room for gambison or jerkin; and
though it might have stopped a broad arrow or turned the edge of a
blade, a sharp dagger could have made a wound beneath it, and against a
blow it afforded less protection than a woollen cloak. Many had little
rings of gold sewn regularly in the rows of steel ones, that caught the
light with a warmer sparkle, and the clasps of their mantles were of
chiselled gold and silver. The trappings of each horse were matched in
colour with the ladies' mantles, and the captains of the squadrons wore
golden spurs.
They dropped the points of their lances as they passed the King where
he sat on his horse, a stone's throw from the high shore of the lake,
in the midst of his chief barons, his pale face expressing neither
interest nor pleasure in what he saw, and his eyes distrustful, as
always, of his Queen and her many caprices. She, when she had saluted
him with a smile that was almost a laugh, rode on a little way, and
then, with a sharply uttered word of command, she wheeled by the left,
crossed half the broad field, and led her ladies back straight toward
the King. Within five lengths of him she halted suddenly, almost
bringing her horse's haunches to the ground, and keeping her seat in a
way that would have done credit to a man brought up in the saddle. To
tell the truth, very few of her ladies were able to perform such a feat
with any ease or assurance, and in the sudden halt there was more than
a little disorder, accompanied by all sorts of exclamations of
annoyance and ejaculations of surprise; yet, in spite of difficulty,
the whole troop came to a standstill; moreover, a hundred thousand or
more of knights and soldiers on horseback and on foot were so much more
interested in the looks of the riders than in their horsemanship, and
the whole effect of the gay confusion, with its many colours, its
gleams of gold and glint of silver, was so pretty and altogether novel,
that a great cry of enthusiasm and delight rang in the sunny air.
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