432 HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. 



At length, owing to the girths and the poitrail breaking, 

 the steed got away, leaving the knight and his saddle 

 suspended from the tree. This horse the Sire de Hemri- 

 court kept, though an ignominious fate awaited it. When 

 the knight and his associates came to the place appointed 

 for the combat, the Arragonese did not appear, and the 

 King of Sicily, taking advantage of the circumstance, 

 meanly required that the horses should be returned. 

 When the messenger came to De Hemricourt, ' What,' 

 cried he, ' has the king, your master, only lent me this 

 carrion to defend his honour at the risk of my life — I 

 who am no subject of his ? Is it thus he shows his 

 gratitude ? By the eyes of God, he shall have his present 

 back again, but in such a state that no knight shall ever 

 mount him again with honour!' So saying, he had the 

 horse brought out of the stable, and, with his own hands 

 cutting off the mane and tail, desired the groom to lead 

 him away.' 



'In those times of war,' writes the old author, Hameri- 

 court,^ ' and even ten years after the peace was made, 

 knights and squires of honour rode great horses {crastriers) 

 or coursers {corseirs) of the greatest value they could 

 procure, and they had very high tourneying saddles 

 without foresaltiers. They were covered with caparisons 

 wrought in embroidery with their armorial blasons. They 

 were armed with breast-plates with good armour of thin 

 iron pieces, and upon the plate they had rich wardcoats 

 bearing their blasons. Each had a helmet upon his 



' Miroir des Nobles de la Hesbaye. The Valley of the Meuse, by 

 Dudley Costello. 



^ De Bellis Leodunsibus, cap. 41. 



