106 



Family of Griff ard of Boy ton. 



amidst the Paynim victims their sharp swords were sending, as 

 they in their wild piety deemed, an acceptable offering to God. 



Giffard instantly obeyed his lord's command, and dashing with 

 his unwounded war-horse against the host of Saracens, he passed 

 through, as Paris asserts, graviter vulneratus — he swam the river, 

 reached the coast, and returning to England, probably died at 

 Boyton in early manhood. The effigy represents a warrior in full 

 vigour of age and form — his sword grasped by the right hand, and 

 the point resting in the mouth of an heraldic beast, which has 

 given rise to a strange local tradition, to which we may hereafter 

 allude. 



It is remarkable also, that the effigy at Boyton exactly resembles 

 in form, attitude, armour, and general appearance the effigy of the 

 gallant Longespee the second, 1 which rests between two columns of 

 that magnificent Cathedral which his father's pious munificence so 

 much enriched, and wherein his noble father's bones already re- 

 posed. 



Time and space will not allow more than a glance at the closing 

 scene of the fatal assault of Mansoura. After Giffard's escape, the 

 gallant band of English Knights stood firmly together, disdaining 

 to fly, and resolved to sell their lives dearly. The brave De Yere 

 — Sir Richard Guise — were slain. Still Longespee fought on. The 

 Saracen Emir offered him his life — his answer was fresh sweeps of 

 his deadly sword. At last, a Saracen cut off his left foot ; he still 

 fought on, propped up by the Templar, Richard of Ascalon — his 

 horse was killed, his right hand was maimed — grasping his sword 

 for a last effort in his left hand, he inflicted a deadly wound on the 

 face of a Saracen leader, who, in falling, crippled his remaining 

 hand. The gallant hero then fell forward, and the Saracens rush- 

 ing on, literally hewed the body to pieces. The metrical chronicler 

 concludes this touching narrative with the solemn words, which 

 surely are not ill-placed — "Jesus hath their souls in Paradise." 



I trust my brother members will excuse the digression from the 

 immediate family of Giffard ; the exceeding gallantry of the leader, 



i See Britton's Salisb. Cath. Mon., PL 3, F. 4. 



