They had formed lists in the Loire meads:  a red pavilion with leopards upon it for the Count of Poictou, a blue pavilion streaked with basilisks in silver for the Count of Saint-Pol.  The crowd was very great, for the city was full of people; in the tribune the King of England’s throne was left empty save for a drawn sword; but one sat beside it as arbiter for the day of life and death, and that was Prince John, Richard’s brother, by Richard summoned from Paris, and most unwillingly there.  Bishop Hugh of Durham sat next him, and marvelled to see the sweat glisten on his forehead on a day when all the world else felt the north wind to their bones.  ‘Are you suffering, dear lord?’ ’Eh, Bishop Hugh, Bishop Hugh, this is a mad day for me!’ ‘By God,’ thought Hugh of Durham, ‘and so it might prove, my man!’

They blew trumpets; and at the second sounding Saint-Pol, the challenger, rode out on a big grey horse, himself in a hauberk of chain mail with a coif of the same, and a casque wherein three grey heron’s feathers.  This was the badge of the house:  Jehane wore heron’s feathers.  He had a blue surcoat and blue housings for his horse.  Behind him, esquire of honour, rode the young Amadeus of Savoy, carrying his banner, a white basilisk on a blue field.  Saint-Pol was a burly man, bearing his honours squarely on breast and back.

They sounded for the Count of Poictou, who came presently out of his tent and lightly swung himself into the saddle—­a feat open to very few men armed in mail.  As he came cantering down the long lists no man could fail to mark the size and splendid ease he had; but some said, ’He is younger by five years than Saint-Pol, and not so stout a man.’  He had a red plume above his leopard crest, a white surcoat over his hauberk, with three red leopards upon it.  His shield was of the same blazon, so also the housings of his horse.  The Dauphin of Auvergne carried his banner.  The two men came together, saluted with ceremony, then turned with spears uplift to the tribune, the throned sword, the sweating prince beside it.

This one now rose up and caught at his chair, to give the signal.  ’Oh, Richard of Anjou, do thou on the body of Saint-Pol what thy faith requires of thee; and do thou, Eudo, uphold the right thou hast, in the name of God in Trinity and of our Lady.’  The Bishop of Tours blessed them both and the issue, they wheeled apart, and the battle began.  It was short, three careers long.  At the first shock Richard unhorsed his man; at the second he unhelmed him with a deep flesh-furrow in the cheek; at the third he drove down horse and man together and broke the Count’s back.  Saint-Pol never moved again.

The moment it was over, in the silence of all, Prince John came down from the tribune and fell upon Richard’s neck.  ‘Oh, dearest brother,’ cried he, ’what should I have done if the worst had befallen you?  I cannot bear to think of it.’

‘Oh, brother,’ Richard said very quietly, ’I think you would have borne it very well.  You would have married Madame Alois, and paid for a mass or two for me out of the dowry.’