Page:Stories from Old English Poetry-1899.djvu/275

Rh it might be. Besides all this, the old fellow lent him his only horse, and thus furnished, Pericles rode gallantly off for the court of Simonides.

He arrived at the tournament just in time to enter his name on the lists, and pass in with the other knights who took part. Simonides and Thaisa sat upon a raised throne, placed under a crimson canopy at the extremity of the amphitheatre in which the tourney was to take place. Pericles looked at the princess, and thought her the most beautiful woman he had ever gazed upon. Her face was modest, yet full of wit and sprightliness, and she was wonderfully graceful in person.

The first knight rode in, bearing on his shield an Ethiop reaching for the sun, with this motto: “Lux tua mihi vita;” then a second passed in, a third, a fourth, a fifth, and last came Pericles, his armor looking dull and tarnished beside the glittering suits of his rivals. The device on his shield was a withered branch, with a few green leaves budding from its top, and this motto: “In hac spe vivo.” Notwithstanding the meanness of his attire, the princeliness of Pericles shone through his clothing, so that to the clear eyes of the princess he seemed the noblest and bravest of them all.

The tourney commenced with the waving of colors, the sound of trumpets, and the ringing