Evening star., 1927-11-08

tThis tale belongs to the age Of romance ani &c
in the Literature of of Italy and ,rv Is par' @ tbi. e.
| kind the best human virtues are exempH. Mp,i !.
fed in strong. symbolic characters r;tas tbs
story was written by an unknown writer
of the thirteenth century,
| Now it happened in the days of long
ago that that there was a Fearless
knight, so named because OF ms IN
domitable courage in any and all sit
uations, however perilous. The King
of the country was named Meliadus,
and he was renowned far and wide
| for his bravery and skill with the
sword. So it came about that the
/ Fearless Knight and King Meliadus
were mortal enemies of one another.
and should they ever meet they must
| surely, it would seem, come to blows
and each try to kill the other.
| The Fearless Knight one day went
| forth. disguised, upon one of the Sc.
cret undertakings that often required
him to travel alone and unknown.
1t happened that he came unexpect-
edly upon a group of his own squires.
| but so good was his disguise that even
| his familiar servants failed to recog-
nize him.
Then the Fearless knight was thus
addressed by his squires:
"Sir Knight, whatever your name
and country. we call upon you to
| swear, upon your oath OF chlvairy,
whether the Fearless knight or King
Meliadus wields the better sword
The Fearless knight was quite sur
prised at this, as he was. also pleased
| with the effectiveness of his disguise.
For he knew that his squires held
him in good esteem, and knew him
so we'll that they would surely have
recognized him at once If his dis
g,lise had not been of the best. So
pleased was the Knight that his dis
guise was not penetrated, and so fear
less was he in any case, that he risked
the anger of his squires in answering
them.
Verify, my friends said the Fear
less knight, 80 may Heaven be gen.
erous and grant me fair adventure. l
swear that to the best of my judg.
ment it is the good King Meliadus
that wields the better sword. In fact,
think that King Meliadus is the
best knight that ever strode steed.'
Now the squires of the Fearless
| Knight bore no good will toward King
Meliadus, for their loyalty was all for
their master and they knew that the
| King was mis- sworn enemy. They ex-
pressed at all times their hatred of
| the King for this very strong and
sufficient reason.
So, when the squires of the Fear.
| less knight thus heard their master
| accorded second place by an unknown
stranger. they fell upon him and made
him their prisoner by sheer force of
| numbers. Armed though he was,
| they placed him across the back of a
poor palfrey, vowing that they would
seek a good tree and hang him there.
| from until he was dead. 1t was in
| this kind that these squires were de.
| termined to repay the insult given
| to their master. for they were still
quite unaware that it was their mas
ter, indeed who had fallen just now
| into their hands.
AS they proceeded to look for sat.
| isfactory tree to use for gallows,
however, it happened that King
Meliadus himself came along, also in
disguise. He presented himself as a
wandering knight journeying to GER
tain tournament. where he proposed
to win a name for himself. Thus he
was riding fully armed and equipped
for the coming joust.
| Passing the squires, and seeing
what they were about he paused to
inquire from them: why do you
wish to hang this knight, gentlemen?
Who may he be that you intend to
treat him so unmannerly?"
| The squires stopped to reply to this
civil question.
He has well deserved to die, we