Read The Days of Chivalry; Or, The Legend of Croquemitaine Page 10
CHAPTER X. ANGOULAFFRE THE MERCIFUL!
WHEN Angoulaffre saw these new adversaries approaching he frowned.
"Aha! for what do you take me, and why do you send these brats againstme? By my faith, Kingling, I do not thank you. If this be a sample ofyour court it is but a poor one, and it is no wonder you are foremost init. But, in truth, I believe you are but sending me the refuse of yourknighthood, which you are not sorry to be rid of. You hope thus to tireme, and to rid yourself of these small fry of warriors. I shall notsatisfy your wishes. I should blush to deal seriously with these punycreatures. By the Prophet, my father would be astonished to see the taskI have had set me!"
Shrugging his shoulders, Angoulaffre took his post at the end of thelists. He refused the lance which was brought him by thirty squires.
"It would be a rare jest if I needed arms to fight these pigmies," saidhe, as he rode forward at an easy pace. Ganelon and Wolf charged uponhim, lance in rest, but instead of aiming at the giant they aimed at hishorse.
"Cowards and bunglers!" shouted Angoulaffre. "Oh, Charlemagne, I shallnot do you the pleasure of ridding you of such knights. I intend tospare them, and let them go in peace for your disgrace for ever after."
So saying, the giant stooped, and, seizing the two as he had doneOliver, he looked at them quite unconcernedly.
"Faugh! the wretched Christians! it would be a murder to put them todeath;" and with these words he rode off towards the chapel, stillholding Ganelon and Wolf in his grasp.
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You have, of course, my dear readers, not forgotten the chapel of whichI spoke at the beginning of the story. It was surmounted by a huge ironcross. Angoulaffre went up to it, and without injuring his prisoners, hehung them by their belts, one on each limb of the cross, like a coupleof rings on a ringstand.
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"Gallant defenders of the cross," said the colossus, as he rode back tohis place in the lists; "become its guardians also!"