countries than at present. The tents of the leaders, nobles, and other
knights and gentlemen rose in regular lines, forming streets and
squares.

The great mass of troops, however, were contented to sleep in the open
air; indeed the difficulties of carriage were so great that it was only
the leaders who could carry with them their canvas abodes. Before each
tent stood the lance and colors of its owner, and side by side in the
center of the camp stood the royal pavilions of Philip of France and
Richard of England, round which could be seen the gonfalons of all the
nobles of Western Europe.

Nothing could be gayer than the aspect of this camp as the party rode
into it. They were rather late, and the great body of the host were
already assembled.

Cuthbert gazed with delight at the varied colors, the gay dresses, the
martial knights, and the air of discipline and order which reigned
everywhere.

This was indeed war in its most picturesque form, a form which, as far
as beauty is concerned, has been altogether altered, and indeed
destroyed, by modern arms.

In those days individual prowess and bravery went for everything. A
handful of armored knights were a match for thousands of footmen, and
battles were decided as much by the prowess and bravery of the leader
and his immediate following as by that of the great mass of the army.

The earl had the day before sent on a messenger to state that he was