Page:H. D. Traill - From Cairo to the Soudan Frontier.djvu/70

Ramoneur, one armed with a floury, the other with a sooty mop. At sound of bugle they lay besom in rest and, charging, meet in deadly shock in the centre of the tilt-yard. The gallant steeds bestridden by them, animals of a strangely human expression of countenance, who might easily be mistaken for two of their riders' comrades, are not exactly "thrown upon their haunches by the concussion," as was usual with the chargers of Saladin's day; but they certainly remain erect on their hind legs during the whole encounter, engaged, apparently, in an extremely animated, though not unfriendly, conversation. As to their riders, each of them has attempted that most ambitious, but, if successful, most effective coup of the tourney, which consists in aiming, not at the shield or body of an adversary, but at his head; and each has hit his mark. The dark features of Le Ramoneur are sicklied o'er with the pale cast of flour, and the candid countenance of De Blanchefarine has received