It was not until the end of July that the High Court of Chivalryrendered its judgment. There were many unusual points in thecase, some of which bore heavily against Lord Falworth, some ofwhich were in his favor. He was very ably defended by the lawyerswhom the Earl of Mackworth had engaged upon his side;nevertheless, under ordinary circumstances, the judgment, nodoubt, would have been quickly rendered against him. As it was,however, the circumstances were not ordinary, and it was renderedin his favor. The Court besought the King to grant the ordeal bybattle, to accept Lord Falworth's champion, and to appoint thetime and place for the meeting.
The decision must have been a most bitter, galling one for thesick King. He was naturally of a generous, forgiving nature, butLord Falworth in his time of power had been an unrelenting andfearless opponent, and his Majesty who, like most generous men,could on occasions be very cruel and intolerant, had neverforgiven him. He had steadily thrown the might of his influencewith the Court against the Falworths' case, but that influencewas no longer all-powerful for good or ill. He was failing inhealth, and it could only be a matter of a few years, probably ofonly a few months, before his successor sat upon the throne.
Upon the other hand, the Prince of Wales's faction had beensteadily, and of late rapidly, increasing in power, and in theEarl of Mackworth, its virtual head, it possessed one of the mostcapable politicians and astute intriguers in Europe. So, as theoutcome of all the plotting and counter-plotting, scheming andcounter-scheming, the case was decided in Lord Falworth's favor.
The knowledge of the ultimate result was known to the Prince ofWales's circle almost a week before it was finally decided.
Indeed, the Earl of Mackworth had made pretty sure of that resultbefore he had summoned Myles from France, but upon the King itfell like the shock of a sudden blow. All that day he kepthimself in moody seclusion, nursing his silent, bitter anger, andmaking only one outbreak, in which he swore by the Holy Rood thatshould Myles be worsted in the encounter, he would not take thebattle into his own hands, but would suffer him to be slain, andfurthermore, that should the Earl show signs of failing at anytime, he would do all in his power to save him. One of thecourtiers who had been present, and who was secretly inclined tothe Prince of Wales's faction, had repeated this speech atScotland Yard, and the Prince had said, "That meaneth, Myles,that thou must either win or die.""And so I would have it to be, my Lord," Myles had answered.
It was not until nearly a fortnight after the decision of theCourt of Chivalry had been rendered that the King announced thetime and place of battle--the time to be the 3d of September, theplace to be Smithfield--a spot much used for such encounters.
During the three weeks or so that intervened between thisannouncement and the time of combat, Myles went nearly every dayto visit the lists in course of erection. Often the Prince wentwith him; always two or three of his friends of the Scotland Yardcourt accompanied him.
The lists were laid out in the usual form. The true or principallist in which the combatants were to engage was sixty yards longand forty yards wide; this rectangular space being surrounded bya fence about six feet high, painted vermilion. Between the fenceand the stand where the King and the spectators sat, andsurrounding the central space, was the outer or false list, alsosurrounded by a fence. In the false list the Constable and theMarshal and their followers and attendants were to be stationedat the time of battle to preserve the general peace during thecontest between the principals.
