Note 85 — BOOK II[75]

The Manuscript of 1826 here contains a short description of the sport of the quintain: "All the bridegrooms of the year within the holding of Combourg were obliged, in the month of May, to come and break a wooden lance against a post placed in a sunk road that ran above the Great Mall. The tilters were on horseback; the bailiff, who acted as lord of the lists, examined the lance, and declared that there was no fraud nor guile in the arms: it was allowed to tilt three times at the post, but at the third time, if the lance was not broken, the jibers of the rustic tournament covered the awkward tilter with pleasantries, who paid a crown-piece to the liege lord."—T.