Ivanhoe Chapter 25

In which a bold and singular challenge is delivered in the guise of a formal defiance, penned in a tongue unfavoured by the conquering Normans, and witnessed with a mixture of scorn and astonishment by the chivalrous knights within a besieged castle. The assembled Saxon yeomen and their allies, led by a motley fellowship, prepare for daring enterprise as their faithful jester assumes a religious guise to parley under most perilous and curious circumstances.