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THE HISTORY OF THE ORDER OF [book iii.

what greater resistance from a skin, however hard?So there would have been no necessity for a per-sonal combat, on horseback—too pickering roundand round as at a regular tourney. The warriormay have had his couple of bulldogs trained inEurope, to attack the belly, which is the weakpoint in most animals; and on that the whole storyseems to have been raised, not by contemporaries,but in posterior ages. So it were doubly erroneousin me to enter into a prolix account of what isprobably not only false, but tends to give a falseopinion of the times in question . 1 Perhaps I havesaid too much about it as it is; but I thought itnecessary to give substantial reasons for rejectingwhat cuts such a figure in Yertot, and is, indeed,in great part, an idle tale magnified into undueimportance by himself . 2 As to the inscription onthe tomb, “ cy gist le vainqueur du dragon”—a morethan dubious fact—that epitaph avails little, except

1 Sob. Paoli: Serie Chron., ii. 464.

2 Yertot: v. 194. Yet as I may have tickled curiosity,which was not my intention, here is the whole substance of thestory, warning it dull enough. A dragon in the island ofRhodes, killed several people, and as many knights as went to at-tack him; so the grand master forbade any more. But SirDeodate went to Prance, and returning with his dogs, slew themonster. Instead of praise, he was punished for disobedience;yet acquired the name of Champion, and it is said to have beenwritten on his tomb.