text:  Knights-errant who went about in quest of adventures redressing wrongs succouring damsels combating giants defying sorcerers delivering captives--faithful amidst every temptation to their lady-love true amidst every danger to the Polar-star of duty--formed the leading characters in a species of romance which is less likely in all probability to be durable in fame than the _Iliad_ or the _AEneid_; but which is so in a great degree from the circumstance that the characters it portrays had from an extraordinary combination of events been strung upon a higher key than is likely to be sympathized with by future generations of man