Champion

one who takes up the cause of another. During the Middle Ages one accused of foul crime had the right of trial by combat. He could fight for himself, or be defended by a champion who fought for him against the accusing party or representative of the accuser. The practice was sanctioned by the church, the theory being that a weak arm was nerved and a strong arm made stronger by a sense of right, and that the God of Battles would not suffer the wrong to prevail. A thrilling account of this practice may be found in Scott's Ivanhoe. Rebecca, the beautiful Jewess of York, was accused of sorcery. Wilfred of Ivanhoe, wounded and faint, rode into the lists amid cries of "A champion! A champion!" Sir Brian de Bois Guilbert, a powerful knight, likewise in full armor and superbly mounted, took his station at the other end of the lists. The herald summoned them thrice to do their duty. The Grand Master dropped the glove and said, "Let go." The knights charged like thunderbolts. Their lances struck fair. The foul Bois Guilbert reeled, fell from his saddle, died of apoplexy, "a victim to the violence of his own contending passions." Rebecca was saved. As these trials did not have always a novelist to bring them to a righteous issue, we must believe that much injustice was done by the strong to the weak. See Ordeal

Champlain (sham-plane') Lake, a beautiful body of water lying between Vermont and New York. It lies 90 feet above the sea. It is about 110 miles in length and is from 10 to 12 miles in width at the northern end. It discharges its waters northward, through the Richelieu or Sorel River, into the St. Lawrence. The lake is studded with half a hundred islands, which, with numerous wooded promontories, form attractive resorts and places of summer residence. The waters abound in fish. Numerous steamers ply on the lake. Burlington is the chief port. The lake was discovered by Samuel Champlain in 1609. It formed part of the great canoe way between the St. Lawrence and the Hudson. The old portage is now cut by a canal. In 1776 the British defeated an American flotilla under Arnold. Burgoyne advanced up Lake Champlain to invade New York September 11, 1814. Captain McDonough with a small force met and defeated a squadron of sixteen British ships, carrying 96 guns and 1,000 men. The engagement took place near Plattsburg, and gave the Americans encouragement when they were in sore need of it. Of many writers who have dwelt on the scenery of the lake James Fenimore Cooper may be mentioned as the earliest.