# XIV: “Defend Thee, Lord!” explained — A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court > Chapter companion for A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain. ## What happens Hank Morgan reflects on the relative value of money in Arthurian Britain versus Connecticut, pays generously for breakfast, and demonstrates his pipe-smoking to astonished peasants, who mistake him for a dragon. Later, while crossing a meadow, Sandy warns of approaching knights. Hank uses his pipe smoke to scatter the charging knights, and Sandy negotiates their surrender, swearing them to appear at Arthur's court as Hank's knights. ## Themes in this chapter ### Technology vs. Superstition Hank's pipe smoke is mistaken for dragon fire, and he uses it as a weapon to frighten knights, demonstrating the power of modern technology over medieval superstition. ### Social Class and Aristocracy Hank's thoughts on banishing oppression and restoring rights contrast with the chivalric code, and Sandy's negotiation shows the knights' deference to 'The Boss' as a new authority. ## Character check-ins ### Hank Morgan The Boss reflects on currency values, uses his pipe to frighten peasants and knights, and relies on Sandy to negotiate the knights' surrender. ### Sandy Sandy warns Hank of danger, explains knightly behavior, and successfully negotiates the surrender of the knights, swearing them to Hank's service. ### Sir Launcelot Mentioned by Sandy as a knight who would give battle to dragons repeatedly. ### Sir Pellinore Mentioned by Sandy as a knight who would also stand against dragons. ## Key lines > I paid three pennies for my breakfast, and a most extravagant price it was, too, seeing that one could have breakfasted a dozen persons for that money; but I was feeling good by this time, and I had always been a kind of spendthrift anyway; and then these people had wanted to give me the food for nothing, scant as their provision was, and so it was a grateful pleasure to emphasize my appreciation and sincere thankfulness with a good big financial lift where the money would do so much more good than it would in my helmet, where, these pennies being made of iron and not stinted in weight, my half-dollar’s worth was a good deal of a burden to me. Hank pays three pennies for breakfast, an exorbitant sum in Arthurian Britain, but he does so out of gratitude and because the iron pennies are heavy in his helmet. _Hank's reflection on the economic disparity and his generous nature._ > When the first blast of smoke shot out through the bars of my helmet, all those people broke for the woods, and Sandy went over backwards and struck the ground with a dull thud. They thought I was one of those fire-belching dragons they had heard so much about from knights and other professional liars. When Hank smokes his pipe, the peasants flee in terror, thinking he is a dragon, and Sandy faints. _Hank's pipe smoke is misinterpreted as dragon fire, highlighting the theme of technology vs. superstition._ > I lit up at once, and by the time I had got a good head of reserved steam on, here they came. All together, too; none of those chivalrous magnanimities which one reads so much about—one courtly rascal at a time, and the rest standing by to see fair play. No, they came in a body, they came with a whirr and a rush, they came like a volley from a battery; came with heads low down, plumes streaming out behind, lances advanced at a level. Hank lights his pipe and the knights charge him en masse, not one by one as chivalry would dictate. _The knights' un-chivalrous attack contrasts with idealized tales of knighthood._ > She said that when she told those people I was The Boss, it hit them where they lived: 'smote them sore with fear and dread' was her word; and then they were ready to put up with anything she might require. So she swore them to appear at Arthur’s court within two days and yield them, with horse and harness, and be my knights henceforth, and subject to my command. Sandy tells Hank that the knights surrendered out of fear upon learning he was 'The Boss,' and she swore them to serve him at Arthur's court. _Sandy's effective negotiation demonstrates her value as a companion and the power of Hank's reputation._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/a_connecticut_yankee_in_king_arthur_s_court_se/chapters/xiv-defend-thee-lord - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/a_connecticut_yankee_in_king_arthur_s_court_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/a_connecticut_yankee_in_king_arthur_s_court_se/chapters