Then the king rode straight to the place where the Emperor Lucius lay
dead, and with him he found slain the Soudan of Syria, the King of
Egypt and of Ethiopia, which were two noble kings, with seventeen other
kings of divers regions, and also sixty senators of Rome, all noble
men, whom the king did do balm and gum with many good gums aromatic,
and after did do cere them in sixty fold of cered cloth of sendal, and
laid them in chests of lead, because they should not chafe nor savour,
and upon all these bodies their shields with their arms and banners
were set, to the end they should be known of what country they were.
And after he found three senators which were alive, to whom he said,
For to save your lives I will that ye take these dead bodies, and carry
them with you unto great Rome, and present them to the Potestate on my
behalf, shewing him my letters, and tell them that I in my person shall
hastily be at Rome. And I suppose the Romans shall beware how they
shall demand any tribute of me. And I command you to say when ye shall
come to Rome, to the Potestate and all the Council and Senate, that I
send to them these dead bodies for the tribute that they have demanded.
And if they be not content with these, I shall pay more at my coming,
for other tribute owe I none, nor none other will I pay. And methinketh
this sufficeth for Britain, Ireland and all Almaine with Germany. And
furthermore, I charge you to say to them, that I command them upon pain
of their heads never to demand tribute nor tax of me nor of my lands.
Then with this charge and commandment, the three senators aforesaid
departed with all the said dead bodies, laying the body of Lucius in a
car covered with the arms of the Empire all alone; and after alway two
bodies of kings in a chariot, and then the bodies of the senators after
them, and so went toward Rome, and showed their legation and message to
the Potestate and Senate, recounting the battle done in France, and how
the field was lost and much people and innumerable slain. Wherefore
they advised them in no wise to move no more war against that noble
conqueror Arthur, for his might and prowess is most to be doubted, seen
the noble kings and great multitude of knights of the Round Table, to
whom none earthly prince may compare.
CHAPTER IX. How Arthur, after he had achieved the battle against the
Romans, entered into Almaine, and so into Italy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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