Ballads, Spanish; Legends -- Spain; Spanish literature -- History and criticism
Descending near a fountain, Croppart sprinkled the princess with its
water until she revived. Then he acquainted her with his intention
to make her Queen of Hungary. But the princess did not lack wit,
and told him that she was merely a slave-girl whom Cleomades had
purchased from her parents. This intelligence made the ferocious
Croppart treat her with even less respect than before, so that to
save herself from his violence she consented to wed him at the first
city to which they might chance to come.
When he had wrung this promise from Claremond, Croppart, who
suffered greatly from thirst, drank deeply of the fountain. So icy
cold were its waters that on quaffing them he fell to the ground,
almost insensible. Claremond, overcome by fatigue and anxiety, fell
fast asleep. In this condition they were discovered by Mendulus, King
of Salerno, who at once conceived a strong attachment to the sleeping
damsel, and had her conveyed to his palace, where he lodged her in
a fair apartment. As for Croppart, so severe was the disorder which
he had contracted by drinking of the icy fountain that he expired
shortly afterward.
Claremond told King Mendulus that she was only a foundling
whose name was Trouvée, and that she had accompanied Croppart, a
travelling physician, from one place to another, seeking a precarious
livelihood. This did not prevent him, however, from offering her his
hand and crown. To save herself from this new danger, Claremond had
recourse to feigned madness, and so convincingly did she play her
part that Mendulus had perforce to confine her under the charge of
ten chosen women, whose duty it was to restrain her.
Meanwhile the Court of Spain was thrown into the utmost
confusion. Cleomades, returning to the summer palace with his parents,
could find no trace of Claremond, and, overcome with grief, was
brought back to the capital in a state bordering upon frenzy. When
he recovered he set out for the kingdom of Tuscany in the hope that
there he might obtain tidings of his lady. Riding alone, he came to a
castle, where he encountered and overthrew two knights who refused to
let him pass. From them he learned that when a prince named Liopatris,
who had been betrothed to Claremond, arrived at the Court of Tuscany,
three of his knights had accused three of Claremond's maids of honour
of being accomplices in the abduction of their mistress. The knights
whom Cleomades had worsted were suitors for the hands of two of
those ladies, and had challenged their detractors, but as one of
them had been wounded by Cleomades, they could not now make good
their challenge. Cleomades graciously offered to take the place of
the wounded man, and with his unwounded comrade set out for the Court
of King Cornuant.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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