son, my master, casting off his armour, went his way, forbidding me
upon pain of death to follow him. Yet divers days I followed his
steps, till lastly I found him, having newly met with an excellent
spaniel belonging to his dead companion Philoxenus. The dog straight
fawned on my master, for old knowledge, but never was there thing more
pitiful than to hear my master blame the dog for loving his master’s
murderer, renewing afresh his complaints with the dumb counsellor, as
if they might comfort one another in their miseries. But my lord
having espied me, rose up in such rage that in truth I feared he would
kill me: yet as then he said only, if I would not displease him, I
should not come near him till he sent for me: too hard a commandment
for me to disobey: I yielded, leaving him only waited on by his dog,
and as I think seeking out the most solitary places that this or any
other country can grant him: and I, returning where I had left his
armour, found another instead thereof, and (disdaining I must confess
that any should bear the armour of the best knight living) armed
myself therein to play the fool, as even now I did.” “Fair Ismenus,”
said the queen, “a fitter messenger could hardly be to unfold my
tragedy, I see the end, I see my end.”
With that, sobbing, she desired to be conducted to the next town,
where Palladius left her to be waited on by Clitophon, at Palladius’s
earnest entreaty, who desired alone to take that melancholy course of
seeking his friend; and therefore changing armour again with Ismenus,
who went withal to a castle belonging to his master, he continued his
quest for his friend Daiphantus.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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