The Iron Trevet; or, Jocelyn the Champion: A Tale of the JacquerieSue, Eugène
General
The Iron Trevet; or, Jocelyn the Champion: A Tale of the Jacquerie
Sue, Eugène
French fiction -- Translations into English; Jacquerie, 1358 -- Fiction
Jocelyn the Champion had been left for dead near the gate of St. Antoine
in the midst of a heap of corpses. Informed the same night by popular
rumors of the assassination of the provost and his partisans, Rufin the
Tankard-smasher and Alison the Huffy hastened to the place of the
massacre in order to ascertain Jocelyn's fate. They found him covered
with wounds, ready to expire, and carried him to a charitable person in
the neighborhood where, thanks to their untiring care he was rescued
from death. Protected by the obscurity of his name, he long remained
hidden in that asylum where a surgeon, a friend of Rufin, visited him.
Only slowly did he regain his strength.
Marguerite learned of her husband's death from emissaries sent by John
Maillart, who came that same night to arrest her at her house. Taken to
prison, the unfortunate woman vainly implored permission to bury Marcel
with her own hands. The supreme consolation was denied her, and she was
later made acquainted with the ignominies inflicted on her husband's
corpse. She soon died in captivity. The property of Etienne Marcel was
confiscated for the benefit of the Regent.
Alison, always compassionate, offered Denise, who now found herself
helpless and without means, to share with her the chamber she occupied
at her inn. Often the two called to see Jocelyn the Champion in his
secret retreat. Among other wounds an axe-stroke deprived him forever of
the use of his right arm. When his other wounds were completely healed,
he married Denise; on the same day Dame Alison married Rufin the
Tankard-Smasher.
Jocelyn had inherited a little patrimony, thanks to which he could
almost wholly cover the indispensible needs of himself and wife, a
fortunate circumstance seeing that the weakness consequent upon his
wounds did not allow him to pursue his profession of champion. The only
relative left to Denise lived near the frontier of Lorraine in the town
of Vaucouleurs. Jocelyn decided to move hither. Despite the little
notice he had drawn upon himself during the late revolt, it would have
been imprudent on his part to prolong his stay in Paris after his
recovery, seeing that the re-action of the court party was implacable.
Jocelyn sold his patrimony, took, not without deep regret, leave from
Rufin the Tankard-smasher and Alison, and escaping a hundred dangers
from the bands of English soldiers and marauders who then ravaged Gaul,
he reached the town of Vaucouleurs with Denise and settled there.
THE END.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] In the judicial combats of the Middle Ages, it was allowed to women,
children and old men, except in cases of high treason or of parricide,
to appear in the lists by a representative. Such a hired combatant was
called a champion.
[2] Jack Drudge.
[3] "Poignez villain, il vous oindra; oignez villain, il vous poindra."
[4] The three lilies, the device of French royalty.
[5] The Lord's Prayer, called "pater" from the first word, "pater"
(father) in the Latin prayer.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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