The White Knight: Tirant Lo BlancMartorell, Joanot
General
The White Knight: Tirant Lo Blanc
Martorell, Joanot
Adventure and adventurers -- Fiction; Adventure stories; Knights and knighthood -- Fiction
When the sentence had been read, twelve knights came out dressed
in long robes and hoods, and the emperor dressed in a similar
fashion. Then they had the men rise from the ground, and they
were brought up to the cenotaph where they were armed and then
degraded as is done with evil knights, and then they were
returned to prison. Then the emperor said:
"Let there be justice, and let us show mercy to no one."
The Duke of Macedonia's squire was brought out with a large chain
around his neck. And he was condemned to die, hanging upside
down, for all the anguish he had caused. When Diafebus saw the
squire, he hurried to the emperor and knelt at his feet, begging
him not to have the squire killed so that wicked people could not
say that it was done because he had spoken badly about his
captain. When the princess saw that Diafebus' words were futile,
she too came and knelt at the emperor's feet to beg him. And
when that proved futile, the empress and all the maidens came to
plead for his life as well. The emperor said:
"Who has ever seen a death sentence revoked that has been handed
down by the general council? I have never done it, nor will I do
it now."
The princess caught his hands, pretending to kiss them, and she
stealthily removed the ring from his finger without his noticing
it, and said to him:
"It is not Your Majesty's custom to be so cruel as to sentence
anyone to die with such pain."
The emperor said:
"My child, change his death sentence as you wish."
The princess handed the ring to Diafebus, and he rode swiftly to
where they were holding the execution, and gave the ring to the
constable. The squire was already on the ladder, about to be
executed, and Diafebus grabbed him and took him to his lodging.
When Diafebus left to go to the palace, the squire quickly ran to
the monastery of San Francisco where he became a friar.
The next day, the emperor sent all the Turks who had not been
ransomed to other places to be sold: Venice, Sicily, Rome and
Italy. Those that could not be sold were traded for arms, horses
or food.
When it came time for the constable and Diafebus to leave, the
emperor took as much gold from his treasury as he had received
from the ransom of the prisoners, and sent it along with them for
the captain.
The day before they were to leave, Diafebus discovered that the
emperor had retired, and he went to the princess's chamber. The
first one he met there was Stephanie, and he bowed deeply on one
knee and said:
"Gentle lady, I would consider myself the most fortunate man
alive if you would accept me as your closest servant. I love you
above all the ladies in the world."
At that moment the emperor's chamberlain came in and told him
that the emperor wished to speak with him. Diafebus begged
Stephanie to wait for him there, and said that he would return as
quickly as he could.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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