The White Knight: Tirant Lo BlancMartorell, Joanot
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The White Knight: Tirant Lo Blanc
Martorell, Joanot
Adventure and adventurers -- Fiction; Adventure stories; Knights and knighthood -- Fiction
They were all pleased by what the king said. When the council
was over, the King of Egypt went into his tent and prepared to
write a letter.
Now the sultan had a servant who had been born a Christian in the
city of Famagosta, and who had been taken prisoner at sea when he
was very young. And with his youth and lack of discretion, they
had made him become a Moor. When he grew older, he realized that
the Christian law was better than the Mohammedan sect, and he
decided to go back to the Christian faith. He did it the
following way. He prepared his arms and a good horse, and set
out for the bridge of stone were Lord Malvei was. When he was an
arrow shot away, he put his headdress on the tip of his lance,
asking for safety. When the men in the castle saw that it was
only one man, they offered him safety. But when the Moor was
near, an archer who knew nothing about the guarantee of safety,
shot an arrow that wounded the horse.
Lord Malvei was very upset, and he promised the Moor that if the
horse died they would give him a better one. The Moor told him
how he had come there to become a Christian, and that he wanted
to talk to the great captain. They agreed that he should return
the following day and that Lord Malvei would advise Tirant. The
Moor was very pleased, and went back to the camp. The sultan
asked him where he had been and how his horse had been wounded.
The Moor replied:
"Sir, I was bored here, so I went over to the bridge. I saw a
Christian on horseback and rode toward him. When I was close to
him, he shot an arrow at me. I spurred my horse on and caught up
to him and knocked him to the ground. Then I dismounted and
prepared to kill him. On his knees he begged my forgiveness. So
I pardoned him and we became good friends. And he has promised
to tell me everything that is happening in the Christian camp."
"This is excellent news to me!" said the sultan. "Go back
tomorrow and find out if they intend to fight more, or if they
are going back to the city of Constantinople."
The next day the Moor took one of the sultan's best horses and
rode to the bridge, where he was taken inside the castle. Tirant
soon arrived and paid reverence to Lord Malvei and his son, and
then embraced Lady Malvei, and gave honor to the Moor. The Moor
told him that he wanted to become a Christian and to serve him.
They went to the church, and there he was baptized with the name
Cipres of Paterno. Then he said:
"Sir, now that I have been baptized a true Christian, I wish to
live and die in this holy faith. I will stay here if you like,
or I will go back to the camp and tell you what is happening
every day. No one in all our camp knows what is going on better
than I, because all the council meetings are held in the sultan's
tent, and I am a member of the council."
Tirant begged him to go back, and to advise Lord Malvei as often
as he could about the Turk's plans. He agreed, and said:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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