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
Soon they saw a galley with sails unfurled and oars driving it
on, and they quickly realized that enemy ships were approaching.
The captain had all the men go on board, and they carried the
bombards and everything they needed on board. When it was nearly
vespers the ships could be seen from the port. Then the
captain's ship moved out in front of all the others. When the
Turks saw it they shouted with joy, saying that that ship would
soon be theirs. The Grand Caramany had his daughter and all the
other women come out on deck so they could see the ship they
would capture. A few minutes later the Lord of Pantanalea's ship
moved out, and then the Duke of Messina's ship. And the Turks'
and Genoese's shouts of joy grew louder.
The Grand Caramany said to his daughter:
"Choose one of the ships you see. I'll give it to you; I want it
to be yours."
She asked for the first one she had seen, and it was promised to
her. Then Lord Agramunt's ship came out, then Hippolytus's, and
they all came out, in order, one at a time. The good Prior of
Saint John came out last because he was captain of the rear
guard. When he came out it was nearly dark of night. When the
Genoese saw the twelve large ships, they were astonished,
wondering where they had come from. Afterward came all the
whaling ships, and all the ship's boats; then the fishing boats.
The boats that had no mast raised a long staff or an oar, and
fastened it down tightly, and at the top of the staff they put a
light inside a lantern. The captain's ship first raised a lamp
at the stern. Then all the other vessels, large and small, did
the same, following the captain's orders, and when all the lights
were lit there were seventy-four. The enemy saw all the lights,
and thinking every light was a large ship, they said:
"This must be the armada of the Grand Master of Rhodes, and the
armada of the King of Sicily. When they heard we were here they
must have gotten together this great armada to try to destroy
us."
So they decided to flee and go back to Turkey.
When morning came Tirant did not see any of the vessels, except
the Grand Caramany's ship. When it was nearly noon he reached
the ship, and they went into battle. The Turks threw quicklime
at them to blind them.
Then they hurled boiling oil with iron ladles. Both sides threw
boiling pitch at each other, and they did not stop day or night.
Many men on both ships died, and there were so many broken
lances, shields, darts, arrows and spears that the dead bodies
thrown in the sea could not sink.
Now let us leave them fighting, and see what the other barons and
knights are doing. The eleven ships did not see the captain's
ship because he had put out his light. But they sighted ten
ships within reach of a bombard, and they pulled alongside.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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