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
"Have them come up," said the captain. "I want to talk to them."
And the gentleman carried out the captain's order. But the Grand
Caramany refused to go, saying that he preferred to die in his
daughter's chamber instead of on deck.
"No," said the king. "Let us go up and die like men."
But he wouldn't go until the gentleman had to use a little force
with him. Tirant honored them like kings because he was such a
humane knight.
He had them sit while he stood, but with the wound in his thigh
he could not remain standing long, so he had to sit down.
And very kindly, he said:
"Your cruelty has been very great, and the most cruel death would
not be enough for what you deserve--and especially you, Grand
Caramany, for you have killed your daughter and other Moorish
women so cruelly and with such inhumanity. They would have
fallen into the hands of a man who would have given them their
freedom. And although you are not worthy of forgiveness, the
emperor is such a man that he will spare your lives."
And he said no more.
The Grand Caramany replied:
"You say I killed my daughter. I don't have to answer for that
to you or to anybody. I would rather see her dead than
dishonored by you or any of your men. And I don't want anyone
enjoying my jewelry or my treasure. And don't think you're going
to sway my heart, because I'm ready to throw my body into the
bitter sea or give it up to the earth before I would do anything
you told me to."
Instead of answering the Grand Caramany, Tirant politely asked
them to go on board his ship, and they had to do it in spite of
themselves. When the captain had them inside, he divided up the
few men he had left between the two ships, and they set sail. He
unplugged the ship's scuppers, and such a gush of blood came
pouring out that it seemed as though the ship was full of it. On
the Turk's ship there wasn't a living soul except for the two
kings. And on the captain's ship, out of four hundred eight men,
only fifty-four survived, and sixteen of those were wounded.
CHAPTER VI
A TRUCE
As Tirant came near the port of Transimeno they saw the whaling
ships that had been with the Turkish armada quickly entering the
port of Bellpuig, shouting out the bad news about the capture of
the kings, and the loss of the armada and all its men. When
Tirant reached port, he found many of his ships there, and many
of the enemy's that had been captured. After Tirant had been
there for two days, all his men had returned except Hippolytus.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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