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
Now let us go back and see how the Turks are dealing with the
Christians who stayed in the camp. After they heard of the cruel
battle between the captain and the Grand Turk, they often came to
the city of Saint George and killed or captured many Christians.
They made many forays, engaging them in a cruel war, so that very
few survived if they fell into their hands. How the Christians
suffered when they thought about Tirant not being there, and that
they would have to go out and fight without him. Not even wise
Diafebus or Lord Agramunt could save their lives by placing
themselves in the most dangerous positions during the battles.
And they all cried out for Tirant as if he were a saint. They
never felt safe, but were terrified of the Turks, because the
great courage they had had during their victories when Tirant had
been there, was lost now that he was gone. And they offered a
special prayer to Our Lord to help Tirant, for they felt that all
their hope lay with him.
At this time, in the palace, the doctors were coming to Tirant's
room. The empress had finished her hours, and she and the
princess and other ladies went to Tirant and asked the doctors
when they would allow Tirant to come to the palace.
"My lady," answered the doctors, "he'll be able to walk in three
or four days."
When the princess was back in her chamber, a sweetness came into
her heart because of her great love for Tirant, and she fell to
the floor in a swoon. When the maidens saw her lying on the
floor they raised such a cry that it reached the emperor's ears,
and he came running, thinking the world was about to collapse
around him.
He saw his daughter sprawled on the ground as though dead, and he
threw himself over her, crying piteously. The mother had placed
her daughter's head in her lap, and was crying and wailing so
that the entire palace heard her, and her face and clothing were
bathed in tears. Word was quickly sent to the doctors who were
in Tirant's lodging. A gentleman came who told them, in secret:
"Come quickly. The princess is in such a state that you'll be
lucky to find her still alive!"
The doctors hurried to the princess's chamber. Tirant sensed
that something had happened to the princess because of the outcry
the men and women were making. He got up quickly, sick as he
was, and went to the princess's chambers, where he found her
conscious and lying in bed.
He learned that the doctors had used all their efforts to bring
back her health. When the emperor saw that his daughter had
recovered, he went to his rooms with the empress, and the doctors
went with him because they saw that he was exhausted from what
had happened to his daughter. Tirant went into the chamber,
nearly out of his mind, and when he saw the princess lying on the
bed, he said, pitifully:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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