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
Then he would say no more. When Plaerdemavida heard what was
bothering Tirant and that the black gardener had been killed, and
no one would know who did it unless she told them, she was very
agitated. Still she forced herself to smile, and with Hippolytus
there, she said:
"Even if you did see it, it was all a game to cheer up the
princess. Widow Repose got some costumes from the plays for the
Corpus Christi festivals, and I dressed up like our gardener."
And she told him everything that had happened.
Tirant was astonished by it all, and said he could not believe
it. The maiden laughed, and said:
"My lord, the best thing would be for me to stay here while
Hippolytus goes to my room. Under my bed he will find all the
clothing of the black gardener. And if I'm not telling the
truth, you can throw me into the ocean."
Tirant told Hippolytus to take the keys and go, and to come back
quickly because the sea was very choppy. Hippolytus did what
Tirant commanded. When he came back with the clothing, the ocean
swells were so high that Hippolytus could not board the galley,
and Plaerdemavida could not go back on land. They threw a rope
to the ship and tied the clothing of the black gardener to it so
that it could be pulled up to the galley. When Tirant saw the
mask and the clothing, he saw all the wickedness of Widow Repose.
He then swore in everyone's presence that if he could go on land
just then, he would have her burned before the emperor, or he
would do to her what he had done with the black man. Then Tirant
begged Plaerdemavida to forgive the bad thoughts he had had about
the princess, and about her, and when she was with Her Highness
to beg her forgiveness. Plaerdemavida agreed, very graciously.
Suddenly the sea became so stormy that the people who saw the
boat Hippolytus was on, began to pray that it would not sink. It
headed back to land, and the men on it were drenched while the
boat was half-filled with water. The wind and rain were so
strong and the waves were so high that the galley's ropes broke,
and they were swept out to sea. Two of the galleys remained
there; the people on them were saved, but the ships were lost.
The three galleys that found themselves in the middle of the
tempestuous sea had their masts broken and their sails torn
apart. A gust of wind threw one of the galleys into a small
island, and its men took refuge there. Tirant's galley and the
other one were leeward. They could not make it to the island,
and Tirant's galley found itself with its rudder smashed. The
other galley was nearby, and it split apart. The men on board
fell into the bitter sea, and all of them drown.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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