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
King Escariano knew that none of his adversaries could hurt him,
and he had thirty-seven bombards, large and small, firing
continually, three times a day; and they had already knocked down
half the castle.
The Moor and Tirant went up a good league toward the bridge with
their sheep, and they came right into the encampment. They asked
a great deal more for each sheep than it was worth so that they
would not sell them quickly. They stayed there three days,
leading the sheep close to the bombards. Tirant, under the
pretext that he was simply looking, went near them, and spreading
some of the unguent he had prepared over his hand, he put it on
every one of the bombards. The unguent was made up of such
ingredients that whatever metal it came into contact with would,
in the space of three hours, turn to rust. So as soon as it was
fired, any bombard or crossbow would break apart.
The following day, when they fired on the castle, all the
bombards broke apart, and not one of them was left intact. King
Escariano was very surprised at this, and he took it as a bad
sign. Tirant and the Moor went back to the castle where the
commander was.
Then Tirant ordered them to destroy one of the arches on the
bridge, and there they put up a wooden drawbridge, with iron
chains to raise and lower it. When that was done huge beams were
placed on that part of the bridge and there they put up a
palisade. When that was ready, Tirant armed himself well and
mounted a good steed, and with a good lance in his hand he rode
right into the enemy's camp, and he found five Moors enjoying the
sun. Tirant rode toward them. The Moors were unconcerned,
seeing that he was coming alone, and they thought it was someone
from their own camp. And Tirant killed all five of them with his
lance. There was a great outcry, and the entire camp rushed into
action: they armed themselves and mounted their horses. Tirant
concerned himself only with killing anyone in his path. When he
saw that the men were armed and on horseback, and that they were
coming against him, he retreated to the palisade while using his
weapons continuously. Once he was in the palisade, he quickly
dismounted, and the Moors came up to him. The men in the castle
came down to help Tirant, and there was a great skirmish where
many men died. The men from the enemy camp pressed on so
forcefully that Tirant had to retreat, and they lifted the
drawbridge for fear of the Moors. Then the Moors broke apart the
palisade, and Tirant had it built again during the night. And
so, every day, at all hours, they fought and many men from both
sides were dying continually.
One day Tirant said to the commander:
"My lord, would you like me to rescue your king from the castle
and bring him here to you, or to some other place where he will
be safe?"
The commander answered:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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