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
The king and Tirant left the city with all their men to meet the
enemy and see if they could resist them. When they were three
leagues away from them, at the top of a mountain, the Christians
could see all the Moorish forces that were coming. They set up
their tents in view of each other, and many embassies were sent
back and forth. The Moors sent word to King Escariano, telling
him and Tirant and all the other Christians to convert to
Mohammedanism, because if they did not, they would all die a
cruel death. When Tirant heard this, he mocked them and would
not give them a reply. Then the ambassadors became very angry
with Tirant.
They had conquered all of King Escariano's realm, and now they
were going to attack him. Tirant said:
"Sir, they've raised camp, so they'll be here tomorrow. Your
lordship can stay here in the city with half the men while I take
the other half, and we'll see how well organized they are."
"Oh, Tirant! I would much rather go with you, and we can leave
Lord Agramunt here as the captain."
Tirant agreed, and made Lord Agramunt captain, telling him:
"Keep your horses saddled, and your men armed. When you see a
red flag with my arms painted on it, have all your men attack on
the right, and we'll destroy our enemy."
To reach the Christians, the Moors had to cross over a tall
mountain that had many springs. During that night and the
following day, Tirant went around the mountain and he could see
all the Moors coming from a great distance. Tirant rode into a
dense thicket, and he had all the men dismount and take their
ease while he climbed a tall pine tree and watched the enemy come
up the mountain. They set up their tents near the springs, and
they were still a league away from the city. The ones who
followed behind set up camp at the foot of the mountain where
there were beautiful meadows and a canal. The men here had about
four thousand horses.
When Tirant saw that nearly half the enemy had dismounted, he and
the king attacked their camp and killed so many Moors that the
number of corpses stretched out on the ground were a wonder to
behold. And there would have been even more if night had not
fallen. The Moors up on the mountain heard the cries, but they
did not think the Christians would dare come so close to their
camp.
The morning of the following day, as soon as the sun came out,
King Meneador came down from the mountain, not suspecting that
King Escariano and Tirant would be there. He thought, instead,
that these must be thieving marauders. So he sent a messenger to
them, telling them to convert back to the Mohammedan faith or he
would hang as many of them as he found.
Tirant told the messenger:
"You tell your lord that I don't intend to answer his madness.
But if he's a crowned king, and brave enough to come down the
mountain with his men, I'll let him feel the strength of the one
he wants to hang."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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