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
The virtuous gentleman embraced them all, one by one, and took
the countess's hand, and they walked along, talking, until they
were inside the city. The countess thanked him profusely for all
the honor he had bestowed on her son, and then she thanked all
the other great lords.
Having rested for a few days, the hermit king was in his chamber
one day, thinking to himself. Since he had ended the war, and
the entire kingdom was at peace, he decided to reveal who he was
to his wife, the countess, and to all the others, so that he
could return the royal scepter to the first king, and go back to
his penance.
He called his chamberlain, and giving him the half-ring he had
divided with the countess before going to Jerusalem, he told him
to speak to her and give her the ring. The chamberlain quickly
went to the countess, and kneeling before her, he said:
"My lady, one who has loved and continues to love you sends you
this ring."
The countess took the ring, and when she looked at it she turned
pale. She ran into her chamber and opened a box where she kept
the other part of the ring. She put the two parts together, and
saw that they were one piece, revealing the family arms. She
understood that it belonged to her husband, the count, and she
cried out:
"Tell me, sir, where is my husband, the Count of Warwick?"
And she tried to find the door to leave the chamber, but in her
confusion she could not. Then she fell to the floor in a faint.
When the chamberlain saw what a state the countess was in, he ran
to the king in fright. The king said:
"My friend, what's wrong? What news do you bring me?"
The chamberlain fell to his knees before him, and said:
"I dearly wish you had not sent me. I don't know what special
power that ring has, or if it was made by sorcery and your
worship took it from the Moors, because as soon as the countess
placed it on her finger she fell to the floor, dead."
The king got up from his seat and quickly went to her chamber
where he found her more dead than alive, with all the doctors at
her side. As soon as the countess regained consciousness, and
saw her husband and king, she quickly got up and knelt before him
to kiss his feet and his hands. But he would not allow it, and
instead he took her arm and lifted her from the floor, and
embraced and kissed her many times. Then he revealed who he was
to all the lords in the kingdom, and to the entire town. And all
the lords and ladies came to honor the king and their new queen.
When the son learned that the king was his father, he hurried to
the chamber and knelt and kissed his hands and feet many times
over.
There were great celebrations, and after nine days four hundred
carts arrived, loaded with gold and silver, jewels, and very
valuable items which they had found in the Moors' possession.
The king ordered the jewels, the gold, and the silver to be given
to four lords: the Duke of Gloucester, the Duke of Bedford, the
Count of Salisbury, and the Count of Stafford.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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