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
They set it afire, and let it catch well. Then one hundred men
were set at the capstan, and they began to turn it with all their
strength. And with the power from the capstan it all happened so
quickly that the large boat had barely started to move when
suddenly it was flush against the side of the ship. With the
huge fire on it sending out enormous tongues of flame, it quickly
set fire to the ship with such a fury that nothing in the world
could have put it out. The men on the ship thought only of
getting away in small boats. Others threw themselves into the
sea to swim to the other ships, while many were burned to death
because they did not have time enough to get off, and the fire
caught many others sleeping.
When it was daylight Tirant took three thousand crowns and gave
them to the sailor, along with a silk garment lined with martens
and a brocade doublet. The sailor thanked him very much and was
very pleased.
Then the sultan summoned his captains, both on sea and land. He
told them what had happened, and also about the present the Grand
Master had sent him to show how well supplied the city was with
everything it needed and more. And as winter was setting in, the
cold weather and rain were beginning to bother them. So they
decided to raise camp and go back, but with the intention of
returning another year.
He quickly ordered the camp trumpets and pipes to play, and the
ships to raise their sails and come near the island, because he
would be there to get all the men.
When Tirant saw the Moors raising camp, he armed himself, and
with all his men he left the city and went to the camp. He set
fire to the palisades and huts so that if they came back they
would have to build them again.
Then the sultan set sail and returned to his land. The lords
there were well informed about the reason he was returning, and
they went together to see him. They took him prisoner, and put
him in a lion's den where he died horribly. Then they chose
another sultan. The new sultan ordered all the Genoese ships to
form a large armada with all the men who had come from Rhodes,
along with many more, and he had them advance on Greece. And so
it was done. And the Grand Turk was also invited, and he came
with many soldiers on horseback and on foot. In the two armies
were seventeen thousand Moors.
And as soon as they set foot in Greece, they took over many
villas and castles, and seized sixteen thousand small children,
and sent them all to Turkey, to the land of the sultan, to be
raised in the Mohammedan sect. And they sent many ladies and
maidens into perpetual captivity.
And the Island of Rhodes was freed from the power of the infidel.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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