Lancelot or the knight of the cart

Roman in verse (1177-1181), by Chrétien de Troyes, translation into modern French.

As long as my lady of Champagne
Want me to undertake a story in French,
I will undertake it very willingly,
Like someone who belongs entirely to him,
Ready to obey him in everything,
Without resorting to the slightest flattery.
But such and such could in my place
Using flattery:
He would say - and I would bear witness to it -
That it is the lady who surpasses
All the others in this world
Just as the scent of the ground carries the breeze,
Who blows in May or April.
Of course, I'm not a man
To want to flatter his lady;
Shall I say: "Like a gem
Whose value surpasses pearls and sardoines,
The Countess surpasses the queens ”?
Of course, I won't say anything like that,
And yet it is a fact that I cannot deny.
I will say however that is more efficient
In my company his command
May my intelligence and the trouble I give myself.
OF THE CHEVALIER DE LA CHARRETTE
Christian begins his book ;
Material and orientation are provided
By the Countess, and he puts himself
At work, by bringing nothing
That his application and his intellectual effort.
And here he begins his narration.
A feast day of Ascension
Had come from Carlion
King Artur in order to gather
A plenary court in Camaalot -
A courtyard worthy of a day of great celebration.
After the meal the king
Did not abandon his companions.
The hall was filled with barons,
And the queen was also of the assembly,
Surrounded, as I believe,
Of many and many beautiful and courteous lady
Speaking French very well.
And Keu who had served people at the table
Ate with the chamberlains.
Precisely where he was seated
Appeared a knight
Very neat in his dress, which came to court
Armed from head to toe.
The knight thus equipped
Came even before the king,
Seated in the midst of his barons.
Without the slightest greeting he said to her:
"King Artur, I am holding prisoners,
Of your land and your household
Knights, ladies and young ladies.
But I don't bring you news of them
With the intention of returning them to you.
On the contrary, I want to tell you and teach you
That you have neither the strength nor the means
To get them back.
Know that you will die
Before I could ever help them. "
The king replies that his strength is
To bow if he cannot remedy the situation,
But his grief weighs heavily on him.
So the knight acts like he wants
To go away: he turns around;
As we walked away from the king,
He wins the door of the room,
But he does not come down the steps;
He stops first and from there proclaims:
"King, if at your court there is a knight
Who do you trust
In order to assign him the mission
To lead the queen, following me, in this wood
Where I'm heading
I will agree to wait for him there.
I will give you back all the prisoners
Who are exiled in my lands
If this knight manages to defeat me
And bring the queen back here. "
Many of the palace people heard these words,
And the court was quite shaken.
Keu got wind of the news
While he ate with the waiters;
He stops eating and comes straight ahead
To the king, and he starts talking to him
As a completely indignant man:
"King, I have served you for a long time
In good faith and with loyalty;
Now I take my leave of you and will go
So that I will never serve you again.
I have neither will nor desire
To serve you now. "
The king grieves over what he hears,
But as soon as he is able to answer with dignity,
He asked her without the slightest hesitation:
"Are you talking seriously or are you joking?" "
And Keu continues: "Handsome sire king,
The joke does not interest me at the moment;
I have every intention of leaving you.
I do not seek to receive from you any reward
Nor for my years of service, no compensation;
My decision is final:
I am leaving without further delay.
- Is it anger or spite, said the king.
Who is pushing you to leave?
Sénéchal, this is your place,
So stay at court, and know well
That in this world, I have nothing
That in order to keep you here,
I do not give you straight away.
- Sire, says Keu, it is useless;
I would not even accept to be offered each day
The gift of a setier filled with fine gold: »
Full of despair
The king approached the queen.
"Lady, he says, you don't know
What does the Seneschal require of me?
He demands his leave, and he says he will no longer be a part
From my heart - I don't know why:
What he refuses to do for me,
He will hasten to do it for you if you ask him to.
Go to him, my dear lady!
Since he does not deign to stay for me,
Beg him to stay for you:
And, if necessary, throw yourself at his feet,
'Cause I wouldn't feel any joy anymore
If I ever lost his company. "
With that, the king sends the queen
Near the seneschal, and she agrees to go there.
She found him among the others,
And when she manages to reach him,
She said to him: "A great disturbance
Comes to me - do not doubt it -
From what I've heard from you.
I was told - that's what saddens me -
That you want to leave the king.
Where does this intention come from; what feeling moves you?
I no longer see in you the wise man
And courteous that I once saw there;
I want to ask you to stay:
Keu, stay here, please.
- Lady, he says, please!
I will not stay. "
And the queen keeps begging him,
As well as all the knights together,
And Keu tells her that she gets tired unnecessarily
To want to do the impossible.
And with all her height as a queen,
She lets herself fall at his feet.
Keu begs her to get up,
But she refuses to do it:
She will never get up again
Unless he gives her what she wants.
So Keu promised him
To stay, on condition that the king
Grant him in advance what he asks of him,
And that she herself does the same.
"Keu, she does, anything!"
Me and he will grant it to you.
Come on, and we'll tell him
That in this way you agree to stay. "
Keu accompanies the queen
Even before the king.
"Sire, I got Keu to stay with us,
Does the queen, giving me a lot of trouble.
I place it in your hands, stipulating however
That you will do what he says. "
The king heaves a sigh of relief,
And says he will obey his command,
Whatever the nature of it.
"Sire," he said, "learn then.
What I want, and what a gift
You promised me.
I will stand for the most fortunate man
When I receive it by your grace:
Sire, my lady, the queen, here present,
You have entrusted her to my protection;
We will go to meet
Of the knight who awaits us in the forest. "
These words mourn the king, nevertheless he clothes him
Of the mission, because he never broke his word,
But he did it in sadness and reluctantly,
So much so that it seemed to him.
The queen's mourning was also great,
And the whole court affirmed
What pride, arrogance and unreason
Had inspired Keu's request.
The king took the queen
By the hand, and said to him:
"Lady, he says, it is absolutely necessary
That you go with Keu. "
And the latter to say: “Quick! entrust it to me,
And have no fear,
Because I will bring it back in perfect condition,
All safe and sound. "
The king gives her to him, and he takes her away.
Behind the couple, all leave the palace,
Each, without exception, feeling the deepest concern.
And know that we armed the seneschal
And that his horse
Was brought to the middle of the courtyard;
A palfrey stood by his side -
Worthy steed of a queen!
The queen approaches the palfrey
Who was neither touchy nor pulling on the bridle.
Dejected, sad and with many sighs,
The queen gets in the saddle and says
Quietly so that no one can hear it:
“Ha! ha! if you knew what is going on here,
I don't believe you would leave me,
Without opposing it, take it with one step! "
She thought she spoke very quietly
But the Guinable tale heard it,
Who was next to her when she climbed into the saddle.
When he left, the complaints
Of those who saw her leave were
As if she was dead and put in a coffin.
They don't think she's coming back among them
Never, in his whole life.
It was by his habitual excess that the seneschal
Takes him where the other waits for him.
But no one grieves it to the point
That he agrees to follow the couple;
Finally, Messire Gauvain says
To the king his uncle, in confidence:
"Sire, he does, what you did
Is very childish, and I remain amazed;
But if you accept the merits of my advice,
While they are still very close
You and I could go after them,
With those who will want to accompany us.
As for me, nothing can hold me back
To get started now.
It would not be suitable
To refuse to run after them,
At least until we know
What will become of the queen.
And how Keu will behave.
- Let's go, handsome nephew, says the king,
You have just spoken like a very courteous man.
And since you have seized the initiative,
So order that the horses be brought out,
And that we put them brakes and saddles,
So all we have to do is go up. "
The horses are quickly brought in,
Harnessed and saddled;
The king goes up first,
So went up Messire Gauvain,
Then all the others to who better better;
Everyone wanted to be there,
But by going as he pleases:
Some wore their armor,
Many others did not.
Messire Gauvain wore his,
And he made by two squires
Lead two steeds to his right.
And as they approached
From the forest, they see it coming out
Keu's horse, which they recognized
And whose reins they saw
Both had been broken off.
The horse came by itself;
The stirrup stained with blood,
And the saddle, the rear tree
Was shattered and torn to pieces.
No spectator escapes sadness,
And we exchange winks, nudges.
Far away, in front of all the company,
Messire Gauvain rode;
It was not long before he saw
Come a knight in step
On a sick and tired horse,
Panting and bathed in sweat.
The Knight greeted
Messire Gauvain the first,
And then Messire Gauvain returned his salute.
And the Knight stopped -
He recognized Messire Gauvain,
And said to him: "Sire, do you not see
That my horse is soaked in sweat,
So that he is no longer worth anything?
And I believe these two steeds
Are up to you; could I then pray to you,
Promising, however, that I would give you back
Service and a fair reward,
To lend me or give me as a gift
Any of them, any? "
And Messire Gauvain answered him:
Which of the two you like the most. "
But the one whose need is great
Did not linger in order to select the best,
Neither the most beautiful nor the greatest;
He preferred to pounce on the one
That he found closest to him,
And quickly threw him forward, with a loose rein;
And the other, which he left behind, falls dead,
Because he had made him suffer a lot that day,
And get tired and overwork.
Without ever stopping, the Knight
Spur his mount through the forest,
And Messire Gauvain, behind him,
Follows him, fiercely giving chase,
Until he had come down the slope of a hill.
When he had crossed a lot of ground,
He found the steed dead
That he had offered to the knight,
And, around, he saw the ground all trampled
By horses and covered in impressive debris
Shields and spears;
Apparently fierce fighting
Led by many knights took place there;
He was unhappy, and regretted
For not having participated in it himself.
The place did not hold him back for long,
He prefers to push forward, at high speed.
So, by chance, he saw him again
The Knight, on foot, all alone,
All dressed in his armor, his helmet laced,
The shield hanged on the collar, the sword girded,
Who had arrived in front of a cart ...
(At the time, we used carts
As we use the pillory nowadays,
And in every good town
Where, at present, we find more than three thousand,
There was only one then,
And this was common,
As pillories are today,
To traitors and murderers,
To the vanquished of legal battles
And the thieves who got hold of them
Stealth stealing property of others
Or by force on the highways:
Every convict was put
In the cart
And led by all the streets;
Thus he was henceforth outside all law,
And was no longer listened to at court,
Neither honored nor received with dignity.
It is because at that time we judged
So the carts, like cruel things,
That was then heard for the first time:
"When the cart will see and meet,
Make the sign of the cross on yourself and remember
From God, so that no misfortune befalls you. ")
The Knight, on foot and without a lance,
Walks towards the cart
And sees a dwarf on the silt
Who, like a good carter, held
In his hand a long wand.
And the Knight said to the dwarf:
"Dwarf, he says, for God, tell me right away
If you saw around here
Pass my lady the queen. "
The treacherous and vile dwarf
Would not give him any news,
But just said: "If you want to go up
On the cart that I drive,
By tomorrow you will be able to know
What became of the queen. "
With that, he kept walking forward
Without waiting for the other for a moment.
Time only two steps
The Chevalier hesitates to go up there.
What a pity that he hesitated; that he was ashamed to go upstairs,
Instead of immediately jumping into the cart!
This will cause him very painful suffering!
But Reason, which is opposed to Love,
Tells him to be careful not to go upstairs;
She urges him and enjoins him
To do nothing or undertake
Who can bring shame or reproach to him.
It is not in the heart but rather on the lips
What resides in Reason in daring to say such a thing to him;
But Love is in the enclosed heart
When he orders and scolds him
To get into the cart without delay.
Love wants it, and the Knight leaps there,
Because shame leaves him indifferent
Since Love commands it and wants it.
And Messire Gauvain sets out in pursuit
Of the cart galloping,
And when he finds himself sitting there
The Chevalier, he is very surprised;
So he said to the dwarf: "Instruct me
About the queen, if you can do it. "
The dwarf said: "If you hate yourself so much
That this knight sitting here,
Ride with him, if it's okay with you,
And I'll take you with him. "
When Messire Gauvain heard it,
He felt that accepting the proposal would be foolish
And he said he would not go up there,
Than exchange your horse for the cart
Would be too infamous an exchange.
"But wherever you want to go
I'll go where you go. "
So that the three of them set off,
One of them on horseback, the other two on the cart,
And together they kept the same path.
At the time of vespers, they reached a castle,
And know that this castle
Was very powerful and beautiful.
The three of them enter through a door.
The sight of the Knight that the dwarf carries
In the cart strikes the inhabitants of astonishment,
But they do not seek to learn more;
They all start to shout at him,
Old and young, old people and children,
Through the streets, uttering boos;
The Knight heard so say
Vile insults and words of contempt for him.
All ask: "To what martyrdom
Will this Knight be condemned?
Will he be flayed alive or hanged,
Drowned or burnt alive on a pyre of thorns?
Tell us, dwarf, say, you who drag him like this,
What forfeit was he found guilty of?
Was he tried for theft? Could it be an assassin
Or is he the vanquished in a legal battle? "
And the dwarf keeps absolute silence,
By not answering one thing or the other.
He leads the Knight to where he will be lodged,
And Gauvain closely follows the dwarf
Who goes towards a tower, which, on one level
With the city, was at the limit of this one.
Beyond there were meadows,
While opposite the tower rose
On the top of a gray rock,
High and cut to peak.
Behind the cart, still on horseback,
Gauvain enters the tower.
In the room they met, elegantly dressed,
A miss
Whose beauty had no rival in the country;
And they see two virgins approaching
With her, men and women.
As soon as they see
Messire Gauvain, they made him
A cheerful welcome and greeted him;
And they wanted to inquire about the Chevalier:
"Dwarf, what crime has this Knight committed
That you drive there like he's helpless? "
He doesn't want to offer them any explanation,
But just bring the Knight down
From the cart, and then goes;
No one knew where he went.
And Messire Gauvain dismounts from his horse;
So valets show up
To remove their armor from the two knights
Two coats lined with squirrel, which they put on,
Were brought by order of the young lady
When it was time for supper,
The dishes were nicely presented.
The young lady took a seat next
From Messire Gauvain during the meal.
For nothing in the world they wouldn't have wanted to give up
To this hospitality to seek a better one,
Because great honors,
As well as good and beautiful company, they were returned
Throughout the evening by the young lady.
When at last their vigil had lasted long enough,
We prepared two beds for them
Tall and long, in the middle of the room;
A third was nearby
More beautiful than the others, and richer,
Because, as the tale says,
He had all the charm
That one could imagine in a bed.
When bedtime came,
The young lady took by the hand
The two hosts she had agreed to host;
She shows them the two beautiful long and wide beds
And said: "It is for your comfort and rest
What are these two beds there, over there,
But in the one on this side,
Only he who has deserved it goes to bed;
It was not made for your convenience. "
The Knight answers him immediately -
The one who arrived on the cart -
That he felt only disdain and contempt
For the ban pronounced by the young lady:
"Tell me, he says, for what reason
Is this bed forbidden to us? "
She answered without having to think,
Because she had already thought about her answer:
"It is not you," she says, "who is designated to pose
Any questions or to inquire about these things!
Honni is the Knight over all the earth,
As soon as he got into a cart,
And it's not fair for him to meddle
From what you have just claimed from me,
And, in particular, that he claims to sleep in this bed:
He might soon have to repent.
We did not have it adorned
Also richly so that you sleep there.
Your recklessness may cost you dearly,
If you just had such an idea.
- You will see that, he says, in due course.
- Shall I see him? - For sure. - Let me see it!
- I don't know who will have to pay the ecot,
Made the Knight, by my boss!
Whether we get angry or sad,
I plan to lie down in this bed
And take my rest there at leisure. "
As soon as he took off his breeches,
In the bed that was longer and higher
Than the other two of half an yard,
He stretches under a blanket
Golden starry yellow brocade.
All peeled squirrel was not made
Its lining; it was made of sable.
She would have been perfectly worthy of a king,
The blanket he got under;
The bed was not made of thatch,
Neither straw nor old mats.
At midnight, the roof slats,
Melted like lightning, a spear,
The iron forward, which threatened to sew
The Knight's Flanks
Through the blanket and the white sheets,
In bed, where he was lying.
A pennon was attached to the lance;
He was all enveloped in flames.
The cover caught fire,
And the sheets and the whole bed.
And the tip of the spear grazes
The Knight at the side
So much so that he scratched her a little
The skin, but without really hurting it.
And the knight stood up,
Put out the fire, grab the spear
And throws it in the middle of the room.
It didn't make him leave his bed;
On the contrary, he lay down again and slept
With exactly the same composure
That he had shown the first time.
The next day, at dawn,
The lady of the tower
Had the celebration of Mass prepared for them,
And she sent them to wake up and call.
When mass was sung to them,
At the windows that overlooked the meadow
Came the pensive Knight -
The one who sat on the cart -
And he looked at the expanse of the meadows.
At the next window
Had come the young lady,
And there was able to talk to her
Messire Gauvain, in a corner,
For a while, but I don't know what;
I don't know what they were talking about.
But they stayed there, leaning out the window,
Enough to see, through the meadows, along the river,
A stretcher that was carried away;
A knight lay there, and beside it,
There were piercing and desperate cries of mourning
That three young ladies were pushing.
Behind the stretcher they see coming
An escort at the head of which stood
A tall knight who was leading
To his left a beautiful lady.
The Knight at the Window
Recognized that it was the queen;
He keeps following her for a moment,
Immersed in contemplation and rapture,
As long as he could.
And when he couldn't see her anymore,
He wanted to let himself fall
And throw his body into the abyss;
Already he was halfway outside the window
When Messire Gauvain saw him;
He pulls him back and he says to him:
"Please, sire, calm down! For God's sake,
May it never come to your mind again
To commit such madness!
It is wrong that you hate your life.
- No, said the young lady, on the contrary, it is with good reason;
Wouldn't the news have spread
Everywhere from his unfortunate package?
Since he got into a cart,
He must necessarily wish to die;
Dead he would be worth more than alive:
His life is now doomed to shame,
Contempt and misfortune. "
Thereupon the knights asked for their armor,
And they put it on.
And then made a gesture of courtesy and prowess
The young lady, and of largesse,
When, at the Knight that she had so much
Taunted and harassed,
She offered a horse and a spear,
As a token of charity and sympathy.
The knights have taken their leave
As courteous and well behaved men
Of the young lady, and have it
Greeted before committing
In the direction in which they saw the procession pass;
But they left the castle so
That no one had the opportunity to speak to them.
Very quickly they go that way
Where they had seen the queen.
They did not join the small troop,
Because she was advancing at full speed
From the meadows, they enter a plessis
Where they find a stony path;
They have wandered so much through the forest
That it could be the first hour of the day,
And then, at a crossroads, they have
Found a young lady,
And both greeted her;
And everyone begs her and prays to her
To tell them, if she knows,
Where the queen was taken.
She responds in a sane person,
And said: "I would know how to direct you - if however
You agree to make me certain promises
And to hold them - to the right path and the right path,
And you name its destination
And the knight who takes him away;
But a big effort would fall on:
Whoever wants to enter this land!
Before achieving this, he would suffer from cruel trials. "
And Messire Gauvain said to him:
"Lady, with the help of God,
I promise you, without any reservation,
To put at your service,
As soon as you please, all my power,
But tell me the truth about what this is about. "
And the one who was in the cart
Don't say he promises to act
According to all his abilities; rather he announces,
Like the one who ennobles Love
Or make mighty and bold in every place,
That without reserve and without fear
He promises to do whatever she wants,
And let him surrender himself entirely to his will.
"So I will say what you want to know," she says.
So the young lady tells them:
"By my faith, lords, Méléagant,
A very strong and tall knight,
Son of the King of Gorre, took her,
And he led her to the kingdom
From where no stranger ever returns,
Because he is in spite of himself forced to stay in this country,
In servitude and in exile. "
They then ask him:
"Lady, where is this land?"
Where can we look for the way? "
This one answers: "You will know it soon,
But, know it, the access you will have there
Is very difficult and terrifying,
Because we do not enter easily
If one does not have the authorization of the king.
This one is named King Bademagu.
It can be accessed however
By two equally perilous paths
And by two equally terrifying passages.
One is called the Bridge in the Water,
Because this bridge is submerged,
So that there is so much water between the bottom
And him that between him and the surface,
Neither less here nor more there:
He is exactly in the middle;
And he's only a foot and a half tall
Wide and as much in thickness.
He does well, the one who refuses to taste this dish!
And he is the least dangerous;
But between these two there is a lot,
Adventures that I pass over in silence.
The other bridge is much worse
And, by far, the most dangerous;
Because it was never crossed by any man -
It is sharp as a sword;
And for that all
Call it the Sword Bridge:
I told you the truth
As much as I can tell you. "
And they still ask him:
"Young lady, deign
Show us these two paths. "
And the young lady answers:
"Here is the path that leads straight to the Bridge
In the Water, and here is the one who goes
Right at the Pont de l'Epée. "
And so the Knight said -
The one who had played the carters:
“Sire, I give you the choice without hesitation;
Take one of these two paths,
And give me the other unconditionally;
Take whichever you prefer.
- By my faith, says Messire Gauvain,
Very dangerous and painful
Are equal the two passages;
A correct and wise choice is not possible for me,
I don't know which one will benefit me the most from taking;
But it's not fair that I remain undecided
When you offered me to choose:
I dedicate myself to the Bridge in the Water.
- So it's only fair that I go to the side
From the Pont de l'Epée, without discussion,
Does the other, and I agree to it readily. "
So the three take leave of each other.
And they recommended each other
And with a very good heart to God.
When she sees them go,
The young lady said to them: "Each of you must
Give me a reward according to my taste,
As soon as I want to take it;
Warning ! do not forget it!
- No, sweet friend, we will not forget her, "
Do they both do.
Each goes on the path of his choice;
And that of the cart remains immersed in his thoughts
Just like a person deprived of strength and defense
Against Love which maintains it under its jurisdiction;
His meditation is of such intensity
Let him lose his sense of himself;
He does not know if he exists or if he does not exist,
He doesn't remember his name
He doesn't know if he's armed or not,
He does not know where he is going, or where he comes from;
He doesn't remember anything
Except for one thing, and because of it,
He put the other things in oblivion;
He thinks so much about this one thing
Let him not hear, see or understand anything.
And his horse takes him at a brisk pace,
By never taking a wrong path,
But still the best and the most direct;
He hastens so skilfully that by adventure,
He led him to a moor.
In this moor there was a ford
On the other side of which stood, fully armed,
A knight who ensured the guard;
And this one had a young lady with him
Coming on a palfrey.
The hour for none had already struck,
However, without moving and without getting tired,
The Knight remains locked in his meditation.
The horse sees the beautiful clear water
From the ford - he was very thirsty;
He runs into the water as soon as he sees it.
And the one who was on the other side
Exclaims: "Knight, I keep
The ford, and I forbid you to cross it. "
The latter neither hears nor listens to him,
Because his thinking does not allow it;
However, with ardor,
The horse rushed towards the water.
The other shouts at him to turn away.
Of the ford, that it will be prudent on his part,
Because there is no way through there.
And he swears on the heart that beats in his chest
That he will stab him with his spear if he sets foot there.
But the Knight does not listen to him,
And, for the third time, the other shouts at him:
"Chevalier, do not enter the ford
Against my prohibition and against my will,
Because by my leader I will pierce you with my spear
As soon as I see you entering the ford ... "
He still thinks so hard that he can't hear it,
And suddenly the horse
Jump into the water, leaving the field,
And, giving in to his heart's content, he begins to drink.
And the other tells him that he will have to regret it:
From now on no shield will protect him,
Nor the hauberk he has on him.
So he puts his horse to a gallop
And, pushing him at the strongest gallop,
He strikes to the point of knocking him down,
Stretched out flat in the middle of the ford,
The one to whom he had defended him,
So that, in a single movement, flew away
His spear and the shield around his neck.
When the latter feels all soaked, he jumps;
All bewildered, he got back to his feet,
Just like someone who wakes up
And he hears, sees and, amazed, wonders
Who could be the one who hit him.
It was then that he saw the knight;
And he cried out to him: "Vassal, why
Did you hit me, tell me,
While I didn't know you were in front of me,
And that I haven't done anything wrong to you?
- By my faith, yes, said the other, you had done well;
Didn't you take me for someone despicable
When I forbid you to cross the ford
Three times, and you announced it
Loudly, as loud as I can?
You heard me challenge you
At least, does he do it two or three times
And yet you entered it against my will;
I tell you that I would hit you
As soon as I see you in the water. "
The Knight then replies:
"Cursed be he who ever heard you
Or who ever saw you, and that I was myself!
You may well have forbidden me to ford,
But I was deep in my thoughts;
You would know how badly you hurt
If only by the brake, with one hand,
I could hold you. "
And the other responds: "What would happen then?
You can hold me right now
By the brake if you dare to take me there.
I don't value a good handful of ashes
At your threat or your pride. "
And he replies: "I'm not looking for better:
Whatever happens,
I would like to stand you where I said already. "
The knight then advances
Until the middle of the ford, and the other grabs it
By the reins of the left hand,
And with the right hand by the thigh;
He holds it, pulls it and squeezes it
So loud that the other one complains
That it actually seems to him
Let her thigh be torn from her body;
And he begs him to leave him,
Saying: "Knight, please
That we fight each other as equals,
Take your shield and your horse
And your spear, and jousting with me. "
The other replies: “I will not do it; by my faith,
Cause I think you'll run away
As soon as I let you go. "
When he heard it, he was very ashamed of it,
And he said to him again: "Knight, go up
On your horse without worry,
And I guarantee you faithfully
That I won't run away or run away.
You said a shameful thing to me, it upsets me. "
And this one answers him once more:
"First, give me the assurance of your good faith:
I want you to swear to me
That you won't run away or save yourself,
And you won't touch me
Nor that you will approach me
Before seeing me on horseback;
I will have shown you great kindness,
Since I hold you in my power, if I let you go. "
The other swore it to him, for he can do nothing else;
And when he received the necessary guarantee,
He takes his shield and his spear
That floated in the middle of the ford
Downstream, along the water,
And were already far away;
Then he comes back to get his horse.
When he took it and was back in the saddle,
He grabs the shield by the straps
And fix the spear on the quilting of the tree,
Then they both gallop towards each other
As hard as they can make their horses run.
And the one who had to defend the ford
Attack his opponent first
And hit him so hard
Let his spear suddenly fall to pieces.
And the other hits him with such violence that he sends him
Stretched out at the bottom of the ford
So that the water closes over him.
Then he backs up and dismounts,
Because he considered himself very capable
To confront and drive out a hundred such men before him.
From the scabbard he draws his steel sword,
And the other, leaping to his feet, pulls his
Who shone, who was good;
And they come to melee;
The crowns that shine with gold,
They stretch them out before them, and they cover themselves with them;
They make their swords work so well
May these never stop or rest;
They dare to give each other terrible blows,
So much so that the battle, lasting so long,
Brings a feeling of great shame in the heart
From the Knight of the Cart,
And he says he risks repaying badly
The debt incurred when he set out on this path,
Since it took so long
To overcome a single knight.
If he had still found yesterday, in some valley,
A hundred such men, he neither believes nor thinks
That they could have defended themselves against him,
And he feels very sad and irritated
Seeing its value so diminished
Let him lose his blows and waste his day.
So he rushes at the other and squeezes him
So strong that the latter abandoned the game to him and fled;
The ford - something that annoys him a lot -
And the passage, he grants them to him.
And the latter chases him relentlessly
Until he falls on his hands;
So the one in the cart catches up with him
And swear by all things visible
That he had acted very badly by causing him to fall into the ford,
And thus cutting short his meditation.
The young lady that with him
The knight had brought
Hear and listen to these threats;
She is very afraid, and she begs him,
For the sake of her, to free him, not to kill him;
And he says that without fail he will kill him,
That, for her, it is not possible for her to have pity
From someone who gave him such a shameful affront.
So he walks up to him, the sword ready;
And, terrified, the other said:
"For God and for me, grant him
The grace that she implores and that I ask of you too. "
And he replies: "May God be a witness,
No one ever behaved towards me so badly
That if he called on God asking for mercy from me,

For God, and how righteous it is,
I refused to give it to him just once.
So I would also have pity on you,
Because I must not deny it to you,
Since you asked me for it;
But it's on condition that you commit,
Where I want, to constitute you
Prisoner, when I give you the order. "
The other gave his word, his sorrow remains very strong.
Again the young lady
Said: "Noble and generous knight,
Since he begged you for mercy
And you gave it to him,
If you ever gotta free a prisoner,
Free this prisoner;
Leave him free from all prison bondage,
And I promise you, in due time,
A reward made to please you
That I will offer you, as far as I can. "
So he recognized her
By the words she had spoken;
And he gives him, freed, the prisoner,
And she feels ashamed and distressed,
Because she thought he had recognized her -
Something she did not want.
And he leaves them immediately,
And they both recommend it
To God asking him leave.
He gives it to them, then he goes
Until the time of vespers when he met
A young lady who came towards him,
Very beautiful and very charming,
Very elegant and well put.
The young lady greets him
Like a tidy and well-behaved person,
And he replies: "May God give you,
Young lady, health and happiness! "
Then she said to him: "Sire, my home,
Near here, is ready to receive you,
If you want to take advantage of it;
But you will stay there on condition
Only that you go to bed with me;
I offer it to you and present it with this reservation. "
Many are those who, for this gift,
Would have given him five hundred thanks,
But he grieved it,
And quickly answered him:
"Lady, for your hospitality
Thank you, because it is precious to me,
But, if you please, as to bedtime,
I would do without it.
- In this case, I will do nothing for you,
Does the young lady, through my eyes. "
And he, seeing that he could not get better,
Give her whatever she wants;
His heart is sorry for this grant,
But while now it only hurts him,
At bedtime he will experience overwhelming distress;
Torment and pain will wait
The young lady who takes him:
Maybe she loves him so much
That she will not want to give him back his freedom.
As he had granted her
His pleasure and his will,
She leads him into a fortified enclosure
Whose beauty had no rival from here in Thessaly,
Because she was completely surrounded
High walls and very deep water;
Inside there was no man
Except the one she was leading there.
She had had it done to accommodate
Lots of nice rooms
And a large and rich room.
Riding along a river,
They reach this abode,
And in order to give them passage, we had
Lowered a drawbridge:
Having crossed the bridge, they entered inside.
They found the room open,
With its roof covered with tiles:
Through the door they found open
They enter it, and see
A table covered with a long and wide tablecloth;
And we had brought
The dishes, and arranged the candles
All lit in their candlesticks,
And hanaps in gilded silver,
And two jars, one filled with blackberry wine
And the other from a very generous white wine.
Close to the table, at the end of a bench,
They found two very full basins
Hot water for washing hands;
And on the other side they found
A beautiful and white towel,
Made of quality fabric, for wiping your hands.
There they did not see
Neither valet, nor waiter, nor squire.
The Knight removes his shield
From his neck and hangs him down
Has a fang; he takes his spear
And the place at the top of a lance holder.
He quickly jumps off his horse
And the young lady of hers.
The Chevalier was very happy
That she didn't want to wait
Let him help her down.
As soon as you get off,
Without waiting or staying,
She runs to a room;
She brings a short scarlet coat
In order to clothe the Knight with it.
The room was not dark,
Yet already the stars were shining,
But there were there, lit,
So many big twisted candles
That the clarity was great.
When she had tied to his neck
The coat, she said to him: "Friend,
Here is the water and the towel:
Nobody offers it to you and presents it,
Because here you only see me.
Wash your hands and sit down
As soon as you like:
As you can see,
The hour of the meal has come. "
The Knight washes his hands and goes to sit down
Very willingly,
And the young lady sits near him.
They both eat and drink,
As long as their meal was over.
When they had risen from the table,
The young lady said to the Knight:
"Sir, go out there and spend the time,
But don't let that bother you,
Because you just have to wait
The moment you will think
That I can be lying down.
That nothing therefore displeases you between now and then,
Because when you want you will join me
In order to keep your promise. "
And this one answers him: "I will hold it,
And will return
When I believe when the time is right. "
He then goes out and stays outside
Long in the yard,
As long as he feels compelled to return;
Anxious to keep his promise
He returns to the room,
But the one who calls herself her friend
Not there.
When he doesn't see her,
He said, "Wherever she is,
I'll look for her and find her. "
Without further ado, the Knight,
Bound by his promise, look for the young lady.
He enters a room where he hears
A young woman who uttered heart-rending cries,
And it was the same
Who he had promised to sleep with.
Seeing the door open
From a neighboring room, he approaches
And see in the other room
Lady. A knight had knocked her down
Across a bed,
The dress rolled up very high.
Firmly believing
That his host would come to his aid,
She cried out loud: "Help me, help me,
Knight, you who are my guest!
If you don't get rid of this fellow,
I won't find anyone to do it;
If you don't help me sooner,
He is going to rape me in front of your eyes.
You have to sleep with me
According to your promise;
Will he do his will
From me, in your presence?
Noble Knight, so act,
Help me now! "
Him, he sees that the ugly
Maintained the young lady
Rolled up to the navel.
He is indignant to be a witness
From this contact of flesh against flesh,
But he doesn't feel any jealousy
Nor the emotion of a cheated husband.
But two armed knights
Guarded the door,
Sword in hand.
Behind them stood four sergeants,
Each of whom held an ax
Able to slice in half
A cow through the spine
As easily as the root
From a juniper or broom.
The Knight stops in front of the door
And said to himself: “God! what can I do?
I went in search of Queen Guinevere,
A matter of extreme importance.
Now is not the time to be afraid
When for her I undertook such a quest.
If Cowardice lends me his heart
And if I let myself be dominated by her,
I will never reach my goal.
I am hated if I stop;
But when I speak of not moving forward
I am full of contempt for myself.
A great sadness comes over me,
And I feel ashamed and suffering,
To the point that I would like to die
When I lingered so long.
May God never forgive me,
If pride makes me speak
When I say I'd rather perish
Honorably to live shamefully.
If I had the free way,
What if these six adversaries allowed me
To pass without resistance,
Where would my merit be?
In this case, the most cowardly man in the world
Would come in through the door, I'm sure;
And I hear this unhappy woman
Who ceaselessly asks for my help
And reminds me of my promise
And makes me ashamed by his reproaches. "
He then approaches the door,
Put his head inside,
And looking up to the ceiling
He sees two swords descending on him.
He hastily withdraws his head,
And the two knights could not hold back their blows.
They cut down the swords
So violently against the ground
That they shattered into pieces.
When the Knight sees that they are broken,
He attaches less importance to axes,
Which seem much less formidable to him.
He rushes among the sergeants,
By hitting one with the elbow and another as well.
The two closest to him,
He hits them with his elbows and arms,
So much so that he throws them against the ground;
The third does not reach him,
But the fourth
He cuts off his coat,
Tear his shirt and his flesh,
Wounds him in the shoulder,
Enough for the blood to flow.
But he does not slow down his efforts,
And don't complain about his injury.
On the contrary, he lengthens the pace
And grab hold of the temples
The one who mistreated his hostess.
He intends to fulfill his promise
Before leaving.
Whether he likes it or not, he straightens the aggressor;
And the sergeant who missed his shot
Return to the charge as soon as possible
And raises his ax again:
He thinks he's splitting her head
With his weapon to the teeth.
The one who knew how to defend himself
Use the attacking knight as a shield,
And the sergeant hits him with his ax
Where the shoulder meets the neck,
Separating them from each other,
And the Knight snatches him
The ax of the hands,
But release the wounded,
Because he had to defend himself
Against the two knights of the gate
And three ax carriers:
All five attack him fiercely.
Him jumps with a leap
Between the bed and the wall
And exclaims: "Go ahead, attack me!"
You would be thirty and over,
As soon as I am thus protected,
You will have enough to fight,
Don't think I'm boring. "
And the young lady, who watches him do it,
Announcement: “By my eyes! fear nothing,
In my company. "
Immediately she returns
Knights and sergeants.
They go from there
Without stopping and without saying a word.
And the young lady resumes:
"Sir, you have defended me well
Against the people of my household.
Come on now, I'll take you. "
They go into the room, holding hands.
But that did not please the Chevalier,
Who would have done very well without her.
A bed was set up in the room,
Whose sheets were clean,
White, loose and soft to the touch.
The mattress was neither stuffed with chopped straw,
Or a rough contact.
As a blanket we had stretched out on the couch
Two silk fabrics with branches.
The young lady goes to bed,
But without removing his shirt.
The Knight as in slow motion
Take off your shoes and bare her legs.
He is sweating profusely.
However, the given word
Outweighs his anxiety.
So is it force majeure? As.
He finds himself forced
To go to bed with the young lady.
Word given pushes and invites it.
He goes to bed slowly,
But he doesn't take his shirt off,
No more than she had done.
He is very careful not to touch her,
But he pulls away from her and, lying on his back,
He keeps silent like
Of a lay brother whose word is forbidden,
When he is lying on his pallet;
He doesn't look away any more
Towards her or elsewhere.
He finds himself unable to give her a good face.
Why is that ? Because his heart refuses to do it,
Although she was beautiful and charming.
What enchants everyone,
He doesn't want it at all.
The Knight has only one heart,
And even this one no longer belongs to him,
But he entrusted it to others,
So that he no longer has any.
Love, which rules all hearts,
Immobilize his in one place.
All hearts? No, only those whom Love esteems.
And the one whom this goddess deigns to rule
To esteem himself more.
Love treasured the heart of the knight
Above all the others.
And gave him such firmness of words
That I refuse to blame him.
If he avoids doing what she forbids him
And go in the direction she wants.
The young lady sees well and understands
That the Knight hates his company
And would gladly do without,
And that he's not going to ask him anything,
Since he's not trying to get a hold of her.
She then said to him: "Sir,
Don't be angry if I leave you.
I will go to sleep in my room,
Which will put you at ease.
I don't believe my company
And you like my conversation.
Don't accuse me of rudeness
If I speak to you frankly.
Have a good rest the rest of the night,
because you kept your word so well
That I can do nothing
Claiming more from you
May God have you in his care!
I'm leaving you. So she gets up;
The Knight does not feel any sadness,
But let her go very willingly,
Like someone who's fully attached
To another than her. The young lady realizes it well
And see it;
She enters her room
And lie down quite naked,
While saying to himself:
"From the moment I had to deal
To knights, I didn't know any except this one
Who was worthy of my esteem, apart from this one,
And was worth a third of an Angevin denarius.
Indeed, I think I can guess
That he proposes a more difficult goal
And more perilous
That no other knight dared to contemplate,
And God allow him to overcome it! "
So she closed her eyes and slept
Until dawn.
At dawn
The young lady wakes up and gets up.
The Knight, too, opens his eyes,
Take care of his toilet
And arms without waiting for the help of a squire.
His hostess joins him
And sees that it is already equipped.
"I wish you good morning,"
She does, when she approaches him.
"Lady, I wish you that too,"
Replies the Knight on his side.
He declares that it is good time
That we take our horse out of the stable.
The young lady makes him bring it
And said: "Sir, I would go away
With you a long way,
If you dared to take me
And escort me
According to the habits and customs
That were established long before us
In the kingdom of Logres. "
(Customs and franchises
Wore at that time
Whether a young lady or a young girl,
Found without a companion by a knight,
Should be respected by him,
If he wanted to maintain his reputation;
Otherwise he would have done better to slit his throat,
Because if he did violence to her,
Forever he was banished from all courts.
But if the young lady was accompanied, a knight
Other than his companion, if the mood took him,
Could dispute it with him:
If by armed force he had conquered it,
He could make it his will
Without incurring blame or dishonor.)
This is why the young lady says
That, if the Knight dared and wanted
To escort him, according to this custom,
So that no one could harm him,
She would go with him.
He replied, "No one will make you
Wrong, I assure you,
Before you manhandle me.
- So, she says, I'm going with you. "
She saddles her palfrey:
We obey his order without delay;
The palfrey was out for her,
The Chevalier's horse was also brought out.
Without the help of a squire, they both go up
And go at full speed.
She addresses him, but he doesn't care
Everything she wants to tell him.
He doesn't listen to her:
Thinking pleases him, speaking bores him.
Love often reopens to him
The wound that this goddess inflicted on him.
He does not apply any plaster to his wound
In order to cure her,
Because the Knight neither wants nor wants
To resort to a remedy or a doctor,
Unless his wound gets worse;
But there is a lady he would gladly consult.
The two travelers rode
Without deviating from their path,
And finally arrived not far from a fountain.
The fountain sprang up in the middle of a meadow,
A block of stone was nearby.
On this one I don't know who
Had forgotten
A golden ivory comb.
Since the time of Ysoré,
No one, wise or fool, saw one so beautiful.
The one who had combed her hair with
Had left the teeth of the comb
Well half a handful of her hair.
When the young lady sees
The fountain and see the block of stone,
She doesn't want Chevalier to see them,
And take another path.
The one who delights and feasts
Of thoughts that please him
Do not immediately notice
Let the young lady get him out of his way;
But as soon as he notices it,
He fears being the victim of some trick on his part,
Because he thinks she is moving away
And get off the right path
To avoid some danger.
" Hello ! young lady, does he say,
You are on the wrong way, come this way!
I don't think we're heading in the right direction
By deviating from this path.
- Sir, we will go better there,
Does the young lady, I'm sure. "
And he replies: "I'm not sure
From what you can think of, lady,
But you can see
That we are on the right track, the beaten track.
As long as I'm committed to it,
I'm not going to take another direction.
Please come over here,
Because I won't change my route. "
So they go on their way
Up to the block of stone, and they see the comb.
"Certainly, as far as I can remember,
Do the Knight, I never live
Comb as beautiful as the one I see here.
"Give it to me," she said.
- Willingly, young lady, ”he said.
And so he bends down and picks it up.
When he had it in hand; very long
He looks at it and contemplates the hair,
And she starts to smile.
When he sees her smile he asks her
To tell her why she smiled.
The young lady replies: "Do not insist,
I don't intend to tell you that at this time.
- Why not ? he says - I don't want to. "
And when the Knight hears it, he conjures her
As a sure man
That a friend should answer a friend's questions,
And a friend to those of a friend.
"If there is someone you love wholeheartedly,
Lady, on behalf of this person,
I beg you, conjure and pray
To no longer remain silent.
- Of course, your request is most pressing,
She said, so I resolve to answer you.
I won't lie to you in any way.
This comb, if ever I was properly informed,
Belonged to the queen, of that I'm sure.
Believe me when I assure you
That the hair you see
So beautiful, so blond, so sparkling,
Which remain clinging to the teeth of the comb,
From the hair of the queen:
They did not grow in any other meadow. "
And the Knight said: "Certainly,
There are many queens and many kings;
But which queen are you talking about? "
And the young lady said to her: "Sir,
This is the wife of King Artur. "
When his interlocutor heard him,
He was seized with weakness
And had to lean
On the tree of his saddle.
And when the young lady saw him,
She was filled with astonishment,
And thought he was going to fall from his horse.
If she was afraid, don't blame her,
Because she thought he was losing consciousness.
And when all is said,
He was very close to fainting,
Because he felt a pain in his heart
So big that word and color
They were stolen from him for quite a while.
The young lady jumps down from her mount
And run while she can
To help him,
Because she didn't care for anything in the world
To see him fall to the ground.
When the Knight saw her coming he was ashamed
And said to him: "For what reason
Do you come near me? "
Do not believe that the young lady
Admits the real reason to him:
He would have blushed with shame
And would have been wounded alive,
If she had told him the truth;

She was therefore careful not to reveal it,
And replied very tactfully:
"Sir, I came to get the comb,
For that I came down to earth;
I'm so eager to have it in hand,
That I could not wait any longer. "
The Knight, who wants her to have the comb,
Give it to her, but not before removing the hair
So gently that he doesn't break any of them.
Eyes will never see
Honor an object
As he begins to revere hair;
Well a hundred thousand times he applies them
Against his eyes, against his mouth,
Against his forehead and face:
Their contact plunges him into ecstasy.
The queen's hair is for him happiness and wealth:
On his chest, near the heart, he places them
Between shirt and flesh.
He wouldn't have traded them for a cart
Loaded with emeralds and carbuncles.
He doesn't think ulcers
Or any other evil can now reach him;
He now disdains the diamargareton,
The pleüriche, the theriac
And the prayers to Saint Martin and Saint James,
Because in this hair he has so much confidence
That he doesn't need any other help.
But what exactly is the appeal of hair?
I'll be taken for a liar or a fool
If I am telling the truth:
When the Lendit fair is in full swing
And that there are the most goods,
The Knight would refuse it all,
It is certain, in exchange
From the discovery of hair.
And if you want me to explain why,
Gold a hundred thousand times refined
And then so many times recast
Would look as dim as the night
Compared to the best day
That we've had all this summer
Who would see such gold
And would like to compare it to the queen's hair.
But why dwell on this any longer?
The young lady quickly climbs into the saddle
With the comb she carries,
And the knight rejoices
Hair pressed to his chest.
After the plain they come to a forest
Where they follow an alley
Which becomes more and more narrow,
So much so that they have to ride one after the other,
Because it was impossible to lead there
Two horses in front.
The young lady goes straight away
In front of his guest from the day before.
Where the aisle had narrowed the most
They see a knight coming.
The young lady immediately,
From so far away that she saw him,
Recognized him and said to his companion:
“Sire Chevalier, you see,
The one who comes to us
Fully armed and ready to fight?
He thinks he'll take me from here on time.
Without resistance on your part.
I am sure that is his idea.
He is madly in love with me that he is:
Himself, or through his messengers,
For a very long time begging me to love him,
But I won't give her my love
Because for nothing in the world I could not love him.
God help me, I'd rather kill myself
Rather than responding to his love.
I know he's feeling right now
A joy that fills him with joy,
As if he already had me in his possession.
But I'll see what you're going to do;
Now you will show me if you are brave,
Now i will see clearly
If you will be able to protect me,
If you are worthy to be my keeper.
If so, I will say without having to lie.
That you are a valiant, a knight of great worth. "
And he replies: "Come on, come on!" "
These words mean the same to him
What if he had said: "I don't care,
You are wrong to worry
And say what you just said. "
While they were talking,
The knight who came to them alone
Approaching quickly.
If he hurried
Is that he believed
Have an excellent reason to hurry,
Because he considers himself fortunate
When he sees the being he loves the most.
As soon as he got close enough,
He greets her wholeheartedly
And said: "The one I want the most,
Of which I have the least pleasure and the most suffering,
Welcome, wherever it comes from! "
It would be a lack of decorum
If the young lady showed herself so stingy with words
That she does not return her salute to the suitor,
At least lip service.
He is delighted
From this hello from the young lady
Who has not soiled his mouth
And that didn't cost him anything.
And the suitor, if he had finished instantly
To triumph over his adversaries in a tournament,
Wouldn't have had so much self-esteem;
He wouldn't think he had conquered
So much honor or consideration.
His self-confidence having increased further,
He seizes the brake of the palfrey
And said, "I'll take you with me.
Ha! I managed my boat well,
Since I have arrived safely.
Now I am rid of my bad luck.
From peril at sea I reached the shore,
From great suffering to joy,
From illness to full health.
Now I have everything I want
When I find you in such a situation
That I can take you with me
Without incurring any shame. "
The young lady replied: "You speak in vain,
Because I am escorted by the Knight here.
- Admittedly, it is poor escort,
Since I am taking you with me.
I think your knight
Would have eaten a muid of salt sooner
Than to defend yourself against me;
I'm sure there is no knight
Who can defend you against me.
And when I find you so timely,
I will take you to his beard,
Whether he bakes her or not,
And even if he defends you the best he can. "
The Knight remains calm
Despite what he hears himself say,
And without sarcasm and without ranting,
He takes the side of the young lady.
“Sir,” he said, “not so quickly!
Do not speak empty words;
But show more measure in what you say.
Your rights will be respected
As long as you have some.
It's under my protection, I hear you know,
That the young lady has come to this place.
Leave her alone, you've held her back too much.
At the moment she has nothing to fear from you. "
And the other proclaims that he would let himself be burned slowly
Rather than not taking the young woman away.
The Knight then said: "I would be very wrong
To allow you to take him away.
I am ready to fight you, know it,
But if we really want
Fight against each other, we couldn't
Do it in this narrow way.
But let's push to some road,
Some meadow or some moor. "
The suitor replies that he does not ask for better,
Saying, "Certainly I agree:
You are not wrong,
Because this path is too narrow;
My horse is so uncomfortable
That I'm afraid he'll break his thigh
When I try to get him to turn around. "
He hardly succeeds
And without hurting his horse,
Nor inflict any harm on him.
“Certainly,” he said, “I deeply regret.
That we did not meet
In a more open space and in front of spectators;
I would have liked that we had seen
Which of us would have struck the best shots.
Come, let's go look for such a place:
We will find a land near here
Extended, free of obstacles. "
They go to a meadow.
In it were young girls,
Knights and damsels
Who played many games,
Because the place was beautiful and invited.
Some played serious games,
Backgammon, chess,
To the dice, to the double-six,
Also at the mine.
The greatest number played such games;
The others were having fun
As the very young do
To dance rounds,
To sing, to jump,
To frolic and struggle.
A knight of a certain age
Was on the other side of the meadow,
Sitting on a yellow-brown Spanish horse
Whose harness and saddle were gilded;
He was graying.
He had a hand to the side
To give yourself a casual appearance;
Because of the good weather he was in a shirt.
He looked at the players and the dancers,
A short coat over the shoulders,
Fine fabric adorned with authentic squirrel.
Not far from him, along a path,
More than twenty armed men
stood on their horses Irish
As soon as the three occurrences appeared,
Players and dancers stopped playing and frolicking,
Shouting aloud across the meadow:
"Look, look at the Knight
Who was transported in a cart!
That none of us dream
To play while he is present.
Cursed be whoever tries to play,
And damn who will notice
To play while he's here. "
However here came to camp
In front of the old knight his son -
The one who loved the young lady
And who already called it his own.
“Sir,” he said, “I am filled with joy,
And who wants to know why, let him listen to me:
God just granted me the person
That I have always wanted the most;
If he had given me a king's crown,
He wouldn't have given me so much,
Nor would I have been grateful to him,
And I wouldn't have won so much
As I do with the gain here.
- I do not know if this gain really belongs to you, "
The knight answers his son.
Immediately he exclaims:
"Don't you know? Can't you see it,
Sir? I swear to you there is no doubt,
When you see clearly that it is in my power;
In the forest where I come from
I met her walking.
I believe God brought her to me
And I got hold of it like a thing of mine.
- I'm not sure if I agree,
The one I see advancing behind you;
He might argue with you, I think. "
As they exchanged these words,
The rounds had ceased;
Because of the Knight the young people saw,
They no longer wanted to play or have fun,
They disliked it so much.
But, without wasting time, the Knight
Who closely followed the young woman,
Raised her voice and said, "Let the lady go,
Knight, because you have no rights over it!
If you dare to touch her,
I will defend her against you immediately. "
Then the old knight said to his son:
"I was of course,
Son-in-law, don't hold it back any longer,
Let the young lady go. "
This word was far from pleasing the young man;
He swears he wouldn't return the lady,
Saying, "May God never grant me
If I give it back to him!
I hold her and will continue to hold her
Like a vassal who is subservient to me.
The strap and the straps of my shield
Will have been broken
And I will have lost all confidence
In my strength and my arms,
My sword and my spear
Before abandoning my friend to him. "
And the father replied: "I will not allow you
To fight despite everything you can say.
You rely too much on your prowess;
Instead, do what I recommend. "
The son, prey to his pride replies: “What!
So am I a child who can be scared?
I have the right to support
That by all this world surrounded by the sea
There is no knight among all that exist
So brave that I abandon my friend to him,
Nor as I would make it
Quickly recreating. "
The father said: "Alright, stepson,
At least you are convinced of it,
So much you trust in your bravery;
I will not accept at all
That you take up a fight with this Knight. "
The young man replies: "Let me be hated
If I listen to you.
The devil takes whoever will follow your advice
And who will be guilty of cowardice.
Me, I intend to fight with the last energy.
It is very true that we do our business badly
With the family: it is better to haggle elsewhere;
No doubt you want to fool me.
I know that with strangers _I would do much better.
Someone who wouldn't know me
Would not oppose my decision,
And you, you fight it and you oppose it.
I am all the more eager to act
That you criticized me;
Because, as you know, the one who takes
Man or woman
Only stirs up and inflames his will.
But if I give up the least bit of what I'm meditating,
May God never grant me happiness
I will fight in spite of you
- By Saint Peter the apostle,
Did the father, I can see well now
That my prayers will remain without result.
It is in vain that I teach you a lesson;
But I would soon have created you
A situation such that in spite of you
You will have to obey me,
Because you will find yourself under my control. "
He's calling to him now
The knights posted near the path
And their order to grab
This son whom he lectures in vain.
"I'll have him tied up," he said to them, "
Rather than allowing him to fight.
You are all, as long as you are, my men
And owe me loyalty:
In the name of all you owe me,
I beg you and command all at the same time.
He's acting mad, in my opinion.
His great pride is the cause,
When he refuses to obey me. "
They say they will get hold of him,
And that after that they will prevent it
To follow up on his decision
To fight. He will need,
Whether he likes it or not, abandon the young lady.
They all take hold of him at the same time,
By taking him by the arms and the back of his neck.
"You have to admit your madness,
Father says, you are able to understand things:
Now you have neither the strength nor the power
To fight or to joust,
Whatever your displeasure,
Whether it bothers you or hurts you.
Grant me what pleases and suits me,
You will then act like a wise man.
And do you know what I propose to do?
To lessen your disappointment,
We will both follow, if you don't mind
The Knight today and tomorrow,
Through woods and across fields,
Each on his horse which runs the amble.
We may find it
Of such and such behavior
That I will allow you to measure yourself with him
And fight as much as you want. "
So the young man said yes,
Much reluctantly, since he is forced to do so;
In no one who can do better,
He promises to be patient,
But that's on condition that they follow the Knight.
When they see the way things are going
The spectators scattered in the meadow.
They all say to themselves: "Did you see?
The one who was in the cart
Enjoys such consideration
Let him take the son's friend with him
Of our lord, and he does not oppose it.
Recognize
That he must perceive in this Knight a merit
Enough to allow him to take the young lady.
That is cursed a hundred times which for him henceforth
Will refrain from playing!
So let's go back and have fun. So they start again
Their games, their rounds and their dances.
Without wasting time the Knight leaves,
And away from the meadow of the players;
The young lady does not stay behind,
But accompany the Knight.
Both hasten;
Father and son follow them from afar
Through a recently mown meadow;
They ride until the ninth hour
And discover in a very beautiful site
A monastery and, next to the choir,
A cemetery surrounded by a wall.
The Knight does not behave like a boor or a fool,
But, having dismounted,
He entered the pool to pray to God.
The young lady held her horse by the bridle
While waiting for his return.
When he had finished his prayer
And as he went back,
He saw a very old monk
Who came to meet him.
Arrived near him, he prays to him
Very politely to tell him
What was behind the wall.
And the monk answers him
That it was a cemetery. The Knight said to him:
"Take me there, and God protect you!"
- Willingly, sir. And he leads him there.
The Knight after the Monk
Enter the cemetery. He sees the most beautiful tombs there
That we could find from here to the land of Dombes,
And from there to Pamplona.
On each one was engraved a name
Used to designate
The one who would one day lie there.
And the Knight began to read in silence
The epitaphs one by one.
He deciphered: "Here will rest Gauvain,
Here Louis, here Yvain. "
Further on he read the names
Many other emeritus knights,
The best and most famous,
From this land and elsewhere.
Among these tombs he finds one
In marble, which seems recent,
Surpassing all others in wealth and beauty.
The Knight asks the monk:
"The graves that are here
What are they for ? And he replies:
“You saw the inscriptions;
If you have deciphered them,
You understand their meaning
And the destination of the tombs.
- And this one, more sumptuous than the others,
What is it used for ? The hermit replies:
" I am going to tell you.
It is a monument that surpasses
All those we have built;
So sumptuous and so well elaborated
No one has ever seen one, neither me nor anyone else.
He is beautiful outside, and even more inside;
But don't you imagine
That you can see inside,
It would be a waste of your time.
It would take seven men
Big and strong
To open this tomb,
To lift the slab.
Know, it is certain,
That we would need to get there seven men
Stronger than you and I are.
Its inscription bears:
"The one who will raise
All alone the blade
Will deliver those
Who are prisoners in the earth
From which no one leaves, serf nor gentleman,
Unless you were born there;
So far no prisoner has returned home.
People from elsewhere are in prison,
But those of the country come and go,
Enter and exit as they wish. "
Immediately the knight
Grab the tombstone and lift it
Without the slightest effort,
More easily than ten men would have done,
By using all their strength.
The monk was stunned;
For a bit he would have fallen backwards
At the sight of this wonder,
Because he did not expect
To see similar in the course of his life.
"Sir," he said, "I really want to
To know your name.
Could you tell me? - No,
Said the Knight, absolutely not.
- Certainly, said the monk, I very much regret it.
But if you would teach me,
It would be to act courteously,
And you could be rewarded for it.
Who are you and from which country?
- I am a knight, as you can see,
And I was born in the kingdom of Logres.
May that be enough for you.
And you, please tell me again
Who will rest in this tomb?
- Sir, it will be the one who frees
All those who are caught like a trap
In the kingdom from which no one escapes. "
And when the monk has finished speaking,
The Knight recommends it
To God and to all his saints.
So, as fast as he could,
He came back to the young lady,
Accompanied outside the church
By the white-haired monk.
The travelers reach the road.
While the young lady climbs back into the saddle,
The monk tells him
What the Chevalier had accomplished in the cemetery.
He asked her to tell him his name
If she knew,
With such insistence that she confessed to him
Not to know him, but to be all the same
Able to assure him
That he has no equal as a knight
In the whole expanse where the four winds blow.
Then the young lady separates from the monk
And hurries to join the Knight.
Now the two who follow them from afar
Arrive and find
The monk alone in front of his church.
The old knight without armor
Said to him: "Sir, have you seen
An escorting knight
A miss ? Tell us.
- I have no difficulty, replies the monk,
To tell you what it is.
They have just left now.
The knight was here
And accomplished a wonderful feat
By lifting the slab alone
Covering the great marble tomb,
Without the slightest effort.
He plans to deliver the queen,
And he will undoubtedly succeed in delivering her,
She and the other captives.
You are aware,
You who have often read
The inscription on the slab.
Certainly never was born,
Nor did he sit in the saddle
Man who was worth this Knight. "
The old knight then said to his son:
"Son, what do you think? The author of such an action,
Isn't he a man of exceptional strength?
Now you know who was wrong;
You know if it was you or me.
I wouldn't want for the city of Amiens
That you had fought against him.
You nevertheless resisted a lot

Before we could turn you away.
Now we can go home
Because we would do a big mistake
If we persist in following them any further. "
And the other responds: "I want to:
Keeping them in line would do us nothing.
Since you want, let's turn around! "
In agreeing to return, he showed great wisdom.
And in the meantime, the young lady
Accompany, at his side, very close, the Knight,
Because she wants to get along with him.
And she wants to learn his name from him;
She insists he tell her -
She begs him more than once -
Until, out of weariness, he said to her:
"Didn't I tell you that I am
From the kingdom of King Artur?
By the faith I owe to God and to His almighty power,
You won't know my name! "
So she asks him to grant her
Leave her, and she will retrace her steps;
And he willingly grants it to her.
The young lady leaves immediately,
And he, until very late,
Rode without company.
After vespers, at the hour of compline,
While he kept his way
He saw a knight coming back
Wood where he had hunted.
He was coming, his helmet laced,
And the venison,
That God had given him, was loaded
On a large iron gray hunting horse.
Very quickly the vavasseur
Come to meet the Knight,
And he begs him to accept his offer to host him:
“Sire,” he said, “it will soon be night;
Now is the time to find a place to stay,
And you should, reasonably, do it;
And I have a house of my own
Here near, where I will take you right away.
No one ever received you better than me I will
With the best that I have at my disposal,
And if you accept, I will be very happy.
- And I, too, will be very happy, ”said the other.
He sends his son forward,
The vavasseur, immediately,
In order to make the hotel welcoming
And to speed up the preparations for the meal.
And without lingering, the valet
Fulfills his order,
With good will and cheerfully,
And he goes off at full speed.
And those who do not want to hurry
Continued on their way
Until they got home.
The vavasseur had for wife
A very polite lady,
And five dear sons -
Three jacks and two knights -
And two graceful and beautiful girls,
Not married yet.
They were not born in this country,
But they were locked in there
And kept in captivity
For a very long time they were
Born in the kingdom of Logres.
The vavasseur brought
The Knight at home, in the courtyard,
And the lady runs to meet them,
And his sons and daughters are also rushing;
All offer to serve him,
And they greet him and help him get down.
Of their master make little regard
The sisters or the five brothers,
Because they knew very well that their father
Wanted them to do so.
They do him all the honors and a warm welcome;
And when they had disarmed him,
One of his host's daughters,
Put his cloak on him
That she puts on his collar after having removed it from hers.
If it was well served during supper,
I don't want to talk about that now;
After the meal has come to an end,
No resistance was offered
That we talked about many subjects.
In the first place, the vavasseur
Began to inquire about his guest in order to know
Who he was, and from what land,
But he didn't ask her name.
And this one answers without delay:
"I am from the kingdom of Logres,
So far I have never been to this country. "
And when the vavasseur hears it,
He is moved and worried,
As well as his wife and all his children -
Not a single one who does not feel a sharp pain:
They start to say to him:
"How great is your misfortune, beautiful gentle sire,
And how unenviable your fate is!
So you will be just like us
Reduced to serfdom and exile.
- And where are you from then? He says.
- Sire, we are from your land.
In this country, there are many prud'homme
Of your land in slavery.
Cursed be such a custom
And damn those who maintain it!
Because no stranger comes here
Without being forced to stay
Held in this land;
Anyone who wishes can enter here,
But he must stay there.
The same now applies to you:
You won't get out of here anymore, I don't think.
- Yes, I will, he says, if it is in my power. "
Then the vavasseur said to him:
" How? 'Or' What ? Do you really believe yourself capable of leaving?
- Yes, if it pleases God;
I will do my best to be successful.
- Then the others would leave without fear
All, unharmed and free,
Because as soon as one, by right,
Will come out of this prison,
All the others, without fail,
Will be able to get out without trying to prevent them. "
So the vavasseur remembers
That he had been told and told
Than a knight of great value
Penetrated with full force in the country
Because of the queen that held
Captive Méléagant, the king's son;
And he said: "Most certainly I think and I believe
That it is he; so I will tell him. "
He then said to him: "Never hide anything from me,
Sire, for the task you have set for yourself,
And, in return, I will advise you
The best I can.
Myself, I will have the advantage
So that you can complete it.
Tell me the truth
For your good and for mine.
In this country, I believe it
You came because of the queen,
In the midst of this people of disbelievers
Who are worse than the Saracens. "
And the Knight answers him:
“I didn't come here for anything else in the world.
I don't know where my lady is locked up,
But I hear to deliver her,
And I really need advice.
Advise me, if you can. "
And the other said, "Sire, you borrowed
A most difficult path.
The path you started on is leading you
Straight on to the Pont de l'Epée.
You might want to take the advice seriously:
If you wanted to believe me you would go
At the Pont de l'Epée
By a safer route,
And I'll take you there. "
And whoever wants the shortest way
Ask him: "Is this road
As straight as this one?
- No, he says, it is on the contrary
Longer, but safer. "
And the other says, “I don't care about that;
But let me know about this one,
Because I am quite ready to follow her.
- Sire, you really won't gain:
If you go this way,
Tomorrow you will come to a passage
Where soon you can suffer damage
And whose name is the Passage des Pierres.
So do you want me to tell you
How bad is this passage?
Only one horse can pass;
Side by side wouldn't cross it
Two men, and the crossing is strong
Well guarded and well defended.
You will not be granted access
As soon as you get there;
You will receive many swords and spears there
And you will also give a lot
Before I can get to the other side. "
And when he had told her everything,
A knight advances
- He was one of the vavasseur's sons -
And said: "Sire, with this lord
I'll go, if you don't mind. "
Then one of the servants gets up,
And said, "I'll go too." "
And the father willingly gives
Both of them agree.
So the knight will not go away
Not alone, and he thanks them for it,
Because he really enjoys their company.
The words then come to an end,
They take the Knight to bed;
He slept because he wanted to.
As soon as he could see the day,
He jumps up, and they see him
Who had to go with him;
They in turn stood up.
The knights put on their armor
And, having taken their leave, they go away;
And the servant is at their head,
And together they follow their path so well
That they arrive at the Passage des Pierres
Straight on, at prime time.
There was a bretèche in the middle
Where at all times stood a man.
Before they can get close
The one who was on the bretèche
Sees them and shouts very loudly:
"It is an enemy who is coming!" It is an enemy who is coming! "
Here then appears, mounted on horseback,
A knight on the bretèche,
Dressed in brand new armor,
And on each side, sergeants
Who carried sharp axes.
And when he arrives at the passage,
The one who keeps him reproaches him
Very insultingly the cart,
And said: "Vassal, it is a very daring act
That you committed, and you act in complete simplicity
By entering this country in this way.
The man does not have to appear here
Who has experienced the cart -
May God never grant you to enjoy it! "
One rushes at the other with all the momentum
Of which their horses were capable;
And the one who must keep the passage
Boldly breaks his spear
And drop the sections;
And the other hits him in the throat
Just above the blackout
Of the shield, so that he reverses it
And fell it, feet in the air, on the stones;
Armed with their axes, the sergeants set off
In the fray, but it's on purpose that they miss it,
Because they have no desire to hurt him,
Neither to him nor to his horse.
And the Chevalier realizes
That they don't want to harm him in any way
And have no desire to hurt him.
So he does not think of drawing his sword,
Choosing instead to cross the passage without discussion
With, behind him, his companions.
And one of them says to the other
That he had never seen such a knight,
That no one else was like him.
"Has he not therefore shown a marvelous prowess
By succeeding in forcing this passage?
- Brother-in-law, for the love of God, gather all your strength,
Said the knight to his younger brother,
And go join our father;
Tell him about this adventure. "
But the valet proclaims and swears
That he won't say anything,
That he will never leave
This Knight before being dubbed
And knighted by him;
Let the other go bring the news
If he is so keen on it.
Together the three of them resume their way
Until after the hour of none;
Around that time they found a man
Who asks them who they are,
And they answer him: "We are knights,
And we go where our business demands it. "
And the man said to the Knight:
"Sire, I would like to host you now,
You and your companions. "
He says that to whoever seems to him
The lord and master of the other two,
And the latter replied: "There could be no question
For me to seek accommodation at this hour,
Because coward is the one who lingers on his way
Or who is only looking to take his ease
After committing to a big business.
And the one I took care of is of such a stature
That it will be quite a while before I take any rest. "
But the man returns to the charge:
“My home is not very near here;
In fact, it is at a considerable distance.
You can walk there, with certainty
Not to have to accept hospitality before normal time.
It will be late when you get there.
- In that case, he answers, I will go there willingly. "
So the man takes his place at their head
In order to show them the way,
And the others follow him on the highway.
When they had come a long way,
They saw a squire
Who came rushing to meet them,
At full gallop, mounted on a roussin
Well fed and round like an apple.
And the squire said to the man:
"Sire, sire, hurry up,
Because those of Logres have taken up arms
In order to attack the inhabitants of this land;
They just started the war,
The revolt and the melee;
And they say that in this country
A Knight has entered -
A Knight who fought in many places -
To whom no one can forbid
To go where he would like to go,
No offense to those who oppose it.
In this country, all say
That he will deliver them all,
And that he will get the better of ours.
Hurry up, I recommend it! "
The man then takes the gallop,
And the others rejoice,
For they too had heard it;
They will want to help their friends.
And the young son of the vavasseur said:
“Sire, listen to what this sergeant says;
Let's go, and help our own
Who are fighting against these people over there! "
And the man leaves them immediately
Without waiting for them, but heading
At full speed towards a fortress
Which stood on a mound.
He quickly arrives in front of the entrance,
And the others follow him, spurring their mounts.
The enclosure of the square was fortified
From a high wall and a ditch.
As soon as they entered it,
We dropped
Just behind their backs a door
To prevent them from turning back.
And they say to themselves: "Let's always go, let's go forward!"
This is not where we will stop. "
Following man, they push forward
And quickly come to an end.
They are not forbidden to approach it;
But as soon as the man had crossed it,
We let fall behind him
A sliding door.
And the others were saddened
To see oneself thus blocked inside,
Because they think they are the victims of an enchantment;
But the one I especially need to talk to you about
Wore a ring on his finger.
Whose stone possessed such virtue
That no enchantment could hold
In front of her after he had looked at her.
He puts the ring in front of his eyes,
Look at the stone and say:
"Lady, lady, God help me,
I will now need you badly,
If you could help me. "
The "lady" in question was a fairy
Who gave him the ring
And who had raised him during his childhood;
He had full confidence in her
That she would come and rescue him and help him
Wherever he might be.
But he sees well by his call
And by the ring stone
That no enchantment is taking place,
And he realizes:
They are indeed imprisoned.
So they come to a postern
Narrow and low, with the closed door of a bar.
All at once draw their swords,
And each one hits so hard
That they end up breaking the bar.
Once they could get out of the tower
They see that the melee has started,
Impressive and fierce, down in the meadows,
And that there were a thousand knights
On both sides, without counting
A large number of troops.
When they came down to the meadows,
It was as a reasonable and experienced man
What did the vavasseur's son speak:
"Sire, before pushing over there,
It would be wise of us, I think, to designate
One of us to go get information
Which side are our friends on?
I don't know where they come from,
But I'll go see if you want.
- I don't mind, said the chef, go quickly
And come back as soon as possible! "
He goes there quickly and comes back quickly,
And he said: "This is very good for us,
Because I was able to confirm
That ours are on this side. "
And the knight went straight ahead
Without delay towards the fray;
He meets a knight advancing on him,
And he starts the game, hitting her in the eye
A blow so strong that he slaughtered him dead to the ground.
And the valet dismounts from his horse;
He takes the steed of the vanquished knight
And the armor he wore,
And he puts it on with perfect skill.
After arming, without further ado,
He climbs back into the saddle, grabbing the shield and the spear
Whose shaft was thick and stiff and well painted;
He girded the sword by his side
With a clear and shiny edge.
He threw himself into the fight
In the footsteps of his brother and his lord.
This one held up well
In the fray
Where it breaks and splits and shatters
Ecus and helmets and hauberts.
Neither wood nor iron can protect
Those he hits; all end up in very bad condition
Or fly dead at the feet of their horses.
On his own he succeeded
To shoot them down,
And those who accompanied him,
They, too, were showing off their prowess.
But the people of Logres are amazed at all this,
Because they do not know him; they are looking for
To inquire about it with the son of the vavasseur.
They ask so many questions
That we end up answering them: "Lords, it is he
That will free us all from exile
And the great misfortune
Where we have lived for a long time;
So we should honor him greatly
Since, in order to deliver us,
He crossed - and will cross again -
So many very dangerous places;
Much remains to be done, he has already done a lot. "
None among these people escapes the general joy
Hearing this good news:
All of them devote themselves wholeheartedly to joy.
When the news spread
So that it was told to everyone,
They all heard it and they all learned about it.
Of the joy they had
Their strength grows in them, and they draw courage from it
That they need to kill many of their adversaries,
And if they abuse them so badly,
It is, it seems to me, thanks to the example
Of a single Knight rather than that
What everyone else is doing together.
And if it wasn't almost night already,
The enemy would leave in rout;
But because of the darkness of the night,
Both sides had to stop fighting.
At the time of departure, all the captives,
Just like everyone has an urgent request to make,
Crowded around the Chevalier;
They grabbed his horse's bridle everywhere
And they begin to say to him:
"Welcome, handsome sire!" "
And each one says: "Sire, by my faith,
It is with me that you will stay.
Sire, in the name of God,
Do not agree to stay somewhere other than my home. "
All repeat what some say,
Because everyone wants to host it,
Young and old alike,
And all insist: "You will be better
In my hotel than in other people's homes. "
Everyone speaks for himself;
And one pulls it away from the other
Because everyone wants to have it alone,
Even to the point of almost coming to blows.
He tells them that their arguments
Are perfectly vain and foolish.
"So leave, he says, these quarrels,
Neither you nor I need it now.
Looking for noise only makes things worse,
Rather, we should help each other.
There is no point in arguing so harshly
To find out who will host me;
Your first thought should instead be
To host me in such a place
May you all enjoy it,
That I do not abandon my straight path. "
Yet each of them repeats:
"It's in my hotel!" - No, it's my home!
- You still don't say sensible things,
Made the Knight; in my opinion,
The wisest among you is still acting crazy
When I hear you bickering over such trifles.
You should help me move forward,
But you want to put me through detours.
If you had me all, in good order,
One after another does whatever I wanted,
And bestowed all the honor and service
That it is possible to give back to a man,
By all the saints prayed to in Rome,
I cannot thank any of you better for your act,
Which I could have benefited from,
What good intentions it conceals.
May God give me joy and health,
Your good intentions give me back happiness and courage
Just as if each of you had already granted me
A very great honor and proof of his benevolence;
May we celebrate your good thought as much as your beautiful gesture! "
So he subdues them all and manages to appease them.
They take him on his way to the place of accommodation
With a very wealthy knight,
And all are doing their best to serve him.
All give him marks of their esteem and, by serving him,
They bore him witness to their joy
Throughout the evening, until bedtime,
Because they all carried it in their hearts.
The next day, at the time of departure,
Everyone wanted to accompany him,
Each makes him the offer of his person;
But he doesn't like it, he feels no desire
May others go with him,
With the sole exception of the two
That he had brought with him until then:
He was accompanied by these, and no one else.
That day, since the morning they have
Ride until vespers
Without finding any adventure.
By riding as fast as possible,
They did not come out of a forest until very late;
Having crossed the edge, they saw a house
Who belonged to a knight, and his wife,
Who seemed to be a very kind lady,
Sitting in front of the door.
As soon as she could distinguish them,
She got up to greet them;
The laughing and joyful face,
She greets them and says, “Welcome!
I want to offer you hospitality;
Here you are, get off your horse!
- Lady, since you order it,
Thanking you, we will descend;
We will accept your hospitality tonight. "
They dismount and, on their descent,
The lady has their horses taken away,
Because she had a very beautiful home.
She calls her sons and daughters,
And they presented themselves immediately:
Courteous and friendly young people,
And knights and beautiful maidens.
She orders some to remove the stool
Horses and to curry them well.
No one dares to contradict her,
They willingly did what was asked of them.
She disarms the knights;
His daughters rush to do it;
As soon as they are disarmed, they offer them
To each a short coat which they must put on.
And then, directly, they bring them
At home (which looked good).
But the lord was not there;
He was in the forest and, with him,
He had two of his sons;
But it was not long before he came, and the people of his household,
Whose manners left nothing to be desired,
Quickly crossed the threshold of the door to meet him.
The venison he brings;
Her children hurry to unload her and untie her,
And they start telling him and telling him:
"Sire, sire, you don't know,
But you have three knights as guests.
- Thank God! He says.
The knight and his two sons
Express the great joy that their hosts give them.
And the household is not content to sit idly by;
Until the smallest all were ready
To do what was necessary:
Some run to hasten the preparations for the meal,
The others take care of the candles,
They light them up and inflame them;
They take towels and basins
As well as water so that we can wash our hands:
They are not stingy!
We wash our hands and go to sit down;
Nothing in this house
Was neither heavy to bear nor painful.
While they were eating the first dish, it happened
A surprise: the arrival in the court of a knight
Prouder than a bull -
Animal known for its great pride.
He presented himself fully armed,
Sitting on his steed.
He was resting one leg on the stirrup
And he had put the other leg
(In order to appear elegant and to give yourself a posture)
On the neck of the steed with the beautiful mane.
This is how he presented himself.
But nobody cared the slightest bit about him
Before he came to the table and said to the people:
"Which of you is this - I want to know -
Which displays so much madness and pride
And so lacking in common sense
Coming to this country and dreaming
To go to the Pont de l'Epée?
In vain he took this trouble,
In vain he lost his steps. "
And the one who, targeted by these sarcasms, did not lose any
However his calm, answers him with dignity:
“I am the one who wants to cross the Bridge.
- You ? you ? How dare you think it?
You would have done better to think
Before undertaking to do such a thing,
To consequences and results
That she would risk to entail for you,
And you should have remembered
From the cart where you rode one day.
I don't really know if you're ashamed
To have been walked there,
But, for sure, no man really sane
Would not have undertaken to achieve such a great feat
If we had had to reproach him for such a blameworthy act. "
Whoever heard these things said
Do not deign to answer them with a single word;
But the lord of the house
And everyone else was right
To be surprised to the highest degree.
“Ah! God, what a great mishap!
Each one says to himself,
That the hour when we thought of a cart
And to do it be cursed,
Because it is a vile and contemptible thing.
Ah! God, what was he accused of?
And why was he carried on a cart?
For what sin? For what crime?
This will forever be blamed on him.
If only he were free from this disgrace,
As far as the face of the world stretches
We wouldn't find a single knight,
As valiant as he was,
Whose value resembled his,
And whoever would gather all the knights together
Would not see any who were as beautiful or as noble as him,
As long as we tell the truth. "
All of them are repeating the same thing.
And the other, very proudly,
Started talking again,
And he said: "Knight, listen to me carefully,
You who are heading towards the Bridge of the Sword:
If you want it, you will pass the water
Very easily and without difficulty.
I'll make you cross the water quickly
In a boat.
But if I want to demand a toll from you,
When I hold you on the other side
I'll take your head, if I want to,
Or if I don't take it from you, you'll still be at my mercy. "
And he replies that he is not looking
Not his own misfortune:
His head will never be the stake of an adventure
Also risky, even if something bad were to happen.
And the other replied in turn:
"Since you refuse what I propose to you,
It will be necessary, in order to determine who, you or me, will have
Shame and mourning for your decision, that you come outside
To measure you against me in a one-on-one fight. "
And he, entering into his game, said:
"If I could refuse this challenge,
I would gladly do without;
But in truth I would rather fight
Rather than seeing me perhaps forced to do even worse. "
Before getting up
From the table where he was sitting,
He said to the servants who served him
To saddle your horse as quickly as possible,
And go get his weapons
In order to bring them to him.
They run so zealously that they lose their breath
To the job ; some try to put his armor on him,
The others bring his horse;
And know it well: it really did not appear,
When we saw him walk in step,
Armed with all his weapons
And holding the shield by the straps,
Once mounted on his steed,
That we would be wrong
To count him among the beautiful and among the good.
We could see, on the contrary, that they were really his,
The horse, as it suited him,
And the shield he was holding
Tight against his arm by the straps;
And he had his helmet laced up and
So perfectly adjusted to his head
That it would never occur to you to think
That it could have been borrowed from others;
You would rather say, as long as you would have liked it,
That he seemed to have grown there quite naturally;
I beg you to believe what I am saying here.
Outside, in a moor,
There is the one who asks for the joust:
This is where the fight will take place.
As soon as the two adversaries see each other,
They rush at each other at full speed,
So much so that their meeting is quick and rough,
And they trade such spear blows
That these bend in an arch
And, both, they are shattered;
With their swords they destroy shields,
Helms and hauberts; _They cut in the woods, they break shackles,
And by breaches thus opened they inflict wounds on themselves;
The blows they trade in their anger
Appear to be payments made under the terms of a contract;
But very often their swords
Reach by sliding the croup of the horses:
They drink at will with blood
By hitting them right up to their flanks,
So much so that the two animals, slaughtered, fall dead.
After they fell to the ground,
It is on foot that they rush against each other;
And they would hate each other to death
That in truth the blows of the sword that they give each other
Would not be more cruel.
They hit each other with more liveliness than that
Of which the frenetic who throws his money
By never stopping playing,
In the vain hope of doubling his bet as often as he loses;
But their game was very different,
Since they didn't have the luxury of losing a single shot;
There were only blows that carried and a struggle
Very fierce - dangerous and very cruel.
Those of the house were all out:
Lord, lady, daughters and sons,
So that no one remained, neither this one nor that one,
Whether or not he belonged to the household,
On the contrary, they all lined up
In order to watch the fight
In the middle of this vast moor.
The Knight of the Cart
Accuses himself of cowardice and cowardice
When he sees that his host is looking at him;
And he realizes that the others,
All together, do not take their eyes off him.
In anger his whole body begins to tremble,
Because he should have, he thinks,
For a long time already having conquered
The one who fights against him.
So he starts hitting the opponent in such a way
Let his sword blows rain around his head,
And it hits him like a storm
By hugging him so close and arguing so bitterly for the field
Let him take some land away from him;
He forces him to give up so much ground and he abuses him so much
That he's about to lose his breath
And he doesn't have much strength left to defend himself.
That's when the Knight remembers
That the other had acted very badly
By blaming him for the cart.
He bypasses him and harasses him in such a way
That he leaves her untouched
No laces or straps around the collar of his hauberk;
And he makes her fly from the head
His helmet and his face fell to the ground.
He makes him suffer so much and tortures him so much
All that remains is to ask thank you,
Just like the lark that can't
Resist the attacks of the swivel,
Nor find a safe haven anywhere
Because this one does not cease doubling it and dominating it;
So, all covered in shame,
Will he beg and implore
Thank you, because he couldn't find better things to do.
When the other hears that he is begging
His grace, he ceases to reach and strike him,
And he said, "Do you want me to spare you?
- You spoke like a very wise man,
He said, a madman would not express himself otherwise;
I never wanted anything so much
What to get my grace at this time. "
And he said: "You will need
Get on a cart.
It wouldn't help you at all
To tell me anything
If you refused to get on the cart,
Because your mouth showed great madness
By reproaching myself insolently for having gone up there. "
And the knight answers him:
"God forbid that I go up there!"
- No ?, says the other, then you're going to die right here.
- Sire, you could kill me,
But, for God, I beg and ask you
Grace, on condition that I don't have
To get on the cart.
I accept in advance any sentence,
Apart from this one, hard and painful as it is.
I'd rather die a hundred times
Rather than suffer such misfortune.
There is nothing else you can ask of me
Who is of such a nature that I would refuse to do so
If I could thus obtain your forgiveness and your grace. "
While he begs for mercy,
Here is in the middle of the moor
A young lady arrives at the amble
Riding a tawny mule,
All disheveled, her clothes and hair in disarray;
And she had a whip in her hand
Whose pitilessly she slashed her mule,
So that in truth no horse
Galloping would not go so fast
Than that mule running amble.
To the Chevalier de la Charrette
The young lady said: "May God give,
Knight, to your heart perfect joy
And enjoyment of the thing that makes your greatest delights! "
The one who had listened to her with pleasure
He replied: "God bless you,
Young lady, and give you joy and health! "
So this one tells her what's on her mind:
"Chevalier," she said, "I came
From afar and out of need so far
With you, to ask for a donation
In return for which the price and the reward that I will offer
Will be as large as it is possible for me to make;
And you will one day need
Help me, I think. "
And he replies: "Tell me
What you want, and if I can grant it to you,
You will have it without delay,
As long as it's nothing too painful. "
And she said, "This is the head
Of this knight whom you conquered;
To tell the truth, you will never find
A being as traitor and disloyal as him.
You will not sin or do harm
By granting me this gift, you will instead be doing an act of charity,
Because he is the most disloyal individual
Who was never or that we can one day meet. "
And when the vanquished
Heard that she wants the other to kill him,
He said to her: "Do not believe her,
Because she hates me; but please,
Have mercy on me,
In the name of this God who is Son and Father
And who made His mother from the one
Who was His daughter and His maid!
- Ah! Knight, be the young lady,
Don't believe this traitor.
May God grant you joy and honor
As long as you could wish,
And that He grants you to succeed entirely
The mission you have chosen for yourself! "
So the Knight, taken by doubts,
Stay there, immobilized, thinking:
Will he finally give his head a gift
To the one who summons him to cut it,
Or will he show charity to the other
So that he will take pity on him?
He wants to do to both
What they ask him:
Largesse and Pitié command it
To treat them both well,
And he himself was generous and compassionate.
But if the young lady took her head,
It is Pity that would be conquered and destroyed;
And if she doesn't win,
It will be the defeat of Largesse.
Here is the prison, the distress
Where Pity and Largesse have locked him up,
Anguished and tormented.
The young lady wants him to give her
The head she claims from him;
On the other hand, the other calls out for him to be merciful,
To his sense of pity and to the nobility of his heart.
And since he had indeed requested
Thanks, why shouldn't he have it?
Certainly it never happened to him
That to no adversary, no matter how enemy he was,
Once defeated by him
And shouting thank you,
It had never happened to her before
To refuse him his pardon for the first time,
But not more than once.
So won't he refuse her
To this man who never ceases to implore and pray to him,
Since such is his custom.
And the one who wants the head,
Will she get it? Yes, if he can give it to her.
"Knight, he says, you need
Again fight against me,
And I will grant you exceptional grace,
If you agree to defend your head,
To let you take it back
A second time your helm, and arm yourself
Head and body at leisure
The best you can.
But know it well: you will die
If again I defeat you. "
And the other responds: "I'm not looking for better,
Neither ask you for any other grace.
- And I also grant you this as a considerable advantage,
Does he know that by fighting me
Against you, I won't move
From where I am now. "
The other gets ready and they both clash
In the fight like madmen;
But the new victory
Du Chevalier was faster and easier
Than the one he had won before.
And instantly the young lady
Shout: "Don't spare it,
Knight, whatever he says to you,

Cause he sure wouldn't have spared you
If he had had the chance to defeat you.
Know it well: if you accept to believe it,
He will cheat on you once more.
Chop off the head of the most disloyal man
Of empire and kingdom,
Noble Knight, and give it to me.
You better give it to me
Especially since I will know how to reward you,
I believe, one day to have done it;
If he can he will cheat on you
Again with his speeches. "
The one who sees that his death is approaching
Shouts thank you loud and clear;
But her cries are worth nothing
Not a single word he knows how to say to her;
The other pulls him by the helm
And he cuts all the laces:
His faceplate and his silver headdress,
He knocks them out of his head.
More and more desperate, he implores her:
“Grace, for the love of God! Grace, brave knight!
He replies: "By the salvation of my soul,
I will never have pity on you again,
Since once already I gave you a break.
- Ah! he does, you would make a sin
If you believe what my enemy says
And killed me like that. "
And the one who desires her death
Urges him on his side
That he hurry to cut off his head
And let him stop believing what he's telling him.
He knocks, and the head flies
In the middle of the moor and the body collapses;
All this pleases the young lady.
The Knight picks up the head
Through the hair and stretch it out
To the one who does not hide her great joy
And who says: "May your heart know joy
To own the thing he would want the most,
Just like, now, mine compared
To the thing I wanted the most.
I didn't suffer from anything
Except for the fact that he still lived so long.
A reward from me awaits you,
And it will be given to you at a very convenient time for you.
You will greatly benefit from this service
That you gave me back, I vouch for it.
I will go now, and I recommend you
To God: may He protect you from all danger. "
The young lady leaves him then,
And they recommended each other to God.
But all those who, in the middle of the moor,
Have seen the fight,
Feel a very great joy rising in them;
They hurry to disarm
The happiest knight in the world
And they do him all the honors they are capable of.
They wash their hands again,
Because they wanted to go back to table;
Now they are much happier than usual,
And they eat with great joy.
When they had finished eating with all the slowness required,
The vavasseur says to his host
Who was sitting next to him:
"Sire, we have been coming a long time ago
Here from the kingdom of Logres.
We are native to it, and we would like to
May honor be returned to you and great profit
And joy were your sharing in this country, and want
That we ourselves can benefit from it with you,
And many others would find profit
If honor and success were with you
During your business. "
And the other responds: "I already knew. "
When the vavasseur had ceased
To speak and his voice was silent,
So one of his sons began to
To say to him: "Sire,
We should put all our means at your service,
And give instead of just promising;
If you needed to take what we offer you,
We shouldn't wait any longer
That you make a formal request to us.
Sire, don't worry
Of the death of your horse,
For here there is no lack of very strong horses;
I so desire that you make what is ours:
You will get the best from us
Instead of yours, because you really need it. "
And he replies: "Gladly. "
So we get the beds made,
And they go to bed. As soon as it's daylight,
In the morning, they get up and prepare for their departure.
Here they are, ready to go, they turn around.
When leaving, he does not commit any violation of etiquette:
He solemnly takes leave of the lady
And of the Lord, as well as of all the others.
But I'll tell you one thing
Because I don't neglect any detail;
Is that the Knight did not want
Ride on the horse we had loaned him
In front of the door ;
He took it up - I want to tell you -
One of the two knights
Who had come with him.
And he rides that one's horse,
Because he liked it and that was what he wanted.
When everyone had taken their place on their horse,
The three of them set off
With permission and permission
From their host, who had served them
And honored as much as he could.
They follow the right path
Until the end of the day
And they arrive in front of the Sword Bridge
After the hour of none, towards vespre.
Near the formidable bridge,
They dismounted from their horses,
And contemplate the treacherous water,
Black, loud, fast and brash,
Looks so ugly and so sinister
That it looked like the devil's river,
And so perilous and so deep
Let every creature in this world.
If she had fallen there,
Would have been lost as in the ocean.
And the bridge thrown across the torrent
Was different from everyone else;
There has never been such
And never, if you ask me,
There will be no bridge with such a scary apron:
Made of a furnished white sword,
The bridge overlooked the freezing water;
The blade was well soaked and strong
And had two spears long.
At each of the two ends
It was tied to a block of wood.
Don't be afraid that the Knight will fall into the water
Because the sword will bend and break,
Because she was so well forged
That she could carry a heavy burden.
But what completes to dismay
The two companions of the Knight,
Is that they thought they saw
Two lions or two leopards
Chained to a block of stone
On the other side of the bridge.
Torrential water, the sword serving as a bridge,
The two lions scare them so much
That they both tremble with fear
And say, "Sir, listen
Our advice about what you see,
Because you really need it:
This bridge is poorly constructed and adjusted
And very poorly built.
If you don't repent in time,
It is too late that you will repent.
There are certain things that need to be done
By anticipating the consequences.
Even if you managed to win the other side -
What also seems impossible
Than to control the winds
And forbid them to breathe,
Than keep the birds from singing
To the point that they give it up,
Than to enter the mother's womb
To be reborn later,
Or else empty the sea of its water,
So many impossibilities -
Do you imagine
That these two wild lions,
Chained to the other side
Will not tear you apart,
Won't suck your blood, won't devour
Your flesh and will not eat away at your bones?
Just looking at them
Calls on all our boldness.
If you don't think about your safety,
They will kill you, do not doubt it;
They'll soon break you up and tear you away
The members of the body,
Because they are not going to pardon you.
It's up to you to have pity on yourself,
So stay with us!
You would be guilty of yourself
To voluntarily expose yourself
To certain death. "
And the Knight answered them with a smile:
"Lords, thank you
To be so concerned about me
Your friendship and loyalty inspire you.
I know very well that in no way
You don't want bad luck to happen to me;
But I have such a faith and such a belief
In God that He will protect me anywhere.
I fear neither this bridge nor this torrent
More than the mainland of both shores;
So I'm going to risk the adventure
And get on the bridge.
I prefer death to retreating. "
His two companions do not know what to say,
But they sigh and shed tears
Abundant, both.
Him getting ready to cross
The chasm to the best of his ability.
He then acts in a very strange way,
For he disarms his hands and his feet.
He won't get to the front
In very good shape !
He managed to maintain himself,
Hands and bare feet,
On the sword sharper than a scythe.
He had left on his feet
No shoes, no hose, no forefoot;
He wasn't too scared
Injure their hands and feet;
He would have preferred to mutilate himself
Than fall off the bridge and be submerged
In water he would never have come out of.
To great pain,
And in great distress, as expected he advances;
He hurts his hands, knees and feet,
But love that leads and leads
Calm his suffering -
Besides, it is sweet to him to suffer.
Crawling on his hands, feet and knees,
He manages to reach the other side.
But he remembers
Of the two lions he believed
To have seen when he was opposite.
He looks again
And don't even see a lizard,
No creature capable of harming him.
Placing his hand in front of his face,
He looks at his ring and realizes,
When he doesn't see either of the two lions
That he thought he had seen,
That he had been the victim of an enchantment,
For in front of him was nothing alive.
His two companions on the other side
Of course rejoice
To see it on the other side,
But they don't know how much he hurt himself.
The Knight thinks he has won a lot
When his injuries aren't more serious.
He seals the blood that flows from his wounds
Using his shirt.
In front of him he sees a tower rise
So formidable that with his eyes
He had never seen such a thing:
It couldn't have been more imposing.
Leaning against a window
Stood King Bademagu,
A loving monarch
Of honor and virtue;
He especially intended to act
Fairly in all circumstances.
And his son, who strived everywhere and always
To behave opposite to his father,
(Because he liked being disloyal,
And he never got tired
To commit villainy,
Betrayal or felony)
Had leaned beside him.
Father and son had seen below them
The Knight walk along the bridge
With great pain and great pain.
Of displeasure and anger
Méleagant turned quite pale.
It is certain now
That we are going to dispute the queen,
But he was so valiant a knight that he feared
No man, even strong and bold to the excess.
No one would have surpassed him in chivalry,
If he had not been so disloyal and so felon;
But he had a heart of stone,
Empty of gentleness and pity.
What pleases the king and makes him happy
Exasperates his son.
The king knows very well
That the one who crossed the bridge
Is superior to all the others,
And that no one would have dared to cross it
If in him slept and rested
Cowardice, the one who dishonors his own
More than Prowess honors the valiant.
Prowess therefore has less power
That Cowardice and Laziness,
So much it is true
That it is easier to do bad than good.
Of Cowardice and Prowess I would talk to you
Much more, if I were not afraid to linger;
But I have something else to consider
Because I want to go back to my story.
You will hear
How the king lectures his son:
"Son, he says, it's by chance
That we came, you and I,
We lean on this window.
We were so well rewarded
That we have fully attended
To the greatest achievement
That was never accomplished even in thought.
Now tell me if you don't admire
The author of such a feat?
Make your peace with him
And give him back the queen!
You will gain nothing by fighting against him,
You could even lose greatly.
So make yourself look like a sane man
And courteous. Send him
The queen before he sees you.
Honor him in such a way in your land
That what he came for
You give it to him before he asks for it.
You know well
That he's looking for Queen Guinevere.
Don't make yourself look foolish
Crazy, or arrogant.
As long as he is alone in your land,
You have to keep him company.
A labor tribunal must be welcoming
To any other prud'homme, to honor him,
Treat him courteously, not beat him down.
Whoever honors others honors himself:
Know that honor will reflect on you,
If you render service and honor
To the one who is unquestionably
The best knight in the world. "
Méléagant replies: "May God confuse me
If there is none as good or better! "
His father was wrong to forget him,
Because he does not consider himself inferior to the Knight.
He continues: "Feet together and hands clasped,
Maybe you want me to become
His vassal and keep my land from him?
God help me, I would rather become
His man than to give him back
The Queen ! God save me
To give it back to him at such a low cost!
Certainly I do not intend to return it,
But to argue and defend her
Against all those crazy enough
To dare to come and fetch her. "
So the king comes back to his idea:
"Son, you would behave like a courteous man
If you gave up on this madness.
I advise you and beg you to calm down.
You know very well that this knight
Will cover himself in glory if he conquers the queen
By fighting against you.
He prefers to get it
As the price of a fight rather than a gift,
Because it would be a claim to fame for him.
It seems certain to me that he did not go in search
To receive her peacefully,
He intends to get it after a fight.
You would be well inspired
If you deprived him of such a fight;
I suffer to see you so unreasonable,
But if you reject my advice
I will have fewer regrets if something bad happens to you;
And he will soon be able to cook you for it,
Because the Knight has no one
To be feared apart from you.
I grant him truce and save,
In the name of all my vassals and mine.
I have never committed disloyalty,
Of betrayal or felony,
And I won't start to commit
Neither for you nor for any other.
It is unambiguous no
That I will promise this knight
That he won't need anything,
Arms or horse, let him not receive it,
As long as he had the boldness
To come here.
He will be protected
And his life secured against all,
Except against you.
Learn - I want to -
That if he can defend himself against you
He will have no one else to fear.
- I have plenty of time to listen to you,
Made Méléagant, and shut up,
And you can say what you like.
But little matters to me what you say;
I'm not that hermit,
So full of compassion and charity,
That I'm ready to find honorable
To give him the woman I love the most in the world.
And his deal is far from done
So early and so easily.
Things will take a course
Quite the opposite of the one you both envision.
Even if you help her against me,
This is no reason to get angry, you and me.
May he be at peace and truce with you and all your men,
Doesn't matter much.
It doesn't intimidate me at all.
On the contrary, I like it very much, and God be praised,
That he only has me to fear.
So don't do anything for me
Who can make you accuse
Of disloyalty or treason.
Be good as long as you want
And let me be mean though.
- How? 'Or' What ? Won't you change your mind?
- No, replies Méléagant. - I won't tell you more.
Do your best cause i leave you
To go talk to the Knight.
I mean to offer him help
And advice in all that concerns him,
As being entirely at its disposal. "
The king came down from the tower
And have his horse brought,
It was a great steed;
He goes up by the stirrup,
Leading with him three knights
And two sergeants
In all and for all.
They didn't stop their descent
Before we got to the bridge.
The Knight continued to quench
His wounds and blood from them.
The king thinks he has her as a guest for a long time,
Before his wounds are healed,
But as much to expect to dry up
Sea water.
The king quickly dismounts
And the one who was seriously injured
Straightened up immediately at his approach,
Not that he recognizes it,
And without revealing the suffering
That he felt on his feet and hands,
Behaving as if he was unharmed.
The king sees he is doing his best
And hastens to greet him.
"Sir," he said to him, "I am greatly astonished
That in my country
You could have pushed this far.
But welcome,
Because no one will ever dare such an undertaking again,
And it never happened nor will it happen
Let someone be bold enough
To want to expose oneself to such a danger.
Know that I esteem you all the more
That you have accomplished
What no one would dare to do, even in thought.
You will find me well disposed
To you, loyal and courteous.
I am king of this country,
And offers you without restriction
My advice and my help.
I think I can guess
That the object of your quest
This is the queen.
- Sire, said the Knight, you can guess correctly.
No other reason brings me here.
- Friend, you would have a hard time
Before getting it, replies the king.
You are seriously injured:
I see your wounds and the blood flowing.
Don't rely on benevolence
Of the one who led the queen here,
Or that he gives it back to you without a fight.
You need rest
And care for your wounds
To bring healing.
Ointment with three Maries
Will I give you, or an even better medicine
If we can find any, because I really want
Your comfort and healing.
The queen has such a good prison
Let no one touch her,
Not even my son who brought him here;
He is very angry with it.
Never was a man so unreasonable
Nor as enraged as him.
But I, I am well disposed towards you,
And will give to you, God help me,
Gladly what you need.
My son will not have such good weapons
That I don't give you such good ones,
Which will hardly have the good fortune to please him.
You will have the steed that suits you.
I take you under my protection
Against all odds, whoever wants to be indignant.
You won't have to fear anyone,
Except only the one
Who brought the queen here.
Nobody ever threatened
Another man like I threatened him.
For a bit I would have chased him away
Of my kingdom, I was so angry
Because he doesn't want to return the queen to you.
And yet he is my son; but have no fear,
If he does not defeat you in battle,
He will not be able, as long as I am against it,
Do you wrong even by a stitch.
- Thank you, sire, replies the Knight,
But I'm wasting and wasting my time
That I don't want to waste and waste.
I'm not complaining about anything
And I don't have an injury that bothers me.
So lead me to your son,
'Cause with the only guns I carry
I am ready now
To give and to receive blows.
- My friend, you better wait
Fifteen days or three weeks,
Until your wounds are healed;
A rest of at least fifteen days
You would be very profitable.
For nothing in the world I wouldn't allow
Nor would accept
That armed and equipped as you are
You fought in my presence. "
And the Knight replies, "If only you would,
There would be no question of other weapons,
Because gladly with those that I wear
I would fight, without claiming
That there was the least
Respite or delay.
But to please you
I'll wait until tomorrow.
Beyond this term, no need to talk about it,
Because I will not wait any longer. "
The king promises him
That everything will happen according to his will.
He then makes him lead to his home
And he commands all those who accompany him
To be at his orders.
The people of Bademagu obey.
And the king, who dreamed of coming to an agreement
If it was possible,
Returned to find his son;
He speaks to her like a man who would like to
Peace and good understanding.
"Beautiful son," he said, "hear yourself
With this Knight and give up fighting him!
He didn't come to us to have fun,
To shoot a bow or go hunting,
But well and truly in search of prowess
And to increase its fame.
Yet he would need a lot of rest,
As I saw with my own eyes.
If he had listened to me,
Neither this month nor the next,
He wouldn't want to fight,
But he already has the desire.
If you give him back the queen,
Do you think you dishonor yourself?
You don't have to fear it
Because no one would blame you.
But it's a sin to hold back
Something where we have no rights.
He would gladly have fought
Just today,
Yet her hands and feet are in a sorry state,
All injured and gashed as they are.
- You worry about nonsense,
Said Méleagant to his father,
And by the faith I owe to Saint Peter
I do not intend to listen to you in this matter.
Sure i deserve to be quartered
Between four horses if I was listening to you.
If he seeks to be honored, I also seek him,
If he seeks to be prized, so am I;
If he desires to fight at all costs,
I want it a hundred times more.
- I can see that you are determined to act madly,
Made the king, and suffer the consequences.
Tomorrow you will compete with the Knight,
Since you want it.
- That never greater misfortune befall me,
Replies Méléagant, that this one!
I would prefer the fight to take place
Today same as tomorrow.
See how I am
More pain than usual.
My eyes are burning me
And I feel all feverish.
Never until i fight
I will neither have joy nor feel good,
Nothing will please me. "
The king understood that on the occasion
Advice and prayer are useless.
Reluctantly he leaves his son.
So he takes a beautiful and strong steed,
That he sends as well as beautiful weapons
To one who is worthy of such gifts.
There was a surgeon,
A very good Christian,
In the world there was no more loyal than him.
He knew better how to heal wounds
That all the doctors of Montpellier.
That night he healed the Knight
To the best of his ability,
For the king had commanded him to do so.
Already the news of the imminent fight
Had spread among the knights,
The ladies, the ladies and the barons
From all the surrounding country.
They came in a big step
From all around the country,
Foreigners and locals alike.
They rode well
All night until the rising sun.
At dawn, each other
Crowded in front of the castle
That we could not have moved our feet.
The king gets up the next morning,
Concerned about the idea of the coming fight.
Once again he comes to find his son,
Who already had the helm in mind,
A helmet made in Poitiers.
But any delay turned out to be impossible,
As well as an agreement between the two adversaries.
In vain did the king pray to his son,
The latter did not want to hear anything.
In front of the tower, in the square,
Where the crowd gathered,
The fight will take place:
So wills and orders the king.
The Foreign Knight is summoned soon
By Bademagu, and we bring it to him
In the place that was full
People from the kingdom of Logres.
Just like hearing the organs
We go to church at an annual party,
Whether it's Pentecost or Christmas,
Thus following the custom,
Likewise in large numbers
They had all gathered in the square.
Three days in a row had fasted
And had gone barefoot and wearing the haire
Young ladies
Born in the kingdom of Artur,
So that God might give strength and vigor,
Against his adversary,
To the knight who had to fight
To deliver the captives.
Likewise the people of Gorre
On their side prayed
May God give victory
To their lord.
Early in the morning, before the first hour strikes,
We had driven to the square
The two adversaries fully armed
On two horses caparisoned with iron.
Méléagant had a good presence,
Physically,
And his hauberk with fine mesh,
His helmet and shield,
Hanging from his neck,
They fit him wonderfully.
But everyone thought his opponent would win,
Even those who wanted the Knight to be defeated.
All say that Méléagant
Little chance of winning against him.
Now that they are in the square
The king comes,
Who as long as he can hold them back
And strives to reconcile them,
But her son remains intractable.
So Bademagu said, "Hold your horses
At least in bridle
Until I got on my tower.
The favor will not be great
If at my request you postpone the fight for a moment. "
So he leaves them, very anxious,
And go where he thought
To find the queen, who had prayed to him
The day before placing it
In a place where she would see
Without difficulty the fight,
And he had granted her his request.
So he went to fetch her and escort her,
Because he held a lot
To honor him and to be of service to him.
He installed it near a window,
And stood to his right,
Leaning on another window.
With them two there were grouped
Lots of diverse people,
Courteous knights and ladies
And young ladies born in the land of Gorre;
There were also many captives there,
Very busy
Through their prayers and prayers.
The prisoners
All prayed for their champion,
Hoping that God through him
Would rescue them and deliver.
The two adversaries without further delay
Make the spectators around them move back;
They hit their shield with their elbow
Grabbing him by the straps,
Then bite both. The length of two arms
They pierce the crowns
Of their spears, so that they burst
And break like chopsticks.
The two steeds meet
With such strength front to front
And chest to chest,
While the shields collide
And the helmets, it seems,
Hearing the sound of it all
Let it be thunder.
Guides, straps, reins, stirrups
And other parts of the harness
Are broken, and the pommels of the saddles,
Although very solid, they break.
The two riders need not be ashamed
To have been thrown to the ground,
As soon as all this equipment failed them.
Very quickly they got up
And approach each other without empty words
More savagely than two wild boars,
And bypassing threats
They trade great blows with their steel swords
As men who hate each other.
They often slice so fiercely
In their silver helmets and hauberts
Let the blade squirt blood out of it.
They fight their best,
Hitting each other
Vigorously and without mercy.
Many violent blows, hard and supported
They give each other, and if equally
That we cannot say
Who would have the advantage.
But it was inevitable
That the one who had crossed the bridge
Was very weakened
By his hands covered with wounds.
The spectators are dismayed,
At least those of Logres,
Because they see his blows weakening
And fear that he has the bottom.
Already it seemed to them
That he was a loser
And Meléagant winner,
They were muttering about it.
But at the windows of the tower
There was a very shrewd young lady,
Who, having reflected well, said to himself
That the Knight did not have
Undertaken to fight for her
Nor for other people of little
Assembled on the square,
And that he wouldn't have
If it hadn't been for the queen.
The young lady thinks that if the Knight
Knew the queen present at the window
Contemplating it,
He would regain strength and courage,
And, if she knew her name herself,
She would gladly shout at him
Let him look up.
She then approached the queen and said to her:
"My lady, by God and for your
Well and for ours, I ask you
That the name of this knight
Tell me, if you know,
For helping him.
- You asked me such and such a thing,
Lady, said the queen,
Where I see no evil
Nor anything to blame, just the opposite.
Lancelot du Lac is called
The Knight, as far as I know.
- My God, how light-hearted I am
And full of joy! », Says the young lady.
So she comes forward quickly and calls him
At the top of my lungs,
So loud that everyone hears it:
“Lancelot! turn around and look
Who has his eyes fixed on you! "
When Lancelot hears his name,
It doesn't take long to turn around
And see above him
The person of the world
That he wanted to see the most,
Seated in the lodges of the tower.
From the moment he saw her
He neither turned nor mutated,
Nor did he take his eyes and his face away from her,
Fighting with his back turned to Méleagant.
This one pushed him in front of him
Whenever he could,
Delighted because he thinks
That Lancelot can no longer defend himself
The people of Gorre are very happy,
While those of Logres are so dismayed
That they can no longer support each other -
There are many
Who sag in their confusion,
Falling on your knees or prostrate on the ground:
So some rejoice, others are sorry.
The young lady then screams
Again out of the window:
“Ah! Lancelot, why
Are you behaving in spite of common sense?
Before this day courage
And courage dwelt in you,
I neither think nor believe
May God ever make a knight
Who can compare
Yours in value and in price.
And now we see you so entangled
That you throw your punches from behind
And you fight with your back turned.
So stand in front of your opponent
While continuing to see the tower,
Because it is good to watch her. "
Lancelot feels such shame
That he despises himself,
Because he knows very well that for a long time
He got the bottom
And let everyone realize it.
So he backs up quickly
And having bypassed Méléagant, he forced him
To stand between him and the tower.
Meleagant strives
To resume his place before,
But Lancelot runs over him
And hits him so violently
With all his body and his shield,
When he wants to turn elsewhere,
That he rotates it in place
Twice or three, despite himself.
Strength and boldness grow at Lancelot,
Because love brings him enormous help
And because he had never hated
Someone as much as that
Who fights against him.
Love and a deadly hate,
So big that it never was,
Make him so bold and so valiant
That Méléagant does not feel like playing
But greatly fear his adversary,
Because he never approached or knew
So enraged knight,
And never a knight
Didn't hurt him or hurt him like that.
Without being asked, he recoils in front of him,
He seeks to erase
And to avoid blows that really displease him,
And Lancelot wastes no time insulting him,
But chases him with redoubled blows towards the tower,
Where the queen was leaning against the window.
Often he served her
Coming so close to the tower
That he had to stop:
He would have stopped seeing her
If he had taken a single step forward.
So Lancelot time and time again
Led Méléagant back and forth,
Wherever he sees fit.
However he stopped
In view of his lady, the queen,
The one who put the flame to his body
That he stirs up by looking at her,
And this flame made him
So aggressive towards Méléagant
That wherever he wanted
He could lead him and chase him past him.
As he would with a blind man or a cripple,
He walks it against his will.
Bademagu sees his son so distraught
That he seems powerless and no longer defends himself;
Concern seized him and he took pity on Méléagant,
And if possible he would find an arrangement,
But he will have to pray
The queen if he wants to succeed.
So he addressed her:
"Madam, I have shown you all my friendship,
I have served and honored you
Since I have you in my power.
At no time did I know anything
That I do not gladly do for you
On condition that she honored you.
Reward me now:
I want to ask you a favor
That you shouldn't grant me
If you didn't do it out of friendship for me.
I can see that my son
Obviously has the downside in this fight.
I don't say this because I regret it,
But for that Lancelot;
Who has the power, do not kill him.
You don't have to want him dead;
It's not that he hasn't done badly
Towards you and his adversary,

But tell him, please,
And thanks be to you,
May he refrain from hitting my son;
So you will be able to recognize
What I did for you, if you agree.
- Sire, because you beg me,
I am willing, said the queen;
Even though I had a deadly hatred
Towards your son, whom I do not love,
You had so much respect for me
That to please you
I want him to hold back his punches. "
These words were not spoken
In a low voice, but heard
From Lancelot and Méléagant.
He who loves knows how to obey so well
That it is early and willingly,
As a perfect lover,
What will please the one he loves:
Lancelot can therefore only obey,
He who was more in love than Pyramus,
If it was possible to be more in love.
He heard the queen's words,
And as soon as the last
He was out of his mouth,
As soon as she said: "To please you
I want him to hold back his blows ”,
Lancelot for nothing in the world
Would not have touched or moved Meleagant;
Even at the risk of being killed
He stops hitting and moving.
And his adversary hammers him with blows,
Transported with anger and shame,
When it is reduced
To need someone to intercede for him.
Bademagu, to reprimand his son,
Get off the tower as quickly as possible;
He intervenes in the fray
And said to Méléagant:
" How? 'Or' What ! Is it suitable
That you hit him when he doesn't hit you?
You are really too belligerent,
Too combative when there is no more time!
We know for a fact
That he got the better of you. "
So Méleagant, whose shame obscures reason,
Replied to the king:
"Maybe you go blind,
I don't think you can see it!
Because it is to be blind to believe.
That I didn't get the better of him.
- Seek then, says the king, who believes you!
Everyone who is here knows very well
If you are telling the truth or if you are lying.
The truth is known to us. "
With that, Bademagu said to his vassals
To force his son to step back.
These without wasting time
Carry out his order.
They quickly led back Méléagant.
But to push Lancelot back
The effort was minimal;
Méléagant could have done him great harm.
Without retaliation on his part.
The king then said to his son:
"Helping God, we must now
Consent to peace and return the queen.
All this argument,
We must abandon it, proclaim its end.
- You just uttered a great stupidity!
You speak in spite of common sense!
Go away ! Let us fight,
And don't get involved in this business anymore! "
The king declares that he will continue to interfere,
"Because I know that Lancelot would kill you
If you were allowed to continue the fight.
- Would he kill me? It's me rather
Who would soon have defeated him and put to death,
If you stopped intervening
And let us fight. "
Then the king said: "Help me God,
Anything you can say won't help you.
- Why not ? - Because I do not want to.
I will not accept that your madness and your pride
Cause your death.
He is crazy to bind whoever desires his own death
Like you do without realizing it.
I know you hate me
Because I mean to protect you from yourself.
But to witness your death,
I hope God won't allow it,
Because I would have too much trouble. "
He tells him so much and so much sermons him
That a pact is made,
According to which Méleagant releases
The queen, on condition
That Lancelot without the slightest delay,
As soon as he summons him to appear,
One year after the said convocation,
Will fight again
With Méléagant.
Lancelot raised no objection.
Everyone hastened to accept the deal,
And we stipulate that the fight
Will take place at the court of Artur,
The lord of Brittany and Cornwall:
This is where we stipulate that the fight will be fought,
But the queen must consent,
And that Lancelot promises
That if Méléagant triumphs over him,
She will return to Gorre with Méléagant
Without anyone trying to hold it back.
The queen accepts this clause of the agreement
And Lancelot is not opposed to it.
So we pacified them,
Separated and disarmed.
Gorre custom wore
That if one of the imprisoned managed to get out of the country
Everyone else could leave him.
All blessed Lancelot:
You may well guess
That then the joy was great,
And indeed she was.
The people of Logres all assemble
And celebrate Lancelot,
All saying so that he can hear it:
"Certainly, sir, we were very happy
To hear you called by your name,
Because we were then convinced
That we were going to be delivered. "
All this joy was accompanied by jostling,
Because everyone strives and tries
To get to Lancelot to touch it.
The one who can get the closest to him
Was happier than he could have said.
There we found joy and sadness,
'Cause those who are free again
Surrender to joy,
While Méléagant and his family
Have nothing they like,
They are thoughtful, gloomy and depressed.
The king leaves the square
Without leaving Lancelot there
For he takes her with him;
The latter begs him to take him to the queen.
"I have no problem with it," said the king, "
Because your request seems legitimate to me.
And I will show you Keu the Seneschal
Also, if you see fit. "
For a little Lancelot would have thrown himself at his feet,
He was so happy.
Bademagu is leading him now
To the room, where had come
The queen who was waiting for him.
When she sees the king,
Who held Lancelot by the finger,
She gets up out of politeness to Bademagu,
But her face expresses annoyance,
She lowers her head and doesn't say a word.
"Madame, this is Lancelot
Does the king, who comes to visit you,
What should make you happy and please you.
- To please me, sire? But not at all ;
I don't care about his visit.
- You surprise me extremely, Madame, said the king,
Who was very courteous and of generous feelings.
Where did you get such a mood?
Of course, you reward badly
A man who has served you so much
And who during his quest often
Risky his life in mortal perils.
Against Méléagant my son
He came to your aid and defended you,
He who made you angry.
- Really, sire, he has spent his time very badly:
I have no difficulty in confessing
That I am not grateful to him for what he did. "
Here is Lancelot stunned;
Yet he responds in a very humble tone,
Like a perfect lover:
"Madam, of course, I am in despair,
But I dare not ask you the reason for your welcome. "
Lancelot would have made many complaints
If the queen would have listened to him,
But to grieve him even more,
She did not deign to answer him a single word
And walked to an adjoining room.
Lancelot to the threshold
Followed her with his eyes and his heart.
In the eyes the journey was very short,
Because the room was too close;
They would have entered it willingly
After her, if it had been possible.
The heart, as lord and master,
And whose powers are much greater,
Walked behind her through the door,
While the eyes stayed behind,
Filled with tears, with the body.
Having taken him aside,
The king said to him: "Lancelot, I am astonished
Of what's going on, and i wonder
Why the queen can't stand
To see you nor wants to converse with you.
If she ever agreed to talk to you
It's not now that she should refuse
And avoid listening to you,
Because for her, you have done a lot.
So tell me if you know
For what reason, for what mischief
She received you with such coldness.
- Sire, until this very moment I did not suspect anything,
But indeed he does not like to see me
Nor to listen to what I have to say;
It makes me suffer and torments me a lot.
- It is certain, says the king, that she is wrong,
Because you put yourself in danger of death
By running such great risks for her.
But come on, beautiful sweet friend,
And you will go talk to the seneschal.
- Very willingly, he says, I want to go. "
They both go to the seneschal.
When Lancelot came in front of him,
It was the seneschal who addressed
The first word to Lancelot:
"How you have covered me with shame!" - And how could I do it?
Lancelot said, tell me;
What shame have I made you?
- A very great shame; you were able to carry out
A feat that I failed to accomplish,
And you did what I couldn't do. "
So the king leaves them alone,
He leaves the room alone;
And Lancelot asks
To the seneschal if he has suffered a lot.
“Yes, a lot,” he says, “and I still suffer:
I never had more pain than I have now;
It's been a long time since I would have died
Without the king who just left here,
Who showed me a pity
Full of sweetness and friendship,
So that, provided he knew about it,
Never anything that I needed
I missed only once -
Nothing that was not prepared for me immediately
As soon as he knew my need.
On the other hand, for each benefit that he did to me,
His son Méléagant,
A past master in the art of doing wrong,
Brought treacherously to him
Doctors and then commanded them
To put on my wounds
Ointments suitable for killing me.
I thus had a father and a stepfather,
Because when the king put
A good plaster on my wounds,
Wanting to do everything possible
To hasten my healing,
His son, in his treachery,
On the other hand sought to kill me,
And ordered that it be removed
To put a bad ointment in its place.
But I have the certainty
That the king knew nothing of all this:
Such murder or act of felony
Are things he would not have tolerated in any way.
But you don't know a thing about generosity
Which he showed with regard to my lady the queen:
Never by any lookout
Tower in a step was no longer carefully guarded
From the time that Noah built the ark,
So much he took care of her;
It doesn't even allow
May her son see her, which infuriates her,
Unless it is in the presence of a crowd of people
Or that he, too, is not present.
He shows her such great respect -
And for a long time he has treated her like this -
This noble king, to whom thanks be given,
According to the rules that she herself has formulated.
He never had another arbiter
Let her to determine her own conduct;
And the king esteemed him all the more,
Because of the loyalty she showed.
But is it true what I have been told,
May she feel such a great ire for you
That in the eyes and in the knowledge of everyone she refused
To speak to you?
- We told you the truth,
Lancelot said, without hesitating for a second.
But, for God, would you know how to tell me
Finally, why does she hate me? "
The other replies that he doesn't know anything about it,
But how weird and strange it does to him.
"Let everything be according to his will,"
Does Lancelot, who can only resign himself,
And he said: "I will have to take leave of you,
Because I'm going in search of Gauvain,
Who arrived in this country;
He pledged in front of me to come
Straight on at the Pont Sous l'Eau: »
So he left the room
To present himself to the king
In order to get permission to go in that direction.
The king willingly grants it to him;
But those he had delivered
And released from prison
Ask him what they are going to do.
And he said: "With me will come
All those who will want to accompany me;
And those who wish to stay
With the queen, may they stay there:
There is no reason for them to come with me. "
All those who want to go with him,
Happier and more cheerful than usual.
With the queen remain
Young ladies who display their joy,
And many lady and many knight;
But there is not one among them
Who would not have preferred to return
In his own country rather than stay there.
But the queen holds them all back
Because of Messire Gauvain who is about to arrive,
And said she won't move
Before hearing from him.
Everywhere the news has spread
That the queen is completely free
And that all the prisoners are released;
They will therefore be able to go without fail
Whenever they like and when they want.
All try to establish if it's true,
Nobody spoke of anything else
When the people all gathered together.
They get angry a lot
That the bad passages have been destroyed
So that we come and go as we want:
This is not the way it should be!
When the locals
Who had not been in battle
Learned how Lancelot had behaved,
They all headed to the place
Where they knew he was going
Because they think the king would like it
If they took and delivered to him
Lancelot. His people
Were all stripped of their weapons
And for this reason they were mistreated,
For those of the land came armed.
No wonder they managed to take
Lancelot, who was unarmed.
They bring him back all captive,
The feet tied under the belly of his horse.
And the others say, "You are doing wrong,
Lords, for the king guarantees our safety.
We are all under his protection. "
And they answer: "We don't know,
But so it is as our prisoners
That you will have to come to court. "
The noise flies and runs fast
Until the king his people took
Lancelot and put him to death.
When the king heard it, he was in great mourning,
And swears by his head - and by so much more -
That those who were killed will die in their turn;
They will never know how to justify themselves,
And, if he can hold them in his hands or take them,
There will be no remedy left but hanging
Or the stake or drowning.
And if they want to deny their crime,
He will never believe them at any cost,
Because they filled her heart too much
Of sadness, and made him so shameful
That he would deserve the contempt of all
If he did not take revenge;
But he will avenge himself, let no one doubt it!
The rumor continues to circulate
Until we reach where the queen is,
Sitting at the table, eating.
She almost took her own life
As soon as on Lancelot
She heard the lying news;
But she believes it to be true
And frightened so cruelly
That she almost loses the use of speech;
But to the people who were there, she said aloud:
"I'm so sorry he's dead,
And I'm not wrong to have sorrow
Since he came to this country because of me:
So it's only right that I feel this sorrow. "
Then she whispered to herself,
So that no one can hear it,
What to eat and drink
Never again will it be appropriate to invite him
If it is true that the one died
For the life of which she herself lived.
So, overwhelmed with sadness, she gets up
From the table, and she surrenders to her pain,
Without anyone being able to hear or listen to it.
Repeatedly, the fury to end his life
Pushes her to get caught by the throat;
But she is holding back the time to go to confession on her own,
And repents and beats his guilt,
Accusing yourself severely and pleading guilty
Of the sin she had committed
To the one she knew well
That he had always been entirely hers
And that he still would be if he was alive.
She suffers so much from her own cruelty
That she ends up losing some of her beauty.
His cruelty and his felony
Made her pale beyond measure,
As well as his waking nights and his refusal to eat;
She adds up the sum of her misdeeds,
And these pass each one before her;
She records them all and keeps saying:
“Unhappy! What could I have been thinking
When my friend came before me,
So that I do not deign to receive it with joy
Nor would you ever want to listen to it?
When I lacked regard for him
And refused to talk to him, wasn't that madness on my part?
Madness only? May God help me!
Rather, I committed acts of treachery and cruelty;
When I thought I was doing it all just for fun,
He didn't understand it that way.
And he has not forgiven me.
I alone administered to him
That fatal blow, I think.
When he appeared before me all smiling
And thought that I would express to him
My great joy to receive him,
And I never wanted to see him
Wasn't that a fatal blow to him?
When I refused to speak to him,
In a brief moment I deprived him
And his heart and his life.
Those two blows killed him, I'm sure;
It was not vague Brabançons who murdered him.
My God ! Can i redeem
This murder and this sin?
No it's impossible. Before it happens,
All rivers will be dried up and the sea will dry up.
Alas! How I would feel fulfilled
And what a great comfort for me
If only once, before his death,
I could have held him in my arms!
How? Yes: our two naked bodies, one against the other,
So that I had received as much joy as possible from him.
Now that he's dead, I'm a coward
Not to do everything to die, me too.
Why ? Does it harm my friend
If I continue to live after his death,
While I have nothing more to occupy me
Except the misfortunes I experience for him?
While it is after his death that I take pleasure in it,
Certainly, during his life, the suffering that I desire so much
Now would have been very sweet to him.
Very cowardly is the one who prefers to die
Rather than suffer for his beloved.
I certainly like him a lot
To mourn for a long time.
I prefer to live and suffer the bad things
Than to die and find rest. "
The queen's mourning was such
That for two days she neither ate nor drank anything,
And it was thought that she was dead.
There are many who bring news,
And bad news spreads more than good news.
Lancelot gets the news
That his lady, his beloved is dead.
Her mourning was great, do not doubt it;
All are well aware
Of the degree of his pain and his pain.
His pain was very genuine,
If you care to hear it say and know it,
Because she urged him to be disgusted with life:
He began to want his own death without delay,
But before that he composed a complaint.
From a belt he wore
It makes a slip knot at one end,
And, shedding tears, he said to himself:
“Ah! Dead ! As you stalked me
In good health you have transformed me into a very sick person!
I'm at the end of my strength, but don't feel any harm
Apart from the pain that weighs on my heart.
This pain is very serious, even fatal.
I want it to be so
And, if it pleases God, I will die of it.
How? 'Or' What ? Can't I die otherwise
Doesn't it please God to let me die?
If, of course, but may He allow me
To tighten this belt around my neck,
I think I can thus compel Death
To kill me in spite of her.
Death who never wanted
That those who don't want her
Don't wanna show up, but my belt
Will immediately bring it to my power.
And as soon as she comes under my authority,
She will do what I ask of her.
But no, it will come too slowly,
I am so eager to have him with me. "
So he no longer allows himself any delay, any delay;
He puts his head in the knot
And fixes it around his neck,
And so that the blow does not fail to strike,
He ties the end of the belt
Closely to the tree of his saddle,
Without anyone noticing;
Then he lets himself slide down to the ground,
Because he wanted to be dragged
By his horse until his last breath:
He does not agree to extend his life an hour longer.
Seeing him fall to the ground,
Those who rode with him
Believe he's passed out,
Because none of them notices the knot
That he had fixed around his neck.
They were quick to grab it,
And lift him up in their arms,
And that's when they found the lace
By means of which he had become his own enemy
By putting it around his neck;
They hurry to cut it:
But the lace had him so hard
Tried the throat
That for a while he could not speak;
It's just if the veins in her neck
And his throat hadn't all broken;
Now whether he wanted it or not,
He was no longer able to hurt himself.
He was very upset to be held in custody,
His pain almost exploded,
Because he would gladly have killed himself,
If no one had watched over him.
Since he couldn't hurt himself anymore;
He said: “Ah! Ugly and low death,
Dead, for God, didn't you have
Enough power and strength
To kill me, instead of taking my lady!
Did you dread doing an act of charity
By simply wanting or deigning to do it?
You spared me through cowardice,
No other explanation will ever be imputed to you.
Ah! what a beautiful service and what kindness from you!
How well you knew how to designate the object of your favor!
Woe to him who, of this great service,
Think of thanking you or of being grateful to you!
I don't know which of the two hates me the most,
The life that wants to keep me near it
Or Death who refuses to kill me.
So each one kills me in her own way;
But it is right - God forgive me! -
That I remain alive in spite of myself;
I should have ended my life
As soon as my lady the queen.
Let me know how much she hated me.
She doesn't do this for no reason,
The motive for his gesture was, on the contrary, the most solid,
But I don't actually know what caused it.
But if only I had known,
Before his soul went before God,
I would certainly have made amends for my fault in her
As completely and richly as she would have liked,
Provided she would grant me her mercy.
God ! this package, what could it have been?
I think maybe she had to learn
That I got on the cart.
I don't know of any other act that she could
Accuse me. This is the one who betrayed me.
If for that act she hated me,
God ! why did this fault cause me harm?
Love was never known
Of the man who would reproach me for a similar act;
It would be wrong to say
That a behavior that comes from Love
May deserve a reproach;
On the contrary, love and courtesy
That's all we can do in the service of the one we love.
I did nothing for my friend.
I don't know how to say it, alas!
I don't know if I can say "friend" or not,
I dare not give him that nickname.
But I think I know love well enough
To know that she shouldn't have
Despise me more for that, if she had loved me,
That on the contrary, she should have called me her sincere and true friend,
Because, because of her, it was an honor for me
To do whatever Love asks,
Even, get on a cart.
She should have interpreted it as a gesture of love,
As a true and authentic proof:
Thus does Love test hers,
So hers recognizes them.
But to my lady this kind of service
Did not agree; I realized it well
Seeing the attitude she adopted towards me.
Nevertheless what his friend did
For her has aroused towards him in many people
Accusations of shame, reproaches and blame;
Indeed I played the game for which I am condemned,
And what had been the sweetness of my life has turned into bitterness,
My faith, because such are the uses
Of those who know nothing about love
And who bathe honor in the dirty water of shame:
But the one who wets the honor with shame
Do not wash it, it defiles it.
It is indeed those now who know nothing about Love
Who constantly display their contempt for him,
And go away a lot of Love
The very ones who do not fear his command.
It is indisputable that is perfected
He who does what Love commands him to do,
And all will be forgiven him;
But the one who does not dare to do it is a pure coward. "
This is how Lancelot laments
And that his people are saddened by his side
Who keep it and who hold it.
In the meantime, the news arrives
That the queen is not dead.
Lancelot immediately takes comfort,
What if, before the idea of his death,
He had experienced immense and haunting mourning,
Her joy, at the news that she was living, became a hundred thousand times
Greater than his former despair.
And when they returned from the refuge,
At a distance of six or seven leagues,
Where King Bademagu was,
To him was told the news he received with joy
About Lancelot -
News that he listened to gladly -
That Lancelot is alive and well, completely safe.
He behaved with exquisite politeness
By going to tell the queen the good news.
And she replies: "Handsome sire,
Since it is you who say it, I am willing to believe it;
But if it had been that he had died, I confess to you
That I would never have known happiness again.
My joy would have strayed too far from me
If, out of dedication to me, a knight
Had agreed to receive and suffer death. "
Then the king separates from her;
The queen is longing
May her joy and her friend return to her.
She doesn't want to at all
To hold it against him for anything.
On the contrary, the news that endlessly
Short day after day spreading everywhere
Once again arrived at the queen herself
To teach him that Lancelot would have killed himself
For her if only he could have done it.
This news is her joy, she fully believes in it,
But for nothing in the world she did not want
That too great a misfortune had befallen him.
Here is finally Lancelot who arrives
By hurrying as quickly as possible.
As soon as the king sees him,

He runs to kiss her and give her a hug.
He feels like he's flying through the air
So much his joy makes him light.
But he shortens his manifestations of joy
Because of those who had taken and bound Lancelot:
The king told them that they came there only to seek their misfortune,
Because all are as if they were already dead and undone.
And they answered him
That they believed they were acting only according to his will.
"I am the offended one, while your conduct seemed right to you,
Acts the king, but he is not implicated.
You did not shame him,
But rather myself, who had him under my protection;
Whatever we do, shame falls on me.
But you won't brag about it,
When you leave my house! "
When Lancelot heard him say those angry words,
He strives to make peace and turn things around
By calling on all the talent of which he feels capable,
And he ends up getting there; then the king
Take her to see the queen.
This time the queen did not bow down
The eyes ; on the contrary,
She went joyfully to meet him,
Gave him all the honors in his power
And made him sit down next to her.
So they spoke to each other in complete freedom
Everything, according to their good pleasure;
There was no lack of things for them to say to each other,
Because Amour provided them with many subjects for discussion.
And when Lancelot sees the pleasure
How does the queen feel about everything he says,
And that nothing displeases him, then, very low,
He said to her: "Lady, in front of such a bad face
What you did to me the other day when you saw me
My amazement remains total,
Because you haven't told me a word about your reasons:
You almost killed me.
I was not then daring enough,
As is the case now,
To dare to ask you to enlighten me on this.
Lady, now I'm ready to fix the package -
As long as you tell me what it consists of -
Who upset me so much. "
And the queen answers him:
" How? 'Or' What ? Are you not ashamed
From the cart? Didn't she scare you?
You only went up there with great regret,
Since you've been waiting for the time to take two steps.
This is why in fact I did not want
Neither speak to you nor give you a look.
- May God save me another time,
Lancelot did, of such a misdeed,
And may God never have mercy on me,
If you are not quite within your rights!
Lady, for God, accept at once
May I make amends to you for the wrong done,
And if one day you have to forgive me,
For God, tell me!
- Friend, do you consider yourself to be free from me,
Made the queen, and fully absolved:
I forgive you wholeheartedly.
- Lady, he says, I thank you;
But here I can hardly tell you
Anything I would like;
I would like to talk to you
More at leisure, if possible. "
And the queen, with a small movement of the eye, and not of the finger,
Show him a window,
And she said to him: "Come talk to me
Tonight at that window
When those here are all asleep,
And you will come by this orchard.
Enter here or look for a gîte
For the night you will be forbidden;
Me, I will be inside, you will be outside,
Since you won't be able to get in here.
As for me, it will not be possible for me
To join you only by word or by hand;
But if it can make you happy, I will be
There, for the love of you, until it is light.
We couldn't really be together
Since in my room in front of me is lying
Keu, the seneschal, who languishes
Because of the wounds with which he is riddled.
And the door never opens,
On the contrary, it is securely closed and well guarded.
When you come, be careful
Let no spy find you.
- Lady, he says, where my skill will be exercised
No spy will ever see me
Neither will be able to form bad thoughts nor find fault. "
So they organized their tete-a-tete,
And they part ways happily.
Lancelot comes out of the room,
And his happiness is such that he no longer remembers her
None of the many troubles he had suffered.
But the night is long overdue,
And the day seemed to last longer,
Depending on what he does to her,
Than a hundred normal days, and even longer than a whole year.
It's been a long time and willingly that he would have presented himself
See you if only night had fallen!
This one struggled so hard to come to the end of the day
That, black and dark, she succeeds
To wrap her in her coat
And to dress it up with its screed.
When he saw that the day had lost its brightness,
He gives himself the air of a weary and tired man,
And he said he had watched a lot,
That he needed to rest.
You can easily understand and explain -
Those of you who have done the same -
Why, in front of the people of his hotel,
He plays the one who is sleepy and wants to go to bed;
But it is not his bed that he takes to heart,
Because for nothing in the world he would not rest there.
He couldn't have, he wouldn't have dared,
He wouldn't have wanted to have either
The daring or the strength to do it.
As quickly as possible and quietly he got up from the bed,
Without regretting a moment
The absence of the moon and the stars,
And, in the house, all candle light
Or a lighted lamp or lantern.
On the contrary, he endeavors to ensure
That no one notices his movements,
And that we believe that he was sleeping peacefully
In his bed all night long.
Without a companion to guide him
He goes without delay to the orchard,
And at no time did he meet a living soul;
Luck continued to favor him,
Because a section of the wall of the orchard
Very recently collapsed.
Through this breach he enters
Quickly and he manages to
The window where he stands
Quiet and still, preventing himself from coughing or sneezing,
Until the queen arrives
Dressed in a very white shirt;
She hadn't put on a coat or bliaut,
But she was wearing a short coat
Scarlet and cisemus.
When Lancelot sees the queen
Who leans against this window
Grilled with strong iron bars,
He begins the interview with a gentle greeting he addressed to her.
She gives it back to him immediately,
Because their shared desire was very strong -
From him for her, from her for him.
Nothing low or boring comes in
In the words they say.
They do everything to get close to each other,
And they hold hands.
The fact that it is not possible for them to come together better
Annoys them enormously,
And they curse the iron bars.
However Lancelot prides itself on
- If however the queen agrees -
To be able to enter where it is:
He won't stay outside just because of the bars.
And the queen answers him:
"Can't you see how much these irons
Are they stiff to force and strong to break?
You will never be able to squeeze them with enough force,
Or pull them towards you, or shake them
So that we can rip them off for good.
- Lady, he says, do not worry!
I don't think iron is worth much;
Apart from yourself nothing is able to stop me
To go straight to you.
If your agreement grants it to me,
The way is completely open to me;
But if, on the contrary, you did not like to give it to me,
I would remain so perfectly blocked
That for nothing in the world I could not pass there.
- Yes, of course, she says, I want to,
It is not my will that immobilizes you;
But you have to wait
That I am back in my bed,
So that no bad luck happens to you because of some noise;
There would be neither frolics nor pleasure
If the seneschal, who sleeps here,
Was awakened by a noise we would have made.
So it is right that I go away,
Because he wouldn't see anything good
If he noticed my presence here.
- Lady, he said, hurry to go,
But don't fear in any way
That I make the slightest noise.
I intend to remove these bars so gently
That I will have no trouble doing it,
And I won't wake anyone up by doing it. "
So the queen leaves him,
And he is getting ready and getting ready
To conquer the window.
He attacks the bars, pulls them and shakes them
So much so that he ends up bending them all
And manages to tear them off.
But their iron was so sharp
That with the little finger to the muscles
He opened the first phalanx,
And that he sliced on the neighboring finger
The first join entirely;
But blood which, drop by drop, falls,
Nor of wounds he feels nothing at all,
His thought being fixed on something else.
The window is not very low,
Nevertheless Lancelot crosses it
Very quickly and freely.
He finds Keu sleeping in his bed,
And then he came to the queen's bed
Before whom he bows like a worshiper,
For he does not believe in any holy relic as much as he believes in her.
And the queen hands him
His arms meet him, and then embrace him
And embraces him to his heart,
While pulling him close to her in her bed
Where she gives him the most beautiful welcome
That it is possible for him to do,
Because she is invited there and by Love and by her heart.
Love urges her to receive him in this way.
But if she had a great love for him,
He felt for her a hundred thousand times more,
Because love deprived all other hearts
When she lavished her goods on his;
It is in his own heart that Love resumed
All his strength and displayed all his strength,
To the point of becoming impoverished in the hearts of others.
Now Lancelot has everything he wants,
Since the queen gladly accepts
His sweet company,
Since he holds her in his arms
And she holds him between her own.
The pleasure he feels is so sweet and good
- Pleasure of kisses, of the senses -
That it happened to them without a lie
A joy and a wonder
As their equals never again
Were not told nor known;
But I will always maintain the most perfect silence
On what not to say in a tale.
Of all the joys it was the most exquisite
And the most delectable
Let the story pass in silence and keep a secret.
Lancelot was overwhelmed with joy and pleasure
Throughout that night.
But the day finally arrives, which annoys her very much,
Since he has to get up from his friend.
When he got up he lived the ordeal of perfect martyrdom,
Because leaving seemed so painful to him,
And he suffered a great martyrdom.
Her heart keeps dragging her there
Where the queen stayed.
To bring back his heart remains out of his power,
Because the queen pleases him so much
That he has no desire to leave her:
The body moves away, the heart remains.
He returns directly to the window;
But of his body there is enough left,
Since the sheets are stained and dyed
Blood that fell from his fingers.
It is in deep distress that Lancelot leaves,
Overflowing with sighs and tears.
There was no question of fixing a new appointment,
Which grieves him, but such a thing cannot be.
It is with great regret that he passes the window again
Whence he entered with such good heart;
He no longer had very strong fingers,
For he had been seriously wounded there;
Yet he straightened the iron bars
And put them back in place,
So that neither in front nor behind,
Nor from both sides,
It does not appear that one would have removed
Only one of the irons, nor that it would have been pulled or bent.
As he left he bowed
To the bedroom, behaving
Just as if he was in the presence of an altar.
Then he goes away with death in his soul;
He doesn't meet anyone who recognizes him
While he returns to his hotel.
He lies naked in his bed
Without ever waking anyone up.
So he is surprised to discover
That his fingers are injured;
But in nothing he is moved by it,
Because he knows for sure
It was while he tore the bars off the wall
From the window he hurt himself;
For that he was not troubled,
Because he would have liked better than with his body
Both whole arms were torn off
That he had not succeeded in passing through the window;
But if he had suffered a similar injury elsewhere
And would have mistreated himself so seriously,
His grief and his anger would have been very great.
In the morning the queen,
Locked up in her room, well furnished with curtains,
Very slowly had fallen asleep;
She did not realize that her sheets
Were stained with blood,
But, on the contrary, she thought they were very white
And all beautiful and perfectly suitable.
And Méléagant, from
That he was dressed and ready,
Walked to the bedroom
Where the queen was lying.
He finds her awake and he sees the sheets
Spotted and as if speckled with drops of fresh blood;
Nudging his companions
And like someone who seeks to find evil in it,
He turns his gaze to the bed of Keu the Seneschal
Where he sees, there too, the stained sheets
Blood, because during the night - mark it well -
Keu's wounds had reopened.
And he said: "Madam, I have finally found
The proofs that I had been looking for for a long time!
It is quite true that we commit the greatest madness
When we spend ourselves in order to preserve the honor of a woman,
Because we lose our effort and our pain;
Whoever does the most to watch her
Loses his pain faster than the one who does not take offense.
My father exercised great vigilance
Seeking to watch you because of me!
He has kept you well against me;
But tonight it's Keu the Seneschal
Who looked at you, despite his precautions,
And from you he got everything he wanted,
And it will be proven beyond the slightest possible doubt.
- How? 'Or' What ? she does. - I've found
Blood on your sheets, irrefutable testimony,
Since I have to say it.
This is how I know it, as I prove it,
Because I find on your sheets and on his
The blood that fell from his wounds:
These are very authentic clues. "
So the queen noticed for the first time
In either of the two beds
The bloody sheets, and she is very surprised;
She felt ashamed, she blushed,
And she said, "God protect me,
This blood that I watch in my sheets
Keu never brought it here,
My nose bled last night, nothing more;
It was my nose, I'm sure. "
And she thinks she's telling the truth.
"By my boss," says Méléagant, "
You're just talking nonsense.
Anything you can say will be pointless,
Because you are guilty without a doubt,
And light will be shed on your actions. "
So he said, “Lords, don't move from here! "
To the guards who were there,
"And see that they are not removed
The sheets on this bed before I got back.
I want the king to recognize my right
When he sees this thing with his own eyes. "
So he looked for the latter and ended up finding it,
And he throws himself at her feet,
Saying: "Sire, come and see
What you don't know exists.
Come see the queen,
And you will see surprising but genuine things
That I have seen and discovered;
But before you get there,
I beg you not to fail me,
Neither in court nor in relation to convenience:
You well know the perils
That I endured in order to get the queen -
What has earned me to have an enemy in you,
Because it's because of me that you keep her.
This morning I went to see her while she was
Still in bed, and I was careful
Enough to be able to see
May Keu sleep with her every night.
Sire, for God, do not this upset you
If this behavior bothers me and if I lament,
Because she makes me feel a great spite,
Since the queen hates me and despises me,
And that Keu sleeps with her every night.
- Shut up! Said the king, I don't believe it at all.
- Sire, come and see the sheets,
And how Keu treated them.
Since my word does not inspire you with confidence,
And that on the contrary you think that I am lying to you,
The sheets and the bloody blanket
Keu's wounds, I'll show you.
- So let's go, and I'll see it all,
Do the king, because I want to see him:
My own eyes will teach me the truth in this matter. "
The king hurries to win
The room where he found
The queen who was getting up.
He sees the bloody sheets on his bed,
As well as on Keu's bed,
And he said: "Lady, this is going very badly
If what my son told me is true. "
She replies: "May God protect me,
Never, even telling a nightmare,
We never invented such a nefarious lie.
I think Keu the seneschal
Is far too courteous and loyal
To never deserve that one considers his good faith insufficient;
And, for my part, I do not sell
Neither does my body deliver it to whoever wants it.
It is undeniable that Keu is by no means one of those
Who could claim such outrage from me,
And, as for me, I never had any desire
To commit such madness and I will never have it.
- Sire, I would be very grateful to you,
Said Méleagant to his father,
If Keu atones for his crime
So that shame reaches the queen too.
Justice depends on you and rises,
And I pray and ask you to return it now.
Keu betrayed King Artur,
His lord, who believed in him so much
That he had entrusted to her
The being he loves the most in the world.
- Sire, allow me to answer,
Done Keu, and I will exonerate myself.
May God, when I leave this world here below,
Don't forgive my soul
If I ever slept with my lady.
Obviously I'd rather be dead
Whether such a horror or a similar crime
Was committed by me to my lord;
And that God never gives me
Better health than I have now,
On the contrary, he deprives me of my life right away,
If ever the idea even occurred to me.
But I'm expert enough when it comes to my injuries
To know that last night they bled profusely
And that my sheets were stained with it.
This is why your son accuses me,
But in truth he has no right to do so. "
And Méléangant replies:
"Help me God, you have been bribed
By devils and evil demons;
You were too hot last night,
And it was undoubtedly overworking you like this
That you made your wounds burst.
There is no point in telling stories:
The presence of blood in the two beds is proof of this;
We can see her clearly, she is obvious.
It is right that we pay for our crime
When his guilt is established.
Never a knight of your fame
Did not commit such an insolent outrage,
So your crime has shamed you.
- Sire, sire, said Keu to the king,
I will be ready to defend my lady and myself
Against what your son accuses me of;
He puts me to death and torture,
But it is really wrong that he torments me.
- You won't have to fight,
Do the king, for you are suffering too much.
- Sire, if you will allow it,
As sick as I am
I will fight against him
And I'll show that I'm innocent
Of this reprehensible act of which he accuses me. "
The queen on her side had sent for
In secret Lancelot,
And she tells the king that she will have at her disposal
A knight to defend
The seneschal in this matter
Against Méléagant, if he dares to accept the fight.
And Meleagant was not long in declaring:
"Of all the knights there is not one
Against whom I do not agree to fight,
Until one of us is knocked out
Even if it was a giant. "
Then Lancelot entered the room;
There was such a crowd of knights
That the room was completely filled with it.
Upon arrival,
In front of everyone - young and old -
The queen tells what just happened,
And she said, "Lancelot, this shame,
It was Méléagant, here present, who imputed it to me;
So he made me suspicious
In the eyes of all who hear him speak,
Unless you force him to retract.
That night, he said, Keu slept
With me, since he saw
My sheets and hers stained with blood,
And he says his crime will be severely punished
If he fails to defend himself against him,
Or if he can't find another who accepts
The fight to help him.
- You will never need to plead your case,
Lancelot says, where I am.
God forbid that you are suspected,
Neither you nor he, such an outrage;
I'm ready to take the fight to prove
That at no time did he think of doing such a thing.
If in me there is the minimum of strength,
I will defend it as best I can;
For him I will undertake the battle. "
And Méléagant leaps forward
And he said: "May the Lord preserve me,
I gladly accept, and it suits me very well:
Let no one think that this bothers me in any way. "
And Lancelot said: "Sire king,
I know something about causes and laws,
And trials and judgments:
The procedure requires that you take an oath
When it comes to such serious accusations. "
And Méléagant, unsuspecting,
Answers him immediately:
"Let the oaths be taken then,
And let the relics of saints come immediately,
Because I know very well that I have the right on my side! "
And Lancelot says aloud:
"May the Lord help me,
Keu the seneschal never knew
Whoever could have suspected him of such a thing. "
They then claim their horses
And they have their weapons brought;
We bring them to them immediately,
And the servants clothe them: they are armed;
The relics are already on display in their place.
Méléagant takes a few steps
And Lancelot, by his side, does the same,
And both get on their knees;
And Meleagant holds out his hand
Towards the holy relics and swears with a loud voice:
"May God and his saints help me,
Keu the seneschal shared
The queen's bed tonight
And of her he had all his pleasure.
- And I, says Lancelot, I accuse you of perjury
And I solemnly swear
That he did not sleep there and that he did not touch her.
And that one of us who would have lied,
May it please God to punish him
And thus prove which side the truth is on.
But I'll still take an oath
And I will swear on top of that -
Whoever it annoys or offends -
That if he grants me today
To gain the upper hand on Méléagant,
With his help and that of these relics
That here, and by virtue of no other power,
I will have no mercy on him! "
Bademagu felt no pleasure
To hear this oath.
When the oaths were taken,
The steeds were brought from the stables,
Two beautiful and excellent steeds.
Each of the two adversaries climbs on his own,
And they ride against each other
As fast as their mounts can wear them;
And by the time they reach their top speed
The two knights collide
With such fury that they have nothing left
Of their spears that a stump in the hand.
They send each other rolling on the ground,
But without showing signs of exhaustion,
Because they are quick to get up.
They hurt each other as much as they can
With the sharp blades of their swords.
Sparks from the helmets
Shine and rise to the sky.
They attack each other with such anger,
Their drawn swords in their hands,
That, as they come and go,
They hit each other,
Without trying to rest
To catch your breath.
The king who finds what he sees very painful
Calls out to the queen,
Who had gone to lean on
Upstairs in the lodges of the tower.
He asks her in the name of God the Creator
May she allow them to separate.
The queen answers in all sincerity:
"Whatever suits you and pleases you
Find me ready to accept it. "
Lancelot heard it right
What the queen replied
At the request of Bademagu;
He didn't want to fight anymore,
From that moment he gave up the fight.
But Méléagant, who does not dream of resting,
Strikes on Lancelot with redoubled blows.
The king throws himself between the two adversaries
And holds the arm of his son, who says and swears
That an agreement is the least of his worries:
“I want to fight, I refuse to make peace. "
The king declares: "Shut up
And believe me. You will be wise to obey me.
Of course, you will not incur shame or damage
If you listen to me.
So you will do what it is for you to do!
Don't you remember
That at the court of King Artur
Are you going to fight him as agreed?
And don't you believe
That it would be a greater honor for you
To triumph there than elsewhere? "
So says the king to see
If he couldn't move him.
He manages to appease her, and he separates the two fighters.
Lancelot, to whom he is longing
To find Messire Gauvain,
Come ask permission to leave
To Bademagu and the queen.
With their consent he goes
Towards the Pont-sous-l'Eau.
He was accompanied
Many knights.
But there was enough
Whose absence he would have liked.
They ride all day long,
As long as they approach the Pont-sous-l'Eau,
But they are still a league away.
Before you come close enough
To be able to see it,
They met a dwarf
Perched on a big hunting horse
And holding in my hand a whip
To strike and hasten his mount.
And here he is asking,
As he received the order:
"Which of you is Lancelot?"
Do not hide it from me, I am one of you;
But say it without fear,
Because I ask you to be useful to you. "
Lancelot himself answers him,
Saying, "I am
The one you want.
- Ah! Said the dwarf, noble Knight,
Leave these people behind and believe me:
Come alone with me
Because I want to lead you to an excellent place.
Let no one follow you, I ask you,
But let them wait for us right here
Because we will be back shortly. "
The one who suspected no pitfalls
Made his escort stay there
And follows the dwarf betraying him.
His people who remain waiting for him
Will be able to wait a long time,
Because those who got hold of him
Have no desire to return it.
And his people are lamenting so loud,
When he doesn't come back
That they don't know what to do.
They all say the dwarf
Betrayed them, and their grief is great;
It would be idle to doubt it.
Dolents, they start to look for him,
But they don't know where to find it
Or where to go in search of it;
They consult with each other.
The most sensible and the wisest
Decide, as far as I know,
That they will grow
To the nearby Pont-sous-l'Eau,
Then they will go get Lancelot
After taking advice from Messire Gauvain,
If they find him around.
This decision satisfies everyone,
No one is against it.
They are heading towards the Pont-sous-l'Eau;
As soon as they get there,
They saw Messire Gauvain,
Who had fallen from the bridge
In very deep water there.
Sometimes it rises to the surface and sometimes it disappears,
Now we see it and then we lose sight of it.
They do so much and so well that they grab it
Using branches, poles and fangs.
He only had the hauberk on his back
And on his head his helmet,
A helm that was worth ten more.
He was still wearing his iron breeches,
All rusty from her sweat,
For he had endured so many trials,
He had faced many perils
And triumphed in many battles.
Lance, shield, horse
Stayed on the other side.
But those who fished it out
Don't believe he's alive,
Because Gauvain had swallowed a lot of water.
Before he regurgitated it,
He was unable to be heard.
But when voice and word returned
And that he had cleared his back throat,
So that we could hear it,
As soon as he could speak,
He did;
Immediately he inquired about Queen Guinevere
To those who stood before him,
Did they know any news?
They answered him
May she not leave King Bademagu,
Who provides for his needs
And greatly honor him.
"Did no one come to fetch her
In this land ?, asks Messire Gauvain.
- Yes, they answer.
- Who is that ? - Lancelot du Lac, they say,
Who crossed the Pont de l'Epée.
He rescued and rescued her,
And all of us with her.
But a dwarf betrayed us,
A hunchbacked and grimacing runt:
He ugly cheated on us
The one who stole Lancelot from us.
We don't know what he did with it.
- And when?, Says Messire Gauvain.
- This very day, sir,
Very close to here, while Lancelot and us,
We came to meet you.
- How did he behave
Since arriving in this country? "
So they start
To tell him from start to finish
Without forgetting a single detail the exploits of Lancelot.
As for the queen, they tell her
That she waits for him and declares
That nothing will make her go away
De Gorre before she saw him,
Whatever she hears about him.
Messire Gauvain asks them:
"When we leave this bridge,
Shall we go looking for Lancelot? "
Not a single one who does not opine
That it is better to go find the queen,
That Bademagu will take care of getting Lancelot.
They think her son treacherously
Had him imprisoned,

This Méleagant who hates him.
Wherever Lancelot is, if the king knows,
He will force his son to release him,
We can count on it.
All agree with this opinion
And they set off.
They ride to the residence
Where are Bademagu and the queen,
Also Keu the seneschal,
And this villain
Full of treachery,
Who worried so much
About Lancelot those who arrive.
They consider themselves mortally betrayed,
And lament, for their anxiety is great.
This is not pleasant news
That one carries to the queen;
Nevertheless, she behaves
As pleasantly as she can.
Because of Messire Gauvain it is necessary
Let her hide her pain, and she succeeds.
However she did not quite know how
Prevent him from appearing.
She is both rejoicing and saddened at the same time:
For Lancelot she suffers in her heart,
But in the presence of Messire Gauvain
She shows extreme joy.
There is no one who, having heard the news
Of the disappearance of Lancelot,
Do not be plunged into sadness.
The king would have been delighted
Of the arrival of Messire Gauvain
And get to know him,
If it is not his pain that Lancelot
Have fallen into a trap:
She is so tall that she overwhelms him.
And the queen urges him
That by hill and by dale
He sends for Lancelot,
Without wasting time, through his kingdom.
Messire Gauvain and Keu the Seneschal
Join her, and all the others:
There is no one who does not implore the king.
"Let me take care of this matter,
Bademagu done, and stop rushing me,
Because I've been ready for a long time.
This research will be carried out
Without needing your requests or your prayers. "
Everyone bows down to him,
And the king sends his messengers,
Throughout his kingdom -
Well-known and very capable servants -
Who through all the land
Ask for news from Lancelot.
Everywhere they asked about him,
But no news reaches them from Lancelot.
They go back empty-handed
Where the knights stay,
Gauvain, Keu and all the others,
Who declare that all armed,
With the lance stopped, they will set out on the campaign,
That they will not send any other in their place.
One day after eating they found each other
In the great hall, where they were arming -
The time had come
Of their imminent departure -
When a young man entered it
And walked among them
To get to the queen.
She was very pale,
Because having no news from Lancelot,
His suffering was so deep
That she had lost all color.
And the valet greeted her,
And Bademagu who was standing near her,
And then after that all the others,
Including Keu and Messire Gauvain.
He was holding a letter in his hand
Let him give it to the king, who takes it.
To a clerk who knows how to fulfill such a function
He had it read aloud.
The latter was able to decipher very well
What he saw written on the parchment.
The letter carried that Lancelot salutes
The king, his good lord,
Thanking him for such courteous treatment
And the blessings he received from him,
And declaring himself entirely
Subject to his orders;
Let Bademagu know without a doubt
Let him be with King Artur,
In perfect health and full of vigor.
And adds that he asks the queen
That she returns, if she wants to,
With Keu and Messire Gauvain.
The letter had everything it needed
So that we believe in its authenticity.
They were all delighted with what they learned
And the courtyard resounds with noisy joy.
The next morning
We decided to get started:
When it was day
They all get ready, equip themselves,
Get in the saddle and go.
The king accompanies them and leads them
Triumphantly
A good part of the way.
He leads them out of his domain
And when he did,
He takes leave of the queen
And all the others.
The queen very courteously,
By parting from him, thank him
For treating her so well.
She wraps her arms around her neck
And offers him and promises him
Her good services and those of her husband:
She couldn't make him a greater promise.
Messire Gauvain and Keu, all
As to their lord and friend,
Also make promises of service to the king.
Without stopping any longer, they resume their journey,
As Bademagu bids them farewell
And greet all the others besides these three;
So he returns to his kingdom.
The queen did not stop for a long time
No day all week,
Nor the procession she brings back.
The news reaches the court.
News which greatly pleased King Artur,
Let the queen come near.
The king rejoices
Especially since he believed
That it was thanks to the prowess of his nephew
That the queen is back,
She and Keu, and the lesser people,
But the truth is quite different.
The city empties at their approach,
Everyone goes out to meet them
And everyone exclaims,
Whether knight or villain:
"That Messire Gauvain is welcome,
He who brought the queen back,
And took many more captive to us
And many prisoner! "
Gauvain answers them:
"Lord, you are wrong to praise me,
Now stop talking like that,
Because I have nothing to do with it.
The honor you give me makes me ashamed,
Because I did not arrive in time;
I lingered too long on the way.
But it was Lancelot who arrived in time,
He to whom such a great honor has fallen
That before him no knight had known such.
- Where is he, handsome sire,
When we don't see him by your side?
- How where?, Says Messire Gauvain,
But at the court of my lord the king.
So it is not there? - Of course not,
Nor in all this country.
Since my lady the queen was taken away
We haven't heard from him. "
So for the first time Gauvain
Realized that Lancelot's letter
Was a fabrication
Who had misled them.
Here they are all plunged into sadness:
They come to court lamenting,
And the king asks right away
News of what happened.
Many were ready to tell him
Lancelot's exploits,
How he released
The queen and all the other prisoners,
How and by what betrayal
The dwarf took it from them and subtracted it.
This displeases the king greatly,
He is very sad about it,
But on the other hand her heart leaps with joy
To see the queen again,
In front of such happiness all sorrow disappears.
When he has in his possession the person he most desires
He cares very little about everything else.
While the queen was away,
I believe the ladies of the country
And young ladies of age to get married
Assembled
And that the young ladies
Declared it was high time
To find them a husband.
At the meeting we decided
To organize a tournament.
The lady of Noauz would take charge of one of the two camps,
The lady of Pomelegoi, on the other.
Those who will have the bottom
Will not be able to claim anything,
But those who will have the upper hand
The young ladies will want some for their husbands.
We made the tournament shout and proclaim
In all the neighboring countries
And even in distant lands.
The proclamation was made
Long before the fixed date
In order to attract as many people as possible.
The queen was back
Before the chosen date.
As soon as the ladies knew
That the queen had returned,
A large number of them
Went to court
And, once before the king, they prayed to him
To give them a gift,
To consent to their request.
He promised them,
Before even knowing what they wanted
That he would grant them their request.
So they told him they wanted
That he allowed the queen
To come and see their tournament.
And the king, who used to refuse nothing,
He replies if she wants to.
The ladies, very pleased with the king's response,
Go find the queen
And all of go say to him:
"Madam, do not repeat
What the king grants us. "
And she asks them:
" What is it about ? Say it to me ! "
So they say to him: "If you want
Come to our tournament,
The king will not seek to hold you back
And won't stop you from going. "
Queen says she will go to the tournament
As long as the king allows it.
Without wasting time, across the whole kingdom,
The young ladies send to say
And claim that they mattered
Bring the queen to attend
At the tournament on the appointed day.
The news spread
And far and near and here and there;
She has traveled so much
That she penetrated
In the realm where no one could return -
But for then everyone
Could go in and out
Without encountering any difficulty.
The news has spread
Throughout the kingdom of Gorre,
Until you reach the house
From a seneschal of Méléagant,
This villain well worthy of the fires of hell!
Said seneschal held Lancelot in his custody:
Meleagant had imprisoned him at home,
As a deadly enemy
That he hated in the extreme.
Lancelot got wind of the tournament
And learned the date.
From that moment her eyes were wet with tears
And his heart empty of joy.
The seneschal's wife,
Seeing Lancelot sad and pensive,
Asked him in secret:
"Sir, I beseech you, for God
And on your soul, to confess to me
Why you have changed so much.
You don't drink anymore, you don't eat anymore,
And I never see you joking or laughing.
You can safely tell me
What you are thinking and what is distressing you.
- Ah! madam, do not be surprised
If I am sad.
'Cause I find myself at a loss
When I can't be there
Where will all those who matter be:
That is to say at the tournament which will bring together
Everyone, it seems to me.
And yet if you liked it
And may God make you generous
To the point of letting myself go
You could be sure
That I would behave in such a way
That I would come back and become your prisoner.
- Of course, she says, I would
Very gladly if I did not see
My ruin and my death.
But I fear my lord so much,
Mixing the felon,
That I wouldn't dare to do it,
Because he would cruelly take revenge on my husband.
No wonder I dread it
You know how closed it is with all pity.
- Madam, if you are afraid
That I do not return to your prison
As soon as the tournament is over,
I will make you an oath
That I will not know how to violate:
That nothing will prevent me
To come back and make me your prisoner
Immediately after the tournament.
- Well, she said, I'm going to let you go,
But on one condition. - Which one, madame?
- Sir, you have to swear
Not only to go back here
But also make sure
That you will grant me your love.
- Madam, all the love I have
I give it to you, and I swear to come back.
- So I will have nothing at all now,
Laughing the lady,
I'm guessing you granted
To another
The love I want from you.
Nevertheless without the slightest disdain
I take what I can,
And I will be satisfied with that.
But I mean to receive your promise
Solemn that you will do so
That you will come back to my prison. "
Lancelot, without looking for an escape,
He swears on his Christian faith
That he will come back without fail.
The seneschal's wife then gives him
Her husband's ruddy colored armor
And the steed that was wonderfully
Handsome and strong and fiery.
Lancelot gets in the saddle and goes,
Clad in armor
Shiny and brand new;
He rides so well and so well that he reached Noauz.
He chooses to side with these people,
But lodged outside the city.
This valiant never had such a home,
For he was small and low;
But he didn't want to come down
In a place where he risked being recognized.
There were many noble knights
Installed in the castle,
But those outside the walls were even more numerous.
For the queen there came so much
That one in five could not find
To stay under a roof;
And out of eight knights there were indeed seven
Of whom not a single one would have come here
Without the presence of the queen.
For more than five leagues around
The lords had taken shelter
Under pavilions, galleries and tents.
And ladies and gentlemen
There were so many that it was marvelous.
Lancelot had placed his shield outside
At the entrance of his home.
To relax
He had taken off his armor and lay down
On a bed he found little to his liking,
Because he was narrow with a thin mattress,
And covered with a large sheet of hemp.
Lancelot, fully disarmed,
Lied on his side.
While he was resting on his pallet,
Here is a rascal, a herald of arms
Dressed in everything and for everything in a shirt -
He had left as a pledge at the tavern
His rating and his breeches -
Who came barefoot at full speed,
Without wind protection.
He notices the shield in front of the door,
Inspects it, without being able to identify
The coat of arms nor its owner;
He didn't know who was allowed to wear it.
Seeing that the door was ajar,
He enters the house and sees Lancelot
Lying on his bed. Having recognized him,
He crossed himself in surprise.
Lancelot, having looked at him,
Forbade him to speak of him
Anywhere :
If he dared to say his name and Lancelot knew it,
Better for him if he had
Tore out the eyes or broke the collar.
"Sir, I have always revered you,
Make the herald, and will continue to do so.
As long as I live
Neither for gold nor for silver I won't do anything
Who displeases you. "
He leaps out of the house
And goes off crying out loud:
"Here comes the one who aunera!"
Here comes the one who aunera! "
His announcement, the rascal shouts it everywhere,
And people are coming out all around
Asking him to explain what he is screaming.
The herald does not dare explain it,
But go repeating the same ad.
Note that this is the first time we heard:
“Here comes the one who will take the measure of others! "
The herald was the one who taught us
Shouting like that,
He was the first to say these words.
The groups are already assembled,
The queen and all the ladies,
Knights and many others,
Including a multitude of sergeants
Right, left and everywhere.
Where the tournament was to take place,
A large wooden platform stood,
To receive the queen,
Ladies and young ladies:
We had never seen so beautiful a platform,
So long and so well built.
This is where the next day
Surrendered the queen and all the ladies,
They intend to be spectators of the games,
Know who will conquer and who will be conquered.
The knights arrive ten by ten,
Twenty by twenty, thirty by thirty,
Here eighty, there ninety,
Here a hundred, there more, and there twice as much.
The press is so big
In front of the platform and all around
Let the fight begin.
Knights, armed or disarmed, assemble,
Their spears look like a forest,
Because so many have brought
Those who want to play it,
That we only saw spears,
Banners and gonfanons.
The jousters are getting ready to joust,
Because they find enough knights like them,
Also came there to joust,
And the others were on their side
To actions similarly chivalrous.
The meadows are full,
Likewise the plowing and the fallow fields,
Knights so numerous that we cannot count them,
So many there were.
But Lancelot was absent
From this first fray;
But when he appeared on the battlefield
And the herald saw him coming,
The latter could not help shouting:
"See the one who aunera!"
See which one aunera! "
And we ask him: "Who is it? "
But the herald would not answer them.
When Lancelot entered the fray,
On his own he was worth twenty of the other best knights.
He starts to joust so well
That none of the spectators
Cannot take her eyes off him wherever he is.
On the side of those of Pomelesglai fought
A valiant and valiant knight,
Sitting on a faster horse
Than a deer crossing a moor.
He was the son of the King of Ireland,
Who stood out for his blows.
But it's four times more than we admired
The Unknown Knight.
All urge:
"Who is this fighter who surpasses all the others?" "
And the queen pulls apart
A very shrewd young lady
And said to her: "Young lady,
You will carry me asap
A message of the shortest.
Get off this platform quickly,
You will go to that Knight over there
Who wears a vermeil shield,
Tell him in a low voice
That I ask him to do the most harm. "
The young lady hurries
To fulfill the queen's message.
She approaches Lancelot
As long as she can
And whispered to him,
To avoid being heard by neighboring people:
"Sir, my lady the queen,
You sent by me and I tell you:
"To the worst". When he heard the message,
He replied: "Gladly!" "
As a man entirely under the orders of the queen.
So he launches himself against a knight
With all the speed of his horse,
And misses his shot.
Then until the evening
He did the worst he could,
Because that's what the queen wanted.
And his opponent
Didn't fail him, but hit him
Strongly from all the weighing of his spear.
So Lancelot runs away,
And during all that day he never turned
The neck of his steed towards no other fighter.
Even to avoid death he wouldn't have done anything
Who would not have contributed to his shame,
His indignity and his dishonor.
He pretends to be afraid
Of all those who come and go.
The knights who previously
Sang his praises
Laugh out loud and laugh at him.
And the herald who was going repeating:
"Here is the one who will defeat them all one after the other!" "
Is dreary and crestfallen,
Cause he hears the taunts and sarcasm
Of those who shout: "Now friend,
You must be silent. Your knight has finished auner,
He has so much elbow that he has broken
This yardstick you praised so much. "
There are many who say, “What does all this mean?
He was so brave earlier;
And he got so cowardly
Let him not dare to face any adversary.
Maybe he showed himself so brave
Because he hadn't fought before;
By entering the lists he showed such ardor
That no knight, however experienced,
Did not know how to stand up to him,

Because he hit like a madman.
And now that he has learned the trade of arms,
Never again in his lifetime
He won't want to wear it.
His heart fails him for this task,
In the world there is no one so cowardly. "
The queen, who never takes her eyes off him,
Is delighted with what she sees,
Because she knows well, without telling anyone,
That she's dealing with Lancelot.
So until the evening
He made himself look like a coward.
When we dispersed,
We discussed a lot to establish
Who were those who behaved the best.
The son of the King of Ireland thinks
That undoubtedly possible
The glory and the prize of the tournament belong to him,
But he is seriously mistaken:
Many other knights had equaled him.
Even the Red Knight
Pleased with ladies and young ladies,
To the most elegant, to the most beautiful,
To the point that they had not eaten eyes
No other knight like him;
Because they had seen
As he had first behaved,
How brave and daring he had been;
Then he got so cowardly
That he dared not wait for any adversary,
The worst knight could have brought him down
And take prisoner, if he had wanted to.
But all agreed
That the next day they would return without fail
At the tournament, and the ladies
Would choose for husbands
Those who would win the prize of the day;
They agree and that is their plan.
We then went to the lodgings
And when it was done,
In various places
Knights were heard say:
"Where is the worst knight,
The one who covered himself with shame?
Where did he go ? Where did he lurk?
Where to look for it? Where can we find it?
We may never see him again.
Because cowardice is on his tail,
From which he received such a burden
That in the world there is no one so cowardly.
And he's not wrong, because it's more comfortable,
A hundred thousand times, to be a coward
Than to be bold and pugnacious.
Cowardice loves its ease,
So he kissed her with confidence
And borrowed everything he has from him.
No prowess ever stooped
To the point of resting in him
Or to sit next to him.
But cowardice is lodged in him
And found it so welcoming,
So ready to serve her and do her honor
May he lose his own honor. "
So late into the night clamber
Those who are hoarse by dint of slander.
But such very often slander of others
Who is much worse than the one
That he criticizes and despises.
Everyone therefore says what they want.
When the day dawned,
Everyone was ready
And all returned to the tournament.
Once again the platform received the queen,
Ladies and young ladies;
With them were many knights
Who were not armed; it was
Prisoners on parole or crusaders.
The knights explain the coats of arms to them
Of those they value the most.
They say to them: "You see
This knight with the band the color of gold
On his red shield?
It's Governaut de Roberdic.
And then do you see this other
Who on his shield has had it painted,
Next to each other, an eagle and a dragon?
He is the son of the King of Aragon,
Who came to this country
To gain honor and fame.
And do you see this knight very close to him
Who attacks and jousts so well,
And who wears a half-green shield,
With a leopard painted on green,
The other azure half?
It's Ignaure le Désiré,
Who knows how to love and be loved.
And the one who features on his shield
Two painted pheasants beak to beak,
It is Coguillant de Mautirec.
And do you see these two knights not far away
On these two dappled horses,
Whose golden shields are adorned with a black lion?
One is called Semiramis
The other is his companion,
Their two shields have the same color.
And do you see the one who on his shield
Made represent a door
Which does a deer seem to come out of?
No doubt, this is King Yder. "
So said those on the platform.
“This shield was made in Limoges,
Pilades brought it,
He who constantly wants to fight
And long for the fighting.
This other shield comes from Toulouse,
With all the harness,
It was Keu d'Estraus who brought them.
And this shield comes from Lyon on the Rhône:
There is none better under the sky.
For a great service rendered by him
It was given to Taulas of the Desert,
Who wears it wonderfully and well protects itself with it.
And this other shield is of English manufacture,
Made in London,
On which you see these two swallows
Who seem ready to take their flight,
But without moving they receive
Many blows of the poitevin steel swords;
It is Thoas the Younger who wears it. "
So they describe
The coats of arms of those they know;
But nowhere do they see
The Knight so despised by them,
So they believe that he has slipped away,
Since he did not join the crowd.
When the queen does not see him,
The urge takes him to send someone
Search through the ranks to find it.
She doesn't know who better to send there
That the one who was there
The day before on his order.
Immediately she makes her come near her
And said to her: "Go, young lady!
Get on your stable.
I send you to the Knight of yesterday,
Look for it and find it!
Do not linger on the way,
And again tell him
That he behaves "in the worst way"
When you have transmitted this injunction,
Listen carefully to his answer. "
The young lady does not linger,
She had noted the day before
Which way the Knight would go;
No doubt she knew
That we would send it back to him.
Through the ranks she advanced,
As long as she saw him.
She hastens to tell him in a low voice
That again he behaves badly,
If he wants to keep love and good graces
From the queen, from whom is the message coming.
And replies: "As long as she orders it,
I will obey him. "
Quickly the young lady leaves,
While valets, sergeants and squires
All start to boo
And shouting: "It's not to be believed,
The man with the scarlet arms
Is back, but what on earth can he be looking for?
There is no being more vile than him,
So despicable and so cowardly.
Cowardice has taken hold of him
To the point that he does not know how to resist it. "
The young lady returns to the platform
And approached the queen,
Who pressed her with questions
Before you hear the answer
Which gave him great joy,
Because she's sure now
That the Knight is the one to whom it all belongs
And that is entirely his.
The queen commands the young lady
To go find him as soon as possible and tell him
May she tell him and pray to him
To fight as best he can.
And the young lady replies that she will go away
Immediately, without looking for a deadline.
She goes down from the platform to the bottom,
Where his valet was waiting for him
With his palfrey.
She gets in the saddle and leaves
Find the Knight
To whom she says:
"Sir, my lady is calling you now
To fight the best you can! "
He replies: "You will tell him
Let nothing put me off
As long as it pleases him,
And that whatever pleases him pleases me. "
The young lady was not slow
To postpone the message,
Certain that the queen
Would be delighted.
As fast as possible
She walks to the platform.
The queen rises
And go to meet him,
But without going down the steps
She is waiting for him at the top of the stairs.
The young lady approaches,
Carrier of a very pleasant message;
She goes up the steps
And, coming before the queen,
She said to him: "My lady, I never live
So accommodating knight:
He wants to obey you
In all things.
To tell you the truth,
He reacts the same no matter what we ask him,
Whether he likes it or not.
- Well, said the queen, it could be. "
She then returns to the bay
To watch the jousters.
And Lancelot without further ado
Grabs his shield by the straps.
Longing
Show everyone his warlike qualities,
He turns his horse's head
And let him run between two rows of fighters.
Soon he will amaze
Those whom he deceived by his feigned cowardice,
And who have spent much of the day before
To make fun of him;
They had laughed for a long time
And joked about it.
Holding his shield by the straps,
The son of the King of Ireland
Spades both and rushes
Meet him.
They collide
So violently that the son of the King of Ireland
Loses all interest in the game,
For his spear is broken;
He didn't knock on moss,
But on hard and very dry wood.
Lancelot taught him one of those tricks
During the game:
He applies the shield to her arm
And squeezes his arm to the side,
And now he rolls it to the ground.
Immediately the knights of both camps
Arrive with a bang,
Some to free the son of the King of Ireland,
The others to encumber it.
The former want to help their lord,
But empty their pommels for the most part
During the melee.
Of all this day
Gauvain did not get involved in fighting,
Although he was there with the others.
He took such pleasure in watching
The prowess of the knight
With ruddy arms,
Than those of other fighters
Seemed to lack luster,
Compared to his.
And the herald, who rejoices greatly,
Shout out loud so that all can hear it:
"He has come who will aunera!"
Today you will see what he will do,
It is today that he will cover himself with glory. "
So Lancelot directs
And spurs his horse
Meet an elegantly armed knight,
And hits it so hard that it sends it rolling
Far from his horse, more than a hundred paces away.
He starts to fight so well
With his sword and his spear
That there is none among those who do not carry weapons
Who does not feel pleasure just to watch it.
Even those who carry guns
Find something to rejoice in it and take pleasure in it,
Because it's a joy to see
How he overturns and falls to the ground
Both horses and knights.
There is hardly a knight who, assailed by him,
Stay in the saddle,
And the horses he wins,
He gives them to whoever wanted them.
And those who liked to laugh at him
Say: "Here we are hated and lost.
We were very wrong
To denigrate and despise him.
In truth alone he is well worth a thousand
Of his many rivals in this field,
Because he conquered and surpassed them all -
All the knights of the world;
There is none that can match it. "
And the young ladies said,
Looking at him in wonder,
May he deprive them of any possibility of marrying him,
Because they did not dare to trust
To their beauty, to their riches,
Neither in their power nor in their place in the world,
Because neither for her beauty nor for her fortune
He would not deign to take any for a wife:
This Knight was too perfectly valiant.
And yet such wishes are made
By quite a few of them who say
That if they can't have him as a husband,
They will no longer have to be married during the year,
Nor to be given in marriage to anyone.
And the queen, who hears
What they are going to proclaim thus,
Deep down inside laughs and laughs at them;
She knows very well that for all the gold of Arabia
That we would spread out in front of him,
The best of them -
The most beautiful or the noblest - would not be chosen
By the one who provokes their desire.
And their will is common to all:
Each would like to have it for herself;
And they're all jealous of each other,
As if each were already his wife,
Because they see him so skillful
That they think and that they believe
That no other knight - they liked them so much -
Couldn't do what he was doing.
He did everything so well that by the time it was over,
From both camps we say without risk of lying
That there hadn't been another to compete
With the one who wears the vermeil shield.
All affirmed it, and it was true.
But when it was time to leave, he left
Drop his shield in the middle of the crowd -
Even where he could see she was the densest -
And his spear and his horse's bag;
Then he was off at full speed.
And he went away so quietly
That no one from the whole assembly
Whoever was gathered there, did not notice it.
And he set off,
Walking with a quick and direct step
To the place where he came from,
In order to fulfill his oath.
When leaving the tournament,
All seek it and ask for it;
They do not find him, because he has fled,
Because he doesn't want us to know him.
The knights experience great sadness and much sorrow,
Because they would have celebrated it a lot
If they had it with them.
And if the knights are sorry
From the fact that he thus abandoned them.
The young ladies, when they found out,
Felt an even more bitter pain,
And say that by Saint John.
They will not be getting married this year.
Since they don't have the one they wanted,
They had all the other quits;
So the tournament ended
Without a single one having taken a husband.
And Lancelot does not linger,
But quickly return to his prison.
And the seneschal got there two or three days
Before Lancelot,
And he asked where it was.
And the lady who had him
Offered his ruddy arms,
Beautiful and well maintained,
And his harness and his horse,
Tell the whole truth to the seneschal,
How she had sent it
Where we were circling,
At the Noauz tournament.
"You couldn't have done worse,
Madame in truth makes the seneschal;
It will happen to me, I think, a very great misfortune,
For Meleagant, my lord,
Will do more harm to me than the giant would treat me
If I had fallen, shipwrecked, under his influence.
I will be dead and ruined
As soon as he finds out what happened
For he will have no mercy on me.
- Handsome sire, have no fear,
Did the lady, such a fear,
You don't need to feel it at all;
Nothing in the world is able to prevent it from coming back,
Because he swore to me on the relics of the saints
That he would come back as soon as he could. "
The seneschal immediately mounts on horseback,
He presented himself before his lord and told him
All this lucky business;
But he reassures him strongly,
Because he tells her how
His wife obtained from Lancelot
That he would return to his prison.
"He will not falter,
Made Méléagant, I know it well,
And nevertheless I regret a lot
What your wife did:
I wouldn't have wanted for anything in the world
That he was part of the tournament.
But now get home quickly,
And watch, when he returns,
May he be so well kept in prison
That he doesn't come out anymore,
And that he can in no way dispose of himself;
And let me know right away.
- It will be done as you order, "
Does the seneschal, and he goes.
And he found Lancelot back,
Prisoner in his yard.
A messenger leaves at full speed,
Sent by the seneschal
By the most direct route to Méléagant,
And he tells him that Lancelot
Returned. And as soon as he heard it,
He summoned masons and carpenters
Who, either reluctantly or willingly,
Did not fail to do as he ordered them.
He sends for the best in the country,
And he told them to build him
One tower and do all they can
So that it was done quickly.
The stone was quarried by the sea,
Because near Gorre, on this side,
There is a large and wide arm of the sea:
In the middle of this arm of the sea was an island -
Méléagant knew this well.
It was there that Méleagant ordered the stone to be brought
And timber to build the tower.
In less than fifty-seven days
The tower was completed,
Tall, with solid foundations, thick walls.
When it was over
He had Lancelot brought there
At night and he locked her in the tower;
Then he ordered the doors to be walled,
And made all the masons swear
That by them never of this tower
It wouldn't matter.
So he wanted it to be secret
And that there was no door or entrance
Except a small window.
This is the place where Lancelot was forced to stay,
And we gave him something to eat,
But sparingly and painfully,
Through this little window
Which it has just been mentioned,
Just as had said and ordered
The felon overflowing with treachery.
Méléagant therefore did everything according to his will;
He then surrenders
Straight to the court of King Artur.
Here he is already there,
And when he came before the king,
Full of pride and vehemence,
He began his harangue:
"King, before you and in your court
I have made a commitment to fight;
But of Lancelot I don't even see the shadow here;
While he agreed to oppose me.
And yet, as it should be,

I offer my battle, in full view of all,
To those I see here now.
And if he's here, then let him come
And be able to keep my word
In your backyard after a year from today.
I don't know if you have ever been told
In what way and in what way
This battle was organized;
But right here I see knights
Who attended our agreements
And who would know how to tell you
If they wanted to recognize the truth.
But if he wants to challenge me about this thing,
I will not have recourse to a mercenary;
I will prove it on his own body. "
The queen, seated
Beside the king, draw him to her
And begins to say to him:
“Sire, do you know who this man is?
It was Méléagant, who took hold of me
While Keu the Seneschal escorted me:
It caused her a lot of shame and pain. "
And the king answered him:
"Madam, I understood it perfectly:
I know very well that it is the man
Who kept my people in exile. "
The queen said no more about it;
The king speaks his word
To Méleagant, and he said to him:
"Friend," he said, "may God help me,
From Lancelot we stay
Without news, which causes us great sorrow.
- Sire king, made Méléagant,
Lancelot tells me that here
Without fail I would find it;
I do not have to claim from him in any way
This battle elsewhere than in your backyard.
I want all these barons
Who are here present witness me
That I summon him to appear in a year,
According to the solemn agreements we made,
Where we made the commitment to fight. "
Moved by this speech, Gauvain puts himself
Stand up, because he's sorry
By the words he heard,
And he said: "Sire, from Lancelot
There is no trace in all this earth;
But we will have him researched,
And, if it pleases God, we will find him
Before the year ends,
If he's not dead or imprisoned.
And if he doesn't show up then grant me
The battle, and I will do it in his stead:
In the name of Lancelot I will put on arms
On the agreed day, if he does not return on time.
- Oh ! for the love of God, handsome sire king,
Made Méléagant, grant him his request:
He wants the battle and I too, please,
Cause I don't know a knight in the world
With whom I would like to measure myself,
With the sole exception of Lancelot.
But know well
That if one of the two fights against me,
No exchange or replacement
Will do my thing - I will only accept one of these two.
And the king says he grants everything,
If Lancelot does not return within the year.
So Méléagant leaves the scene
And the king leaves the court;
He did not stop until he had found
King Bademagu, his father.
In front of this one, in order to pretend
Of valiant and important man;
He began to compose his character
And to do the glorious.
On this day, King Bademagu held
A very happy court in Baden, its city.
It was the anniversary of his birth,
For this reason he kept it large and full;
People of various kinds attended,
Coming to him in very large numbers.
The palace was packed
Of knights and young ladies;
But among these there was one
Who was Méléagant's sister -
I will tell you shortly
What I think and intend to do with her,
But now I don't want to say more
Because that would take me away from my subject
If I spoke about it at this time;
I don't want to cripple him
Neither corrupt it or force it;
I prefer to make him follow a good and straight path.
So I will tell you now
What happened to Méléagant,
Which, publicly and in front of everyone,
Said aloud to his father:
“Father, he says, may God absolve me,
Please tell me the truth
Shouldn't we feel overwhelmed with joy
And aren't we of great merit
When at the court of Artur
Are we feared by the force of our weapons? "
The father, without listening to any more,
Answer his question:
"Son, he says, all those who are good
Must honor and serve
The one who can deserve this esteem,
And they should seek his company. "
So the king coaxes him and prays to him,
And told him not to keep silent
On the reason for this recall, to say
What he is looking for, what he wants and where he comes from.
"Sire, I don't know if you remember -
It is his son Méléagant who speaks -
Terms and the pact
That were formulated and recorded
When, thanks to you, we came to an agreement,
Myself and Lancelot, both together.
You remember it very well, it seems to me:
We are told in front of a number of people
To meet again after a year
At the court of Artur, ready for battle.
I went there on the appointed day,
All prepared and willing to do
What I went there for;
I did everything I was supposed to do;
I searched and claimed Lancelot
Who I had to fight against;
But I couldn't see or find him;
He ran away or he slipped away.
Well, I didn't come back empty-handed,
Because Gauvain has taken his oath
That if Lancelot is no longer alive
Or if he does not show up on time,
He told me well and promised
That this time no reprieve would be allowed,
But that he himself would fight
Against me, instead of Lancelot.
Artur has no valued knight
As much as this one, it is well known;
But before the elderberries bloom again,
I will see, me, as long as we manage to exchange blows,
If his fame matches his real abilities -
And I would like it to happen right away!
- Son, says the father, so it is rightly
That here you are considered a madman.
That the one who did not know it yet
Know by your own mouth the extent of your madness;
It is undeniable that those who have a good heart practice humility,
But the fool and the arrogant arrogant
Will never be freed from their madness.
Son - I say it for your own good - your character
Is so hard and dry
That it does not contain any sweetness or friendship;
Your heart is devoid of pity:
You are completely taken by madness.
This is why I find you unworthy;
This is what will eventually bring you down.
If you are really brave, there will be enough of them
Those who will know how to testify
When it takes;
The man of value does not need to boast
His courage in order to give more sparkle to his exploits;
It is the act itself that should be praised;
Not even the value of a lark:
This is what you gain in esteem by praise
That you do with yourself; on the contrary, I esteem you much less.
Son, I correct you; And so what ?
All that you can say to a fool is hardly worth
Because we always end up being dismissed.
When we seek to cure the madman of his madness;
And the good that we teach and reveal
No good if not implemented -
He immediately left and lost. "
Then Meleagant was struck with despair
And out of it;
Never a man born of a woman -
I can tell you -
Was only seen so filled with anger
That him; and because of this wrath
The straw was then broken,
Because he spared nothing
His father, telling him instead:
"Is it a dream or are you just delirious
When you pretend that I have dementia
Only because I tell you my way of being?
It's like my lord that I believed
Come to you, as to my father;
But appearances seem to be quite different,
Because you insult me more crudely,
I think you shouldn't;
You are unable to say the reason
For which you undertook this harangue.
- No, it's the opposite ! - So explain yourself!
- It's in you I don't see anything
Except madness and rage.
I know very well the operations of your heart;
He has new misfortunes in store for you.
Cursed be the one who will never think
That Lancelot, the perfect courteous,
Who by all except you is highly regarded,
Fled for fear of you;
In my opinion, he is no longer of this world
Or he's locked in a prison
Whose door is so tightly closed
That he cannot leave it without the authorization of others.
Surely what would do to me
The hardest thing to suffer would be
Whether he was dead or exposed to grave peril.
It would be too great a loss for sure
If such an exceptional being,
So beautiful, brave and serene
Had to disappear before its time;
But please God there is no question of it! "
So Bademagu is silent,
But everything he said and said,
One of his daughters
Had listened and heard him;
Learn that it is indeed the young lady
That I mentioned earlier in my story
And who is not happy when we tell
Similar things about Lancelot.
She realizes that she was locked up in a dungeon,
Since no one knows where he can stay.
“May God stop loving me,” she said,
If I ever take a rest
Before having him
Precise and accurate news. "
So without delay one more moment,
Without making any noise and without the slightest word,
She runs to ride a mule
Very beautiful and sweet looking.
But, for my part, I will tell you
That she doesn't know which direction
Take when she leaves the yard.
She does not know, she does not seek information,
But she goes the first way
That she finds, and she goes off well
Without knowing where, in an adventure,
Without a knight and without a servant.
She hurries a lot, in a hurry
To achieve what she wants.
She fidgets and she struggles,
But the affair will not be over anytime soon!
She must not rest
Or that she prolongs her stay where she stops
If she intends to carry out
What she set out to do:
Tear Lancelot out of his prison,
If she finds him and if she can do it.
Yet I think that before I find it
She will have explored many countries
And made many trips in all directions
Before hearing any news from him.
But what good is it to tell you
Its nocturnal lodgings and its days?
She has come so many ways,
Upstream and downstream, here and there,
That a month, or more, passed
Without her being able to know or more
Nor less than she knew before,
That is to say nothing at all.
One day, while crossing
A field, very sad and pensive,
She saw in the distance, on a shore,
At the edge of an arm of the sea, a tower,
But there was around, a mile away,
No house, hut or abode.
It was Méléagant who had it built
And who had Lancelot put there,
But the young lady ignored all this.
And as soon as she saw it,
She stared at her
Without looking away;
Her heart makes her a firm promise
That this is where is what she has been looking for so much.
She has finally come to the end of her efforts,
Because straight to her goal led her
Fortune after having tested it so much.
The virgin walks towards the tower
That she ends up reaching.
She walks around it, straining her ears and listening,
Focusing all his attention
To know for sure if she couldn't hear
Something that would make her happy.
She is looking down, she is looking up;
She notices that the tower is solid, high and massive;
She is surprised not to see
No door or window,
Apart from a small narrow opening.
Imposing by its height and very straight,
The tower had neither a ladder nor a staircase.
For this reason, she believes it's done on purpose like this,
And that Lancelot is locked up there;
Before you eat anything,
She will know if it's true or not.
So she wants to call him by name:
She wanted to call Lancelot,
But when she's just about to do it, she heard -
While she was still silent -
A voice that lamented
In the tower and who spoke of his extraordinary and cruel pain,
By not asking for anything other than death.
We demand death and we deplore its fate,
His suffering is unbearable, we want to die:
The one who spoke declared his contempt and his life
And of his body, and said
Faintly, in a low, hoarse voice:
“Ouch! Fortune, like your wheel
Looked ugly for me!
You made me spin it for my greatest evil,
Because I was at the top, I have now fallen to the bottom;
I used to be good, now I'm bad;
Now you shed tears at me, before you smiled at me.
Alas, miserable, why did you trust her,
Since she abandoned you so quickly!
In such a short time you caused my fall:
The expression "from so high so low" applies to me.
Fortune, when you played me that nasty trick;
You did a very bad thing, but what do you care?
The fate of people does not interest you at all.
Ah! Holy Cross, Holy Spirit,
How I am lost, how I am reduced to nothing!
I am nothing at all!
Ah! Gauvain, you whose bravery has no equal,
You who surpass all others in goodness,
Really amazed and can't understand
Why are you not helping me!
Really, you are delaying too much,
Your conduct is hardly courteous;
He deserves to have your help,
The one for whom you once had so much affection!
Really, on this side of the sea or beyond
- I can say without hesitation -
There is no remote place, no hiding place
Where I wouldn't have gone to look for you.
For seven or ten years,
If I knew you were in jail,
Until it's time to find you.
But what is the point of this debate that I am leading?
My struggles don't matter enough to you
So that you accept to make an effort.
The proverb of the villain rightly asserts
That it is only with great difficulty that one never finds a friend;
One can easily experience
Who is the true friend when misfortune strikes.
The ace ! It's been over a year since I was put
Here in this tower which is my prison.
Really, it's a thing unworthy of you,
Gauvain, than to have let me languish there.
I really hope that you don't know anything about it,
I hope I am wrongly blaming you.
Really, it is, I agree,
And I did you a great insult and a great evil
Thinking so, because I'm sure
That nothing in this sublunar world
Could not have prevented that had come here
Your people and yourself to set me free
Of this pain and this adversity where I am
If you had known it for real;
And you would have agreed to do it as a duty,
For reasons of love and friendship -
I will no longer say the opposite.
But it is all over, it will not happen.
Ah! That of God and of Saint Sylvester
Be cursed - and may God destroy it -
The one who condemns me to such shame!
No one is worse than him,
Meleagant, who out of envy
Did all the harm he could. "
So he stops talking, so is silent
The one who laments his fate.
But then the one down there waiting patiently
Had heard everything he said;
She wasted no time in waiting,
Because now she knows she has arrived at her destination,
And, sure of herself, she calls him:
“Lancelot! », She shouts at him with all her strength,
"Friend, you who are up there,
So talk to the one who is a friend! "
But whoever was inside did not hear him.
And the young lady redoubles her effort
Until the one who lacks all the strength
Can hardly hear it, and he wondered
With astonishment who could be the person who called out to him.
He hears the voice, he hears himself calling,
But he doesn't know who is calling him:
He thinks it must be a ghost.
He looks all around him
To see if he would see anyone;
But he only sees the tower and himself.
"God, is he doing, what am I hearing?"
I hear talk and see no one!
Certainly it is more than wonderful,
I am not asleep, but am wide awake.
Maybe, if this happened to me while sleeping,
I would know this is an illusion.
But I am awake and this mystery overwhelms me. "
He then gets up our without pain
And goes to the skylight
Dragging the leg.
Arrived near her, he leans on it
And manages with great difficulty to engage the head there.
After strolling his eyes outside
The best he could,
He saw the one who had called him,
Without being able to recognize it;
But she quickly recognized him.
“Lancelot,” she said to him,
I have come a long way to find you.
Now it's done,
Thank goodness I discovered you.
I am the one who requested from you,
When you were going to the Pont de l'Epée,
A gift you gave me
Very gladly, at my request:
It was the head of the knight defeated by you
And that I hated;
I made you cut it.
In recognition of this donation
I started:
I'll get you out of jail.
- Lady, thank you,
Said the prisoner;
I will be well rewarded
Of the service I have rendered to you,
If I get out of here.
If you can free me,
I can assure you and promise
That I will be your vassal from now on,
And I swear it to you by Saint Paul the apostle!
And as true as I wish one day to see God with my own eyes,
There won't be a day that I don't do
Anything you like to order from me.
You won't know how to ask
Whatever, if I have the power,
That you do not get it without delay.
- Friend, have no fear,
We'll get you out of here.
This very day you will be released:
It would be nice to give me a thousand books,
Nothing will prevent your exit from the tower before tomorrow.
Then I will find you a good asylum,
Where you will know rest and comfort.
All that is mine
Is at your disposal.
Fear nothing ;
But first we'll have to look,
Anywhere in this area
Whatever tool you can,
Provided I find it, widen that skylight
Enough to be able to exit through it.
- God allow you to find it! ”
Does Lancelot, who is entirely of this opinion;
"And I have plenty of rope here
That my jailers left me
To hoist my food,
Hard barley bread and stagnant water
That lifts my heart and makes me sick. "
So Bademagu's daughter
Go on a quest and find a solid peak,
As massive as it is acute as it sends upwards;
Lancelot strikes it and strikes the stone,
And so much hammers and digs,
Despite his fatigue,
That he is out.
Now joy takes hold of him,
Know that his joy is great,
When he finally escaped from prison
And that he is outside the tower
Where he's been locked up for so long.
Extended from his jail, he breathes in the fresh air;
I can tell you that for all the gold
Spread across the world,
If we had gathered it in a pile
And that it would have been given to him in payment,
He would not have gone back to prison.
Here is Lancelot on the loose,
But so weak that he was tottering
From exhaustion and weakness.
The young lady hoists him in front of her
On his mule gently, without hurting him,
Then they move away quickly.
She takes a side route on purpose
So that we don't see them.
They secretly ride,
Because if they had done it openly,
Someone could well have
Recognize them and put them in danger,
What she would not have wanted at any cost:
It therefore avoids dangerous places
And arrives at a home:
Where she often stays
Because of its sumptuous installation.
Accommodation and servants
Belong to him entirely.
The place was safe and secret
And there was everything there in abundance.
Lancelot got there with her:
As soon as he came to the mansion,
After stripping him of his robe,
The young lady extends her
On a beautiful and high layer,
Then she washes and heals him
So much so that I could not tell
Even half of what she did.
Slowly she handles it and massages it
As if it had been his own father:
She restores it and fixes it,
It is entirely that it transforms and changes it.
Now he has become as beautiful as an angel,
More flexible and more agile
That no one you've ever seen.
He no longer looks hungry or scabby,
He became handsome and strong again. Here he is up.
The young lady found him
The most beautiful dress she could,
Which she put on when she got up,
And he endorsed it with pleasure,
Lighter than a flying bird.
He kisses the young lady
And said to him in a friendly manner:
"Friend, it's yours alone
And to God that I give thanks
To have regained my health.
I owe you for being released from prison.
In return, my heart, my body,
My goods and my service belong to you.
You can dispose of it as you wish.
You have done so much for me that I am all yours,
But it's been a long time since I've been
At the court of Artur, my lord,
He who has always greatly honored me,
And where I have a lot of things to do.
So very sweet friend,
I will beg you to please
Allow me to go. It is gladly
That I would go, if you liked it.
- Lancelot, very dear friend,
Does the young lady, I want it well,
Because I want, wherever it is,
Your honor and your good. "
She gives him a gift of a superb steed,
The best we have ever seen;
He jumps in the saddle
Without asking for help from the calipers:
In the blink of an eye he was on horseback.
So they take leave of each other
And recommend each other to God.
Lancelot set off,
So overjoyed that even though I tried
I could not say
His happiness
To have escaped from the place
Where he was caught as in a trap,
But he goes repeating
That he will avenge himself on the unworthy traitor of his race,
Who was badly advised to keep him in jail
And whose trick he has just foiled.
"Well in spite of himself I got away with it!" "
On this he swears by heart and body
Of him who created the world
That there is neither having nor wealth
Of Babylon to Ghent
Who would allow Méléagant
To escape death, if he held it
And won the victory over him,
Because he has played too many nasty tricks on him.
But things look like this
That he will soon be able to avenge himself;
Indeed this same Méléagant
That he threatens and already believes he holds
Was that day come to the court of Artur,
Without having been summoned there.
As soon as he got there he asked for Gauvain
And got to see him.
So the traitor, the felon
Asked him about Lancelot,
If we had seen or found him,
As if he didn't know.
But precisely he was not aware,
Although he thought he was well informed.
And Gauvain assured him that he had never seen him
And that he had not returned.
"As long as I can't find it,
Done Méléagant, come on
Keep me the promise you made to me,
Because I will not wait for you any longer.
- I will keep you, answers Gauvain,
What we have agreed;
If it pleases God in whom I believe,
I fully intend to acquit myself to you.
But if like dice
I throw more points than you,
By God and Holy Faith,
I will seize the whole stake,
Without giving up anything. "
So Gauvain on the spot
Made to lay on the ground
A carpet in front of him.
At his command his squires
Did not slip away,
But without grumbling or protesting
They carry out his order.
They bring the mat and lay it out
Where Gauvain wishes.
So this one sits on it
And gets armed
By the servants he finds in front of him,
And who took off their coats.
There were three, I don't know
If they were his cousins or his nephews,
In any case, they knew their job well.
They arm it with such precision
That there is nothing in this world
That we could have blamed them,
By alleging some fault
Committed by them.
After having armed Gauvain
One of them brings him a steed from Spain
Able to run faster through
Countryside, woods, hills and valleys
Than the famous Bucephalus.
On the horse I'm telling you about
Climb this elite knight.
Gauvain, the most expert
Of all Christian knights.
He was already going to grab his shield,
When he saw descend in front of him
Lancelot whom he hardly expected to see.
That it appeared to her so suddenly
Seemed miraculous to him,
And i don't think i'm lying
Saying that a miracle happened
As tall as if Lancelot had fallen from the sky.
In front of him right now.
But now nothing is stopping Gauvain,
No task of any kind,
As soon as he sees that it's really Lancelot
He gets off his horse as quickly as possible,
Go to him with open arms,
Greets and kisses him.
He rejoices very much
To have found his companion.
I won't lie,
You can believe me,
By telling you that immediately Gauvain
Would have refused a crown
Rather than not seeing Lancelot again.
Already Artur knows, already everyone knows
That Lancelot, so long awaited,
Has come back safe and sound,
Whoever wants to get angry.
All rejoice
And to celebrate it the court assembles:
For so long we have wished for his return!
There is no one, young or old,
Who does not indulge in joy.
Joy erases and annihilates
The sadness that previously reigned at court:
Sorrow flees, and appears
The joy that so strongly animates them.
"And the queen, is she not participating
To all these celebrations?
- Of course she participates, and the very first.
- How so ? - But where do you want her to be?
She never knew such great joy
As she has with Lancelot's return,
How could she welcome him otherwise?
She stands so close to him
That little from it
Let her body follow her heart.
- Where is the heart?
- He covers Lancelot with kisses.
- And the body, why does it mark reserve?
Why is his joy not complete?
Is it out of anger or hatred?
- Certainly no, not at all,
But maybe many people
The king, the others around him.
Who don't have their eyes closed,
Would soon have discovered the case,
If in full view the queen had wanted to do
Everything his heart dictated to him;
And if his reason had not taken away from him
This crazy thought and this crazy desire,
All could have seen her deep feelings
And measure the extent of his madness.
This is why his reason controls
His burning heart and his fiery thought,
And calmed them down a bit.
The queen put things off until later,
Until she sees and finds
A more favorable and less public place,
Where she and Lancelot will be more comfortable
That they are not at the present time. "
Artur is kind to Lancelot
And, after showing him all his esteem,
He said to her: “Friend, for a long time.
I'm not so happy
To hear from someone
But I wonder in vain
In what land, in what country
You stayed so long.
A whole winter and a whole summer
I made you look all over the place,
Without anyone being able to find you.
- Certainly, sire, says Lancelot,
In a few words I can tell you.
Everything that happened to me.
Meleagant, this traitorous felon,
Held me in jail
From the moment that the imprisoned
In his land were freed.
He made me live in an abject way
In a tower near the sea.
It was there that he had me locked up.
And there I would still be living in distress
If it wasn't for a friend of mine,
A young lady to whom I returned.
Formerly minimal service.
In exchange for a very small donation
She gave me a wonderful gift.
She greatly honored and rewarded me.
As for the one for whom I feel no friendship
And who got me
Shame and misfortune,
I hear without the slightest delay
Give him the change of his coin.
He came to get paid and he will be.
He must not be moping
To wait for the payment, because everything is ready -
The amount loaned, principal and interest;
But God forbid he had to praise it. "
So Gauvain said to Lancelot:
"Friend, this payment,
If I pay it back to your creditor,
It will be a very small service that I will render to you,
And then I'm already on horseback
And all set, as you can see.
Dearest friend, don't refuse me
This donation that I require. "
Lancelot declares that he would let himself
Pluck out one eye, or even both eyes,
Rather than acceding to Gauvain's request.
He swears that will never happen.
As a debtor, he must repay Méléagant,
He took an oath.
Gauvain can see that everything
What he will know how to say is completely useless.
He takes off his hauberk
And disarms himself entirely:
Lancelot dons Gauvain's armor
Without further ado,
Because time seems long to him
While waiting to repay his debt.
He will not be happy until he has reimbursed
Méléagant, who is surprised
Beyond the measure of the prodigy
Let him see and contemplate with his eyes;
For a little it would go out of its hinges
And would lose the reason.
Certainly, he said to himself, I was very wrong,
Before coming here,
Not to go and see if I still held on
Prisoner in my tower
The one who just played such a trick on me.
But, my God, why would I go check it out?
How, for what reason would I have believed
That he can escape from there?
Are the walls not mighty built,
And the whole thing strong and high enough?
There was no opening or loophole
Where one could escape,
Unless there is help from outside.
Perhaps the secret was not kept.
Let's say the tower didn't hold together
And collapsed,
Wouldn't Lancelot have been crushed,
Mutilated and dead at the same time?
Of course, help me God,
If the wall had fallen, he could not have escaped death.
But I believe that before the wall comes tumbling down
All the water in the sea will disappear
Without leaving a trace,
And the world will cease to exist,
Or the wall will be forcibly destroyed.
But the situation is quite different:
We helped Lancelot escape,
It did not fly away otherwise.
They agreed to betray me.
Whatever the means employed, he did indeed escape;
But if I had taken better precautions,
All of this would not have happened!
And he would never have returned to this court.
But it is too late for regrets:
As the peasants say so well,
Speaking proverbially,
What is the use of closing the stable door
When was your horse taken?
I know too well that I will be
Honed and vilified
If I don't suffer and endure my fate.
But why speak of suffering and enduring?
As long as I can last
I'll give him something to occupy him,
If it pleases God, in whom rests my trust. "
Méléagant, who thus seeks to reassure himself,
Demand that we lead them,
Him and Lancelot, instead of the fight.
And it will be done shortly, it seems to me,
Because Lancelot can't wait to attack him
And gets ready to triumph over him quickly.
But before they run into each other
King Artur tells them to surrender
Down on the meadow at the foot of the tower. -
From there until Ireland there is none more beautiful.
Both go there,
They hurried down the slope.
The king goes there and all his court,
In large groups we gather,
No one stays behind.
At the windows among the spectators settle down
The queen and many lady and young lady;
Of which there were some very beautiful ones.
In the meadow rose a sycamore tree,
A beautiful tree,
With spacious foliage.
He was surrounded
Of fine and coarse grass
Who at all times was cool.
Under this superb sycamore,
Which dated back to the time of Abel,
Gushed out a clear fountain
That flows quickly.
The gravel sparks
As if it was money
And leads him, I believe,
Was made of the purest gold.
Water is flowing down in the meadow
Between two tree plantations in the middle of a valley.
This is where the king pleases to sit,
Because he sees nothing there that seems ugly to him.
He makes the spectators recoil,
And Lancelot rushes
Impetuously on Méléagant,
Like someone he hates with all his hatred.
But before you hit it,
He said to her in a very loud and threatening voice
"Come this way, I challenge you!
And know well, I promise you,
That I will not spare you. "
So he spurs his steed,
But first he walks away
The distance of an arc span.
Then both let their horses run
With all their strength.
They are now hitting each other
On their shields with solidly assembled boards
And manage to pierce them,
But for now neither one nor the other
Is not wounded in his flesh.
Without stopping they continue their ride,
Then come back with great blows,
Carried away by their mounts,
Against their solid crowns.
Their ardor redoubles,
The two fighters are brave and valiant,
Their steeds strong and swift,
And as they hit very hard
On the shields attached to their necks,
Their spears pierced them
Without breaking into sections,
And came by force
Until bare flesh.
They clash so vigorously
Let them both find themselves on the ground.
No chest, no straps, no stirrups
Can only prevent back
Each of them does not rock out of his saddle,
Who thus remains empty of rider.
The two steeds that are no longer mounted
Run to the right and to the left,
One kicks, the other bites,
Both ready to kill each other.
The two knights once on the ground
Get up as quickly as possible,
They quickly draw the sword
Has an engraved blade.
They place the shield in front of their face
And will strive to find
How to hurt yourself
With their good, sharp swords of steel.
Lancelot does not fear Méléagant.
Because he knew twice as much fencing
That his adversary,
Having learned it from an early age.
So they trade such rough blows
On the shields attached to their necks
And on helmets foiled in gold,
That they dented and split them.
Now Lancelot squeezes Méléagant closely,
He gives her such a violent blow
On the right arm clad in iron,
But not protected by the shield,
That he cut it and sliced it.
And when Méléagant feels
Amputated of the hand he lost
He says Lancelot will pay dearly for this blow.
If he can find a way,
Nothing will hold him back,
Cause he's so mad and mad
That for very little he would lose his reason,
And he would consider himself badly off
If he couldn't play a bad trick on his opponent.
He rushes at him, believing to catch him off guard,
But Lancelot knew how to protect himself;
With his sharp sword.
He cut it so well
That Méléagant will have great difficulty in recovering,
Even after April or May,
Because he puts his nose in his teeth,
Him by breaking three.
Méléagant feels such anger
That I can't manage to pronounce a single word,
And he does not deign to implore thank you,
Because his pride is against it,
A pride that controls and dominates.
Lancelot comes to him, unlaces his helmet
And cut off his head.
He will never play a bad trick on her again;
Méléagant fell dead, he was finished.
But I can tell you, no spectator
Witness to his death
Didn't feel the slightest pity for him.
King Artur and all around him
Indulge in joy.
We disarm Lancelot,
In the midst of the general jubilation,
And we take him from there.
Lords, if I said more,
I would go beyond the scope of my subject,
This is why I am going to put an end to my work;
Here the story ends.
Godefroi de Leigni, the clerk,
Has finished LA CHARRETTE;
Let no one think of blaming him
If he continued as a Christian,
Cause he did it with approval
From Chrétien, who began the work:
He is responsible for everything that follows
The moment Lancelot was walled up,
That is to say until the end of the tale.
This is his own work; he doesn't want to add anything to it,
Nor cut off, for fear of damaging the tale.
Here ends the NOVEL OF LANCELOT DE LA CHARRETTE