CHAPTER 13.
While Beltenebros remained in the Nunnery, his health and strength recovered, and he sent Enil to the next town to get arms made for him, a green shield with as many golden lions as it could hold, and to buy him a horse, and a sword and breast-plate, the best he could find. In twenty days all was ready, as he had ordered it, and at the end of that time Durin arrived. Beltenebros was right glad to see him, and asked him before Enil how the Damsel was, and wherefore he had returned. Durin answered, that the Damsel commended herself to him, and had sent for two jewels which she had left in her bed; and then he delivered to Enil the bidding of his cousin Gandalin. Who is Gandalin? said Beltenebros. A Squire, my cousin, replied Enil, who long time served a Knight called Amadis of Gaul. Then Beltenebros took Durin apart to walk with him, and heard the message ofOriana, and also how his brethren were to be in the battle with Cildadan, and of the defiance that Famongomadan had sent, and how he had demanded Oriana to be serving-damsel to his daughter, till he should give her in marriage to his son. When he heard this, his flesh shook with exceeding anger, and he resolved in himself, so soon as he had seen his Lady, to undertake no adventure till he had found Famongomadan, and fought with him a combat to the utterance for what he had dared propose.
That night Beltenebros took leave of the Nuns, and early the next day, armed in his green armour, he set forth, and Enil with him carrying his shield and helmet and lance. The day was clear, and he feeling himself in his strength and once more in arms, began to manage his horse so skilfully that Enil said to him, I know not, Sir, what the strength of your heart may be, but I never saw a Knight appear so well in arms. The worth, quoth Beltenebros, lies in a good heart, not in a good appearance! happy dole hath he whom God has gifted with both! You have judged the one, judge the other as you shall see it deserves when put to proof. Seven days they travelled without adventure, and Beltenebros, as he drew nearer, wore his helmetthat he might not be known. On the eighth, as they were passing the foot of a mountain, they met a Knight upon a large bay horse, so huge in stature that he appeared to be a Giant, and two Squires carrying his arms. He cried out with a loud voice to Beltenebros, Stop, Sir Knight, till you have told me what I want to know! Beltenebros looked at the stranger's shield, and seeing three golden flowers in a field azure, he knew it was Don Quadragante, for he had seen a like shield in the Firm Island, hanging above all the others, as his who had approached nearest the Forbidden Chamber. Yet, remembering Famongomadan, he would willingly now have avoided battle; as also, because he was on his way to Oriana, and feared lest the great prowess of this Knight should cause him some delay. Howbeit he stopt, and bade Enil give him his arms if they were wanted. God protect you! quoth Enil, he looks to me more like a Devil than a Knight! He is no Devil, quoth Beltenebros, but a right good Knight, of whom I have heard heretofore. By this Quadragante was come up, and said to him, Knight, you must tell me if you belong to the household of King Lisuarte?—Why ask you?—Because I have defied him and all his household, and kill all of them whom I meet. Beltenebros felt his anger rising, and replied, youare one of those who have defied him?—I am; and I am he who will do to him and his all the evil in my power.—And who are you?—My name is Don Quadragante.—Certes, Don Quadragante, notwithstanding your high lineage, and your great prowess in arms, this is great folly in you to defy the best King in the world! they who undertake more than they can effect, are rather rash than hardy. I am not this King's vassal, nor am I of his land, but for his goodness my heart is disposed to serve him, so that I may account myself among those whom you have defied: if you chuse battle with me, you may have it; if not, go your way! I believe Knight, said Quadragante, you speak thus boldly because you know me so little: pray you, tell me your name?—They call me Beltenebros: you will know me by it no better than before, for it is a name of no renown; but, though I am of a far land, I have heard that you are seeking Amadis of Gaul, and, by what I hear of him, it is no loss to you that you cannot find him. What! quoth Quadragante, do you prize him, whom I hate so much, above me? Know, that your death-hour is arrived! take thy arms, and defend thyself if thou canst. I might do it with some doubt against others, he replied, but can have none in opposing thee, who art so full of pride and threats.
Then they ran their course; both felt the shock; the horse of Beltenebros reeled, and he himself was wounded at the nipple of his breast. Quadragante was unhorsed and hurt in the ribs; he rose, and ran at Beltenebros, who did not see him, for he was adjusting his helmet, and he mortally stabbed his horse. Beltenebros alighted, and went against him sword in hand in great anger. There was no courage in this! cried he; your own horse was strong enough to have finished the battle without this discourtesy! The blows fell as thick and loud as though ten Knights had been in combat, for both put forth all their strength and skill, and the fight lasted from the hour of tierce till vespers; but then Quadragante, overcome with fatigue, and with a blow that Beltenebros gave him on the helmet, fell down senseless. Beltenebros took off his helmet to see if he were dead; the air revived him; he placed the sword-point at his face, and said, Quadragante, remember thy soul, for thou art a dead man. Ah, Beltenebros, cried he, for God's sake let me live for my soul's sake!—Yield thyself vanquished, then, and promise to fulfil what I command! I will fulfil your will to save my life, said Quadragante, but there is no reason wherefore I should confess myself vanquished: he is not vanquished, who in his defencehath shown no fear, doing his utmost till strength and breath fail him and he falls; but he who does not do what he could have done, for lack of heart. You speak well, said Beltenebros, and I like much what I have learnt from you: give me your hand and your promise then; and he called the Squires to witness it. You shall go forthwith to the court of King Lisuarte, and remain there till Amadis arrives, and then you shall pardon him for the death of your brother, King Abies; for they by their own will fought in lists together, and such revenge, even among those of meaner degree, ought not to be pursued. Moreover, you shall make null the defiance against King Lisuarte, and not take arms against those who are in his service. All this did Quadragante promise against his will, and in the fear of death. He then ordered his Squires to make a litter, and remove him; and Beltenebros mounting the bay horse of his antagonist, gave his arms to Enil, and departed.
Four Damsels, who were hawking with a merlin, had seen the battle, and they now came up, and requested Beltenebros would go to their castle, where he should be honourably welcomed, for the good will which he had manifested to King Lisuarte. He thankfully accepted theirhospitality, being sore wearied with the struggle, and accompanied them. They found no other wound than that upon the nipple of his breast, which bled much; howbeit, in three days he departed. On the second day at noon, from a hill top, he beheld the city of London, and, to the right thereof, the castle of Miraflores, where his Lady Oriana then abode. Here he stood awhile, gazing, and devising how he might dispatch Enil. Do you know this country? said he. Yes, replied Enil; that is London, in the valley.—Are we so near? but I will not go to the court till I have won some renown, and deserve to be there: go you therefore and visit your cousin Gandalin, and there you will hear what may be said of me, and when the battle is to be with King Cildadan.—But shall I leave you alone?—I sometimes go alone; but we will first appoint a place to meet at. They proceeded a little way and saw three tents pitched by a river side, the middle a rich one, and before it there were Knights and Damsels sporting; and he saw five shields at the entrance of one tent, and five at another, and ten armed Knights, therefore he turned aside from the road that he might not joust with them. The Knights called out to him to joust. Not now, said he, for you are many and fresh, and I am alone and weary. Ibelieve, said the one, you are afraid you should lose your horse.—Why should I lose him?—Because he would be won by the man who dismounted you: a likelier chance than that you should win his. Since that is the case, said Beltenebros, I will ride on and secure him while I can; and he continued his course. The Knights cried after him, your arms, Sir Cavalier, are protected better by a smooth tongue than by a stout heart: they will last to be hung over your monument, tho' you should live these hundred years! Think of me as you please, quoth he, your words will not destroy my worth such as it is. I would to heaven you would break one lance with me! cried the Knight; I would not mount horse again for a whole year, if you rode to your lodging this night upon that bay steed! Good Sir, said Beltenebros, that is the very thing I am afraid of, and have therefore got out of the way. Holy Mary, they all exclaimed, what a cowardly Knight! He nothing heeding them, rode on to a ford, at which he meant to cross, when he heard a cry from behind. Stop, Knight! and looking round saw a Damsel following him upon a palfrey richly trappinged. Sir Knight, said she, Leonoreta, daughter to King Lisuarte, is in yonder tent, and she and all her Damsels request that for their sake you will joust with herKnights, a thing you will be more bound to do by this request than by their defiance.—What! quoth he, is the daughter of the Queen there?—Aye, truly!—I should rather do her service myself than commit enmity against her Knights, but at her command I will consent, on condition that they require from me nothing farther than the joust. With this answer the Damsel returned; and Beltenebros took his arms, and rode to an open part of the field to wait for the encounter. The first who came was the one who had such an inclination to win his horse. Beltenebros was pleased that this was the first: he unhorsed him, and bade Enil take his horse, and said, Sir Knight, if you keep your word, you will not have another fall for a whole year, for so you promised unless you won my bay; but he lay groaning, for he had three ribs and a hip broken. Three others shared the same fortune with less hurt; on the last, Beltenebros broke his lance. Enil took their horses one by one, and tied them to the trees, and then Beltenebros would have departed; but he saw another Knight making ready, and a Squire brought him four lances, and said, Sir, Leonoreta sends you these lances, and bids you do your duty with them against the other Knights, since you have overthrown their companions. For her sake, said he, who isdaughter to so good a King, I will do what she requires; but for her Knights I would do nothing, for they are discourteous to make Knights who are travelling joust against their will. So he took a lance, and one after the other dismounted all the rest; only the last endured two encounters, and fell not till the third, for he was Nicoran of the Perilous Bridge, and was one of the good jousters in Great Britain. When Beltenebros had finished, he sent all the horses that he had won to Leonoreta, and bade her tell her Knights to be more courteous to strangers, or else to joust better, for they might find a Knight who would make them go afoot. The Knights remained greatly abashed; if Amadis were alive and well, quoth Nicoran, verily I should say this were he, for I know no other who would have left us thus. It is not he, said Galiseo, some of us should have known him, and he would not have jousted with us, being his friends. Giontes, the nephew of King Lisuarte, who was one of them, replied. Would it were Amadis, our dishonour would be well gained! but be he who he may, God prosper him wherever he goes! for he won our horses like a good Knight, and like a good Knight restored them. Curse him, quoth Lasamor, he has broken my hip and my ribs, but it was my own fault.
Beltenebros went on satisfied with his success, and admiring the lance which he held, for it was a good one. About a quarter of a league on, he saw a chapel overbowered with trees, and there he determined to alight for the sake of prayer, and because the great heat and the exercise of jousting had made him athirst. At the chapel-door were three palfreys equipped for women, and two for Squires. He went in, but there was no one there, and commended himself from his heart to God and the Virgin. As he was coming out, he saw the three Damsels and their Squires sitting under the trees beside a fountain, and made up to them that he might drink: but neither of them did he know. Knight, said they, are you of King Lisuarte's household? I would, quoth he, I were so good a Knight as to be approved in such a company: but whither go ye?—To Miraflores, to see our Aunt who is Abbess there, and to see Oriana the Princess; but we are waiting here till the heat of the day be over. In God's name, quoth he, and I will keep you company till it be time to travel: how is this fountain called?—We know not but there is one in yonder valley, by those great trees there, which is called the Fountain of the Three Channels. He knew it better than they, for he had often passed it when hunting, and there hedetermined to fix a meeting-place with Enil, whom he wished to send away while he went to his Lady.
Presently, while they were thus talking, there came along the road which Beltenebros had passed, a waggon drawn by twelve palfreys, and on it were two Dwarfs who drove. There were many Knights in chains in the waggon, and their shields were hanging at the side, and many damsels and girls among them weeping and lamenting loudly. Before it went a Giant, so great that he was fearful to behold; he rode a huge black horse, and he was armed with plates of steel, and his helmet shone bright, and in his hand he had a boar spear, whose point was a full arm's-length long. Behind the waggon was another Giant, who appeared more huge and terrible than the first. The Damsels seeing them were greatly terrified, and hid themselves among the trees. Presently the Giant who rode foremost turned to the Dwarfs, and cried, I will cut you into a thousand pieces if you suffer these girls to shed their own blood, for I mean to do sacrifice with it to my god, whom I adore. When Beltenebros heard this, he knew it was Famongomadan, for he had a custom to sacrifice damsels to an Idol in the Boiling Lake, by whoseadvice and words he was guided in every thing, and that sacrifice used to content his god, being the Wicked Enemy who is satisfied with such wickedness. At this time Beltenebros did not wish to encounter him, because he expected to be that night with Oriana, and also because his joust with the ten Knights had wearied him; but he knew the Knights in the waggon, and saw that Leonoreta and her Damsels were there, for Famongomadan, who always took this waggon with him to carry away all he could find, had seized them in their tents shortly after their encounter. Immediately he mounted, and called to Enil for his arms; but Enil said, let those Devils pass by first. Give me! quoth Beltenebros, I shall try God's mercy before they pass, to see if I can redress this villainy. O Sir, cried the Squire, why have you so little compassion upon your own youth! if the best twenty Knights of King Lisuarte's court were here, they would not venture to attack them. Care not thou for that, replied his Master, if I let them pass without doing my best I should be unworthy to appear among good men: you shall see my fortune. Enil gave him his arms, weeping, and Beltenebros then descended the sloping ground to meet them. He looked toward Miraflores as he went, and said, O Oriana, my Lady, never did Iattempt adventure confiding in my own courage, but in you: my gentle Lady, assist me now, in this great need! He felt his full strength now, and all fear was gone, and he cried out to the Dwarfs to stop.
When the Giant heard him, he came towards him with such rage that smoke came through the vizor of his helmet, and he shook his boar-spear with such force that its ends almost met. Unhappy wretch! cried he, who gave thee boldness enough to dare appear before me? That Lord, quoth Beltenebros, whom thou hast offended, who will give me strength to-day to break thy pride. Come on! come on! cried the Giant, and see if his power can protect thee from mine! Beltenebros fitted the lance under his arm, and ran against him full speed: he smote him below the waist with such exceeding force that the spear burst through the plates of steel and ran through him, even so as to strike the saddle behind, that the girths broke, and he fell with the saddle, the broken lance remaining in him. His boar-spear had taken effect upon the horse of Beltenebros, and mortally wounded him. The Knight leapt off and drew his sword. The Giant rose up so enraged that fire came from him, and he plucked the lance from hiswound, and threw it at Beltenebros so forcibly that if the shield had not protected his helmet, it would have driven him to the ground; but his own bowels came out with the weapon, and he fell, crying, help, Basagante! I am slain. At this Basagante came up as fast as his horse could carry him: he had a steel axe in his hand, and with this he thought to have cut his enemy in two; but Beltenebros avoided the blow, and at the same time struck at the Giant's horse: the stroke fell short, but the end of his sword cut through the stirrup-leather, and cut the leg also half through. The Giant in his fury did not feel the wound, though he missed the stirrup; he turned and raised his axe again. Beltenebros had taken the shield from his neck, and was holding it by the thongs: the axe fell on it and pierced in, and drove it from his hands to the ground. Beltenebros had made another stroke, the sword wounded Basagante's arm, and, falling below upon the plates of fine steel, broke, so that only the handle remained in his hand. Not for this was he a whit dismayed; he saw the Giant could not pluck his axe from the shield, and he ran and caught it by the handle also; both struggled; it was on that side where the stirrup had been cut away, so that Basagante lost his balance, the horse started and he fell, andBeltenebros got the battle-axe. The Giant drew his sword in great fury, and would have ran at the Knight, but the nerves of his leg were cut through; he fell upon one knee, and Beltenebros smote him on the helmet, that the laces burst and it fell off. He seeing his enemy so near, thought with his sword, which was very long, to smite off his head; the blow was aimed too high, it cut off the whole crown of the helmet, and cut away the hair with it. Beltenebros drew back; the helmet fell over his head upon his shoulders, and Leonoreta and the Damsels, who were on their knees in the waggon praying to God to deliver them, tore their hair and began to shriek and call upon the Virgin, thinking he was surely slain. He himself put up his hand to feel if he were wounded to death, but feeling no harm, made again at the Giant, whose sword falling upon a stone in the last blow had broken. Basagante's heart failed him now, he made one stroke more, and cut him slightly in the leg with the broken sword; but Beltenebros let drive the battle-axe at his head; it cut away the ear and the cheek and the jaw, and Basagante fell, writhing in the agony of death.
At this time Famongomadan had taken off his helmet, and was holding his hands upon his woundto check the blood. When he saw his son slain, he began to blaspheme God and his Mother Holy Mary, saying that he did not so much grieve to die as that he could destroy their monasteries and churches, because they had suffered him and his son to be conquered by one Knight. Beltenebros was then upon his knees returning thanks to God, when he heard the blasphemer, he exclaimed, Accursed of God and of his Blessed Mother! now shalt thou suffer for thy cruelties; pray to thine Idol, that, as thou hast shed so much blood before him, he may stop this blood of thine from flowing out with thy life! The Giant continued to curse God and his Saints; then Beltenebros plucked the boar-spear from the horse's body, and thrust it into the mouth of Famongomadan, and nailed him backward to the earth. He then put on Basagante's helmet that he might not be known, and mounting the other's horse, rode up to the waggon and broke the chains of all who were prisoners therein, and he besought them to carry the bodies of the Giants to King Lisuarte, and say they were sent him by a strange Knight called Beltenebros; and he begged the Princess to permit him to take the black horse of Famongomadan, because it was a strong and handsome horse, and he would ride him in the battle against King Cildadan. Thebodies of the Giants were so huge, that they were obliged to bend their knees to lay them in the waggon. Leonoreta and her Damsels made garlands for their heads, and being right joyful for their deliverance entered London singing in triumph. Much was King Lisuarte astonished at their adventure, and the more for Quadragante had already presented himself on the part of Beltenebros, of whom nothing else was known except what Corisanda had related. I would he were among us, said the King, I would not lose him for any thing that he could ask and I could grant.