THE ROYAL HOUSE OF FRANCE - outriders poetry project

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© 2009 Max Wickert
knight had ravished her somewhere and that she had fled from him. But so as not to grieve her,
they did not tell her this.
They embarked, following the course of the river, and entered the sea in the golf called the Sea of
Marmara near Constantinople. The river from which they entered it was called Nopolis. 24 Drusiana
then asked them where they were going. They replied: “We are headed for Cyprus.” They thence
sailed to many other places. Nonetheless she begged them to put her on land, if they could, in
Armenia, and they, after a long time, finally set her ashore in a harbor of Lesser Armenia, and the
lord of that land was her father, King Armin.
She disguised her face by using some of the herbs that Bevis had taken from the false pilgrim’s
bundle. She thus remained unrecognized and turned for assistance to her father King Armin. Ever
unrecognized, she stayed for a long time at his court, and there she raised her two sons, that is, Guy
and Sinibald.
Bevis Returns to Hampton
39: Voyage to Castle Saint-Simon
Returning to his story, the author speaks of Bevis who, after burying Pulican and not finding
Drusiana, returned where he had left the ship. Not finding her, he followed the course of the
stream down to the sea and waited to see if perhaps a passing ship would take him aboard. He
stayed thus that day and the following night, suffering great hunger. In the morning, at about the
third hour 25 , he saw a great ship passing over the high sea and made such violent signals and cried
out that the sailors saw him, lowered the sails, cast anchor, and sent out the longboat with eight
24 Nopolis: this river is imaginary, since no navigable river enters the Sea of Marmara.
25 third hour: that is, about nine o’clock.