THE ROYAL HOUSE OF FRANCE - outriders poetry project

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© 2009 Max Wickert
roused by the noise and killed six of his accomplices; but the other two defended themselves so well
that they killed two of Bevis’ men and wounded some others.
While there was this ado, and while Floris was trying to pull at Swallowtail, the horse began to
cough. He was afraid and turned away, but Swallowtail turned around and with gave him a kick of
such great force with both hooves that he fell down dead in the middle of the stable.
When Rambald saw them all dead, he began to say: “Now try to take Swallowtail! Now you have
gotten Swallowtail that you came looking for!” Some men who had run up at the noise, seeing the
king’s son lying dead, ran back to the palace and told his father. Other citizens went to the stable
and put the body on a bier and carried it to the palace amid great lamentation. And Bevis’ servants
fled to escape death.
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When King William heard of his son’s death, he waxed extremely angry, and said to his lords: “Seize
that traitor Bevis, for he is a murderer.” Bevis put his hand on a weapon, somewhat like a saber,
that he had by his side, and took off a royal cloak that he wore on his back, and wrapped it around
his arm, crying: “King William, you are my son’s godfather, do not do me wrong!” and retired to a
corner of the hall. There was not a lord present who dared approach him, or to encounter him, so
many of them fell to their knees, begging the king not to offer violence to Bevis, for they knew him
as a man of quality, who would never have assented to so great an evil.
Meanwhile the citizens arrived, weeping, with Floris’ body, and the king threw himself over him,
weeping, and all the barons wept also, and Bevis wept with them. The king wished to know the
reason why they had died, and it would not have been known, if a servant of Flockard of Maganza