THE ROYAL HOUSE OF FRANCE - outriders poetry project

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© 2009 Max Wickert
none had. Then the king asked how far it was from there to Paris. Lambert answered, “It is five
leagues,” adding: “My lord, if it please you to stay here, I have some fresh-baked bread and some
new picked salad greens.” The emperor laughed at this and said: “I shall do so.” He dismounted
and sat down on a great bundle of firewood. Lambert called his daughter to wait on him. After a
freshly-kneaded loaf had been taken from the oven, he ordered Bertha to bring a white tablecloth to
King Pepin.
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When Bertha came up to King Pepin, she knelt at his feet in such a gracious manner that he said to
himself: “This is not a peasant woman’s bearing.” He looked at her face and said: “If the queen
were not ill, by my faith, I would say that this is she and that she is playing some prank on me, so
much does she resemble her.” While Lambert came up with the wine, Pepin, still looking at her
face, said to her: “Are you Lambert’s daughter?” Bertha answered: “Ah, I am too overmuch his
daughter!” Then Pepin said: “Do you want to kiss me, and I shall marry you.” She answered,
trembling all over: “I will do whatever you wish.” Pepin said: “Well then, if Lambert agrees, will you
sleep with me this very night?” And she answered: “My lord, I should do you will.” When Lambert
had given drink to the king, he said to him: “Lambert, is this your daughter?” Lambert replied: “She
is my daughter, and more than a daughter to me.” Pepin said: “I desire her to sleep with me
tonight.” Lambert answered: “My lord, by God’s mercy! If she is not willing, do not let yourself do
violence to her, nor commit an outrage on me in my own house!” Said the king: “If she is not
willing, I will use no force, against either her or you.” Lambert turned to her and said: “Do you wish
to sleep with King Pepin tonight?” And she said yes. When Lambert heard her, he was very
troubled by the matter and said so to his wife, who answered: “She shall never again enter my house,
bad girl that she is. I might as well say it: she is strumpet.” While they were speaking thus, Bernard