THE ROYAL HOUSE OF FRANCE - outriders poetry project

corpses, while all fled before him. And many, hearing Richier coming, fled through the gate.
254
© 2009 Max Wickert
Among them was the traitor Bertram, for he believed that Richier was taking back the city. Almont,
seeing his men in flight, and unable to turn them back by killing or beating or threatening them,
grew greatly troubled, and cried out: “From whom do you flee? Who is it that pursues you?”
Encountering King Dalfre, he asked why there was such a flight. Dalfren answered: “It that devil
Richier, against whose blows there is no help. No armor is proof against his sword.” Then Almont
lamented greatly.
42
Having heard from King Dalfren how his men were fleeing from Richier’s great prowess, Almont
turned sorrowfully away into street that crossed the one where Richier was coming. In a short
while, Richier arrived to confront him with his sword. Almont, hearing him approach, seized a lance
and, when Richier had passed the crossing, Almont leapt out of his street and made at Richier from
behind. He put his lance in rest, arrived at Richier’s back and thrust the lance through the half-
fastened hauberk. It passed all the way through his chest hand hurled his lifeless body to earth from
his horse. At his death, a great outcry arose. The pagans returned toward the courtyard, and
Bertram, who was already outside the city, hearing the sound of Saracens calling to each other
returned inside. King Almont made some kings whom he trusted dismount, and made them
withdraw the lance head through the wound that Richier had received and thrust it back from the
other side, so that it would seem that he had been killed from the front, and not from the back. For
he had great fear of being shamed. But he was not secret enough to hide the evidence, and the
matter came to be known to many and soon spread through the city of Reggio. So died brave