THE ROYAL HOUSE OF FRANCE - outriders poetry project

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© 2009 Max Wickert
answered that her brother Almont had killed him, and learned that he had slain him from behind.
At that moment Almont arrived.
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When Galiziella saw King Almont, she said to him: “O King Almont, is this the fame that will
spread about your noble person? Ah how much honor it would have been for you not to have slain
this knight! It shall always be a disgrace to you to have traitorously taken from him his life and his
city.” Almont commanded her to be silent, and had her taken up from Richier’s body. Bertram, to
outdo himself in evil, went up to the palace and, stirred up by the demon of Hell, seized his father
Rambald and brought him before King Almont, asking King Almont to graciously pardon him.
King Almont said: “This was not part of our agreement, and I do not wish you to outdo yourself in
evil.” Then he asked Rambald if he would renounce his faith and worship Mahomet. Rambald
replied: “I love my death more than my life, and I would sooner die than deny the Creator of heaven
and earth.” Then Almont had his head cut off and his body, along with those of his sons, that is, of
Richier and Miles, conveyed to a room above the courtyard. He had them laid on a carpet, the
father in the middle, with the sons on each side, and called Bertram, and said to him, almost
weeping: “Ah, Bertram, what stroke of fortune has it been that has caused the death of these two
gallant youths and their venerable father? Ah, Bertram, you traitor, who will ever be able to trust
you, who have betrayed your father and yourself, and then your country? You were a lord, and now
you have become a slave.” Bertram went out pained by much sorrow, thinking of what he had
done. Galiziella was once more brought to King Almont, and he sent her to King Anglant, who
spoke very villainously to her when he learned that she was baptized and commanded that she be
burned alive and her ashes strewn to the wind. But the lords who were with him urged him to send
her back to King Almont, to deal with her at his will, since she had spoken many ill words to him.