THE ROYAL HOUSE OF FRANCE - outriders poetry project

290
© 2009 Max Wickert
when I was thirty years old and you had the Duke of Zelonia hanged and his two sons beheaded and
did likewise to two other sons of his? And those men have their territory to whom you bestowed it.
And you never confessed it. Now tell me: when will you repent and mend your ways? Never, it
seems to me, so much has the demon of Hell prevailed upon you. Will you not remember your
ancestry, none of whom was ever a traitor? You were the good Duke Guerrin’s son, who was
Sinibald’s son, and he was Bevis of Hampton’s. Do you not know that all creatures obey
Charlemagne, since God has ordained that there be one emperor in command of the Christian
religion, to defend it from the hands of the Saracen dogs, who are now coming to destroy it, along
with all of you men here, and you yourself and your children?” Gerard said: “I have sworn by the
sacrament, and therefore I will not go.” When the lady heard this, she said: “I will return to my own
country, which my father has left me, and which is mine by ownership, not by dowry. I shall raise a
force of five thousand knights and go, for the salvation of my soul, to Aspramont with Charles to
defend the Christian faith. If any of my sons will follow me, he shall be heir to my patrimony.”
Then Gerard proclaimed an end of the council, and every man left his court for the day. On the
following knight, the Duchess slept with Duke Gerard, and so greatly implored him with tears and
sighs that Duke Gerard, conquered by her tears, promised to go to Aspramont against King
Anglant, though not with King Charles. Yet would he send two of his sons to Charles, to be
dubbed knights. And in the morning, recalling his council, he went to the hall before his assembled
barons.
31
When Duke Gerard had arrived in the hall, he addressed all his barons, saying: “The evening’s anger
should be checked till morning. As for me, I will say this: considering the peril in which we stand, it
behooves us to go to Aspramont in aid of our emperor. For, if he were driven from the field, all our
lands and our women and our children would be enslaved by the Saracens, a thing displeasing to