THE ROYAL HOUSE OF FRANCE - outriders poetry project

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© 2009 Max Wickert
through the air to seize him again. The duke pulled his sword and cut off its foot immediately near
the knee. The bird, feeling the pain, flew away and the duke took that claw and returned to his
horse. He carried that claw with him all day. Many men say that this bird was a gryphon, because
the claw is to this very day preserved in the church of Saint-Denis near Paris. Riding all day, he
lodged for the night in another cave, and said: “If my lord has to cross these mountains with his
army, Anglant can rest secure.” All that night he was unable to sleep. His horse was faint with
hunger, and he grew more concerned for his horse than for himself. In that cavern where he spent
the night a she-bear had given birth to cubs, and all night long she paced about crying and roaring.
Namo commended himself to God, afraid of the beasts because the darkness of the place in which
he lay, and all night he had enough to do tending his Morel, whose teeth were chattering because of
the cold. In the morning, the bear attacked, and it was larger than a great ox. The duke was
frightened by it. The bear reared upon its hind legs, then the duke with sword in hand assailed it
and cut off one of its paws, so that it ran away roaring loudly. At this, two other bears assaulted the
duke, and he killed one of them and the other fled. The duke took the bear’s paw and the gryphon’s
and hid them in a large cave, in order to find them again at his return and to bring them to Charles.
But when he came back, he did not take the same way. Yet were these paws found later by some
Christian folk and presented to Charles, so that all the duke had said was proven to be true. Now
the duke made his way through Calabria toward Reggio.
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Duke Namo was riding through Calabria and soon the city of Reggio came in view and he saw the
tents and the ships by the Lighthouse of Messina, and countless banners and pennants. It seemed
like such a multitude that he thought no greater could be found anywhere in the world. They were
just holding a festival in honor of Mahomet, and in the course of it, the host cried out at frequent