THE ROYAL HOUSE OF FRANCE - outriders poetry project

After camp had been made, ten thousand armed knights set out on the following night to
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© 2009 Max Wickert
reconnoiter the Saracen enemy. The commanders who went forth were the following: Huon the
Less, Marquis Berlingher, Gilfroy Graymantle, the vassal Richier, the lord of Anjou, Aguentin of
Normandy, and several others. They crossed a mountain range and, as they drew close to the tower
fortress, kept to its left and lay on guard.
That morning Almont was returning toward the tower. He had gone pillaging throughout Calabria,
razing many castles, cutting of the many men’s heads, and many women‘s breasts. He was now
turning back toward the tower with a great booty of cattle, captives, and wealth. When the watch
grew aware of his coming, they made ready to attack him.
Then Huon spoke, saying: “My lords, God has granted our wish.” Almont had with him four idols
of solid gold and his royal banners, as well as many Christian who had renounced their faith to avoid
death. Those ten thousand heard of his coming, and Huon was encouraged by the news. (They had
it from some Christians who had escaped from those Saracens.) Huon, making it known to all his
companions and giving them good cheer, posted lookouts on the hill tops. When the sun rose, a
great baggage train appeared in a valley between some mountains. It held the booty of supplies that
Almont had foraged.
Huon now made eight hundred bowmen sally out, and these captured the entire train. It was
undefended because the three thousand archers that guarded it, suspecting nothing, had ridden
ahead, and most of them were shooting only for sport. So the eight hundred took the whole train.
At last the alarm was sounded among the Saracens and their archers cried out with one voice and
assailed those eight hundred. But a band of some five hundred Christian knights bore down upon