THE ROYAL HOUSE OF FRANCE - outriders poetry project

421
© 2009 Max Wickert
same device on his helmet, like a desperate renegade dog. Then he rode toward Vienne to demand
battle.
When his sons heard their father calling for battle, they took counsel together. Arnaut said that it
seemed to him unwise to respond, but rather to wait for Charles. Rainier answered that they would
be shamed if they did not answer the challenge, and would lose their honor. Guiscard said he
wanted to be the first to strike him, not as a father, but as a deadly foe. Miles said that if he could
not be the first, he would be the second. But then their mother came in and implored them not to
ride against their renegade father until Charles’ arrival, for she feared Gerard’s cruelty. However, she
could not change their minds.
Guiscard armed and rode into the field against his wrathful father. They took up their positions and
struck each other mightily with their lances. Guiscard’s steed fell beneath him and Gerard had him
taken back to his tent. Then Miles took the field and unhorsed his father a thrust, and his father
unhorsed him. The fought on foot and Miles surrendered, and his father sent him to his tent. Then
Rainier rode into the lists, and him too he had taken to his tent. Shortly afterward, he unhorsed
Arnaut. When he had taken all four, he returned to his tent and had them disarmed. He had a
gibbet erected at the foot of the gate and had them taken there ready to be hanged. He demanded
the surrender of the city, otherwise he would hang them. The answer he received was: “They are
your sons. If you hang them, the damage is yours.”
Gerard had Ermeline, his wife and their mother, summoned. Pointing at them, she answered:
“These are as much of your blood as of mine. You begot them. Do what you please with them, for
I do not wish a hundred thousand to perish for the sake of four.”