THE ROYAL HOUSE OF FRANCE - outriders poetry project

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© 2009 Max Wickert
the gate and pleaded so urgently that they took him in. The asked him questions and he could not
understand them; but a Provençal soldier for hire who was in the city understood him. Talking with
him, Gisbert said: “If you give me good armor and a good horse, you will see that I am truly of
noble lineage. For a great sin of mine I have been struck with leprosy; but now my gods have
pardoned me and I am cured.” The people of the city did not believe him, but sent secret letters to
Queen Sibyl to acquaint her with the case. She decided to use her science, by the art of necromancy,
to discover who he was. When she knew that he was Gisbert, King of France, she sent a secret
messenger to Merida with orders that they clothe him, arm him and appoint him captain and
commander of the city, for this was her pleasure. And so it was done.
When Gisbert was armed and made captain of all the men inside the walls, he sent to King Carianus
of Lusitania to ask whether he would engage his person in combat with him. He replied that it was
not his custom to engage with wild beasts. Therefore Gisbert had the people in the city arm and
attacked the camp, with himself in their midst. Then King Carianus assailed him and wounded him
in the thigh with a poisoned lance; but Gisbert cut off his head and routed his whole army.
Returning inside after his victory, he had himself tended to , but no medicine prevailed against the
poison, and he would have remained in the city of Merida until his life left him. Hearing of this,
Sibyl sent a ship by way of the Guadiana and had Gisbert brought to the city of Seville 15 and tended
him with her own hands. When Gisbert was nearly recovered, Sibyl said to him: “My lord Gisbert,
if you want to be cured, I desire you to become my husband.” He was very pleased by this and,
when he realized that she knew him, told her ‘yes, truly’, provided that she were baptized, and she
agreed. He took her to wife and she was baptized; from that moment on, she would have nothing
15 Seville: In the original both the name of the queen and of her city are Sibilla.