THE ROYAL HOUSE OF FRANCE - outriders poetry project

71
© 2009 Max Wickert
lodging. Bevis was clad with the Duke of Messuri’s armor, and the garland of hay that he had
fashioned in the fields was placed upon his helmet. That day he unseated sixty knights, and had
them all disarmed, and gave their armor to his reapers. Here one received a piece of it, and here
another, and he had in his following two hundred servitors of the stable, or more. Drusiana was
mad with joy at seeing Augustine’s prowess.
Meanwhile King Marcabrun returned armed and better horsed, and Bevis once more unseated him,
and he was perforce stripped and lost his armor. He therefore returned back to his lodging and
once more armed himself and bade his attendants and subject to arm also, saying: “If this felon
unseats me once more, cut him down with your swords.” By chance two of King Armin’s
attendants who had been unhorsed lay there. They went to tell of these things to Drusiana, and she
made her father command that, as soon as King Marcabrun came back to the tiltyard, the tourney’s
end should be sounded. And so it was done. Then Bevis returned to the stable to disarm with the
other servitors, and they fed their hay to the horses. Drusiana sent for him, but he would not come,
and she, like a desperate woman, came to him in person.
14
Augustine having won the joust and returned to the stable, Drusiana sent for him, and he would not
go. She, overcome by a burning love greater than her fear or her shame, set out like a desperate
woman and with a matron and a damsel went all the way to the stable. Now although she had come
there at other times, and better accompanied, to see the horse, this time it appeared unseemly for a
maiden. But who is it that can offer defense against that mighty power, blind love?
Drusiana, arriving at the stable and finding Bevis, began to say: “Oh, Augustine, well may you boast
that, when you would not come to me after my messages, I should come to you. This is a day when