THE ROYAL HOUSE OF FRANCE - outriders poetry project

91
© 2009 Max Wickert
“Get you to the gallows, rogue, and do not mention the name that you have mentioned.” And Bevis
once more asked him in the same manner, and the knight rose up and took the chessboard to strike
him on the head. But the merchant who had won the coins took hold of him and by his words
prevailed on him to grow calm. Then he turned to the pilgrim, that is to say to Bevis, took him by
the hand and led him to his lodging, saying: “Come with me, and I will give you alms.”
While they were on their way, he asked him: “What is the Bevis for whose sake you are begging.”
He replied: “He is Bevis of Hampton, husband to Drusiana.” The merchant said: “Do you then
know tidings of him?” Bevis replied: “Who are you to ask me about it?” He answered: “I am the
husband of the lady-in-waiting who saved him from the poison. If I could find him again, I have
enough money to bring him for a year’s hire two-hundred knights.” Bevis replied: “Be of good
cheer, for he is as alive and well as I am. For three years or more, I have been in prison with him,
and we together fled from that prison, he and I. Not many days will pass before he will come to
find me in this city. But tell me the truth, I pray you: Has King Marcabrun bedded Drusiana.” The
merchant replied that he had not, and told him how all things stood. Bevis then said that he wished
to go to the king’s palace, and that the other should stay. The merchant directed him to go to the
king’s kitchen, where the wedding sweets were being prepared, and gave him four gold pieces and
begged him to find Bevis and to encourage him to return to him.
Bevis departed, while the merchant begged him not to mention Bevis at court, since whoever named
him was condemned to death. Bevis went to the court, that is to the kitchen, where there were more
than fifty cooks, and began to beg: “Give me alms for the love of God and of the soul of Bevis, who
was a good knight.” At these words a seneschal of the kitchen shouted to the cooks: “Take hold of
this fellow and carry him to the justiciary.” Then all the cooks and their helpers and servants rushed
at Bevis, here with paddles, here with skewers, here with ladles, here with sticks, and Bevis received