Chapter 117 [part 2 of 4]

[What King Perion said upon his arrival, and the answer from King Lisuarte.] 

[A gate at Richmond Castle, England. Photo by Nilfanion.]
  
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When Amadis came closer, he observed the King, whose armor was in pieces and covered with blood from his injuries, and he felt great pity to see him thus. Although their discord had run so high, he had always remembered that this was the wisest, the most honorable, and the bravest king in the world. And when he was even closer, he dismounted and came to him, knelt, and wished to kiss his hands, but the King did not wish to give them. Instead, he embraced him with very good will and lifted him up.

Then Sir Cuadragante, who had followed Amadis, arrived with King Cildadan and many others who had come out of the town to keep Amadis from leaving before he had seen the King. Sir Cuadragante, Sir Florestan, and Angriote came to kiss the King’s hand. Amadis went to King Cildadan and embraced him many times. Who could tell you of the pleasure they all felt in seeing themselves together and the destruction of their enemies? King Cildadan said to Amadis:

“My lord, go back to the king, and I will remain with my uncle, Sir Cuadragante.”

And so he did. And as he was doing this, Brandoivas arrived with great effort, for he had many injuries, and he told the King:

“My lord, your men and the men of the town are killing so many of your enemies who had hidden in the houses that all the streets are running with rivers of blood. And although their lords might deserve that, their men do not. For that reason, order what they should do regarding such cruel destruction.”

Amadis said:

“My lord, order this to be corrected, for in confrontations and defeats of this kind, great spirits should prevail.”

The King ordered his son Norandel and Sir Guilan to go and not allow them to kill those who were found alive, instead to take them prisoner and to put them somewhere secure. It was so done.

Amadis ordered Gandalin and Enil, along with his foster-father Gandales, to place a guard over King Arabigo, Arcalaus, Barsinan, and the Duke of Bristol that would stay with them at all times, and they did so. King Lisuarte took Amadis by the hand and told him:

“My lord, it would be good, if ye please, for us to order our men to rest and relax, which we very much need, and we should enter the town and take out the dead.”

Amadis told him:

“My lord, kindly give us permission so that I and these knights may return to join my lord King Perion, who is coming with other men.”

“Truly, I shall not excuse you, for although in virtue and courage none may defeat you, in this I wish you to be defeated by me. We shall wait for your father the King here, for it is not right for us to part ways so soon after such an extraordinary thing has just happened.”

Then he told King Cildadan:

“Hold this knight, since I cannot.”

King Cildadan told Amadis:

“My lord, do what the King asks you which such urgency, for a man raised so well as ye should not be so discourteous.”

Amadis turned to his brother Sir Florestan and to Sir Cuadragante and the other knights, and told them:

“My lords, shall we do what the King orders?”

They said they would do whatever he considered best. Sir Cuadragante said that since they had come to help and serve the King, and that they had done what mattered most, they should also do what mattered least.

“Then, my lord, if that is how it seems to you, it shall be done as ye order,” Amadis said.

Then they told their men to dismount and place their horses in the field, and to look for something to eat. As they were doing this, they saw King Arban and Sir Grumedan coming, for the guards who had been holding them had set them free, but they came with their hands tied, and it was amazing that they had not been killed. When the King saw them, he felt great pleasure, for he had thought they were dead, and so they would have been if help had not arrived. They came to him and kissed his hands, and then they went to Amadis with all the pleasure ye can imagine of friends that could be found.

They all told the King to take those knights with him and to lodge in the monastery until the town had been cleared of the dead. As they were doing this, Arquisil arrived. He had been taking care of Flamineo, who had been badly injured, and when he saw Amadis, he went to embrace him and said:

“My lord, ye aided us at a good time, and although some of ours may have died, ye have saved many others.”

Amadis told him:

 “My lord, I take great pleasure in having helped you, and ye may believe and be sure of my will, for without any doubt I love you.”

As King Lisuarte was leaving for the monastery, they saw the battalions of the men that King Perion was bringing, who were coming as fast as they could. And Sir Grumedan said to the King:

“My lord, that is a great help, but if the first help had arrived late, our welfare would have been utterly belated.”

The King said, laughing with good will:

“Sir Grumedan, if anyone were to debate with you over whether Amadis performs good deeds or not, he would have a very difficult time and would be in great danger of losing.”

Amadis said:

“My lord, it is very proper that all us knights love and honor Sir Grumedan because he is our example and the guide for our honor. And he knows how obedient I would be with anything he might order, which is why he loves me well, not because I have done any good deed for him other than giving him goodwill.”

And so they were enjoying themselves, although some of them were seriously wounded, but they all considered that to be nothing, having escaped from the cruel death that they had beheld before their eyes. King Lisuarte called for a horse and told King Cildadan to get another, and they went to receive King Perion. Amadis told him:

“My lord, it might be better if ye went to rest and get care for your wounds, for my lord the King will not pause on his way until he sees you.”

The King said that he wished to go anyway. Then he mounted a horse, and King Cildadan and Amadis mounted theirs, and they rode to where King Perion was coming. Amadis ordered all his men to remain in place until he arrived, and he ordered Durin to go forward and let his father know that King Lisuarte was coming.

And so they went as ye hear, and many of the knights with them. Durin rode ahead and arrived at the battalions, and in its front lines he was told that the King and Gastiles were leading the rear guard. Then he rode past them to reach the King and told him the message from Amadis. The King took Gastiles, Grasandor, Sir Brian of Monjaste, and Trion, and asked Agrajes to stay with the men, which King Perion did because he knew of the anger he held for King Lisuarte, to avoid any confrontation. Agrajes was pleased by that, and as King Perion rode on ahead, Agrajes remained behind with the men so he would have no reason speak with King Lisuarte.

King Perion arrived quickly with the companions I have told you of to meet King Lisuarte, and when they saw each other, they both rode forward and embraced each other with goodwill. And when King Perion saw him injured and exhausted with his armor in pieces, he told him:

“It seems to me, my good lord, that I did not leave you in such bad condition as I now see you, although there your weapons were not in their sheaths nor were ye in the shade of the tents.”

“My lord,” King Lisuarte said, “I thought it good for ye to see me so that ye would know how I was when Amadis and those knights rescued me.”

Then he told him the most important things about the great conflict in which he had been. King Perion took great pleasure in knowing what his sons had done and the good fortune and great honor that would come to them from that, and he said:

“I give great thanks to God because the battle came to such an end, and because ye, my lord, were so well served and helped by my sons and lineage, for truly, despite what may have happened between us, it has always been and is my desire that they respect and obey you as a lord and father.”

King Lisuarte said:

“Let us leave this now for when we have more time, because I have faith in God that before we part we shall be united by much kinship and love for a long time.”

Then he looked around and did not see Agrajes, whom he esteemed, both for his skills and for his close kinship with those lords, because his will had been made up to do what ye shall hear about further on. He did not wish any trace of anger to remain, because he knew well how Agrajes more than anyone else had been aggravated by him and had publicly wished him ill. He asked about him, and King Perion said that at his request he had remained with the battalions so there would be none of the disagreements that there often are among a large group of men when they have no one whom they fear and who can control them.

“Then have him called,” the King said, “for I shall not leave here until I see him.”

Amadis said to his father:

“My lord, I shall go for him.”

Amadis did this because he believed Agrajes would not come if anyone else asked him. And he immediately went to where the battalions were and spoke with him, and told him everything that had happened and how they had defeated and destroyed all those troops, and the prisoners they had taken and how, and how he had tried to leave without having speaking to King Lisuarte, who came after him, and what happened, and how their enmity had become friendship, and how much his honor had grown; and he urged him to come with him because King Lisuarte did not wish to leave without seeing him.

Agrajes told him:

 “My lord and cousin, ye know that my anger or pleasure would last no longer than ye wish it to, and may God wish that the aid ye have done for the King be better appreciated than what ye have done for him in the past, which were no few things. But I understand that it has pleased God to give him the loss and harm that has come to him because he deserved it for his poor judgement, and it shall befall him in the future if he does not change. And since it pleases you for me to see him, let us go.”

He told his men to remain in place until they received further orders.

And so they went together to see the King. Agrajes wished to kiss his hands, but the King would not give them, and instead embraced him and held him for a while, and said:

“And what is the greater affront for you, being embraced by me now or battling each other in war? I believe what is happening to you now would seem worse.”

Everyone laughed at that, and Agrajes, with great restraint, said:

“My lord, it will require more time for me to be able to respond with utter truthfulness to your question.”

“Then now it would be good,” the King said, “if we went to rest. And ye, my good lord,” he said to King Perion, “are going to be my guest, along with the knights who came with you. Your men should enter the town, as many as can fit, and the others can lodge in these fields. We should stay at the monastery, and I shall order that all the pack trains in my lands that were bearing provisions to the camp should come here so that we shall not lack anything we need.”

King Perion thanked him very much and asked for permission to leave, since the troops were no longer needed, but King Lisuarte would not agree. Instead he asked him so insistently, along with King Cildadan, that King Perion felt obliged to do as he asked, and together they went to the monastery, were they were lodged well.

There King Lisuarte’s wounds were treated by the doctors he had brought with him, but all of them knew nothing compared to the doctor Elisabad, who treated and healed the King and all the others in a way that was amazing to behold, and he treated Amadis and some of his men who had injuries, although not as serious.

But King Lisuarte spent ten days in bed and did not arise from it, and King Perion and all the other lords were with him every day speaking of things that gave them much pleasure and never mentioning either peace or war, instead only speaking and laughing at how Arcalaus, a knight of low character and not of high estate, with his arts had managed to cause so many people to revolt, as ye have heard.

And they remembered how he had enchanted Amadis, and how he had taken King Lisuarte prisoner and had deceived his daughter Oriana, and how Barsinan, the lord of Sansuena, had died because of him, and how later Arcalaus had brought the seven kings to do battle against King Lisuarte, and how he had held King Perion and Amadis and Sir Florestan in prison, who had been tricked by his niece Dinarda, and how later he had escaped from Sir Galaor and Norandel by calling himself Granfiles, first cousin of Sir Grumedan, and how now he had again brought King Arabigo and those knights, and how he would have been successful if he had not faced the obstacle of the aid to King Lisuarte that great good fortune had placed so close at hand, and many other things that they told in jest that hardly strayed from the truth and that they all laughed about a lot.

Then Sir Grumedan, who as this story has shown you was a very wise knight in all things, said:

“Ye see here, my good lords, why many dare to do il. After carefully considering some examples of the good fortune that the devil in his evil exploits allows them to achieve, their sweet taste cannot be surmounted, and they do not think about those dishonorable and dangerous downfalls that in the end will befall them. If we were to consider what we have been able to tell about Arcalaus in his favor, and how now he is an old man, a prisoner, with a damaged hand, at the mercy of his enemies, he alone would serve as enough of an example that no one would stray from the road of virtue to pursue what has brought him so much harm and misfortune.

“But as virtues are harsh to suffer and in them are many rough moments, and in evil deeds the contrary, and as we are all naturally inclined more toward evil than good, we pursue with all affection what at the moment most pleases and contents us, and we care little for what may begin with difficulty but in the end will conclude with blessings. And by following more the appetite of our ill will than just reason, which is the queen and mother of all virtues, we come to fall when we are most exalted, when neither body nor soul can be saved, as this evil man of foul deeds has done, Arcalaus the Sorcerer.”

What this knight said seemed very good to King Perion, who held him to be a very discreet man. And later he would seek to learn more about him, and learned why such a knight as him was worthy and deserving to stand alongside kings.

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