Arthurian Romances (15 page)

The count rose from beside her and a hundred times commended her to God, but the pledge he made to her will be of little benefit to him. Erec had no idea that they were plotting his death, but God may well come to his aid, and I believe He will indeed do so. Now Erec was in great danger, though he did not believe it necessary to be on guard. The count was very ignoble in thinking to take his wife from him and kill him when he was defenceless. Treacherously he took leave of him, saying: ‘I commend you to God.'

Erec replied: ‘My lord, and I you.' And so the two of them parted.

It was already late at night. In a secluded room two beds were prepared on the floor. Erec went to lie down in one; Enide lay down in the other, deeply saddened and troubled. She didn't sleep at all that night; she kept watch because of her lord, for she had understood enough about the count to realize clearly that he was full of evil intentions. She knew full well that, if he had the power over her lord, he would not fail to do him great injury: Erec would be sure to die. Nothing could allay her fears for him; she felt she had to keep watch all night, but before daybreak, if she could manage it and her lord was willing to believe her, they would make their departure in such a way that nothing would come of the count's intentions: she would never be his, nor he hers.

Erec slept confidently all night long until daybreak was near. Then Enide realized that she might be waiting too long. Like a good and loyal lady she felt tenderness in her heart for her lord; her heart was neither deceitful nor false. She dressed and made ready, came to her lord, and awakened him. ‘Ah, my lord,' she said, ‘forgive me! Get up quickly, for you are assuredly betrayed without reason or misdeed on your part. The count is a proven traitor: if he finds you here, he will cut you to pieces before you can escape. He wants me; that is why he hates you. But if it please God, who knows all, you will be neither killed nor taken prisoner. Already last evening he would have killed you, had I not convinced him that I would be his lover and his wife. You'll soon see him come in here. He wants to take and keep me, and kill you, if he finds you.'

Now Erec could see clear proof of his wife's loyalty to him. ‘My lady,' he said, ‘have our horses speedily saddled. Have our host get up and tell him to come here. Treason began a long while ago!' The horses were soon saddled, and the lady called for the host. Erec promptly got dressed. His host came to him. ‘My lord,' said he, ‘what's the hurry, getting up at such an hour, before the daylight and the sun appear?'

Erec replied that he had a considerable distance and a long day's ride ahead; for that reason he was preparing his departure, about which he was extremely concerned. And he said: ‘Sir, as yet you have made no reckoning of my expenses. You have shown me honour and kindness, and that deserves a rich reward. Accept in recompense the seven chargers that I brought in here with me: keep them, and I hope this is not too little. I cannot increase my gift to you, even by the price of a halter.'

The burgher was more than satisfied with this gift; he bowed down at Erec's feet and thanked him abundantly. Then Erec mounted and took his leave, and they went on their way again. Erec repeatedly warned Enide that if she saw anything she should not be so bold as to speak to him about it.

At that point a hundred fully armed knights came into the house; but they had been made complete fools of, for they did not find Erec there. Then the count was sure that the lady had tricked him. He saw the horses' tracks, and they all set out on their trail. The count promised vicious recriminations against Erec and said that, if he could catch him, nothing would stop him from immediately cutting off his head. ‘Cursed be anyone who is reluctant to spur his horse on!' he said. ‘Whoever can give me the head of the knight whom I hate so much will have served me extremely well.'

Then they all hotly pursued Erec, fuming with anger towards him –
though he had never seen them or injured them by word or deed. They rode until they caught sight of him; they saw him at the edge of a forest just before he had entered it. Then not one of them stopped; all raced forward at top speed. Enide heard the din and the noise of their armour and their horses, and saw that the valley was full of them. As soon as she saw them coming, she could not keep from speaking:

‘Oh! my lord,' she said, ‘alas! What an attack this count is mounting, bringing a whole army against you! My lord, ride more quickly until we're in this forest. Perhaps we can get away: they are still far behind. If we keep on at this pace, you will not escape alive, for this contest is not at all evenly matched.'

Erec replied: ‘You have little esteem for me, since you despise my instructions. Nothing I say to you can correct your behaviour. But if God has mercy on me and I can escape, this will cost you very dearly – unless I have a change of heart.'

Then he swung around at once and saw the seneschal advancing on a strong, fast horse. He galloped forward ahead of the others the distance of four crossbow-shots. His armour was not borrowed, for he was very well equipped. Erec estimated the number of pursuers and saw that there were easily a hundred of them. He decided that he had to stop the seneschal who was nearest to him. They went at each other and struck one another on their shields with their two sharpened, cutting blades. Erec made his strong steel lance slide into his adversary's body; neither the shield nor the hauberk was worth a piece of blue silk to him.

And then the count came spurring on. As the story relates, he was a good knight and strong; but the count acted foolishly on this occasion, for he had only a shield and a lance: he had such confidence in his prowess that he chose to wear no armour. He acted very boldly, galloping forward a great distance in front of his men. When Erec saw him out by himself, he turned towards him; the count did not fear him and they came at one another bravely. First the count struck Erec on the chest, with such power that he would have been unhorsed had he not been well set in his stirrups; it cracked the wood of the shield, so that the iron head stuck out the other side, but the hauberk was very fine and such a sure protection from death that not a link of it gave way. The count was strong; he broke his lance. Erec struck him with such violence on his yellow-painted shield that he thrust more than a yard of his lance into the count's side, knocking him unconscious from his horse. Then Erec turned and came back. He stayed no longer in the field but galloped at full speed into the forest.

Now, with Erec in the forest, the others stopped over the two who lay upon the field. Fervently they affirmed and swore that they would pursue Erec with all speed for two or three days until they caught and killed him. And the count, who was badly wounded in the side, heard what they were saying. He raised himself up a little and opened his eyes just a fraction; he realized full well that it was an evil deed that he had undertaken. He ordered his knights to hold back. ‘My lords,' he said, ‘to all of you I say, let there be not a single one of you – strong or weak, tall or short – so bold as to dare go one step further. Return speedily, all of you! I have acted basely; I deeply regret my villainy. The lady who has foiled me is very brave, sensible, and courtly. Her beauty inflamed me. Because I desired her, I wanted to kill her lord and hold her by force. Evil was certain to come to me from it; evil has befallen me, for I behaved rashly and disloyally, treacherously and madly. Never was there a better knight born of woman than this one; never will he suffer ill on my account, if I can prevent it. Now I command you to turn back.'

They went away, sad and discouraged. They carried off the seneschal, dead, upon his upturned shield. The count lived long afterwards, for he was not mortally wounded. And so Erec was delivered.

Erec galloped off along a path between two hedges. Emerging from an enclosed portion of the wood they found a drawbridge in front of a high tower that was enclosed within a wall and a wide and deep moat. They quickly crossed over the bridge, but they had scarcely gone any distance when the lord of that place saw them from his tower. Of him I can truly say that he was very small in stature, but bold and very courageous. When he saw Erec coming along, he came down from the tower and had a saddle with golden lions depicted on it placed on a big sorrel charger; then he ordered his shield to be brought to him, and his strong and sturdy lance, his sharp and burnished sword, his bright shining helmet, white hauberk and thrice-woven greaves, for he had seen an armed knight pass by in front of his walls, whom he wished to combat until he was exhausted, or until the other had worn himself out and declared himself defeated. His orders were carried out: his horse was led out, saddled and bridled, by a squire; another brought his arms.

Through the gate the knight went out as fast as he could, entirely alone, for he had no companion. Erec was crossing a slope when the knight came charging across the hill and down the slope, seated on a fiery horse that was making such a racket that beneath its feet it was shattering the pebbles more freely than a mill grinds up wheat: in all directions there flew bright burning sparks, for it seemed that its four feet were all afire.

Enide heard the din and the racket; fainting and weak, she almost fell from her palfrey. Throughout her body there was no vein in which the blood did not curdle, and her face became pale and white as if she were dead. She greatly despaired and grieved, for she dared not tell her lord, lest he threaten and blame her and order her to be silent.

She was thwarted on both sides so that she did not know which course to choose: to speak or keep silent. She deliberated within herself; often she prepared to speak so that her tongue moved but her voice could not escape, for out of fear she clenched her teeth and withheld the words inside. Thus she controlled and restrained herself; she closed her mouth and clenched her teeth, so that the words would not get out; she battled with herself, saying: ‘I am certainly sure that my bereavement will be too great if I lose my lord here. Shall I then speak openly to him? Certainly not. Why? I wouldn't dare, for I would anger my lord; and if my lord grows angry, he will leave me in this brushwood, alone and wretched and abandoned: then I shall be even worse off. Worse off? What does that matter to me? I shall never lack grief or sorrow again as long as I live if my lord does not escape freely from here, so that he is not mortally wounded. But if I don't warn him soon, this knight spurring this way will have killed him before he gets his guard up, for he seems full of evil intentions. Wretch, now I have waited too long! He has indeed forbidden me to speak, but I shall not let that deter me: I can see that my lord is deep in thought, so much so that he forgets himself; therefore it is quite right that I should tell him.' She spoke to him; he threatened her, but had no wish to harm her, for he perceived and knew full well that she loved him above all else, and he loved her with all his might.

Erec rushed at the other knight who was summoning him to battle. They met at the head of the bridge. There they came together and challenged one another; with their iron-tipped lances they both attacked with all their strength. The shields hung at their shoulders were not worth two bits of bark: the leather broke and the wood split and the mail of their hauberks broke, so that both of them were run through right into their entrails, and their chargers were thrown to the ground. They were not mortally wounded, for the barons were very strong. They threw their lances on to the field; from their scabbards they drew their swords, and struck each other with great fury. They heaved and pulled at one another, sparing each other nothing. They struck great blows on their helmets so that sparks flew from them as their swords rebounded. Their shields split and flew apart; their hauberks were battered and broken. In many places the swords penetrated all the way to their naked flesh, so that they grew very weak and
tired; and had their swords both remained whole longer, they would not have drawn back and the battle would not have ended until one of them was killed.

Enide, who was watching them, nearly went mad from distress. Anyone who saw her in such a sorrowful state, wringing her hands, tearing her hair, with tears falling from her eyes, would have recognized a loyal lady; and anyone seeing her would have been most cruel if they had not been seized by great pity.

Each dealt the other great blows; from mid-morning till mid-afternoon the battle raged so fiercely that no man, by any means, could have told with certainty which of them had the better of it. Erec strove to do his utmost: his sword penetrated the other's helmet all the way to the coif of mail, so that he quite caused him to reel, but he managed to keep from falling. Then he attacked Erec in turn and struck him with such force on the rim of his shield that his good and precious blade was broken when he drew it back. When he saw his sword was broken, in fury he flung as far away as he could the part that remained in his hand. He was afraid and was obliged to draw back, for a knight without a sword cannot do much in battle or attack.

Erec pursued him and the other begged him for God's sake not to kill him. ‘Have mercy,' he cried, ‘noble knight! Don't be savage and cruel towards me! Since my sword has failed me, you have the force and the right to kill me or take me alive, since I have nothing with which to defend myself.'

Erec replied: ‘Since you beseech me, I want you to say that you are utterly beaten and defeated. I shall attack you no more if you place yourself in my power.' But the other delayed in speaking.

When Erec saw him delay, to frighten him the more he made another attack; he ran upon him with his sword drawn, and the other, terrified, cried out: ‘Pity, my lord! Consider me defeated, since it cannot be otherwise.'

Erec replied: ‘I demand more, for you won't get off with so little. Tell me your name and your situation, and I shall tell you mine.'

‘My lord,' said he, ‘what you say is fair. I am the king of this land. My liegemen are Irish; every one of them pays me tribute. And my name is Guivret the Short. I am very rich and powerful, for in this land in all directions every baron whose land borders on mine obeys my command and does exactly as I wish. All my neighbours fear me, however arrogant or brave they may be. I should very much like to be your confidant and friend from this time forward.'