HOW KING CHARLES SENT HUON ON AN ERRAND
King Charles, being now advanced in years and desiring rest, was
minded to lay down his power. He called, therefore, his Barons
together and said to them, "I am weary of my kingship. Say now to
which of my two sons, Charlot and Lewis, I shall resign it. For
Lewis indeed is over young, and Charlot is not of such conditions as
to be fit for such dignity." The Barons answered, "Sire, let us
consider the matter by ourselves." So they went apart and considered
it, and it seemed meet to them that Prince Charlot should be King.
Now there was among the Barons a certain Amaury, who was of kin to
the traitor Ganelon. This Amaury said to the King, "It would be well
to try the Prince Charlot. Now there is the Duchy of Bordeaux, whose
Princes, Huon and Gerard, have not yet taken the oath to you. If you
will give me some soldiers I will bring them prisoners hither, and
your son Charlot shall have their land. This shall be his trial
before he have the kingdom of France."
But the Duke Naymes, being both wise and true of heart, said to the
King, "This is no good counsel of Amaury. The Princes are young,
and, maybe, they have not failed in their duty to you of set purpose,
but rather unknowingly. Send therefore messengers to Bordeaux and
bid them come to your Court. If they obey, well; but if not, then
you shall deal with them by Amaury's counsel."
So the King sent messengers to Bordeaux, and the Princes received
them with great honour. And when they had delivered their message,
the Duchess said, "I thank the King; my sons will certainly come to
do him homage when I shall have made them ready for their journey."
So the messengers went back to the King and told him these words, and
he was very glad, and said, "A good tree puts forth good fruit; Duke
Sevyn of Bordeaux was a good man, and his sons are good men also.
But as for this mischief-maker Amaury, I banish him from the land of
France."
Then went Amaury to Prince Charlot and said: "I had thought to win
for you the Duchy of Bordeaux. But the Duke Naymes has thwarted me.
Nevertheless, the lands may yet be yours if only we can be rid of the
Princes Huon and Gerard. Let us fall on them when they ride this
way."
These two, then, lay in wait in a wood by which they knew the two
should pass. Now Amaury's purpose was double, either that Huon and
his brother should be slain, or if they should slay Charlot, then
they should be accused to the King of this deed and suffer
accordingly. So now he said to Charlot, "Yonder are Huon and Gerard;
ride out against them, for they are but weaklings." To his men he
said, "Let the Prince go alone; he needs not your help."
So Charlot rode forth and held the way by which the two brothers must
pass. Then Huon said to his brother, "Go now and see what this
knight demands; if he ask for toll, being master of the way, we will
pay it." So Gerard rode forward. Prince Charlot said to him, "Who
are you?" Gerard answered, "We are sons of Sevyn that was Duke of
Bordeaux, on whom God have mercy." "Then," said the Prince, "you are
sons of a villain. Sevyn took from me three castles, and I could
never have justice of him. Now, therefore, you shall suffer for this
wrong." "Sir," answered Gerard, "you see that I am without arms. It
were a foul shame if you should slay me. But if you have suffered
wrong we will make you amends." "I will have no amends," cried the
Prince, "but vengeance." And when Gerard turned to flee, being
unarmed, and fearing for his life, he rode at him and smote him with
his spear, so that he fell to the ground as one dead.
When Huon saw this deed he was greatly troubled, thinking that his
brother was slain. Spurring his horse, he rode with all haste, and
overtook the Prince ere ever he came to the wood. He cried, "Who are
you that have slain my brother without any cause?" Charlot answered,
"I am son of Duke Thierry," for he would not be known; also he had
disguised his shield, "and this I have done because your father took
from me three castles, and I could never have justice of him." Huon
said, "You are a false knight and a murderer, and I defy you." Then
he wrapped his scarlet cloak about his arm and drew his sword, for
other arms or armour he had none, and rode against the Prince. The
Prince, on his part, spurred his horse and charged Huon with his
spear in rest. He drave his spear through the cloak and through the
gown that Huon wore, and through the shirt that was under the gown,
but the body he missed. Huon, on his part, raising his sword in both
his hands, smote Charlot as he passed so fierce a blow that he brake
his helmet in twain. So, the steel entering his brain, he fell dead
upon the ground.
Then Huon, lighting from his horse, searched for Gerard's wound, and
finding that it was of less account than he had thought, bound it up
with a strip of his shirt. Then he set him on an ambling nag that he
had in his train, that he might ride the more easily. So the two
went forward on their way to Paris, for Huon would make complaint to
the King that, having a safe conduct, he had been so foully assailed.
Amaury's knights said to him, "What shall we do now? The Prince lies
dead on the plain. It were ill done if he that slew him should be
suffered to escape." Amaury answered, "We will take up the body and
carry it to Paris, and so accuse him before the King." So he and his
knights followed Huon and his company, carrying the body of Charlot
with them.
Huon, when he was come to Paris, went in and stood before the King,
and told him what things had befallen him. First he said, "Sire, see
this my brother, how he has been wounded." And as he spoke he pulled
aside Gerard's doublet and his shirt, and showed the wound beneath.
And the lad fell in a swoon before the King and his lords, so great
was the pain that he suffered. The King had a great pity for the
wounded man, and bade fetch his own surgeon that he might dress the
wound. He said also, "If I find out the man that has done this deed,
I will deal with him in such fashion as shall never be forgotten."
After this Huon told the story how he had been assailed, and how he
had slain his adversary. When the King heard it he said, "Now were
this false knight my own son Charlot, whom I love with all my heart,
I should not deny that he had met with his deserts."
While the King was yet speaking there was heard a great outcry in the
street, for the body of the Prince was being carried through the town
and the people lamented over it. The King said to the Duke Naymes,
"Go now and see what this outcry may mean." So the Duke went, but
when he came to the great gate of the palace there was the body of
Prince Charlot lying on a shield and borne by four knights.
When the body was brought in and laid down before the King he said in
a loud voice, "Tell me now who has done this deed and for what
cause." Amaury answered, "The man who did this deed sits yonder. He
is none other than Huon of Bordeaux." When the King heard these
words he would have fallen on Huon and slain him, only the Duke
Naymes and others of his Barons held him back.
Then said Huon to the King, "Believe me, Sire, that I knew not this
knight to be your son; verily, had I known it I should not have come
to make my complaint to you as I have done this day. Rather should I
have fled away and hidden myself as best I could."
Then said the Duke Naymes to the King, "Let now Amaury stand forth
and tell us why he lay in ambush in the wood with your son, and what
purpose he had in his mind."
And Amaury stood forth and told this tale: "Sir, your son sent a
message to me, desiring that I should go a-hawking with him. So I
went with him, only we went armed, for I feared the men of Ardennes
lest they should fall upon us. It chanced that we came to a little
wood, and there we cast our hawks, and one of the hawks was lost.
While we sought for it there came by Huon and his brother, and Huon
had the hawk on his fist. Then your son full courteously required
his own again, and Huon for answer drew his sword and slew your son,
which when he had done he rode away so fast that we could not
overtake him; and now I challenge him to say that he knew not the
knight that demanded the hawk to be your son."
Then said Huon, "I will prove that this Amaury is a false liar, and
will make him confess that I knew not the knight whom I slew to be
the King's son. And for my surety I give my brother Gerard, than
whom there is none nearer of kin to me." Amaury on his part gave as
surety two nephews that he had.
The King said to the Duke Naymes, "Let them prepare a field where
these two shall fight, and till it be prepared shut them up in a
tower, and let a hundred knights be ready to keep the field when it
is prepared. For I will not suffer my son to be buried till the
vanquished man be hanged, if he have not been already slain in the
field."
When all was ready, the two champions took each his oath upon the
holy relics that he had spoken the truth, and then made themselves
ready for the fight. But men noted that Amaury, when he would have
mounted his horse, stumbled so that he had well-nigh fallen to the
ground. Then, after proclamation made that no one should presume
under pain of death to make any sign to either of the combatants, the
King stood up and said, "My pleasure is that if no confession be made
of the truth, then the vanquisher shall forfeit all his land and be
banished from this realm." And from this judgment he would not
depart, though the Duke Naymes and the other Barons did protest that
the King was unjust.
After this the two knights joined battle. First they charged on
horseback, breaking both of them their spears, and with so great a
shock that their horses fell to the ground. Then both of them rose
to their feet, and fought with their swords. First Amaury smote Huon
on the helmet so strongly that he well-nigh stunned him. Indeed Huon
was fain to rest for a space on one knee. When Amaury saw this, he
cried, "Huon, you cannot hold out longer; it were well for you to
confess your ill-doing." But Huon answered, "Be silent, false
traitor," and he made as if he would strike him on the helmet; but
when Amaury raised his sword to guard the blow, then Huon turned
suddenly his stroke, and smote the man under his guard so that he
lopped off his left arm. When Amaury saw that he was so disabled, he
bethought him of a base device. He said to Huon, "I do confess that
I spoke falsely and that you knew not that the knight was Charlot.
Therefore I yield me to your grace. Come, therefore, and receive my
sword, which I willingly yield to you." But when Huon came near to
take the sword, Amaury smote him on the arm, thinking to do him the
same damage that he had himself endured. This stroke he missed, yet
made a great wound, so that the blood flowed down. Then said Huon,
"Take this, false traitor!" and he slew the man with one stroke, but
for repentance or confession there was no space of time.
Then said the King, "Did the vanquished man confess?" And when he
heard that no confession had been made he said to Huon, "I banish you
for ever from this realm. Never shall you hold one foot of land in
Bordeaux or Aquitaine." Nor would he abate one jot from this
sentence, for all that Huon begged him to have mercy, and the Duke
Naymes with the other Barons were urgent with him that he should not
do this great injustice. Nevertheless at the last when he saw that
he was left alone, for the Duke with his fellows had departed from
the palace, he was constrained to relent somewhat from his purpose.
So he called the Barons, saying, "Come back to me, for I must
perforce yield to your desire." To Huon he said, for the young man
knelt before him with much humbleness, "Will you do that thing which
I command?" And Huon answered, "Sire, there is nothing in the whole
world that I would not do at your bidding, if I might thereby be
restored to your grace. Verily I would go to the gates of hell, as
did Hercules, if you should send me thither." The King answered,
"Maybe, Huon, I shall send you to a worse place than that to which
went Hercules, for of fifteen messengers that have already gone
thither there has not come back to me a single one. Hear then what I
shall say: you shall go to the city of Babylon and enter the palace
of Gaudys that is Admiral of the city when he sits at his dinner.
And you shall defy him, and shall take the sceptre from his hand.
This sceptre shall you render into my hands. After this I will take
you again into favour, and will give back to you your lands." The
Barons said, "Sir, you must greatly desire the death of him whom you
send on such an errand." The King answered, "Let him never come back
to France except he bring the Admiral's sceptre with him." Nor would
he grant him any further grace, save that ten knights should go with
him. So Huon made ready to go.