Good King Meladius and the Knight Without Fear were mortal enemies in
the field.
One day as this Knight Without Fear was wandering about disguised,
after the manner of knights-errant, he met his squires who loved him
dearly, but who did not recognize him.
And they said: tell us O knight-errant, by the honour of chivalry,
which is the better knight, the Knight Without Fear or good King
Meladius?
And the knight answered: may God prosper me! King Meladius is the best
knight who ever mounted a saddle.
Then the squires, who could not abide King Meladius, for love of their
master, took their lord by surprise, and lifted him thus armed from his
saddle, and set him on a jade, and said aloud that they were going to
hang him.
As they went on their way, they fell in with King Meladius. They found
him disguised as a knight-errant on his way to a tournament, and he
asked the fellows why they were treating that knight so villainously.
And they replied: Messer, because he has well deserved to die, and if
you but knew the reason, you would treat him worse yourself than we do.
Ask him of his misdeed.
King Meladius drew nearer and said: knight, what wrong have you done to
these fellows that they treat you so knavishly? And the knight replied:
naught. No wrong have I done to them unless it be that I favoured the
cause of truth.
Said King Meladius: that cannot be. Tell me more narrowly in what way
you offended. And he replied: gladly, sir. I was bent on my way, after
the fashion of a knight-errant. I came across these squires, and they
asked me, by the truth of chivalry to say whether good King Meladius or
the Knight Without Fear were the better knight. And I, to favour, as I
said before, the cause of truth, said that King Meladius was the
better, and I spoke but to tell the truth, considering that King
Meladius is my mortal enemy, and I hate him mortally. I do not wish to
lie. No other wrong have I done. And therefore they at once treated me
so shamefully.
Then King Meladius began to beat the servants, and had the knight
unbound, and gave him a rich charger with his own arms (worked on the
trappings) though they were covered, and he begged him not to raise the
cover before reaching his castle: and they departed, and each went his
way, King Meladius and the squires and the knight [115].
In the evening, the knight reached the castle. He took the cover off
the saddle. He found the arms of King Meladius who had set him free so
handsomely, and given him a rich gift, and yet was his mortal enemy
[116].