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From her balcony in the castle she saw the Sieur Rudel sail forth. He stood upon the poop, the wind blowing the hair back from his face, and as she watched his straight figure, she said, "A boon he shall ask, but a greater will I grant. Surely no man ever did such loyal service but for love, and for love's sake, he shall share my throne with me."
There are composers of whom few ever heard, whose magnum opus was some romance that still makes the heart-strings tingle by the acoustic law of sympathetic vibration. For example, there are two old crusading troubadours. You never heard, perhaps, of Geoffrey Rudel, who "died for the charms of an imaginary mistress." He fell in love with the Countess of Tripoli, never having seen her.
The Dramas and Poems contained in the eight numbers of 'Bells and Pomegranates' were: I. Pippa Passes. 1841. II. King Victor and King Charles. 1842. III. Dramatic Lyrics. 1842. In a Gondola. Artemis Prologuizes. Waring; I.; II. Queen Worship; I. Rudel and The Lady of Tripoli; II. Cristina. The Pied Piper of Hamelin; a Child's Story. IV. The Return of the Druses. A Tragedy, in Five Acts. 1843.
Thereupon rose a great murmur of astonishment within the hall, the men lamenting that the Sieur Rudel would lead them no more to battle, and the women marvelling to each other that he should choose so mean a thing as Solita for wife.
So she spake, thinking that when the Sieur Rudel had departed, she would privily put Solita to death openly she dared not do it, for the great love the nobles bore towards Rudel and when Solita was dead, then would she send again for Rudel and share her siege with him. Sir Broyance, as ye may believe, was right glad at her words, and made him ready for the feast.
So she spake, and the messenger from the princess brake in upon them, bidding the Sieur Rudel hasten to the council-chamber, for that the Princess Joceliande waited this long while for his coming. "Now will I ask for the fulfilment of her promise," said Rudel to Solita, "and to-night, sweet, I will claim thee before the whole Court."
But Sir Broyance said never a word, but got him from the table and out of the hall, so that the company marvelled yet more for that he had not sought to persuade the Sieur Rudel. Then said the Princess Joceliande, and greatly was she angered both against Solita and Rudel: "Fie, my lord! shame on you; you forget your knighthood!"
Yet for all her jewels and rich attire, she trembled like a common wench at the approach of her lover, and feared that the loud beating of her heart would drown the sound of his footsteps in the passage. But the Sieur Rudel came not, and she sent a messenger to inquire why he tarried, and the messenger brought word and said: "He is with the maiden Solita in the tower."
With terrible sincerity, let it be repeated: for the service of domnei was never, as some would affect to interpret it, a modish and ordered affectation; the histories of Peire de Maenzac, of Guillaume de Caibestaing, of Geoffrey Rudel, of Ulrich von Liechtenstein, of the Monk of Pucibot, of Pons de Capdueilh, and even of Peire Vidal and Guillaume de Balaun, survive to prove it was a serious thing, a stark and life-disposing reality.
"Were there no danger, madame," he replied, "we should not ask Sieur Rudel of you to be our leader, and great though the danger be, greater far is the honour. For we offer him a kingdom." Then the princess spake again to Sir Broyance: "It may not be," she said. "Whatever else you crave, that shall you have, and gladly will I grant it you.
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