United States or Mayotte ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The old rascal stag is rotten with fever. I suppose Don Sancho was not called Wise for nothing. At any rate he sat for a while considering the man before him. Then he asked, where was King Philip? 'Sire, replied Bertran, 'he is in his city of Paris, comforting Dame Alois, and assembling his estates for Count Richard's flank. 'And Prince John? 'Oh, sire, he has friends. He waits.
Gaston he sent to the South, to Angoulesme, to Périgord, to Auvergne, to Cahors. The horn must be heard at the head of every brown valley, the armed men shadow every white road. He himself went to his city of Poietiers. Bertran de Born saw him go, and rubbed his hair till it stood like reeds shaken by the wind.
It was thus Bertran de Born had seen her, when for a time his hot and wrong heart was at rest, and he could look on a creature of this world without desire to mar it. Half in mockery, half in love, he called her Frozen Heart. Later on, you remember, he called Jehane Bel Vezer. He was the nicknamer of Europe in his day.
'But if it is not true, Bertran' he shook him like a rat 'if it is not true, I return, O Bertran, and tear this false gullet out of its case, and with thy speckled heart feed the crows of Périgord. Bertran had foam on his lips, but Richard showed him no mercy. 'As it is, Bertran, he went on with his teeth on edge, 'I am minded to finish thee.
'Dear Lord Richard, said Gaston reasonably, 'if you do not know Bertran by this time it is a strange thing and a pitiful thing. For it shows you without any wit. He was appointed, it would seem, to be the thorn in your rosebed of Anjou. What has he done since he was let be made but set you all by the ears? What did he do by the young King but miserably? What by Geoffrey?
Bimi come to der house, but dere was no light in his eye. It was all put away, cunning so cunning und he fetch der girl her slippers, und Bertran turn to me und say, "Dost dou know him in nine months more dan I haf known him in twelve years? Shall a child stab his fader? I haf fed him, und he was my child. Do not speak this nonsense to my wife or to me any more."
Bertran, trembling, snatched at the viol. 'Mine to sing, Richard, mine to sing! Ha, love me no more! Cantar d' Amors non voilh, he began 'Your strands are warped and will not accord, for love will warp any song. It turneth the heart of a man black, and the soul it eateth up. At fourteen goes the virgin first a-wallowing; and soon the King croaks like a hog. A plait!
Jaufré, the prior of Vigeois, an abbey of Saint-Martial of Limoges, is the only chronicler during the reigns of Henry II. and Richard Coeur de Lion who mentions Bertran's name. From these materials, and from forty-four or forty-five poems which have come down to us, the poet's life can be reconstructed. Bertran de Bern's estates were situated on the borders of Limousin and Périgord.
So on an afternoon of weather serene beyond all belief of the North, mild, tired, softly radiant, still as a summer noon; as he sat with Bertran in a courtyard where were lemon-trees and a fountain, and above the old white walls, and above the strutting pigeons, a square of blue, he began to speak of his affairs, of what he had done and of what was to do.
Now and again he raids the marches, harries France or Anjou, and withdraws. 'And the King his father, Bertran, where is he? Far off, I hope. 'He, said Bertran, 'is in Normandy with a host, seeking the head of his son Richard on a charger. 'The great man that he is! cried Don Sancho. Bertran could not contain himself. 'Great or not, he is to pay his debts!
Word Of The Day