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Updated: May 8, 2025
'I am alone here except for this porter, a priest, a few children, and some ladies whose husbands are all at the war. Neither gate nor wicket will be opened until the return of my beloved lord, William the Count. Then William bowed his head for a moment, and two tears ran down his cheeks. 'My lady, I am William himself, said he. 'Do you not know me? 'Infidel, you lie, replied Gibourc.
It is the Lady Gibourc who bade me come here, and it is she who asks for help through me. Have pity on us, and help us. But without a word, they rose up and went into the Palace, and William knew what their love was worth. The young men told Louis of the words that the Count had spoken, and the King rose and leaned out of the window.
If I only have the chance to make them feel the weight of my staff, I shall soon sweep the battle-field clean. And William embraced him for these words, and ordered the trumpets to be sounded and the army to march. From her window Gibourc watched them go.
They left their seats and flung themselves on his neck, and William's brother also ran to greet him. The Count told them how he had been vanquished at the Aliscans, how Vivian had been killed, and he himself had fled to Orange, and of the distress in which he had left Gibourc.
When William beheld the smoke, and whence it came, he cried 'Orange is burning! Holy Saint Mary, Gibourc is carried captive! To arms! To arms! And he spurred his horse to Orange, Rainouart running by his side.
Not again would the Lady Gibourc have reason to call him coward. And Gibourc saw, and her heart swelled within her, and she repented her of her words. 'It is my fault if he is slain, she wept. 'Oh, come back, come back! And William came.
Suddenly his hand touched the sword buckled on him by Gibourc, which he had forgotten, and he drew it from its scabbard, and with three blows clove the heads of the giants in twain. Meanwhile King Desramé took refuge in the only ship that had not been sunk by the Christians, and spread its sails. 'Come back whenever you like, fair father, called Rainouart after him.
Gibourc knew that it was indeed the Count who had returned, and was about to order the gates to be opened when there appeared in sight a troop of Saracens escorting two hundred prisoners, all of them young Knights, and thirty ladies with fair white faces. Each one was loaded with chains, and they cowered under the blows of their captors.
'Oh, fair lord! called Gibourc, who from the battlements had watched the fight, 'come back, come back, for now indeed you may enter. And William heard her voice, and left the Saracens to go where they would while he struck the chains off the prisoners, and led them to the gates of Orange, while he himself rode back to the Saracens.
But with my staff between my hands there is not a Pagan that can stand up against me, and if one escapes then let Count William drive me from his door. At this Gibourc felt sure this was indeed her brother, but she did not yet like to ask him more questions, and in her joy and wonder she began to weep. 'Lady Countess, said Rainouart, 'do not weep.
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