“‘Hold, Señores! this is not the knight whom the princess has ordered you to put to death. This is only a squire who is going to travel across the seas. When the knight comes out kill him.’
“With this the lady conducts me to the castle-gate, where I mount my horse. The lady heaves a deep sigh, and I promise to wed her when I return to the castle, which, however, in consideration of the danger I have so narrowly escaped, I resolved never to do.
“Suppose that once more I set out to seek my fortune, and that after journeying for a time I arrive in a town where the lists are prepared for a grand tournament. There I behold the emperor and his daughter. The princess is arrayed in rich brocade, and seated in a chair of state adorned with jewels. She is frightfully ugly, but in spite of that she has come to preside at the tournament, flattering herself that some adventurous knight will enter the lists to compete for the possession of her superlative charms. Seeing that no one is in a hurry to offer, I propose to try my fortune. But at sight of me the spectators immediately begin to shout scoffingly,—‘Here comes the Knight of the Hump—the flower of chivalry!’
“Undismayed, I spur my horse and gallop into the lists, where I shiver a lance in the presence of the emperor and his daughter. Thereupon the princess falls in love with me, and entreats her father’s leave to bestow upon me her hand. The emperor consents, and calling me to the platform, he rewards my gallantry with the hand of the princess, who has for her dower a kingdom, and for her subjects a nation of dwarfs. Thus, from a bachelor of Salamanca (and not of Alcalá), I become nothing less than a king.”[60]
“Friend bachelor,” observed I, “for the life of me I cannot comprehend how the just and reasonable reply of the Duke del Infantado to the invincible emperor, can warrant the inference that knights-errant were at that period banished from the world. On the contrary, we know that Micer Oliver de la Marcha was then living, though in a very advanced old age. He was a knight of the court of the Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good, and he afterwards figured in the court of the duke’s daughter, Doña María, the consort of the Emperor Maximilian, and mother of Philip the Fair. This same Oliver de la Marcha married Doña Juana, a daughter of the King of Castile, and he wrote a book entitled El Caballero Determinado, which like many of the romances of chivalry then circulated, was very ingenious, though full of extravagances. El Caballero Determinado was written in French, from which language it was translated by Don Hernando de Acuña, who transferred it into very graceful Castilian verse.[R]
“Moreover you must also recollect what is related of Mario de Abenante, a Neapolitan knight, who challenged another knight, Don Francisco Pandon, also of Naples. Both entered the lists furiously defying each other. Don Francisco made a thrust at Mario’s horse, and wounded the animal, so that he was well-nigh falling. Mario was unconscious of his danger until his uncle, who was within the lists, beckoned him to dismount, which he did, and then, with great alertness, he inflicted a wound on the horse of his adversary. The animal became restive, and began to kick and plunge in such a manner that Don Francisco found himself constrained to surrender. Mario’s conduct on this occasion called forth severe censure from all who witnessed it, and he was declared to be a coward and a traitor. Neither can you have forgotten other feats of knight-errantry which have taken place in these present times; as for example, that passage of arms when a knight named Leres challenged another named Martín López. Both met in single combat in Rome, armed with lances and cuirasses. In the midst of the conflict it happened that the horse of Martín López stumbled and fell. López was stunned by the fall, and Leres, thinking it cowardly to strike his adversary as he lay on the ground, was preparing to dismount; but in so doing he also stumbled and fell. Seeing this accident, Martín López, with an effort, raised himself up, and fearing lest fortune should not grant him such another opportunity, he turned upon Leres, and in that cowardly manner subdued him. Setting aside all these events, you cannot but recollect the happy journey of King Don Philip II. (now in glory), who, when he was Infante, travelled from Spain into his territories in Flanders and Brabant. The whole history is in print, as related by Juan Calvete de Estrella.”[S]
“I know the book you speak of,” eagerly interrupted the bachelor. “It is one of the most entertaining that ever appeared since the world has been the world, or at least since the art of printing has been known. It contains nothing but truth, and that cannot be said of the writings of all historians, some of whom give currency to falsehood by narrating events which never took place.[T] My father was in the suite of the Infante in that journey to Flanders; but in consequence of an adventure with a lady in which he became entangled, he was forced to return in all haste to Spain. On his road, he encountered more adventures than ever befel that Monster of Fortune,[61] Antonio Pérez.[V] Finally, he was returning home angry and fretful, like one stung by an asp——.”
Here I cut him short, for I was fearful that he was preparing to enter upon one of his tedious and inapt tales. So imitating the serpent, which, with curious perversity, closes her ears when she wishes not to hear the enchanter’s voice, I pretended not to hear what he was saying, and I thus proceeded,
“In Binche, as you probably know, sundry knights who were in that town appeared in the presence of the emperor Semper Augusto, and the prince his son. They stated that a certain enchanter, a foe to virtue and knight-errantry, and one whom all accounts describe to have been more malignant than Arcalaus,[U] and a greater heretic than Constantino,[W] had taken refuge in Gallia Belgica, and somewhere near to the town of Binche.”
“Do you not recollect the name of that enchanter?” eagerly interrupted the bachelor.