“Brave knight, come, ope again those manly eyes, and see who 'tis that speaks. Forget ye what is due to chivalry, of which you are a lord? your courage and your fame? Recall yourself, and lower that bright shield; behold, the leper's dead!”
C'a ana part, lo fas anar
E si ab la paret urtar
Que l'auzer li tolc e l'vezer
Et anet à terra cazer
E l'sanc tot yin clar e vermeil
I eis per lo nas e la bocha.....
Ms. fol. 28 verso, verse 2461.
Jaufry recovered at this heart'ning speech, and finding his head bare,—
“Damsel,” he asked, “who hath removed my casque, and taken my good sword?”
“Myself, good lord, whilst you were in a swoon.”
“The giant, what doth he?”
“Bathed in his blood and at your feet he lies.” Jaufry looked up, and when the corpse he saw thus shattered and quite still, he slowly rose, and sat him on a bench until his senses were again restored; then, when the dizziness had fled his brain, he thought upon the mother and the child, and straightway ran from hall to hall to search the infant out. But though he sought and ran and called aloud, neither the leper nor the child appeared.
“I will yet search and search,” he then exclaimed; “or here or out the door they must be found; for I'll not hold me at a denier's worth till to the mother her poor child's restored, and I've had vengeance for that leper's scorn.”
With such resolve, he strode towards the door; but though the portal was thrown open wide, he could not pass it through. Spite of his will, his efforts, and his strength, his feet seemed stopped before an unseen bar.
“Good Heaven,” he said, “what! am I then entranced?”