He drew him back, and gathering for a spring, with wond'rous force he bounded to the door. Still all was vain, he could not cross the sill. Again and yet again he tried, till deep discouragement iced o'er his heart. Then tears broke from his eyes, and murmuring:
“Alas, good Lord,” he said, “Thou gav'st me strength to kill yon wicked wretch; what boots it, if I here must captive be?”
'Twas as he thus bemoaned his adverse fate, there broke upon his ear from some nigh place a sound of infant tongues, which sadly cried:
“Save us, O, save us, mighty lord!”
Swift at the sound he roused his spirit up, and running, found at one end of a hall a close-shut door fast bolted from within. Jaufry called out, and struck it with great noise; yet answer none was made: enraged at this, he burst it in with force, and with his naked blade entered a gloomy vault. There was the leper found, with knife in hand, who seven infants had just put to death. Some thirty more there still remained alive, whose bitter cries went through the softened soul.
Touched at the frightful sight, Jaufry struck down the wretch, who called his master's help; and then in wrath exclaimed:
“Thy master, villain, can no answer make; his soul this earth hath fled: and thou, for erstwhile making mock of me, shalt now thy meed receive.”
Raising meanwhile his arm, the leper's hand he severed at a blow. The wretch upon the blood-stained pavement rolled; then crawling to his feet, he humbly cried:
“Mercy, good knight; in God's name, pity me, and take not quite my life! 'Twas by constraint and force I killed these babes. My lord, who sought to cure his leprosy, bade me, with awful threats, each day prepare a bath of human blood.”
“Thy life I'll grant,” quoth Jaufry to him then, “an that thou give me means to leave this place.”