While Aucassin and Nicolette were talking together, the town watch came down a street. They had their swords drawn under their cloaks, for Count Warren had given them command that if they could lay hands on her they should kill her. And the watchman on the tower saw them coming, and heard that they were talking of Nicolette and threatening to kill her.
“Great Heavens!” he said, “what pity it were should they slay so fair a maid! ’Twere a mighty good deed if I could tell her, in such wise that they perceived it not, and she could be ware of them. For if they slay her, then will Aucassin my young lord die; and that were great pity.”
Here they sing.
Valiant was the watch on wall,
Kindly, quick of wit withal.
He struck up a roundelay
Very seasonably gay.
“Maiden of the noble heart,
Winsome fair of form thou art;
Winsome is thy golden hair,
Blue thine eye and blithe thine air.
Well I see it by thy cheer,
Thou hast spoken with thy fere,
Who for thee lies dying here.
This I tell thee, thou give ear!
’Ware thee of the sudden foe!
Yonder seeking thee they go.
’Neath each cloak a sword I see;
Terribly they threaten thee.
Soon they’ll do thee some misdeed
Save thou take heed!” [39]
Here they speak and tell the story.
“Ah!” said Nicolette; “now may thy father’s soul and thy mother’s be in blessed repose, for
the grace and for the courtesy with which thou hast told me! Please God I will guard me well from them, and may God Himself be my guard!”
She wrapped her mantle about her in the shadow of the pier, till they had passed. Then she took leave of Aucassin and went her way till she came to the castle wall. There was a breach in it which had been boarded up. On to this she climbed, and so got over between the wall and the ditch; and looking down she saw the ditch was very deep and the sides very sheer, and she was sore afraid.