“Ah, fair sir! Do not kill them so!”
“How?” said Aucassin. “Do you not wish that I should avenge you?”
“Sir,” said the king, “you have done it overmuch. It is not our custom to kill one another.”
The other side turned to flight; and the king and Aucassin returned to the Castle of Torelore. And the people of the country bade the king drive Aucassin out of his land, and keep Nicolette for his son, since she seemed in sooth a lady of high degree. And when Nicolette heard it she was not well-pleased; and she began to say,
Here they sing.
“King of Torelore!” she said,
Nicolette the lovely maid,
“Fool I seem in your folk’s sight!
When my sweet friend clips me tight,
Smooth and soft for his delight,
Then am I at such a school,
Ball nor dance nor gay carole,
Harp nor viol nor cithole,
Nor the pleasures of nimpole, [66]
Were ought beside it!”
Here they speak and tell the story.
Aucassin was at the Castle of Torelore, and Nicolette his love, in great content and in great delight, for he had with him Nicolette, his sweet friend whom he loved so well. While he was in such content and in such delight, a fleet of Saracens came by sea and attacked the castle and took it by storm. They took the stuff, and led away men-captives and women-captives. They took Nicolette and Aucassin, and bound Aucassin hand and foot and threw him into one
ship, and Nicolette into another. And there arose a storm at sea which parted them. The ship in which Aucassin was went drifting over the sea till it arrived at the Castle of Beaucaire. And when the people of the country ran to the wrecking of it, they found Aucassin, and recognised him. When the men of Beaucaire saw their young lord, they made great joy of him; for Aucassin had stayed at the Castle of Torelore full three years, and his father and mother were dead. They brought him to the Castle of Beaucaire, and all became his liegemen. And he held his land in peace.