Then he composed a very beautiful song; and in the morning early went up into the pulpit [[154]]and began to sing his song as best he knew, and well he knew how to sing it, and thus it ran:
Like the stag which has run a great course and comes to die ’mid the sound of the hunters’ cries, so, lady, to your pity, I turn.…[5]
Then all the folk who were in the church cried out mercy, and the lady pardoned him.
And he entered into her good grace as he had been before.
[1] Raimondo Berlinghieri, father-in-law of St Louis, King of France, referred to in Novella XII. [↑]
[2] The boasts formed a usual part of tournaments. [↑]
[3] Sent him away in disgrace. [↑]
[4] The narrative changes abruptly into the direct form here as in several other places. I have kept to the original form here as elsewhere. [↑]
[5] The original of the “song” runs:—