CHAPTER 10.
The Green Sword Knight sailed with his company toward Constantinople, as you have heard, but suddenly the wind changed, and the sea became so high, that neither the strength of the ship nor the skill of the mariners could withstand it, and they were all in great peril of death. Eight days they drove about not knowing whither they went, the rain falling so heavy and the wind so violent, and the heaven so dark, that they, drenched in water, and unable to rest, despaired of their lives. At length the vessel was driven ashore, it was night, and they were all greatly comforted as men who had escaped from death to life, but when morning brake the mariners saw they were upon the Devil's Island, and began to beat their faces and lament that they were fallen into a worse danger than they
had escaped, and they came to the Knight of the Green Sword in this guise without telling him more. He enquired wherefore they were so terrified. O Knight, said they, we have not power to tell you the cause is so great; let Master Helisabad speak! he knows why this is called the Devil's Island. The Knight then encouraged the Master, who was in no less fear than they, and he at length shaking all over and faltering in his speech, in great seriousness and fear said, You must know Sir Knight that a Giant called Bandaguido was lord of this Island, and he was so mighty that he made all the neighbouring Giants tributary. Now he had to wife a Giantess who was gentle and well disposed, who, when her husband was slaying and destroying the christians, always, as far as she could, took pity and relieved them. By this Dame Bandaguido had one daughter, so adorned by nature that in all the world there could not be found one of her rank and blood to equal her in beauty; but as great beauty is soon joined with vanity, and vanity with sin, this Damsel seeing herself so worthy to be loved, and that none for fear of her father durst pretend to her, at last as a remedy took to loving her own father with a most foul and shameful love, so that often when the wife had risen from her husband's side the daughter
would lay down by him sporting with him, and clipping and kissing him, which he at first received as caresses of a daughter, but at length by long continuance of this, and her great beauty, and the want of all conscience and virtue in him, she accomplished her wicked[184:A] will. From this great and abominable sin a worse arose, as often happens when men seek to remedy one sin by committing another, not knowing that the physic for sin is repentance, which obtains pardon from that Most High Lord, who for such sins placed himself upon the cross, whereon he died as very man and afterwards rose again as very God. For this unhappy Giant and his daughter, being thus mutually enamoured, he was told by the false idols whom he
worshipped, that if he married her, the fiercest and strongest thing in the world should be by them begotten. Wherefore that unhappy daughter determined to bring this to pass, and one day when her mother, who loved her better than herself, was walking in the garden this daughter called to her, saying that she saw something odd in the well and bade her look, and as she was looking, violently pushed her in so that she was drowned. Then she cried out that her mother had fallen into the well, whereupon the Giant himself, who knew how it had been done, and all the men of the place gathered round, and they seeing their Lady dead whom they loved so well began to make great sorrow. But the Giant said, make no lamentation for so the Gods have willed, and I will take one to wife from whom such a one shall be born as will give us the mastery over all our enemies; so they were all silent for fear, and he that day publicly took his daughter Bandaguida to wife, upon whom in that unhappy night a creature was begotten by the Devil's ordinance, whom she and her husband-father brought up as you shall hear. This creature's face was all hairy and its body covered with scales, one lying over the other so hard that no weapon can pierce them; its legs and feet thick and strong, and from its shoulders there grew two wings so
large that they cover it down to the feet, not of feathers but of a shaggy leather, black as pitch and shining, and so hard that they resist all arms, and with these wings the monster covers itself as with a shield, and from under them come its arms which are as strong as Lion's paws, all covered with smaller scales, and its hands are like eagle's claws, and their five talons so sharp and strong that there is nothing in the world so hard that they cannot pierce and tear it piece-meal. In each jaw it has two long teeth that grow out a cubit long, its eyes are round and huge and red like fire, so that at night they can be seen far away, and all fly before it. It bounds and runs so fast that no game, how fleet soever, can escape; it seldom eats or drinks, and sometimes goes without food feeling no pain of hunger; all its delight is to kill men and living animals. When it finds any Lion or Bear who resists it, then it grows furious, and sends a smoke like flames of fire from its nostrils, and roars so horribly that all living things fly from it as from death, and its stench is rank poison, and when it ruffles its scales, and gnashes its teeth, and shakes its wings, it is as if the earth shook. They call it Endriago, said Master Helisabad, and it is such as I have described; moreover because of the sin of the Giant and his daughter the
wicked enemy entered it and hath greatly increased its force and cruelty.
Much was the Green Sword Knight astonished at this tale. Master, quoth he, how could a thing so monstrous be born of body of woman? I will tell you, he replied, as I found it written in a book which the Emperor of Constantinople hath, for this island was his till he lost it, not being able to destroy this Devil. You are to know that Bandaguida, finding herself pregnant told the Giant, who greatly rejoiced thereat, believing that what his Gods had told him would assuredly come to pass, and he said that three or four nurses would be necessary for the child as it was to be the strongest creature in the world; but as this unborn creature was the work of the Devil it oftentimes made the mother fall sick, and her face and eyes became yellow like poison, but she bore it all as good signs, believing also that the boy was to be the mightiest in the world, and if he should prove so she would then devise how to murder the father and marry him in his stead. When her time came she brought forth with little travail, for evil things alway go on pleasantly till the end. The nurses took the babe, and seeing a thing so monstrous were fearfully dismayed; however fearing the
Giant's anger they took and swathed it in the rich cloaths which had been prepared, and one of them having more hardiness than the other offered it the teat, which it caught and sucked so furiously that the woman screamed out, and when they took the child away, fell down dead with the force of the poison. This was presently told to the Giant, who then looking at his child marvelled to behold so monstrous a creature, and went to the temple to ask his Gods why they had given him such issue. These Idols were three in number, the one like a man, the other as a lion, the third after the manner of a griffin. So when he had made his sacrifices he asked why they had sent him such a child, and the man-idol answered, so it behoved the child to be, that as its actions were to be strange and marvellous so should itself be, especially for destroying the christians who seek to destroy us, and for this I gave it my likeness, in giving it a free will like man, which the beasts possess not. The other Idol answered, I gifted it with a strength and courage such as we Lions possess, and the third said, I gave it wings and talons such as no other creature in the world hath, and fleetness beyond all others. How shall I feed it, said the Giant, seeing that the nurse who suckled it fell down dead? they answered, make