登陆注册
4702200000042

第42章

When they have beaten her with straps till they have lacerated her flesh, and till the blood which issues through her wounds runs down from them, and when for all that they can do nothing nor extort sigh or word promise her; they are meddling to no purpose. And from her, and she never moves nor stirs, then they tell her that they must seek fire and lead, and that they will melt it and will pour it into her palms rather than fail to make her speak. They seek and search for fire and lead; they kindle the fire; they melt the lead. Thus the base villains maltreat and torture the lady, for they have poured into her palms the lead, all boiling and hot just as they have taken it from the fire. Nor yet is it enough for them that the lead has passed through and through the palms, but the reprobate villains say that, if she speak not soon, straightway they will roast her till she is all grilled. She is silent and forbids them not to beat or ill-treat her flesh. And even now they were about to put her to the fire to roast and grill, when more than a thousand of the ladies, who were in front of the palace, come to the door and see through a tiny chink the torture and the unhappy fate that they were preparing for the lady, for they were making her suffer martyrdom from the coal and from the flame. To break in the door and shatter it they bring hatchets and hammers. Great was the din and the attack to break and smash the door. If now they can lay hold on the leeches, without delay all their desert shall be rendered them. The ladies enter the palace all together with one bound, and Thessala is among the press, whose one anxiety is to get to her lady. She finds her all naked at the fire, much injured and much mishandled. She has laid her back on the bier and covered her beneath the pall. And the ladies proceed to tender and pay to the three leeches their deserts; they would not send for or await emperor or seneschal. They have hurled them down through the windows full into the court, so that they have broken the necks and ribs and arms and legs of all three; better never wrought any ladies. Now the three leeches have received from the ladies right sorry payment for their deeds; but Cliges is much dismayed and has great grief, when he hears tell of the great agony and the torture that his lady has suffered for him. Almost does he lose his reason; for he fears greatly and indeed with justice--that she may be killed or maimed by the torture caused her by the three leeches, who have died in consequence; and he is despairing and disconsolate. And Thessala comes bringing a very precious salve with which she has anointed full gently the lady's body and wounds. The ladies have enshrouded her again in a white Syrian pall, wherein they had shrouded her before, but they leave her face uncovered. Never that night do they abate their wailing or cease or make an end thereof. Through all the town they wail like folk demented-high and low, and poor and rich-and it seems that each sets his will on outdoing all the others in making lamentation, and on never abandoning it of his own will. All night is the mourning very great. On the morrow John came to court, and the emperor sends for him and bids him, requests and commands him: "John! if ever thou madest a good work, now set all thy wisdom and thy invention to making a tomb, such that one cannot find one so fair and well decorated." And John, who had already done it, says that he has prepared a very fair and well-carved one; but never, when he began to make it, had he intention that any body should be laid there save a holy one.

"Now, let the empress be enclosed within in lieu of relics; for she is, I ween, a very holy thing." "Well said," quoth the emperor, "in the minster of my lord Saint Peter shall she be buried, there outside where one buries other bodies; for before she died, she begged and prayed me with all her heart that I would have her laid there. Now go and busy yourself about it, and set your tomb, as is right and meet, in the fairest place in the cemetery." John replies: "Gladly, sire." Forthwith John departs, prepares well the tomb, and did thereat what a master of his craft would do. Because the stone was hard, and even more on account of the cold, he has placed therein a feather bed; and moreover, that it may smell sweet to her, he has strewn thereon both flowers and foliage. But he did it even more for this, that none should spy the mattress that he had placed in the grave. Now had the whole office been said in chapels and in parish churches, and they were continually tolling as it is meet to toll for the dead. They bid the body be brought, and it will be placed in the tomb, whereat John has worked to such effect that he has made it very magnificent and splendid. In all Constantinople has been left neither great nor small who does not follow the corpse weeping, and they curse and revile Death; knights and squires swoon, and the dames and the maidens beat their breasts and have railed against Death. "Death!" quoth each, "why took'st thou not a ransom for my lady? Forsooth, but a small booty hast thou gained, and for us the loss is great." And Cliges, of a truth, mourns so much that he wounds and maltreats himself more than all the others do, and it is a marvel that he does not kill himself; but still he postpones suicide till the hour and the time come for him to disinter her and hold her in his arms, and know whether she is alive or not. About the grave are the lords, who lay the body there; but they do not meddle with John in the setting up of the tomb, and indeed they could see nought of it, but have all fallen swooning to the earth, and John has had good leisure to do all he listed. He so set up the tomb that there was no other creature in it; well does he seal and join and close it.

Then might that man well have boasted himself who, without harm or injury, would have been able to take away or disjoin aught that John had put there.

同类推荐
  • 风俗通义

    风俗通义

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 明伦汇编皇极典敬天部

    明伦汇编皇极典敬天部

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • James Mill

    James Mill

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • Gargantua and Pantagruel

    Gargantua and Pantagruel

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 阴持入经

    阴持入经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • The Lumley Autograph

    The Lumley Autograph

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 总裁霸爱:猎捕妖娆小甜妻

    总裁霸爱:猎捕妖娆小甜妻

    被男友劈腿,还被说成是没人要的土村姑,陈晓知的人生落入低谷。谁知道转头,遇到李昊臻对她霸气求婚。他曾经暗恋了她四年,因为一场误会之后黯然转学。他霸气回归,果断求婚,只为让陈晓知后悔当年的决定。婚后,他对她冷漠以对,虐身虐心。陈晓知后悔嫁给了一个让她心碎的男人,想离婚,却发现已经有了身孕。面对他的霸道强势,她唯有逃……
  • 非真勿扰

    非真勿扰

    男大当婚,女大当嫁,这是人类社会向前发展的根本规律。让爱情可遇不可求见鬼去吧,爱情是美好的,但是现实是残酷的,你要挽起袖子创造爱情。别以为讨论相亲就像讨论银行最新推出的一款。但其实有什么不同?婚姻,也无非是我们人生的一桩投资项目,而相亲,绝对是低成本高效率,虽然很庸俗,但那没有人生质地的浪漫,不过是轻浮。且慢,我们在生活上眼界宽了,难道就不能在爱情上。眼界宽点吗?兔子都?道不吃窝边草,踏来踏去,能有什么好草不是?不如,我们相亲吧。林子大了,什么鸟都有,何况男人乎。
  • 百年废土

    百年废土

    病毒扩散丧尸遍布,我该如何去寻找你,带着防护服手持猎枪,带着忠实的黑狗,爬山涉水去找你,一路上丧尸疯狂追逐,枪中子弹越来越少,黑狗被感染了,渐渐变异,我狠心捂住它的脖子,渐渐的没了呼吸,内心没有任何的波澜天空渐暗,四处传来嚎叫,在黑暗的坑道里看着你的照片,不知道你现在如何,只有希望和爱,明天太阳又会升起,经过千辛万苦我来到你的面前,可你已经被感染,曾经温柔的面容变得抽象,那一刻我闭上眼睛,感受到你牙齿的病毒传入我的体内,我终于拯救了你……
  • 霸主崛起

    霸主崛起

    新书:帝国猛将,求关注! 苏毅认为自己既然是一名穿越者,还带着一个比较牛叉的系统,那么如果不在这个世界不搅风搅雨的话,实在对不起穿越者的身份。“大帅,三十海里外,发现了敌人的四艘超级无畏战列舰!”苏毅撇了撇嘴,“把依阿华级超级无畏战列舰派上去八艘!”
  • 冰山总裁的终极高手

    冰山总裁的终极高手

    他是战场的恶魔屠夫,他是敌人的终极梦魇,他退出战场,本想低调平淡地过完后生,无奈却造冰山总裁逼婚。
  • 打开孩子智慧门的108个好故事

    打开孩子智慧门的108个好故事

    这套书既包括中国古典文化的精髓,如唐诗、寓言等,又有小朋友喜欢听的智慧故事、童话故事和民间故事;既有英语、数学,又有安全常识等等,我们编写的目的就是要开拓小朋友的知识视野,促使他们全面提高文化科学素养,使小朋友在快乐的阅读中能增长知识…
  • 我的掌门

    我的掌门

    修灵师、异灵师、灵兽师、哪个最强?在这片宇宙当中,太多的秘密等待着少年的挖掘,他要成为最强,竟然要斩七情六欲,成仙,又成了一条不归路。
  • 王妃如此多娇

    王妃如此多娇

    前世,苏锦音救了位皇子,并被皇子追着以身相许。皇子成了太子后,恩情就成了催命符。重生归来,她不想再做东郭先生和救蛇的农夫。苏姑娘,重金相报如何?苏姑娘,助你扬名如何?苏姑娘,要不以身相许?我们还是谈谈钱吧。
  • 萌妻100分之老公宠我

    萌妻100分之老公宠我

    一朝穿越,竟成了开国元老家的小宝贝,上有爷爷宠,下有爸妈宠,身边还有几个哥哥宠,苏颜的小日子过得好不滋润。直到遇见了他……【全文甜宠无虐,前期家长宠,后期老公宠】