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Memoirs or Chronicle of the Fourth Crusade part 2

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September 11, 2019

Memoirs or Chronicle of the Fourth Crusade part 2

In the land of Count Thibaut of Champagne took the cross Garnier, Bishop of Troyes, Count Walter of Brienne, Geoffry of Joinville*, who was seneschal of the land, Robert his brother, Walter of Vignory, Walter of Montbéliard, Eustace of Conflans, Guy of Plessis his brother, Henry of Arzilliéres, Oger of Saint-Chéron, Villain of Neuilly, Geoffry of Villhardouin, Marshal of Champagne, Geoffry his nephew, William of Nully, Walter of Fuligny, Everard of Montigny, Manasses of l’Isle, Macaire of Sainte-Menehould, Miles the Brabant, Guy of Chappes, Clerembaud his nephew, Renaud of Dampierre, John Foisnous, and many other right worthy men whom this book does not here mention by name.

With Count Louis took the cross Gervais of Châtel Hervée his son John of Virsin, Oliver of Rochefort, Henry of Montreuil, Payen of Orléans, Peter of Bracietix, Hugh his brother, William of Sains, John of Frialze, Walter of Gaudonville, Hugh of Cormeray, Geoffry his brother, Hervée of Beauvoir, Robert of Frouville, Peter his brother, Orri of l’Isle, Robert of Quartier, and many more whom this book does not here mention by name.

In the Isle-de-France took the cross Nevelon, Bishop of Soissons, Matthew of Montmorency, Guy the Castellan of Coucy, his nephew, Robert of Ronsoi, Ferri of Yerres, John his brother, Walter of Saint-Denis, Henry his brother, William of Aunoi, Robert Mauvoisin, Dreux of Crcssonsacq, Bernard of Moreuil, Enguerrand of Boves, Robert his brother, and many more right worthy men with regard to whose names this book is here silent.

Thierri his nephew

At the beginning of the following Lent, on the day when folk are marked with ashes (23rd February 1200), the cross was taken at Bruges by Count Baldwin of Flanders and Hainault, and by the Countess Mary his wife, who was sister to the Count Thibaut of Champagne. Afterwards took the cross, Henry his brother, Thierri his nephew, who was the son of Count Philip of Flanders, William the advocate of Béthune, Conon his brother, John of Nê1e Castellan of Bruges, Renier of Trit, Reginald his son, Matthew of Wallincourt, James of Avesnes, Baldwin of Beauvoir, Hugh of Beaumetz, Gérard of Mancicourt, Odo of Ham, William of Gommegnies, Dreux of Beaurain, Roger of Marck, Eustace of Saubruic, Francis of Colemi, Walter of Bousies, Reginald of Mons, Walter of Tombes, Bernard of Somergen, and many more right worthy men in great number, with regard to whom this book does not speak further.

Afterwards took the cross, Count Hugh of St. Paul. With him took the cross, Peter of Amiens his nephew, Eustace of Canteleu, Nicholas of Mailly, Anscau of Cayeaux, Guy of Houdain, Walter of Nê1e, Peter his brother, and many other men who are unknown to us.

Memoirs or Chronicle of the Fourth Crusade part 1

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September 11, 2019

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Memoirs or Chronicle of the Fourth Crusade part 1

Memoirs or Chronicle of the Fourth Crusade and the Conquest of Constantinople

The first Preaching of the Crusade

Be it known to you that eleven hundred and ninety-seven years after the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, in the time of Innocent Pope of Rome, and Philip King of France, and Richard King of England, there was in France a holy man named Fulk of Neuilly – which Neuilly is between Lagni-sur-Marne and Paris – and he was a priest and held the cure of the village. And this said Fulk began to speak of God throughout the Isle-de-France, and the other countries round about; and you must know that by him the Lord wrought many miracles.

Be it known to you further, that the fame of this holy man so spread, that it reached the Pope of Rome, Innocent*; and the Pope sent to France, and ordered the right worthy man to preach the cross (the Crusade) by his authority. And afterwards the Pope sent a cardinal of his, Master Peter of Capua, who himself had taken the cross, to proclaim the Indulgence of which I now tell you, viz., that all who should take the cross and serve in the host for one year, would be delivered from all the sins they had committed, and acknowledged in confession. And because this indulgence was so great, the hearts of men were much moved, and many took the cross for the greatness of the pardon.

Of those who took the Cross

The other year after that right worthy man Fulk had so spoken of God, there was held a tourney in Champagne, at a castle called Ecri, and by God’s grace it so happened that Thibaut, Count of Champagne and Brie, took the cross, and the Count Louis of Blois and Chartres likewise; and this was at the beginning of Advent (28th November 1199). Now you must know that this Count Thibaut was but a young man, and not more than twenty-two years of age, and the Count Louis not more than twenty-seven. These two counts were nephews and cousins-german to the King of France, and, on the other part, nephews to the King of England.

With these two counts there took the cross two very high and puissant barons of France, Simon of Montfort, and Renaud of Montmirail. Great was the fame thereof throughout the land when these two high and puissant men took the cross.

The Miracle of the Jew part 3

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Now there was not a man in the church save this Jew, for all the others were hearing the preachment which the Abbot made. And when this Jew perceived that he was alone, he began to think within himself and say, “This is the body of the Ruydiez Cid, whom they say no man in the world ever took by the beard while he lived. I will take him by the beard now, and See what he can do to me.” And with that he put forth his hand to pull the beard of the Cid; but before his hand could reach it, God, who would not suffer this thing to be done, sent his spirit into the body, and the Cid let the strings of his mantle go from his right hand, and laid hand on his sword Tizona, and drew it a full palm`s length out of the scabbard.

And when the Jew saw this, he fell upon his back for great fear, and began to cry out so loudly that all they who were without the Church heard him, and the Abbot broke off his preachment and went into the church to see what it might be. And when they came they found this Jew lying upon his back before the ivory chair, like one dead, for he had ceased to qry out, and had swooned away. And then the Abbot Don Garcia Tellez looked at the body of the Cid, and saw that his right hand was upon the hilt of the sword, and that he had drawn it out a full palm`s length; and he was greatly amazed. And he called for holy water, and threw it in the face of the Jew, and with that the lew came to himself.

Then the Abbot asked him what all this had been, and he told him the whole truth; and he knelt down upon his knees before the Abbot, and besought him of his mercy that he would make a Christian of him, because of this great miracle which he had Keen, and baptize him in the name ofjesus Christ, for he would live and die in his faith, holding all other to be but erroneous. And the Abbot baptized him in the name of the Holy Trinity, and gave him to name Diego Gil.

That day forward Diego Gil remained

And all who were there present were greatly amazed, and they made a great outcry and great rejoicings to God for this miracle, and for the power which He had shown through the body of the Cid in this manner; for it was plain that what the Jew said was verily and indeed true, because the posture of the Cid was changed. And from that day forward Diego Gil remained in the Monastery as long as he lived, doing service to the body of the Cid.

The Miracle of the Jew part 2

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Of the brilliant group that wrote during the early and middle years of the last century, Alarcon, B£cquer, and Alas have here been selected. Valera, Pardo-Bazan, Caballero and a score of others also contributed tales of high merit. Many recent writers, and in particular the “Group of `08,” have discussed in short-story form the changing social order, but the leaders of young Spain, Benavente and Blasco-Ibanez, Baroja and “Azorin,” have as a rule preferred the novel.

The Spaniards have not contributed very much to the development of the short story, though they have, over a period of nearly a thousand years, produced a multitude of readable and picturesque tales.

The Miracle of the Jew

Anonymous: 13th Century

The Chronicle of the Cid is a voluminous collection of adventures based upon the exploits of the celebrated Rodrigo Diaz de Bivar, who lived in the Tenth Century. Many ballads and several longer poems had made their appearance before the Chronicle was finally put together at the instigation of King Alfonso of Castile in the Thirteenth Century.

The episode of The Miracle of the Jew occurs toward the end of the book. It is a tale of wonder recounted for the glory of the warrior whose praises are celebrated throughout the entire work.

The present version is from the Chronicle of the Cid, translated by Robert Southey. There is no title in the original.

The Miracle of the Jew

Now Don Garcia Tellez the Abbot, and the trusty Gil Diaz, were wont every year to make a great festival on the day of the Cid`s departure, and on that anniversary they gave food and clothing to the poor, who came from all parts round about. And it came to pass when they made the seventh anniversary, that a great multitude assembled as they were wont to do, and many Moors and Jews came to see the strange manner of the Cid`s body.

And it was the custom of the Abbot Don Garcia Tellez, when they made that anniversary, to make a right noble sermon to the people: and because the multitude which had assembled was so great that the church could not hold them, they went out into the open place before the Monastery, and he preached unto them there. And while he was preaching there remained a Jew in the church, who stopped before the body of the Cid, looking at him to see how nobly he was there seated, having his countenance so fair and comely, and his long beard in such goodly order, and his sword Tizona in its scabbard in his left hand, and the strings of his mantle in his right, even in such manner as King Don Alfonso had left him, save only that the garments had been changed, it being now seven years since the body had remained there in that ivory chair.

The Miracle of the Jew part 1

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Spain

The early epics and ballads of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries offer the first examples of the Spanish short story. The most interesting of the early indigenous Spanish stories are found in the epical Cid legends, one of which, The Chronicle of the Cid, contains a vast store of anecdotes and incidents. While the majority of these cannot properly be separated from the rest of the text, a few are independent stones. They are written with rare vigour and with that curiously effective emphasis which the epic writers managed to achieve through what would in modem writing be termed redundancy.

Prince Don Juan Manuel

Among the very earliest writers of the more modem type of story was Prince Don Juan Manuel, grandson of San Fernando, whose collection of stories under the title The Count Lucanor were written to illustrate points in moral conduct. Though these were told ostensibly in order to exemplify the virtues of prudence and wisdom and kindness, they have none the less an independent interest. Don Juan exerted considerable influence over his followers.

There is more originality in the short romance of roguery, later developed in France by Le Sage, and still later in England by Fielding and Smollett. Mendoza`s Lazarillo de Tormes, which belongs to the Golden Age of Spanish literature, is the earliest and one of the most famous of these picaresque romances. Aleman`s Guzman de Alfarache, no less celebrated, came a little later. Most of these novels are episodic (like Gil Bias, which was based upon them and their kind), so that the extraction of a chapter gives us in many instances a complete short story.

Interesting as these are, it was not until the great Cervantes produced his Exemplary Novels, that the Spanish story could be said to have reached a high point of development. Most of these are fairly long, and arr indeed miniature novels. Among the contemporaries and immediate followers of Cervantes we find so many writers that it is extremely difficult to choose among them. Montalvan, though better known as a dramatist, was the author of a muchread collection of tales.

Montalvan was followed by writers who either wrote in his manner, or tried to imitate that of Cervantes and the earlier poets and romancers. Literature in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries suffered an eclipse coincident with the Spanish imperial decline, and it was not until the Nineteenth Century that the short story again came into its own.

Read More about The Old Bell-Ringer part 1

The Tall Woman part 14

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“At the first glance I perceived, with amazement and alarm, that she was Telesforo`s implacable enemy. She was just as he had described her to me—with her enormous nose, her devilish eyes, her awful mouth, her percale handkerchief, and that diminutive fan which seemed in her hands the scepter of indecency and mockery.

“She immediately observed that I was looking at her, and fixed her gaze upon me in a peculiar manner, as if recognizing me, as if letting me know that she recognized me, as if acquainted with the fact that the dead man had told me about the scenes in Jardines Street and Lobo Street, as if defying me, as if declaring me the inheritor of the hate which she had cherished for my unfortunate friend.

“I confess that at the time my fright was greater than my wonder at; those new coincidences and accidents. It seemed evident to me that some supernatural relation, antecedent to earthly fife, had existed between the mysterious old woman and Telesforo. But for the time being my sole concern was about my own life, my own soul, my own happiness—all of which would be exposed to the greatest peril if I should really inherit such a curse.

Publicly exposing my cowardice

“The tall woman began to laugh. She pointed at me contemptuously with the fan, as if she had read my thoughts and were publicly exposing my cowardice. I had to lean on a friend`s arm to keep myself from falling. Then she made a pitying or disdainful gesture, turned on her heels, and went into the cemetery. Her head was turned towards tnr. She fanned herself and nodded to me at the same time. She sidled along among the graves with an indescribable, infernal coquetry, until at last she disappeared forever in that labyrinth of tombs.

“I say forever, since fifteen years have passed and I have never seen lin again. If she was a human being she must have died before this; if she was not, I rest in the conviction that she despised me too much to meddle with me.

“Now, then, bring on your theories! Give me your opinion about these strange events. Do you still regard them as entirely natural?”

The Tall Woman part 13

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“Well, listen a few minutes longer, and you will see that I was mistaken at the time, as you are mistaken now. The one who unfortunately made no mistake was Telesforo. It is much easier to speak the word `insanity` than to find an explanation for some things that happen on the earth.”

“Speak, speak!”

“I am going to; and this time, as it is the last, I will pick up the thread of my story without first drinking a glass of wine.”

Province of Albacete

“A few days after that conversation with Telesforo I was sent to the province of Albacete in my capacity as engineer of the mountain corps. Not many weeks had passed before I learned, from a contractor for public works, that my unhappy friend had been attacked by a dreadful form of jaundice; it had turned him entirely green, and he reclined in an arm-chair without working or wishing to see anybody, weeping night and day in the most inconsolable and bitter grief. The doctors had given up hope of his getting well.

“This made me understand why he had not answered my letters. I had to resort to Colonel Falcon as a source of news of him, and all the while the reports kept getting more unfavorable and gloomy.

“After an absence of five months I returned to Madrid the same day that the telegraph brought the news of the battle of Tetuan. I remember it as if it were yesterday. That night I bought the indispensable Cor- respondencia de Espana, and the first thing I read in it was the notice of Telesforo`s death. His friends were invited to the funeral the following morning.

“You will be sure that I was present. As we arrived at the San Luis cemetery, whither I rode in one of the carriages nearest the hearse, my attention was called to a peasant woman. She was old and very tall. She was laughing sacrilegiously as she saw them taking out the coffin. Then she placed herself in front of the pall-bearers in a triumphant attitude and pointed out to them with a very small fan the passage-way they were to take to reach the open and waiting grave.

The Tall Woman part 12

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“`It was madness to try to catch her. Besides, people were already passing through the Carrera de San Jeronimo, and in Prado Street, loo. It was broad daylight. The tall woman kept on running or flying, as far as Huertas Street, which was now lighted up by the sun. There she stopped to look back at me. She waved her closed fan at me once or twice, threateningly, and then disappeared around a corner.

`“Wait a little longer, Gabriel. Do not yet pronounce judgment in this case, where my life and soul are concerned. Listen to me two minutes longer.

In Santa Agueda

`“When I entered my house I met Colonel Falcon, who had just come to tell me that my Joaquina, my betrothed, all my hope and happiness and joy on earth, had died the day before in Santa Agueda. The unfortunate father had telegraphed Falcon to tell me—me, who should have divined it an hour before, when I met the evil spirit of my life! Don`t you understand, now, that I must kill that born enemy of my happiness, that vile old hag, who is the living mockery of my destiny?

“`But why do I say kill? Is she a woman? Is she a human being? Why have I had a presentiment of her ever since I was born? Why did she recognize me when she first saw me? Why do I never see her except when some great calamity has befallen me? Is she Satan? Is she Death? Is she Life? Is she Antichrist? Who is she? What is she?`”

“I will spare you, my dear friends,” continued Gabriel, “the arguments and remarks which I used to see if I could not calm Telesforo, for they are the same, precisely the same, which you are preparing now to advance to prove that there is nothing supernatural or superhuman in my story. You will even go further; you will say that my friend was half crazy; that he always was so; that, at least, he suffered from that moral disease which some call `panic terror,` and others `emotional insanity`; that, even granting the truth of what I have related about the tall woman, it must all be referred to chance coincidences of dates and events; and, finally, that the poor old creature could also have been crazy, or a thief, or a beggar, or a procuress— as the hero of my story said to himself in a lucid interval.”

“A very proper supposition,” exclaimed Gabriel`s comrades; that is just what we were going to say.”

Read More about Supply and Demand part 3

The Tall Woman part 11

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“`Upon this, I looked around—-and there she was! There at my shoulder, almost touching me with her clothes, gazing at me with her horrible little eyes, displaying the gloomy cavern of her mouth, fanning herself in a mocking manner, as if to make fun of my childish alarm.

“`I passed from dread to the most furious anger, to savage and desperate rage. I dashed at the heavy old creature. I flung her against the wall. I put my hand to her throat. I felt of her face, her breast, the straggling locks of her gray hair until I was thoroughly convinced that she was a human being—a woman.

Making believe to cry

`“Meanwhile she had uttered a howl which was hoarse and piercing at the same time. It seemed false and feigned to me, like the hypocritical expression of a fear which she did not really feel. Immediately afterwards she exclaimed, making believe to cry, though she was not crying, but looking at me with her hyena eyes:

`““Why have you picked a quarrel with me?”

`“This remark increased my fright and weakened my wrath.

“`“Then you remember,” I cried, “that you have seen me somewhere else.”

““T should say so, my dear,” she replied, mockingly. “Saint Eugen`s night, in Jardines Street, three years ago.”

“`My very marrow was chilled.

““`But who are you?” I asked, without letting go of her. “Why do you follow me? What business have you with me?”

“`“I am a poor weak woman,” she answered, with a devilish leer. “You hate me, and you are afraid of me without any reason. If not, tell me, good sir, why you were so frightened the first time you saw me.”

`““Because I have loathed you ever since I was born. Because you are the evil spirit of my life.”

`““It seems, then, that you have known me for a long time. Well, look, my son, so have I known you.”

““`You have known me? How long?”

““`Since before you were born! And when I saw you pass by me, three years ago, I said to myself, that’s the one.”

““`But what am I to you? What are you to me?”

“`“The devil!” replied the hag, spitting full in my face, freeing herself from my grasp, and running away with amazing swiftness. She held her skirts higher than her knees, and her feet did not make the slightest noise as they touched the ground.

Read More about Supply and Demand part 4

The Tall Woman part 10

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“ `For my part, I tried to believe that it was so. I even came to believe it at the end of several months. Still, I would have given years, of my life to be sure that I was not again to encounter the tall woman. But, to-day, I would give every drop of my blood to be able to meet her again.`

“`What for?`

“`To kill her on the spot.`

“`I do not understand you.`

“ `You will understand me when I tell you that I did meet her again, three weeks ago, a few hours before I had the fatal news of my poor Joaquina`s death.`

“`Tell me about it, tell me about it!`

“`There is little more to tell. It was five o`clock in the morning. It was not yet fully light, though the dawn was visible from the streets looking towards the east. The street-lamps had just been put out, and the policemen had withdrawn. As I was going through Prado Street, so as to get to the other end of Lobo Street, the dreadful woman crossed in front of me. She did not look at me, and I thought she had not seen me.

Trepidation and alarm

“`She wore the same dress and carried the same fan as three years before. My trepidation and alarm were greater than ever. I ran rapidly across Prado Street as soon as she had passed, although I did not take my eyes off her, so as to make sure that she did not look back, and, when I had reached the other end of Lobo Street, I panted as if I had just swum an impetuous stream. Then I pressed on with fresh, speed towards home, filled now with gladness rather than fear, for I thought that the hateful witch had been conquered and shorn of her power, from the very fact that I had been so near her and yet that she had not seen me.

“`But soon, and when I had almost reached this house, a rush of fear swept over me, in the thought that the crafty old hag had seen and recognized me, that she had made a pretense of not knowing me so as to let me get into Lobo Street, where it was still rather dark, and where she might set upon me in safety, that she would follow me, that she was already over me.