'At night when he is asleep,
Sir Pierre de Béarn has a habit of getting up and arming himself. He wields his sword and fights -he does not know with whom - if a close eye is not kept on him. His chamberlains and servants, who sleep in his room and watch over him, arise when they hear or see him, and wake him up. They tell him what he has been doing and he replies that he knows nothing about it and that they are lying. Sometimes they leave neither a sword nor any weaponry in his room, but upon getting up and finding nothing to hand, he would make such a row and racket that it seemed as if all the demons of hell were in there with him. So they considered it better to leave his weapons with him, for he soon gets tired of arming and disarming himself and goes back to bed.'
'Does he possess large estates through his
wife?' I then asked.
'By God he does,' said the squire, 'but the
lady, who brought him the inheritance, receives most of the income.
Sir Pierre de Béarn only gets a quarter.'
'Where does this
lady live?'
'She lives in
Castile,' he said, 'with the
king, her cousin. Her
father was the
count of Vizcaya and the first cousin of
king Pedro, who ruled with an iron fist, the very same
king Pedro who had him put to death. He also wished to have this
lady in his power in order to imprison her and he seized all her lands. As long as he was alive, the
lady had nothing, and after her
father's death the lady, who is styled
countess of Vizcaya, was told,'
'"Escape, my lady, for if
king Pedro catches you he will have you killed or put you in prison. He is so very angry with you since you are suspected of having witnessed and reported that he had the
queen, his wife, killed in her bed, she being the sister of the
duke of Bourbon and the
queen of France.
Your word is trusted above all others, for you were her lady in waiting."
In fear, the
countess Florence of Vizcaya left her country with a small retinue - for it is natural for any man or woman to flee from death - and travelled through the
lands of the Basques. After much tribulation she arrived here before my lord and told him her whole story.
The
count, who is kindly and gentle to all ladies, took pity on her and let her stay. He lodged her with the
lady of Coarraze, a prominent baroness of the country, and provided her with everything befitting her.
Sir Pierre de Béarn, his brother, was a young knight at that time, untouched by the affliction from which he suffers now, and in great favour with the count. He and the
lady were married and she recovered her lands very soon after he had wed her. The
lady bore
Sir Pierre a
son and a
daughter, but they are in
Castile with the
lady, for they are still young and their
mother does not wish to leave them with their
father because she has a strong claim to the majority of the estate.'
'Holy Mary!' I exclaimed to the squire, 'and what can be the cause of
Sir Pierre de Béarn's delusion that I have heard you mention, which means that he dare not sleep alone in a room, and that when he does fall asleep he gets up by himself and engages in such skirmishes? It really is extraordinary.'
'By my faith,' said the squire, 'he has been asked many times, but is not able to say whence it comes. The first time anything was noticed was the night after he had been out in the forests of
Vizcaya hunting an exceptionally large bear with his dogs. This bear had killed four of his dogs and injured several others, so that the rest were very fearful of it.
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