The Project Gutenberg eBook of Amadis of Gaul, Vol. IV. of IV., by Vasco Lobeira.

CHAPTER 1.

You have heard in the third book of this great history how King Lisuarte against the will of all his subjects great as well as little, delivered up his daughter Oriana to the Romans, and how by Amadis and his companions of the Firm Island she was from them rescued; now we will tell you what ensued. When Amadis had left the vessel where the Princess was he went through the fleet to give orders concerning the prisoners and the spoils, coming near the ship where Salustanquidio lay dead he heard a great lamentation, for the people and the Knights of that Prince were making moan over him, and relating all his praises and greatness so that Agrayes and they who had won the ship could neither quiet them, nor remove them from the body. Amadis therefore ordered that they should all leave the vessel, and he gave command that the body should be placed in a coffin, and that such burial should be given him as befitted such a Lord, for albeit he was his enemy, he had died like a good man in his master's service.

The noise of this lamentation was so great that it reached the ship wherein was Oriana; but so soon as Queen Sardamira heard that it was for Salustanquidio's death, forgetting all her former grief, she wrung her hands and threw herself upon the ground, and began to exclaim, O generous prince and of high lineage, the light and the mirror of the whole Roman Empire, what a grief and a calamity will it be to all who love thee when they shall hear the tidings of thy unhappy and disastrous end, and what grief wilt thou feel O Emperor when thou shalt learn the death of this thy cousin, who was the strong shield of thine empire, and the destruction of thy fleet, and the disgraceful loss of thy Knights. Either thou must tamely submit to this loss and remain the most dishonoured Prince in the world, or else prepare to avenge it, putting thy state and person to great peril and doubtful issue, for by all that I have seen since my entering Great Britain in an unhappy hour, sure am I that there is no Prince or Power however great against whom these Knights would fear to wage war. Alas, my afflicted heart grieveth more for the living who will suffer in this quarrel, than for these dead whose share of the evil is past! But then Oriana and Mabilia raised her up and comforted her the best they could.