Chapter I: Front Matter

JAUFRY THE KNIGHT AND THE FAIR BRUNISSENDE

A TALE OF THE TIMES OF KING ARTHUR

By Mary Lafon

Translated From The French Version by Alfred Elwes.

Illustrated With Twenty Engravings By Gustave Dore

Addey And Co.

MDCCCLVI

ILLUSTRATIONS.

They reached the lofty rock, where, at the summit, they beheld the king hanging thus helpless from the monster's horns..........Frontispiece.

“Knight,” then cried Jaufry to the corpse, “it grieves me not to know thy slayer, or whether thou wert wrong or whether right: thou now art dead; but if I can, I even will learn why, and by whose hand”.....035

“Knight,” said Sir Jaufry, “thou dost press me sore”..............043

The wood and iron, for a cubit's length, pierced through the shoulder. ..................................................................053

“Good Mend,” he then apostrophised the knight, “the passage now may be considered safe”..................................................054

“Halt, knight,” he cried; “I'll have a word with thee”............060

A fierce wind, in passing, swept away the last memorial of the magic work..............................................................082

Knights and burghers, minstrels, jugglers from all countries, hither trooping came.....................................................088

His troop returned, bearing him faint and bleeding................094

The wood was gloomy, intricate, and dense; and at the first cross-road before him, he beheld, squatted beneath a pine, a hag, whose aspect struck him with surprise..........................................100

“Heaven!” Sir Jaufry cried, “in thee I trust; what figure have we here?”............................................................110

Back returned the sable knight, hissing and growling as the thunder doth when tempests vex the air....................................112

Jaufry with Augier's daughter rode away...........................117

No wonder, then, if Jaufry were surprised to see her come thus lovely, full of grace, and smiling as the queen of the sweet south........131

I leave you to surmise the games and joy which at the castle on that day were seen.....................................................134

They sat them down in the great hall of the castle................136

He his efforts used to save her with the butt-end of his lance....140

Sir Jaufry found himself with two dames in a delicious land.......143

Then was the convent-church most richly decked, to which the king in pomp conducted him with the fair Brunissende......................155

All the train which called Sir Melyan lord escorted back in triumph to Montbran that happy pair.......................................157

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.

The description given by one of the authors of _Jauvfry_ about the origin of the romance, and the evidence afforded by the French adapter concerning the Mss. wherein it is contained, make it unnecessary for me to dwell upon these particulars.

The veneration in which King Arthur's name is held by all lovers of the early romantic history of Britain will give the tale a strong recommendation in such eyes; while the personages with which it deals render the appearance of its characters in an English dress the more pleasing and appropriate.

As answerable for the fashion and material of the costume, I may be permitted to say a few words concerning the rule which has guided me in producing it. Keeping in view that the original romance is a poem in form and composition, I have endeavoured, in my translation, still to preserve the poetic character; and though compelled to base my work upon a prose version, I have tried, within certain limits, rather to restore its original shape, than allow it, by the second ordeal to which it is thus subjected, to lose it altogether. Whether such attempt, however honestly conceived, has been properly carried out, must be determined by my readers.

A.E.

King's Arms,

Moorgate Street, London.