And if his master is
pleased to lie, the servant is all ready with his consent, and
will never be backward in averring that all his master says is
true. He who frequents courts and lords must ever be ready with
a lie. So, too, must my heart do if it would find favour with
its lord. Let it flatter and be obsequious. But Cliges is such
a knight, so fair, so open, and so loyal, that my heart, in
praising him, need never be false or perfidious, for in him there
is nothing to be improved. Therefore I wish my heart to serve
him, for, as the people's proverb runs, `He who serves a noble
man is bad indeed if he does not improve in his company.'"
(Vv. 4575-4628.) Thus love harrows Fenice. But this torment is
her delight, of which she can never grow weary. And Cliges now
has crossed the sea and come to Wallingford. There he took
expensive quarters in great state. But his thoughts are always
of Fenice, not forgetting her for a single hour. While he delays
and tarries there, his men, acting under his instructions, made
diligent inquiries. They were informed that King Arthur's barons
and the King in person had appointed a tourney to be held in the
plain before Oxford, which lies close to Wallingford. (34) There
the struggle was arranged, and it was to last four days.
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