They bring clubs and hammers to smash and break down
the door. Great was the noise and uproar as they battered and
broke in the door. If now they can lay hands on the doctors, the
latter will not have long to wait before they receive their full
deserts. With a single rush the ladies enter the palace, and in
the press is Thessala, who has no other aim than to reach her
mistress. Beside the fire she finds her stripped, severely
wounded and injured. She puts her back in the bier again, and
over her she spreads a cloth, while the ladies go to give their
reward to the three doctors, without wishing to wait for the
emperor or his seneschal. Out of the windows they threw them
down into the court-yard, breaking the necks, ribs, arms, and
legs of all: no better piece of work was ever done by any ladies.
(Vv. 6051-6162.) Now the three doctors have received their
gruesome reward at the hands of the ladies. But Cliges is
terror-stricken and filled with grief upon hearing of the pain
and martyrdom which his sweetheart has endured for him. He is
almost beside himself, fearing greatly, and with good reason,
that she may be dead or badly injured by the torture inflicted
upon her by the three physicians who now are dead. So he is in
despair and despondency when Thessala comes, bringing with her a
very precious ointment with which she has already gently rubbed
the body and wounds of her mistress.
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