" "I will tell
you nothing," was the reply; "seek some one else to tell you."
"That will I do, since there is no better way." Then he searches
until he finds the entrance of the yard where the damsels were at
work: and coming before them, he greets them all, and sees tears
flowing from their eyes, as they weep. Then he says to them:
"May it please God to remove from your hearts, and turn to joy,
this grief, the cause of which I do not know." One of them
answers: "May you be heard by God, to whom you have addressed
your prayer. It shall not be concealed from you who we are, and
from what land: I suppose that is what you wish to know." "For
no other purpose came I here," says he. (26) "Sire, it happened
a long while ago that the king of the Isle of Damsels went
seeking news through divers courts and countries, and he kept on
his travels like a dunce until he encountered this perilous
place. It was an unlucky hour when he first came here, for we
wretched captives who are here receive all the shame and misery
which we have in no wise deserved. And rest assured that you
yourself may expect great shame, unless a ransom for you be
accepted. But, at any rate, so it came about that my lord came
to this town, where there are two sons of the devil (do not take
it as a jest) who were born of a woman and an imp.
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