So rich a couch
has not been prepared for you, and you would pay dearly for ever
harbouring such a thought." He replies: "You will see about that
presently." .... "Am I to see it?" .... "Yes." .... "It will soon
appear." .... "By my head," the knight replies, "I know not who
is to pay the penalty. But whoever may object or disapprove, I
intend to lie upon this bed and repose there at my ease." Then
he at once disrobed in the bed, which was long and raised half an
ell above the other two, and was covered with a yellow cloth of
silk and a coverlet with gilded stars. The furs were not of
skinned vair but of sable; the covering he had on him would have
been fitting for a king. The mattress was not made of straw or
rushes or of old mats. At midnight there descended from the
rafters suddenly a lance, as with the intention of pinning the
knight through the flanks to the coverlet and the white sheets
where he lay. (6) To the lance there was attached a pennon all
ablaze. The coverlet, the bedclothes, and the bed itself all
caught fire at once. And the tip of the lance passed so close to
the knight's side that it cut the skin a little, without
seriously wounding him. Then the knight got up, put out the fire
and, taking the lance, swung it in the middle of the hall, all
this without leaving his bed; rather did he lie down again and
slept as securely as at first.
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