Surely you delay too long and are not showing
courtesy. He ought indeed to receive your aid whom you used to
love so devotedly! For my part I may truly say that there is no
lodging place or retreat on either side of the sea, where I would
not have searched for you at least seven or ten years before
finding you, if I knew you to be in prison. But why do I thus
torment myself? You do not care for me even enough to take this
trouble. The rustic is right when he says that it is hard
nowadays to find a friend! It is easy to rest the true friend in
time o? need. Alas! more than a year has passed since first I
was put inside this tower. I feel hurt, Gawain, that you have so
long deserted me! But doubtless you know nothing of all this,
and I have no ground for blaming you. Yes, when I think of it,
this must be the case, and I was very wrong to imagine such a
thing; for I am confident that not for all the world contains
would you and your men have failed to come to release me from
this trouble and distress, if you were aware of it. If for no
other reason, you would be bound to do this out of love for me,
your companion. But it is idle to talk about it--it cannot be.
Ah, may the curse and the damnation of God and St. Sylvester rest
upon him who has shut me up so shamefully! He is the vilest man
alive, this envious Meleagant, to treat me as evilly as
possible!" Then he, who is wearing out his life in grief, ceases
speaking and holds his peace.
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