He tried to convince me but I just couldn’t.
- “This girl’s name is worst than a rat one” I replied stupidly,
“And you know that I’m in love with Hélène. We plan to marry when I will be 20. I prefer to fight Louis better than marry a rat.”
Charles started to be angry and said me that then, if his friends are rats, he couldn’t do nothing to protect me from Louis’s bloody sword. He said me:
- “Au revoir!”.
Maybe I lost a friend this day. My only friend if I sum up. And the storm was ready to cross the Pyrenees. I promised me to ruminate my thoughts the next time I will speak.
I should become a leader, not a lonely destitute.
The time to marry “La belle hélène” was coming. We were already engaged.
One month before the marriage, rumors were spreading all around the citadel: Louis was coming back. He was supposed to bring with him 100 donkeys, loaded with gold. Zaragoza was a wealthy city and obviously, Louis had helped its people to lighten their pockets.
Louis will come back before my marriage. I was disheartened by that new. I couldn’t escape the citadel, because of the marriage. I couldn’t be protected by anyone, because of my argument with Charles de Bouillon. I was alone, facing my painful fate.
I was praying the sky, one evening, at the top of the city halls, when I saw a single horse-raider coming from the South. Maybe a scout of Louis’s army.
I stopped him and asked where he was coming from. He said that he had no time and should discuss with the governor of the citadel as soon as possible. I was quite disappointed that he didn’t knew who I was, but calmly, I explained him my rank, and he finally agreed to tell me his story.
I could hear some pride in his voice:
- “Louis, the Dauphin, was coming back to Toulouse when he heard about the new that the bastard coward general: Guillaume de Lyon, was riding in the neighborhood, trying to join the Moors’ Caliphate. So he decided to slain him by his arm, and he is supposed to fight him tomorrow.
Louis can’t lose, he is the kingdom Champion. He is the rightful Christendom Warrior.”
I was stunned!!
Louis had succeeded to intercept Guillaume de Lyon, the coward traitor, but also one of the best general France has had, the general who saved Paris and the King some years ago. My pleas could be achieved…
Guillaume was the man to kill my evil brother. When I ran to announce the new to Hélène, I was delightful. The life wasn’t so dark finally, and one angel was protecting me. Not a Pope angel, obviously.
I knew the skills of Guillaume de Lyon and I was confident, even if Louis was a mighty warrior, and slaughtered thousands of people. Guillaume was experimented and the years spent in the battlefield were advantages that couldn’t be forgotten.
It was a chivalric duel between maybe the 2 better knights of the entire kingdom. The fight of the Champions. It was quite a dreamed battle of honor.
I couldn’t sleep this night. My fate was linked with the result of this duel. The life or the death. The lips of Hélène, or the edge of a sword. A chivalric future or a soon burial.
I stayed all the next 2 days waiting at the city halls for some messenger. The 3rd day after the fight should have happened; I was totally overwrought and decided to ride in the countryside for the entire day. The mistake of my life!
Maybe what saved me in the same time…
I was riding back to the citadel before the evening. The sky was beautiful, blushing. It was an artistic view, with the yellow corn fields all around the citadel. A landscape of fire!
Strangely, the city was more quiet than usual. It was late, but not too much for making the citadel noiseless.
I rode until Hélène little cottage. I knocked, but there were no answers. My nerves, exhausted by 3 days of waiting, were working again, and I broke down the door. Nobody inside. Hélène wasn’t supposed working so late.
I rushed in the citadel, shouting her name. Then I saw Charles with 2 of his bodyguards at the corner of one corridor. With a screaming voice, I asked him where was Hélène, but he didn’t reply me and the next moment, the 2 bodyguards were running toward me…
I stayed petrified. Then I took Durandal out of its scabbard – indeed I kept the jewel with me, not sending it to the king, because I was also a little devious, despite my chivalric wishes - and tried to stop the 2 experimented bodyguards. I rushed in the first one, succeeding to push him on the floor, nearly knocked. I was ready for the fight with the second one, when I heard Charles ordering me “Stop that Philippe, I just want to…” and the rest of his phrase was lost in the noise done by the second guard wading upon me. I couldn’t cope against that strong warrior. I thought about using some cunning stratagem when a heavy blow behind my head thrown me violently on the floor. My mind lost in the darkness.
The first bodyguard, “nearly” knocked…