Friday, May 27, 2011

W 19


19.  Charny asks:   There is a captain of a country who is fighting against his enemies; and there is one who has been ordered to be a bodyguard and under the authority of this lord.   The one under the authority of this lord stays very close to this lord and keeps near him all day, and fights well and the captain defeats his enemies that day.  There is another there who carries the captain's banner and carries it so well and so courageously and always harms the enemies of his lord, and bears arms that day as well as a good man ought to do in his position.   There is another man with this lord who is castellan of a castle of the same lord, which castle is besieged by his enemies.   And it is assaulted and attacked many times and for a long time, with many kinds of attack and engines by which the castle is very broken down, by arms and by other means; and some of the people in the castle are dead and many are wounded and they in the castle have suffered much distress.  But nevertheless by the body, the holy effort and the difficult work of the castellan, the castle is not taken; rather, he has held and defended it courageously so that the siege, which had lasted so long, is lifted.   And those in the castle praise the castellan, while his enemies say many good things about him.   So the castellan renders the castle loyally to his lord, as a good man ought to do.   Which of these would you prefer to resemble, as the one who had done best of the three? 

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