t de sai vos conort.

"Pax, etc.,---Marcabrun composed the words and the air. Hear what he
says. How, by his goodness, the Lord of Heaven, has made near us a
piscina, such as there never was, except beyond the sea, there by
Josaphat, and for this one near here do I exhort you."

Alfonso II. of Aragon (1162-1196) was a constant patron of the
troubadours, and himself an exponent of their art. He belonged to the
family of the counts of Barcelona which became in his time one of the [111]
most powerful royal houses in the West of Europe. He was the grandson of
Raimon Berengar III. and united to Barcelona by marriage and diplomacy,
the kingdom of Aragon, Provence and Roussillon. His continual visits to
the French part of his dominions gave every opportunity to the
troubadours to gain his favour: several were continually about him and
there were few who did not praise his liberality. A discordant note is
raised by Bertran de Born, who composed some violent _sirventes_ against
Alfonso; he was actuated by political motives: Alfonso had joined the
King of England in his operations against Raimon V. of Toulouse and
Bertran's other allies and had been present at the capture of Bertran's
castle of Hautefort in 1183. The biography relates that in the course of
the siege, the King of Aragon, who had formerly been in friendly
relations with Bertran, sent a messenger into the fortress asking for
provisions. These Bertran supplied with the request that the king would
secure the removal of the siege engines from a particular piece of wall,
which was on the point of destruction and would keep the information
secret. Alfonso, however, betrayed the message and the fortress was
captured. The _razo_ further relates the touching scene to which we have
already referred when Bertran moved Henry II. to clemency by a reference [112]
to the death of the "young king." The account of Alfonso's supposed
treachery is probably no less unhistorical: the siege lasted only a week
and it is unlikely that the besiegers would have been reduced to want in
so short a time. It was probably invented to explain the hostility on
Bertran's part which dated from the wars between Alfonso and Raimon V.
of Toulouse. This animosity was trumpeted forth in two lampooning
_sirventes_ criticising the public policy and the private life of the
Spanish King. His accusations of meanness and trickery seem to be based
on nothing more reliable than current gossip.

Peire Vidal,