no other being ever was so like. Such a nose,
such a mouth, such a brow she has as the empress, my lady, had.
Never did nature better succeed in making two beings of the same
countenance. In this lady see I nought that I should not have
seen in my lady. If she had been alive, truly I should have said
that it was she." At that moment a pear drops and falls just
beside Fenice's ear. She starts, awakes, sees Bertrand and cries
aloud: "Friend, friend, we are lost! Here is Bertrand! If he
escapes you, we have fallen into an evil trap. He will tell folk
that he has seen us." Then has Bertrand perceived that it is the
empress beyond all doubt. Need is there for him to depart, for
Cliges had brought his sword with him into the orchard, and had
laid it beside the couch. He springs up and has taken his sword,
and Bertrand flees swiftly. With all the speed he might he grips
the wall, and now he was all but over it, when Cliges has come
after, raises now his sword, and strikes him, so that beneath the
knee he has cut off his leg as clean as a stalk of fennel.
Nevertheless, Bertrand has escaped ill-handled and crippled, and
on the other side he is received by his men, who are beside
themselves with grief and wrath, when they see him thus maimed;
they have asked and inquired who it is that had done it to him.
"Question me not about it," quoth he, "but raise me on my horse.
Never will this story be recounted till it is told before the
emperor. He who has done this to me ought not forsooth to be
without fear--nor is he, for he is nigh to deadly peril." Then
they have put him on his palfrey, and, mourning, they lead him
away in great dismay through the midst of the town. After them go
more than twenty thousand, who follow him to the court. And all
the people flock there, the one after the other, and the devil
take the hindmost.

Now has Bertrand made his plea and complaint to the emperor in
the hearing of all, but they consider him an idle babbler because
he says that he has seen the empress stark naked. All the town is
stirred thereat; some, when they hear this news, esteem it mere
folly, others advise and counsel the emperor to go to the tower.
Great is the uproar and the tumult of the folk who set out after
him. But they find nothing in the tower, for Fenice and Cliges
are on their way, and have taken Thessala with them, who comforts
and assures them, and says that, even if perchance they see folk
coming after them who come to tak