ith sorrow, waste with care,
Sick with sadness, if he hear,
But shall in the hearing be
Whole again and glad with glee,
So sweet the story.

_Here they speak and tell the story_.

How Bulgarius Count of Valence made war upon Warren Count of Beaucaire.
And this war was so great, so marvellous, and so mortal, that not a day
dawned but there he was before the city, at the gates, at the walls, at
the fences, with knights a hundred and men-at-arms ten thousand on foot
and on horse; and he burned his land, laid waste his country, and slew
his liegemen. Warren, Count of Beaucaire, was an old man and feeble, who
had overlived his term. He had none to succeed him, neither son nor
daughter, save one only boy; and what he was like, I will tell you.
Aucassin was the young lord's name, and a pretty lad he was. He had
golden hair in little curls, and laughing blue eyes, a face fair of
colour and fine of curve, and a proud shapely nose. Aye, so endued was
he with good conditions that there was none bad in him, but good only.
But so overcome was he of Love, who masters all, that he refused
knighthood, abjured arms, shunned the tourney, and left undone all his
devoir.

His father and his mother would say to him: "Son! come, take thine arms
and to horse! Fight for thy land and succour thy liegemen! If they see
thee in the midst of them, they will fight the better for their lives and
their havings and for thy land and mine!"

"Father," said Aucassin, "to what purpose is this oration? Never God
give me ought that I ask of Him, if I take knighthood or mount horse, if
I face fight or battlefield to smite knight or be myself smitten, if you
give me not Nicolette, my sweet friend whom I love so well!"

"My son," said his father, "it cannot be. Have done with Nicolette! She
is a slave-girl, carried captive from a foreign land. The Viscount of
this place bought her of the heathen, and brought her here. He held her
at the font, and christened her, and stood godfather to her. Some day he
will give her a young fellow to win bread for her in wedlock. What is
this to you? If you want a wife, I will give you a king's daughter or a
count's. There is never so rich a man in France but you shall have his
daughter, if you want her."

"Alack, father!" said Aucassin. "Where now is honour on earth so high,
which Nicolette my sweet friend would not grace if it were hers? Were
she Empress of Constantinople or of Germany, were she Que