Chapter 8 chapter eight

As night came, the book, I began to write more smoothly.The only sound coming from the river was the roar of the waterfall, the silent flying of bats outside the window, the barking of dogs, and the crackling of boxes in hay bales.Perhaps the austerity chosen for me by the Abbess's wife was not so bad: I often felt as if the pen sprinted across the paper automatically, and I ran after it.We ran to the real, the pen and I have been looking forward to meeting the real from the beginning of a blank paper, only when I pick up the pen can I be lazy.When the complaints, the resentment for being confined here and suffering are all buried, I can enter the real state.

Then, whenever there is the sound of a mouse running (the monastery attic is their world), whenever a gust of wind suddenly blows the window frame (every time I am distracted, I rush to open the window), whenever there is the end of an episode in this story And the beginning of another paragraph or just the beginning of a line, and the pen becomes heavy as lead again, and the march toward truth becomes unsteady. Now it is time for me to describe the places that Atilulfo and his groom passed on their journey, I must write them all on this page, dusty roads, rivers, bridges, Agilulfo came, he The horse riding him walked briskly onto the bridge, the sound of "tuk-tuk-tuk" hooves was clear, probably because the knight has no body, the horse travels thousands of miles without feeling tired, and the owner never tires.Now, there is the sound of heavy horseshoes on the bridge, bang bang bang!It was Guldulu who walked forward with his arms around the horse's neck, and the two heads were so close together that it was unclear whether the horse was thinking with the groom's head or the groom was thinking with the horse's head.I drew a straight line on paper, turning at intervals. This is the route that Ajilulfo traveled.Another crooked, criss-crossing line is the one Gulduru walked.Whenever he saw a butterfly fluttering, he immediately rode after it. He thought he was sitting on the back of a butterfly instead of a horse, so he left the road and ran around on the grass.At the same time Agilulfo was walking forward, continuing his way straight.Gulduru's route was connected by some invisible shortcuts (perhaps the horse chose his own path because his groom did not show him the way), and after many turns the wanderer returned to the To the side of the master walking on the road.

On the bank of this river I draw a mill.Ajilulfo stopped to ask for directions.The mistress of the mill answered him politely and offered him wine and bread, but he declined.He only accepted fodder for the horses.Along the way, the wind was blowing and the sun was scorching; the kind millers were surprised that the knight was not thirsty. When he was on the road again, Guerdulu arrived, and the sound of horseshoes sounded, as if a group of people came: "Have you seen the master?" "Who is your master?" "A knight... no, a horse?..." "You serve a horse..."

"No...it's my horse serving a horse..." "Who is riding that horse?" "Well... I don't know. "Who rides on your horse "Oh! You can ask him "Don't you want to eat or drink?" "I want it! I want it! Eat! Drink!" He gobbled it up. What I am painting now is a city surrounded by high walls.Atilulfo should pass through the city.The guards guarding the gate demanded that he show his face.They were ordered by their superiors not to let any masked people pass because there was a vicious robber who robbed houses in the suburbs.Ajilulfo refused, confronted the guards, forced his way through, and left quickly.

What I am painting is a forest outside the city.Ajilulfo searched around the woods until he caught the robber.He took the robber's weapon, chained him, and brought him before the incompetent guards who refused to let him pass: "I took this man who frightened you to death for you!" "Ah, thank you, White Knight! But tell me your name, and why you wear the visor on your helmet." "My name is at the end of my journey," said Agilulfo and ran away. In this city some said he was an archangel, others that he was a ghost in purgatory. "His horse runs lightly," said one, "as if there were no one on it."

At the end of the woods, there is another road passing through here, which also leads to the city.This is the path that Bradamante has traveled.She said to the people in the city, "I am looking for a knight in white pin mail. I know he is here." "No, not anymore," people answered her. "Since it doesn't exist, it's him." "Then go and find him where he is. He's gone from here." "Did you really see him? A white pin armor, it seems to be a man inside...,, "What is he not a man?" "A man above any other man!"

"I think you're playing tricks," said an old man. "You're playing tricks too, sweet-voiced knight!" Bradamante rode away. Not long after, in the city square, Rambaldo reined in his horse: "Did you see a knight go by?" "Which one is it? Two have passed by, and you are the third." "The one who followed the other." "Is there one who really isn't a man?" "The second is a woman." "What about the first one?" "Nothing." ·'And you? " "Me? I... am a man." "Long live God!"

Ajiluerfo rode in front, and Guerdulu followed behind.A young woman with disheveled hair and torn clothes came running along the road, and fell on her knees before them.Atilulfo stopped his horse. "Help, noble knight," she begged, "five hundred paces away a pack of vicious bears is besieging the castle of my mistress, the noble widow Priscilla. Only a few A feeble woman. No one can get in or get out. I was hanged from the crenels of the wall by ropes, and God made me escape from the claws of the beasts. Knight, Please come and rescue us." "My sword is always at the service of widows and weaklings," said Atilulfo. "Gurduru, put this young woman on the horse and let her lead us to her mistress's castle."

They walked along a mountain path.The groom walked ahead, but he didn't look at the road at all; Gurduru was fascinated by the torn clothes on the breasts of the young woman with his arms around her pink skin. The woman turned to look at Agilulfo. "How noble your master behaves!" she said. "Yes, yes." Gulduru agreed, putting a hand into the warm chest. "His words and actions are so stable and noble..." the woman said, keeping looking at Ajiluerfo with her eyes. "Huh." Guldulu moved his two hands and put the slow rope on his wrist. He couldn't figure out how a person could be so strong and so soft at the same time.

"His voice," she said, "is crisp and metallic..." From Gurduru's mouth there were only muffled humming sounds, as he also inserted his mouth into the woman's neck and shoulders, reveling in the warmth. "I don't know how lucky my mistress will be to be rescued by him... Oh, I'm so jealous of her... Speak up. We've gone astray! Why, groom, your soul has flown away ?” At a bend in the path, a hermit held out his begging bowl.Every time Ajilulfou met a beggar, he always gave three small coins invariably. He stopped his horse and took money from the purse.

"Thank you, knight," said the hermit, as he put the purse into his pocket, and motioned him to bend so that he could speak in his ear, "in return, I will tell you: beware of the widow Lycilla! Those bears are a trick, she has bred them herself, to lure to her rescue the bravest knights that pass the road, and to draw them into the castle to satisfy her insatiable lust." "It will be as you say, brother," replied Agilulfo, "but, as a knight, it would be impolite for me to ignore a woman's tearful cry for help." "Aren't you afraid of the evil fire of lust?" Ajilulfo was a little speechless: "But, let's take a look first..." 'Do you know what a knight becomes after a night in this castle? " "what?" "It's like me in front of you. I used to be a knight, and I also rescued Priscilla from a bear siege, and now I have ended up like this." How pitiful, he is skinny. "I will cherish your experience, brother, but I will stand the test." Ajilulf swung his whip forward and caught up with Gulduru and the maid. "I wonder what these hermits always gossip about," said the girl to the knight. "There is not so much gossip and slander among all religions and non-believers." "Are there many hermits around here?" "Crowded. New ones keep coming." "I'm not going to be like them," said Ajilulfo. "Let's go." "I'm afraid to hear the bear roar," screamed the maid. "I'm afraid! Let me go down. Hide behind this fence." Ajilulfo rushed into the plain where the castle stood.The surrounding area is full of black bears.When they saw the horses and knights, they grinned together and gathered layer by layer to block the way.Atilulfo swung his spear and stabbed.Some bears were stabbed to death, some were knocked unconscious, and some were stabbed.Guldulu came on horseback and used shuttles to help.Within ten minutes the bears who had not yet laid down like so many rugs had retreated into the depths of the wood and were hiding. The gates of the castle opened. "Noble knight, can my hospitality repay the kindness I owe you?" Priscilla appeared at the door surrounded by a group of women and maids. (Among them was the young woman who had led them here, no longer in the old tattered suit, but in a clean, beautiful smock, who somehow had already entered the house.) Ajiluerfu was followed by Guerdulu into the castle.The widow Priscilla was neither tall nor plump, but she was heavily made up, her narrow breasts were exposed quite a lot, and her black eyes were smoky. Generally speaking, she was a somewhat pretty woman.She stood there, facing Ajilulf's white pin armor, beaming with joy.The knight makes a reserved gesture, but he is timid. "Cavalier Agilulfo Heimo Bertrandino of the Guell du Verny family," said Priscilla, "I already know your name, and I know exactly who you are and what you are not. " After hearing these two sentences, he seemed to be free from restraint, no longer timid, and showed enough demeanor.He not only bowed his body to salute, but also knelt down on one knee and said, "Your servant." Then he stood up abruptly. "I've heard a lot about you," Priscilla said. "I've longed to see you. What miracle brought you down this lonely road?" "I'm traveling to check the virginity of a girl fifteen years ago before it's too late," said Agilulfo. "I have never heard of such an elusive goal for the cause of chivalry." Priscilla said, "But since fifteen years have passed, I might as well take the liberty of delaying you for another night, please stay in my castle Be a guest." She came over and stood beside him. The rest of the women kept their eyes on him endlessly, until he entered the drawing-room with the mistress of the castle.So they turned to Gulduru. "Oh, how strong the groom is!" they applauded, clapping their hands.He stood there like an idiot, scratching himself. "It's a pity that he has fleas on him, and the smell is too strong!" They commented, "Come on, come on, let's wash him!" They took him to their residence and stripped him naked. Priscilla led Ajilulfo to a table prepared for two. "I know you've been restrained, knight," she said to him, "but I don't know how to begin entertaining you without inviting you to table. Of course," she added slyly, " There are more ways than I can say thank you to you." Ajilulfo thanked him, sat down opposite the hostess, rubbed the bread crumbs with his fingers, sat for a while without saying a word, then cleared his throat, and began to chatter. "Madame, the chances that a knight-errant is destined to meet are strange and wonderful. They can be divided into various types. First of all..." So he began, his manner was amiable, his language was clear, and he seemed well-informed. Guang, sometimes revealing annoying and tedious old habits while talking, but he immediately corrected them consciously by changing the subject. He inserted humorous sentences and always good-natured jokes into serious discussions. Give evaluations that are neither too much praise nor too derogatory to people and things, always leave room for the other party to express their own opinions, take the initiative to provide her with a chance to speak, and encourage her to speak with polite questions. "What an interesting conversation partner you are," said Priscilla, feeling comfortable. As suddenly as he began to speak, Agilulfo fell silent. "It's time to start singing." Priscilla said and clapped her hands.Several female luthiers walked into the hall with their qins in their arms.One of them sang a song called "The Magpies Will Pick the Roses"; and another later, "Jasmine, please make the pretty pillow prettier." Atilulfo said something in praise of the music and singing. A troupe of girls came in to dance.They wore long, light dresses and garlands of flowers on their heads.Accompanied by the dance moves, Ajilulfo tapped the beat on the table with his iron gauntlet. The women who accompanied the widow lived on the other side of the castle, where the dancing was even more lively.The young women play ball half-naked and let Gurduru join them in their games.The groom also wore a tight gown that the women had lent him. Instead of standing in his position and waiting for the ball to be passed to him, he ran after the woman, trying to grab the ball.He flung himself heavily on this or that woman, and often in the midst of this tussle he was dominated by another desire, rolling with his arms around the room on some soft beds. "Oh, what are you doing? No, no, ass! Why, look what he's doing to me, no, I want to play ball; yo! yo! yo!" Gulduru couldn't listen to anything.While they had given him warm baths, the scent, the white and pink skin, had already captivated him, and now his only desire was to melt himself into that fragrance. "Yo, yo, come here again, my god, listen to me, ah card..." The others played with the ball as if nothing had happened, and the aunt laughed and sang: "Fly, fly, the moon flies up..." The woman dragged away by Guldulu, after a long yell, her face was a little flustered, she panted slightly and returned to her companions, smiled, clapped her hands and shouted: "Come, come, give it to me!" people in the game. Not long after, Gulduru took another woman in his arms. "Let go, idiot, it's annoying, too impatient, no, you're hurting me..." She obeyed. Other women and girls sat on benches and chatted away from the game. "...Because Filomena is jealous of Clara, you know, but..." Someone felt Gurduru's arms around the waist, "Yo, it's scary!... But, as I said, Virgil Don't think he's with Euphemia...where are you taking me...?" Gulduru carried her on his shoulders. "...Did you understand? That stupid woman is still as jealous as usual..." The woman lay on Gurdulu's back, chattering nonstop and pointing fingers, and was carried away. Not long after, she came back, disheveled, with one of her braces torn, and sat down again, talking endlessly: "I tell you, it's true, Filomena and Clara had a big quarrel." field, but that man..." At this moment, the dancer and the luthier exited the dining room, and Agilulfo listed to the hostess of the castle a long list of the titles of the pieces most frequently played by Charlemagne's musicians. "It's getting dark." Priscilla looked out the window. "Dark night, it's getting late." Ajilulfo echoed. "The room I prepared for you..." "Thank you. Listen to the night camp in the garden." "The room I prepared for you...is mine..." "You are so considerate and considerate... Ye Zun is singing on that oak tree. Let's go to the window and listen." He got up, put an iron arm on her shoulder, and walked to the window sill. The singing of the night camp reminded him of a series of related poems and myths. But Priscilla cut him off: "Anyway, night camp is about singing about love, and we..." "Ah! Love!" Ajilulf suddenly raised his voice and sighed, the tone was so blunt that Priscilla was startled.And he started talking again from the beginning, delivering a long speech about love. Priscilla was so excited that she was limp as mud, leaned on his arm, and pushed him into a large bed with curtains The main room. "The ancients, because they regarded love as a god..." Ajilulfo was still talking endlessly. Priscilla used the key to turn the keyhole twice, locked the door, leaned towards him, buried her head on his breastplate and said, "I'm a little cold, the fire in the fireplace is out..." "The opinion of the ancients," says Atilulfo, "is that there is debate about whether it is better to have sex in a cold room or a hot one, but most people agree that..." "Hey, you know everything about love..." Priscilla whispered. "The opinion of the majority, while excluding hot environments, is in favor of moderate natural warmth . . . ." "Should I tell the maids to light the fire?" "I will die myself." He looked at the firewood piled in the fireplace, praised this or that piece of wood that hadn't burnt out, and listed various ways to light the fire outside or in the lee, Priscilla's sigh interrupted his argument.As he had intended, these new topics served to distract and calm her already impatient passion.He hastened to drag his arguments to the use of fire to represent, simile, and suggest ardent feelings and feelings. Priscilla was smiling now, her eyes were slightly closed, she stretched out her hand to the burning fire, and said, "It's so warm... how sweet it would be to enjoy this warmth in a blanket, lying down... ..." Lifting the bed prompted Agilulfo to come up with a new set of insights.Frankish maids, he thought, did not understand the profound art of making their beds, and could sleep in ill-fitting beds in the noblest palaces. "Oh, tell me, my bed is also...?" asked the widow. "Your bed must be a queen's bed, more than any other bed in the realm of the kingdom. But, allow me to say this, my wish is to see you surrounded only by those things worthy of your perfection, which is Makes me very uneasy about this wrinkle..." "Ah, this wrinkle!" Priscilla exclaimed, already worried about the perfection that Ajilulfo told her. They peeled back the mattress layer by layer, looking for and complaining about small bumps, skirts that were too tight or too loose. Complacent, fluttering up. After Ajilulfo overturned everything on the bed from the sheets to the straw mats, he began to rearrange them in order.This became an extremely delicate job: nothing could be placed carelessly, and care had to be taken while working.He explained it to the widow as he did it.But every now and then something would come up that he wasn't satisfied with, and he would start all over again. From the other side of the castle came a cry, even a roar or a cry, which was unbearable. "What's going on?" Priscilla panicked. "Nothing, it's my groom's voice," he replied. There are other sharper voices mixed with this strange cry, and those shouts seem to fly into the starry sky. "What's this now?" Agilulfo asked. "Well, it's the girls," Priscilla said, "they're joking around . . . of course, young and young." They continued to make the bed, and from time to time they heard noises in the night air. "Gurduru is yelling..." "These women are really screaming..." "Night camp..." "cricket··" The bed was made and there was nothing wrong with it.Ajilulf turned to the widow, only to see that she was naked.The clothes have fallen quietly to the ground. "I suggest to the naked lady," said Agilulfo flatly, "that, as a sign of the most emotional emotion, embrace a warrior in pin armor." "Well done, you're teaching me!" Priscilla said, "I'm not the one who was born yesterday," she said, leaping up, clung to Agilulfo, and wrapped her legs and arms tightly around his crotch. pin armor. She tried various positions to hug a piece of armor, and then fell limply on the bed. Ajilulfo knelt on the head of the bed. "Hair," he said. Priscilla left the high bridle of her chestnut hair untied as she undressed.Ajilulf began to explain the role played by the loose hair in the transmission of sensation. "Let's try it." With the precise and deft movement of his iron hands, he tore apart the castle of her braided hair, letting it hang over her chest and back. "But," he went on, "some men are very naughty and like to see women naked with braids, scarves and headdresses on their heads." "Shall we try it?" "I'll do your hair." He started to do her makeup.He braided his hair, coiled it up, and fixed it on his head with hairpins, with skillful movements.Finally, create a gorgeous tiara with a veil and gemstone necklace.This took an hour.When he handed the mirror to Priscilla, she saw that she had never looked so beautiful. She invited him to lie down beside her. "People say," he told her, "that Cleopatra dreamed of sleeping with a warrior in armor every night." "I've never experienced it before," she said truthfully, "one by one they stripped very early." "Okay, now you have a try." He moved slowly, without wrinkling the sheets, and climbed onto the bed fully armed, lying on the moon p upright, just like lying in a coffin. "Won't you take your sword off your belt?" "Love doesn't take the middle way." Priscilla closed her eyes, pretending to be intoxicated. Ajilulfo propped up his upper body with one arm: "The fire is smoking. I'll see why the fireplace doesn't let the smoke flow." Outside the window, the bright moon is in the sky.Ajilulfo walked from the fireplace to the bed, and he stopped in the middle: "Madam, let's go up to the city wall to enjoy the moonlight at night." He wrapped her in his cloak.They cuddled up to the bell tower on the city wall.Moonlight stained the woods silver-gray.Insects were singing.From some of the windows of the castle, which were still brightly lit, there were now and then screams, laughter, and groans, and the howling of the grooms. "The world is full of Shejan..." They go back to the bedroom.The fire in the fireplace was almost out.They knelt down and blew on coals.The two were close to each other, Priscilla's pink knee gently rubbed against his metal knee, creating a very simple and strange intimacy. When Priscilla went back to bed and lay down again, the window was already lit by the sense of exhibition. "Nothing else can beautify a woman's face like the first light at dawn," said Atilulfo, but he had to move the bed and the curtains to put his wife's face in the best position to receive the light. "What about me now?" asked the widow. "so gorgeous." Priscilla was happy.But the sun rises very fast, in order to follow the light, Ajilulfo should keep moving the bed. "It's daylight," he said, changing his tone. "It is my duty as a knight to set off at this time." "Yes!" Priscilla whimpered, "just at this time!" "I am also deeply distressed, my dear lady, but I have a heavy responsibility, and I dare not slack off." "Oh, what a wonderful time it was..." Ajilulf knelt down on one leg: "Bless me, Priscilla." He stood up and immediately called the groom.He wandered around the castle until he found him, exhausted, in a kennel, sleeping like a dead man. "Quick! Let's go!" But he could only put the groom on the horse's back.The sun continued to rise, casting the shadows of the two riders on the golden leaves of the woods.The groom is like a dangling bag, and the knight sitting upright is like a tall poplar tree. Women and maids surrounded Priscilla. "How is he, ma'am? How is he?" "Oh, you don't know such things! A man, a man..." "Tell us, tell us, how is he?" "A man, a man...a sleepless night, a paradise..." "What did he do? What did he do?" "How can I say that, ah, he is very docile..." "Is it that simple? Tell me a little more..." "Now I just don't know what to say... a lot of things... and you, aren't you the same as the groom?..." "Really? Nothing, I don't know, maybe you do? No, it's you! What, I don't remember..." "What? I hear you, my dear friends..." "Who knows, poor thing, I don't remember, I don't remember, maybe you... what? Me? Mistress, tell us about him, tell us about the knight, will you? How about him, Ady Rulfo?" "Ah, Agilulfo!"