by Cpt._Funkotron » Sat May 01, 2021 9:18 pm
The next day, on the road north, Prince Ban of Benoic splits from his place in the marching order and falls back to the baggage train, where he approaches Lady Adwen and begins to exchange pleasantries with her. He is clearly flirting. After about ten minutes of flirtatious banter, the Prince bids the lady au revoir and rejoins the column.
The next day, the Prince once again splits off from the column and pays call to Adwen in the baggage train, bearing a bundle of flowers snatched up from a nearby field. The gesture catches Adwen off guard, politely thanking him as she takes the flowers.
Persidius narrows his eyes, "Nothing to worry about, indeed." He turns out of the column at a trot and goes to confront the knave. "You there, Sir," he calls as he approaches, "What is your intention toward my wife?"
“Intenshiawn, monsieur? To speak ze truth! To say zat ze shore is near ze sea, zat Gud is in eez ‘evawn, and to tell a lay-dee, in words and deeds, zat she is tre beautiful! But to tell you anuhzeh truth, mon ami, I do nut care for your tone. Do yiou knuh who am I?”
Adwen, sensing an impending problem, reaches out to rest her hand on Persidius' arm. "Now darling, no need to cause a fuss."
"I know you Sir, and at my lady's request I forgive your oversight. I will insist that you trouble her no more, however."
He looks past Persidius to Adwen directly, asking “Eez zis true madame, ‘ave I givawn mah lay-dee offawnse?”
She smiles softly, almost shyly. "My husband is simply looking out for me, good Sir."
He turns to Persidius with a smile. “You see monsieur, zat was not a yes to ze question. I am nut a beast, if ze lay-dee desires nut mah com-pa-nee, I shall depart. But if it is meer-ly your will zat I go, I should like to knuh how yiu will make me”.
Adwen stops herself from visibly face palming, instead keeping the smile on her face. "Good Sir, I would rather not be the cause of a scuffle, therefore, if you would excuse me..."
Prince Ban keeps his eyes on Persidius as Adwen goes, casually sizing him up with an air of amusement. “I would not seek a, how she says, a ‘scuffle’, monsieur, but Ban de Benoic never shrinks frum a challawnge”
"If you do not wish for trouble then I suggest you stop looking for it, Sir," Persidius says flatly.
“Come, come, monsieur. We are men of ze world, not page boys to threaten eachuzer zus. If yiu would challawnge me to a battle of arms, zen do so, if nut, zen be contawnt to face me in ze battle of ze heart. It is your choice, monsieur.”
"This is a waste of my time," Persi says mostly to himself then turns his horse away to rejoin the march.
Ban chuckles in French and does likewise.
The next day, Adwen is approached by a jongleur riding on a mule and holding a lute. He plays and sings a song that seems to have been written especially for Adwen, praising her beauty and extolling her virtue, for about a third of the baggage train to hear. When Eliver hears of this, he has a word with Miles. Leiryn, who would do anything for Adwen after the previous winter, joins them too. Thereafter, they keep a close eye out for either Prince Ban or the jongleur, and try their best to ensure that one of the three is keeping Adwen company whenever either of them approach her. Adwen, for her part, appreciates the assistance and interference, as doing her best to be polite without actually encouraging anything can be wearing.
"Good fellow, why not play 'The Miller's Daughter?'" snickers Miles to the Jongleur.
The jongleur rubs his fingers together in a 'pay me' gesture.
Miles pays the man.
The jongleur takes the money, shrugs, and plays the song. Very quickly many of the carters and drovers in the baggage train start singing along, as does Miles. Even Adwen gets in on it, although quietly, and blushing slightly. Encouraged by Miles’ example, some of the other knights begin following along, and the song begins working its way up the column of the army. It gets to the point that more or less the entire army is singing one bawdy song after another into the early evening. Sir Ulfius rides up to Uther to ask if anything should be done about the disorder, only to find Uther lending his own husky baritone to a lewd ditty.
That evening, as the army is setting down to camp, the Salisbury knights find themselves by chance pitching their tents adjacent to Prince Madoc and his entourage ( including Ban, Meliodas, Seguraunt, Arnoullant, Derfel, and Mark). The jongleur slumps from his mule and takes a long drought from a wine skin to wet his tired throat. “Eric! Heavens man, where’ve you been all day?” asks Madoc of the minstrel, who in turn gestures to Miles. When Madoc sees him, he smiles and calls out “Say what’s the idea, Wylye, trying to poach my bard?” in a teasing, goodnatured tone.
"Why, it was Prince Ban who sent him to entertain the Lady Adwen. Only he doesn't know her all that well, and he set him playing a song she wasn't fond of. She found Sir Miles' choices more amusing."
“Lady Adwen?...Isn’t that one of Persidius’ wives?” asks Madoc.
"His only wife, these days." replies Eliver.
At the mention of Persidius’ name, Prince Ban, who had been distracted by the fire, perks up and turns to look around. “Persidius? Where?”
“That man over there” says Madoc, pointing him out.
“Zat man iz Persidius?” says Ban
“Ze same Persidius who zey call ze Leon d’Odon? Ze Cunquewawr du Caen? Ragnachar’s bane?”
"Yes, that's him." says Eliver.
Ban’s brow furrows intensely as his face cycles through astonishment and disbelief, before blooming into unbridled delight. He laughs from his belly and goes to embrace Persidius and kiss him on each cheek in the continental fashion.
Persi is at least familiar with the continental custom though he has never been on the receiving end and finds it odd. But not so odd that he will admit to it. "Sir Ban, you are a strange fellow. First you insult me and now you greet me like an old friend. Please explain."
“ I ‘ahve ‘eard your name, monsieur, but deed nut knuh zat yiu belunged to it! Faemoos are your exploits, I ‘ahve lung desired to make your acquaintawnce! Why deed you nut make yourself knun?”
"You will have to forgive me. My experience of late has made me suspicious and I simply assumed you were in league with one of my enemies and antagonizing me deliberately."
“Zink nuzing of it! Yiu see, when I saw ze lay-dee, who as yiu well knuh is tres beautiful, yet ‘as ze bear-eeng of a married woh-mawn, I zink to myself, what man could be worzee to ‘ahve claimed ‘er? But nue I see clear-lee, all iz made ubvious! I zink yiu should keep a closerr eye on ‘er, no? In my hoomlaund ze lay-dee would need a steek to drahv away ze admirers! But as for moi, mon ami, fear nut. I shall trifle wiz ‘er no lunger!”
Perai wonders if all Aquitainians are this odd and given this is their prince he suspects they might be.
"In Britain we take a dim view of those who make advances on married woman, so my sword is typically stick enough," he says with a chuckle to be clear he is good natured about it and not ominously foreshadowing anything.
“And to zink, I and you may ‘ahve come to such bloos! Zat would be a bout for ze jongleurs, I em sure!”
“Well,” says Madoc, in the middle of having his armor doffed, “now that we’re all friends, come sirs, let us join our camps. We all have stories fit for song, I’m sure. Let us share them by the fire, with a little wine I think!”
The Salisbury Knights and the Prince's Entourage camp together for the rest of the journey to Roestoc. They are properly introduced to Prince Meliodas of Lyonesse, a blond, cheery, abeit a bit dim, knight. One evening, Prince Ban relates the tale of poor King Sygarius; when his last stronghold fell, the Franks brought his wife, children, and relatives before him, and one by one slew them all before his eyes. They had planned to make a grand sacrifice of Sygarius himself, but on the eve of his death, a few of his supporters managed to rescue him. They say that now he wanders abroad with what few followers he has left, sometimes living as a mercenary, sometimes as a bandit, but vowing always to have revenge on those who abandoned him, wherever he finds them.