The Broken Sword

Summary

Meanwhile Perceval, Having Left his uncle’s hermitage, had journeyed long through a great forest until one day, about noon, he emerged into a beautiful country, richly farmed on every side, filled with wheat and barley like the lands of the abbeys of Citeaux or Clairvaux. Perceval wondered to what country he had come, for it was at least two years since he had seen a land so abundantly endowed with all good things, so plentiful and populous. Then he caught sight of a splendid castle, of which all the walls and battlements were whiter than new-fallen snow. It had five handsome towers, all identical: one in the middle and four all round. But they were not all the same colour: the one in the centre was red and the others were whiter than snow settled on a bough. The sea beat at the wall’s foot, and a river flowed on the other side, full of salmon, pike, perch and sturgeon. There was a great township inside the walls, nobly peopled with knights and serving-men, burgesses and merchants, liberal, courteous and well-bred, trading in furs of white and grey, in silk, samite and the finest cloth, in Byzantine and Norman coin, in horses and vessels of gold and silver, in pepper and wax, in cloves and spices of many kinds, most precious and expensive. Never has there been such plenty in any city. It all came by sea from Alexandria and Slavonia, from Babylon, from Mecca and Calabria, from Jerusalem and Caesarea, from Acre, which stands at the ocean’s edge, and from far beyond the Saracen lands: the abundant riches of the castle came from all over the world.

There were two abbeys in the town, magnificently housed, with beautiful churches, handsome towers and splendid belfries, richly roofed with lead. Perceval, ravished by the sight, spurred his horse on until he reached the bridge, which stood upon vaulted arches and was so designed that it could be raised permanently at night; and there were crenellated barbicans at each end; and many other fine fortifications, all newly built, surrounded the whole castle.