That evening Blondel sang before the Count Tribables and his f***ly in the gray castle. All who heard him praised his fine voice and loved him for his gentle manners. They begged him to stay a while; for he had made the dreary old place merrier than it had been for many a day.
The next morning Blondel wandered around to the great tower. He saw a slit in the wall which he knew was the only means by which light was let into the dungeon below. He sat down on a block of stone and tuned his harp. Then he began to sing a song which he and King Richard had sung together in the old happy days before his master had gone crusading:
Your beauty, lady fair,
All view with strange delight;
But you’ve so cold an air,
None love you as they might.
Yet this I’m pleased to see,
You love none more than me.
This was the first half of the song; and when he had sung it he paused. Then, far down in the dismal dungeon, he heard the clear but mournful voice of King Richard singing the rest—
My heart you’ll sorely wound
If favor you divide
And smile on all around,
Unwilling to decide.
I’d rather hatred bear
Than love with others share.
Blondel sprang to his feet, his heart filled with delight. “O Richard!O my king!” he cried in ecstasy. Then he hurried away, to do what he could to secure his master’s liberty. He went to the emperor of Germany and to the king of France, and finally back to England, telling how Richard was cruelly kept in prison by the Duke of Austria.
The king of France would have been glad to leave Richard in prison