Transcriber's Notes: The Table of Contents is at the end of this volume.A complete list of corrections as well as other notes follows the text.
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IN FOUR VOLUMES.
VOL. IV.
LONDON:
Printed by N. Biggs, Crane-court, Fleet-street,
FOR T. N. LONGMAN AND O. REES, PATERNOSTER
ROW.
1803.
You have heard in the third book of this great history how KingLisuarte against the will of all his subjects great as well as little,delivered up his daughter Oriana to the Romans, and how by Amadis andhis companions of the Firm Island she was from them rescued; now wewill tell you what ensued. When Amadis had left the vessel where thePrincess was he went through the fleet to give orders concerning theprisoners and the spoils, coming near the ship where Salustanquidio laydead he heard a great lamentation, for the people and the Knights ofthat Prince were making moan over him, and relating all his praises andgreatness so that Agrayes and they who had won the ship could neitherquiet them, nor remove them from the body. Amadis therefore orderedthat they should all leave the vessel, and he gave command [2]that thebody should be placed in a coffin, and that such burial should be givenhim as befitted such a Lord, for albeit he was his enemy, he had diedlike a good man in his master's service.
The noise of this lamentation was so great that it reached the shipwherein was Oriana; but so soon as Queen Sardamira heard that it wasfor Salustanquidio's death, forgetting all her former grief, she wrungher hands and threw herself upon the ground, and began to exclaim, Ogenerous prince and of high lineage, the light and the mirror of thewhole Roman Empire, what a grief and a calamity will it be to allwho love thee when they shall hear the tidings of thy unhappy anddisastrous end, and what grief wilt thou feel O Emperor when thou shaltlearn the death of this thy cousin, who was the strong shield of thineempire, and the destruction of thy fleet, and the disgraceful loss ofthy Knights. Either thou must tamely submit to this loss and remain themost dishonoured Prince in the world, or else prepare to avenge it,putting thy state and person to great peril and doubtful issue, forby all that I have seen since my entering Great Britain in an unhappyhour, sure am I that there is no Prince or Power however great againstwhom these Knights [3]would fear to wage war. Alas, my afflicted heartgrieveth more for the living who will suffer in this quarrel, than forthese dead whose share of the evil is past! But then Oriana and Mabiliaraised her up and comforted her the best they could.
Amadis and his Knights now assembled on board Florestan's vessel,and there resolved that they should forthwith make sail for the FirmIsland, according to their own opinion and the pleasure of Oriana;they then placed all the prisoners in on