Page:Famous history of Valentine & Orson (1).pdf/15

 with the disgrace of being beat with a small army of Christians.

Soon after the victory, Valentine and Orson, the empress Bellisant, and the ladies Clerimond and Fezon, set out for Constantinople, to see the emperor their father; so they took leave of the Duke of Savoy and all his nobles. After a long and tedious journey, they arrived at Constantinople, and were received by the emperor with great solemnity, who tenderly embraced his sons, and begged pardon of his wife, the lady Bellifant, for having wrongfully banished her through the wicked instigations of the Arch-priest. The joy of King Pepin was no less to see all these worthy personages met together.

At length the emperor set out from Constantinople, after having taken leave of his wife Bellifant, and his sons Valentine and Orson, to visit a strong castle he had in Spain. Whilst he was absent, Brandiffer, brother to Ferragus, invaded the empire with a great army, and at length besieged Constantinople, in which city resided the empress, Valentine and Orson, the Green Knight, and all the ladies, besides a great number of noble warriors.

Valentine seeing the deplorable condition they were in, resolved to give Brandiffer battle, and thereupon divided his army into ten battalions, commanded by himself, Orson, the Green Knight, and seven others of the most valiant commanders; at the head of whom they all sallied out of the city and began the fight with the Saracens, who stood drawn up in battalion, ready to receive them.

Soon after, tidings came that a great fleet of Saracens was entering the harbour, so Valentine thought it convenient to go thither, and oppose their landing; but it proved fatal, for this fleet was the emperor’s, his father; who being armed in