Page:Famous history of Valentine & Orson (1).pdf/5

 and villages, where we will leavo him; and shall return to the arch-priest, who went on in doing mischief till he was impeached by a merchant, who accused him of having wrongfully blamed the empress; whereupon they were appointed to fight at a certain time and place which was fixed by the emperor, in which the merchant got the better, and made the priest confess his treason, which when the emperor heard, he was exceedingly sorrowful for having banished so good a consort; and wrote letters to his brother the king of France, who read them with great pleasure, seeing they brought the tidings of his sister Bellifant’s innocence.

Now was Valentine grown a lusty young man, and by the king greatly respected, who had as much care taken of him as if he had been his own child, commanding him to be instructed in the use of arms, in which he became so expert, that very few knights in the whole court could talk with him: which made Haufry and Henry, the king's two bastard sons, exceedingly envy him, but chiefly for the great affection tho king bore to him. Now, at this juncture there were great complaints mado against the wild man, from whom no knight had escaped with life that had encountered with him; therefore the king offered a reward of one thousand marks to any person that would bring him alive or dead; which grand offer no knight was so bold as to accept, all greatly fearing the mighty force of the wild man. Haufry and Henry desired king Pepin to send Valentine, thereby to get rid of this so