always suffer from hunger and thirst, for we shall never be able
to earn enough to procure for ourselves any better food. Our bread
supply is very scarce--a little in the morning and less at night, for
none of us can gain by her handiwork more than fourpence a day for her
daily bread. And with this we cannot provide ourselves with sufficient
food and clothes. For though there is not one of us who does not earn as
much as twenty sous [327] a week, yet we cannot live without hardship.
Now you must know that there is not a single one of us who does not do
twenty sous worth of work or more, and with such a sum even a duke would
be considered rich. So while we are reduced to such poverty, he, for
whom we work, is rich with the product of our toil. We sit up many
nights, as well as every day, to earn the more, for they threaten to do
us injury, when we seek some rest, so we do not dare to rest ourselves.
But why should I tell you more? We are so shamefully treated and
insulted that I cannot tell you the fifth part of it all. But what makes
us almost wild with rage is that we very often see rich and excellent
knights, who fight with the two devils, lose their lives on our account.
They pay dearly for the lodging they receive, as you will do to-morrow.
For, whether you wish to do so or not, you will have to fight
singlehanded and lose your fair renown with these two devils." "May God,
the true and spiritual, protect me," said my lord Yvain, "and give you
back your honour and happiness, if it be His will. I must go now and see
the people inside there, and find out what sort of entertainment they
will offer me." "Go now, sire, and may He protect you who gives and
distributes all good things."

(Vv. 5347-5456.) Then he went until he came to the hall where he found
no one, good or bad, to address him. Then he and his companion passed
through the house until they came to a garden. They never spoke of, or
mentioned, stabling their horses. But what matters it? For those who
considered them already as their own had stabled them carefully. I do
not know whether their expectation was wise, for the horses' owners are
still perfectly hale. The horses, however, have oats and hay, and stand
in litter up to their belly. My lord Yvain and his company enter the
garden. There he sees, reclining upon his elbow upon a silken rug, a
gentleman, to whom a maiden was reading from a romance about I know
not whom. There had come to recline there with the