232 Chaucer's Knight and his Exploits in the South 



the walls, and Christian banners floating from the towers, he 

 regained his main force. ^ A few lines from Machaut paint the 



situation^ : 



II s'en ala, lui et sa gent, 

 Parmi la haute mer nagent, 

 Tant qu'il vint devant Satalie, 

 Une cite qu'est en Turquie, 

 Grande et puissant et ferme et forte. 

 Mais il n'i ot ne mur ne porte 

 Ne gens qui la peust deffendre, 

 Que li bons rois ne I'alast prendre 

 Et destruire et mettre a I'espee. 

 Et si I'a toute arse et bruslee. 

 La veist on maint drap de soie 

 Et de fin or qui reflamboie 

 Ardoir; et mainte dame belle, 

 Maint Sarrazin, mainte pucelle, 

 Maint Turc, et maint enfaiit perir 

 Par feu, ou par glaive morir. 



In this expedition he was accompanied by an English force, or 

 a force under an English knight, named Robert of Toulouse.^ 



The Saracen troops under Tacca had caused much annoyance 

 to Satalia during the half dozen years following upon its cap- 

 ture by Pierre.* On March 26, 1367, Pierre succeeded in sup- 

 pressing a rebellion which had broken out in the city.^ Between 

 June and September, 1367, and before proceeding to the capture 

 of Tripoli and Ayas,® the king invited Tacca to meet him in 

 Satalia. Here Tacca offered him rich presents, and obtained from 

 him a confirmation of the existing treaty of peace. '^ At this 

 meeting there were present two Englishmen — the Earl of Here- 

 ford and Sir William Scrope. Sir Richard Waldegrave testified 

 in I386«: 



^ Bibl, pp. 493-4; Le Roulx, p. 119; Stubbs, p. 193. 



^^ 643-658. 



' Stubbs, p. 193. As the name sounds suspicious, and as he is desirous 

 to save the honor of the English nation, Stubbs suggests that he was 

 a Continental subject of the Plantagenets. 



* BibL, pp. 495-500, 506; Le Roulx, pp. 1 19-120, 123. 



'^ Chronique de Strambaldi (ed. Mas Latrie), pp. 79-80; Amadi, pp. 

 446-7. 

 ®See above, p. 230. 

 '' Bibl, p. 517; Le Roulx, p. 138; Strambaldi, p. 83. 



* Scrope and Grosvenor Controversy, ed. Nicolas, 2. 2>77' 



