ABSTRACT
T h e r e was a woman in Peralada whom I knew and saw who was called Na Mercadera, because she kept a shop. And she was a very clever woman and big and tall. And one day, whilst the host of the French was before Peralada, she issued from the town and went to a garden of hers to pick cabbages. And she put on a man’s gown and took a lance and girded on a sword and carried a shield on her arm, and she went to the garden. And when she was there she heard small bells and she wondered and at once left off picking cabbages and went to whence the sound came, to see what it was. And she looked and saw, in the trench there was between her garden and another, a French knight on his horse, armed with bells on the poitral, and he was going hither and thither not knowing how to get out. And she, when she saw him, quickly took a step forward and thrust at him with her lance and hit him so hard on the thigh through the skirts that it passed through his thigh and the saddle and pricked the horse. And as soon as she had done this and the horse felt himself wounded, it bucked and reared, so that the knight would have fallen, if he had not been chained to the saddle. What shall I tell you ? She took hold of her sword and aimed
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