Mise treize mairie quoi y êtes contrée riz [1]
Ah! d'azur garde en gros [2]
Huit Silvère belles en écho[3] que l'échelle
Un preux, Diomède, Alain héros. [4]
[2] Azur here must refer to the heraldic arms of the town which kept most of this rice crop. Such tax burdens were not unusual.
[3] Silvére (saint), pope in 536 A.D., died of hunger in 537 A.D., feast day June 20. Here eight beautiful natives of the privince ar identified with this famour saint, probably because of similar deaths.
[4] The lord of the privince is compared to Diomedes, ancient king of Thrace, noted for his cruelty, whome Hercules fed to his own horses. In this particular instance, the situation is saved by a courageous knight named Alain, who used a ladder to scale the castle walls. A simple story of oppression and rescue.
The d'Antin Manuscript was published in 1967 by Courtlandt H. K.
Van Rooten by Angus & Robertson (U.K.) Ltd.,
16 Ship Street, Brighton, Sussex.
It was edited and annotated
by Luis d'Antin Van Rooten.