Eight: Of the Feast, and of the Night Tourney

At dusk, Thomas, the girl, and Père Matthieu reach a white-walled castle whose herald welcomes them, boasting the plague has passed and a night tourney awaits. The girl refuses entry and sleeps in a tree while Thomas and the priest accept hospitality. Inside, the lord jests cruelly and seats them for a sumptuous, disturbing feast of obscene courses, mocking clergy and breaking a musician’s hand.

Amid revelry, Thomas spars verbally with Sir Théobald de Barentin, is humiliated by crude jests, and storms out only to circle back, drunk. The seigneur forces Père Matthieu to eat monkey brain after a blasphemous prompt. Later, Thomas awakens in bed with the lord’s daughter, Euphémie, then is summoned to the lists for the tourney.

Armed and mounted, Thomas enters a torchlit field where the seigneur personally butchers a knight as monkeys feast on the corpse. Thomas faces Théobald; his mount is killed and dragged off by the creatures. On foot, Thomas duels Théobald, who begins leaking seawater, rusting, and disgorging eels—revealing himself as a drowned dead man. Thomas breaks and finally kills him as the seigneur grotesquely transforms into a lion-headed devil and the elegant crowd rots, urging haste before sunrise.

As the undead and the seigneur close in, the sun breaches the horizon and the entire scene vanishes. Thomas finds himself in a cow field beside a rusted plow, a dead sheep where Théobald fell, and a crumbling tower in place of the castle. A common grave nearby holds the lord’s household, Euphémie, the herald, Simon, the Moorish viol player, and the small dog. The girl returns from her tree and asks if Thomas is ready for Paris. He agrees, and they move on.