Melancholy has led the Knight and his Page along the Stream of Tears until they find themselves before the bridge called Dangerous Crossing ( Pas Peril-leux ).
It is an old wooden bridge supported by a primitive structure of wooden posts, with
a steep ascent and broken planks, so narrow that there is barely room for a single horse. The riverbank is crumbling, undermined by the stream, so that the bridge appears liable to collapse at any moment. ~ Melancholy has led the two travelers hither not out of kindness but because she knew that, soon enough, they would have little joy out of lt. She is, in fact, already pointing to the opposite bank, where the Black Knight approaches. ~ Black is his armor, his lance, his horse and all its paraphernalia ~ all but the yellow of three marigolds ~ ( soussye-souci ~ sorrow ), which form the devise on his shield, and the bunch of columbines ~ ( aquilegia-ancoly ~ melancholy ) on his helmet. It is the Knight Soucy ( Trouble, Anxiety ) who guards this bridge against all lovers.

Here too the grim aspect of the Black Knight and Dame Melancholy, visually linked by the dark bridge of peril, is softened by the loveliness of the landscape with its many graduations of green over meadows, trees, and bushes, paling on the heights and in the distance, as well as the blue-white of the lightly clouded sky. There are also the brightcolors in the left foreground: Desire's white clothing with its golden flame pattern, his red-brown horse standing still, its eyes looking out of the picture, the red hearts on Cueur's helmet and saddlecloth, the red edging of his saddle. The two kinds of spurs are clearly distinguished: Cueur's end in a prod, desire's end in a rowel. In contrast to the immobile Page on his quiet horse, Cueur prepares to attack. His horse has already lifted one foreleg to advance over the bridge.

The battle that follows is not shown. Cueur fights well, but the Black Knight puts him in such dire straits on that narrow bridge that he falls, together with his horse, into the stream of Tears.....Continued... [ Next folio ]

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