The Sergeant at Law's Tale: Part 1

There is a group of traders from Syria who are well known throughout the Middle-East and Europe. They go to Rome and are visited by the Emperor's daughter, Constance. When they return to Syria they visit their friend, the Sultan, to recount their travels and to tell him about Constance's beauty. The Sultan falls in love with her based upon the traders' story and gathers his council to tell them that he will die if he cannot marry her (sooo freakin' dramatic!) Anyways, the councilmen tell the Sultan that the Emperor would never permit his daughter to marry a Muslim. So the Sultan proposes that he should convert to Christianity, and hence, all his subjects and family would as well. His councilmen then present the proposal of marriage to the Emperor who accepts and plans a lavish wedding. Constance, however, is distraught because she has to marry a foreign man; one who she does not know and will have trouble relating to, due to their cultural differences. She acknowledges that she will essentially become a slave to her future husband and live a life of misery, yet she can do nothing to stop the marriage. Meanwhile, the mother of the Sultan is appalled that her son would renounce their religion and take up Christianity. She gathers her own councilmen and plots to prevent the marriage so that the her family and citizens can remain faithful to the Koran. She tells her advisers that they should all pretend to accept Christianity, and once they do that, she will throw a grand feast for the soon to be husband and wife.