Chapter Five: The Announcement

This is an extremely large chapter, so I'll do my best to sum it up as quickly as possible.

     Buttercup, now Princess of Hammersmith and far more beautiful at twenty-one than ever before, is now being revealed to the public as Prince Humperdinck's bride-to-be and future Queen of Florin. She chooses to greet all of their subjects and walks among them. In the crowd are three men conspiring to kill her and a man in black (I'll refer to him as the MIB for short). While Princess Buttercup is riding Horse and thinking about how wrong and how unavoidable this marriage is, she is snatched up by the three men: a Turk (Fezzik the Giant), a Spaniard (Inigo Montoya, fencing wizard), and a Sicilian (Vizzini, the humpback man with an outstanding intellect).

     The trio (the Sicilian Crowd) planned on killing her on the Guilder frontier in order to frame the people of Guilder, therefore starting another vicious war between Guilder and Florin. Some unseen foe was paying them a lot of money to do so.

     They render Buttercup unconscious and she wakes up, in bounds, on a ship. She hears their plan and then they hit pressure points to knock her out again. The next time she wakes up she jumps overboard and the Sicilian threatens to cut himself to draw the sharks out if she doesn't swim back aboard. She continues to hide and he cuts himself. The moon comes out and they find her just before the sharks take her. Then they proceed to the Cliffs of insanity as they notice the MIB following them.

     They tell themselves he isn't following him and the giant carries them up the mountain side through use of a rope. As they climb, they see that the MIB is following them. Once the climb is completed, they cut the rope, yet the man still follows. The Spaniard is left behind to (impatiently) await the MIB and kill him. Thus the story of Inigo Montoya has begun.

Inigo

     When Inigo was a boy, his father, Domingo, was the most talented sword maker of the land, yet nobody knew him. The famous sword maker, Yeste depended on Domingo to make a lot of the complex swords that his clientele requested. Domingo however, wished to become an artist, not to waste his talent on satisfying the silly frilly desires of foolish nobles. He desired a challenge. That challenge came when a six-fingered nobleman came directly to Domingo to ask for a “the greatest sword since Excalibur. Domingo worked tirelessly and wasted away making it perfect but when it was finished, the noble killed him said it was insufficient. The six-fingered man killed him when he swore he would pass the sword to his son Inigo and Inigo swore vengeance.

     For the rest of his life, Inigo pledged to change that young, potentially talented boy to a master who would avenge his father by killing the six-fingered man. He Spent ten years squeezing rocks, running, dodging, and studying the sword. He became strong, swift, powerful, and fought several champions. He became known as a wizard, the only thing more powerful than a master. He was the last wizard since the Corsican Wizard, Bastia, years and years before Inigo was born. Inigo began his search for the six-fingered man but never found him. He eventually began to tire of fencing and became an alcoholic until the Sicilian found him.

     Inigo is a good man, he just needs proper guidance. Unfortunately the only guidance he had came from the Sicilian Inigo was at once determined, young, strong, and he had a great drive. Until he stopped drinking, he was just a weak has been. Now he has been renewed again and in his fight against the MIB he has the resolve to finish things once and for all. He and the MIB begin fighting with their left hands and later they each reveal that they are right-handed. After a long grueling, yet exhilarating fight, Inigo surprisingly loses. Instead of killing him the MIB knocks him unconscious and ties him up.

Fezzik

     Fezzik the Turk is then supposed to kill the MIB as the Sicilian runs off with the princess and the MIB catches up with them. The Turks were known for large babies, but Fezzik never lost his baby weight. He kept growing until he eventually became a grown man's size during Kindergarten. The other kids were afraid at first, but since Fezzik was a chicken, they bullied him. His parents then tried to teach Fezzik how to fight. When Fezzik finally obeyed and punched his father, he severely wounded him and they began to put Fezzik in matches. He used his brute strength, which he didn't want, to defeat all of the champion fighters. Fezzik never liked fighting, though. His parents forced him to and really enjoyed themselves, but Fezzik hated it; he feared he would lose his parents one day and be left alone to endure all of the “Boos” of the spectators by himself.

     Eventually his parents did die, and he began group fights, the only thing that satisfied him. The boos stopped because it was more fair and Fezzik only fought so he could make money to live. However when the boos began again, he had nowhere to turn but to Vizzini, the Sicilian.

Fezzik chose not to ambush the MIB unfairly like Vizzini told him to because he's a good sport. Fezzik, at heart, is a kind and gentle giant. He still has a childlike mind and enjoys rhymes, but he's more sure of himself and less troubled now. He's stronger emotionally after his journey as well as strong physically, for he is still a towering giant. He didn't know how to fight a single person any more, so it took him a while to figure out a way to fight the MIB. By the time he remembered and adjusted his battle skills, it was too late, and the banged up MIB wrapped himself around Fezzik's neck, cut off his air supply, and knocked him out.

Vizzini

     Vizzini had few strengths and no physical strength due to his bodily imperfections, so he strenghtened his brain to be a master of undying logic. Some thought he was a mind reader. At some point, Vizzini changed from training his brain for survival to using it for evil intentions and making money. Now he has set a picnic and awaits the MIB while holding a long sharp knife to the throat of the blindfolded princess. He realizes they are at an impasse though, because if he kills the princess where she stands, the job doesn't get done and the MIB will kill him. Yet if the MIB tries to kill him, Buttercup will die and he won't be able to hold her for ransom. The MIB challenges Vizzini to a battle of wits.

     The MIB asks Vizzini to pour out two goblets of wine. He then empties a packet of Iocane powder, the deadliest poison ever, and sets down the goblets again in front of Vizzini. He asks him to guess wear the poison is. Vizzini makes several clever deductions aloud, seemingly stalling for time. He then tricks the MIB into turning around and switches the goblets. Then they drink and Vizzini dies, for both goblets contained poison. The MIB had built up an immunity. He takes the blindfold off the princess and commands her to run.

     They run and Buttercup can barely keep up. After her questions are evaded she tells him Prince Humperdinck will find them will find them. The MIB inquires about “her love” saving her and she admits that there is no love. They continue running silently for hours after a little spat and they see all of Humperdinck's ships poised to overtake them in the Florin channel. They discuss what the prince may do and they discuss the prince in general. The MIB tells Buttercup she is cold and she tells him about her and Westley. He thinks she didn't feel anything and she tells him of her true suffering. Suddenly Buttercup pushes him off the ravine edge and tells him he can die for all she cares. As he falls he says “As... you... wish...” and she realizes it's Westley, so she plunges after him.

     Humperdinck quickly picks up on all of his surroundings and makes the unnaturally perceptive deductions needed to find Westley and Buttercup. The Count and a hundred mountain men try to follow him. They end up at the fire swamp and realize that Buttercup and her captor will likely die there, so they go around to see if it is so.

     The reader isn't given any details of a heartfelt reunion between the too lovers. They simply, weep, talk about their lives a bit and begin arguing as they head through the Fire Swamp. The Fire Swamp is the nightmare of all children in Florin and Guilder. At first Buttercup is too scared to move. Westley tells her how he survived on the Dread Pirate Robert's ship, Revenge, and eventually became first mate, and then the Dread Pirate Roberts himself. Meanwhile, he saves Buttercup from suffocating in the unending pool of Snow Sand and fights off a pack of R.O.U.S.- Rodents of Unusual Size. They eventually get through the forest and are met by the Prince's Armada.

     Westley doesn't give up, but Buttercup asks if the prince will spare Westley if she surrenders. Humperdinck agrees and she abandons Westley. The Prince promises not to harm Westley but plans for the Count to capture and torture him. 

     I did have some new vocab, even though a some of it was kinda clear from the context:

pg. 151

conceded – concede (vb.): to admit to be true; grant, yield. In this case, it seems to mean “yielded.”

pg. 174

chicanery (n.): Trickery, deception.

Cagey (adj.): Wary of being trapped or deceived: shrewd.

Vulpine (adj.): of, relating to, or resembling a fox, especially in cunning.

pg. 217

forthright (adj.): free from ambiguity or evasiveness: going straight to the point.
All of my definitions by the way are taken from Webter's New Explorer Dictionary, New Edition. 2005. Merriam-WEbster, Inc.Springfield, MA... blah blah blah. I don't have time to cite this in MLA right now, but you get the point. It's not my work, it's from the dictionary. THERE! Hopefully, no one will hold my use of it against me. :-D