Classic Poem

CCI

And thereon the embassadors got them upon the steed,
And forth out of the city they issued with all speed.
To their Emir they went in fear and gave to him amain
The keys of Saragossa. Spake the King unto the twain:
" What have ye found! And Marsile that I summoned, where is he? "
And Clariens gave answer:
" He is wounded mortally.
Within the mountain passes was the Emperor yesterday.
For into the sweet land of France he yearned to take the way.
And for the greater honor a rear-guard he arrayed.
Roland the Count his nephew there in the passes stayed,
And Olivier, and the twelve peers, and there beside them then
Of the land of France were gathered twenty thousand armed men.
And the King Marsile fought them like a good man of might.
He met with the Count Roland upon the field of fight.
With Durendal Count Roland such a buffet to him gave
That the right arm from his body with the same stroke he clave.
And the son that the King held so dear hath Roland smitten dead,
And all the barons likewise that to the fight he led.
King Marsile fled thereafter. Longer he might not bide.
And Charlemagne the Emperor hard on his heels did ride.
He bids thee aid him. He will yield to thee the realm of Spain. "
Baligant thought. On madness was he like to come for pain.

CCII

" Sire Amiral, " said Clariens, " In a fight yesterday
At Roncevaux Count Roland hath fallen in the fray,
And Olivier with the twelve peers that Charlemagne loved well;
And twenty thousand Frenchmen in the same battle fell.
And, moreover, there his good right hand hath the King Marsile lost.
Hotly the Emperor Charlemagne pursued after his host.
No longer are there cavaliers in all the country round
That are not slain in battle or in the Ebro drowned.
Camped are the Franks upon her banks; So near us have they come
Into the land, but, an thou wish, hard is their journey home. "
Proud was the look of Baligant. His heart was glad and high.
He rose up from the high-seat and loudly did he cry:
" Tarry not, issue from the ships. To horse, ye barons bold,
And ride! Unless already King Charlemagne the old
Is stolen hence, this very day, for Marsile vengeance dread
Will I take, and for his reft right hand shall he have King Charles his head. "

CCIII

Those Paynims of Arabia out of their ships came they;
The mules and steeds they mounted, and out they rode away.
What might they more? The Amiral, when he had sped them all,
Gemalfin his companion unto himself did call:
" I give into thy keeping the rule of all my power. "
Upon a great brown charger he mounted in that hour.
And thence together, with him four mighty dukes he led,
And unto Saragossa without a halt they sped.
At the great stairs of marble they descended from their mounts.
The stirrup of the Amiral was holden of four counts.
By the stairway of the palace they mounted up on high.
And Bramimonde came running:
" How miserable am I!
In what great shame my master is cast away! " she said,
" Charles' nephew hath confounded and smitten Marsile dead. "
At his feet she fell. The Amiral hath raised her up again.
Unto the upper chamber in sorrow went the twain.

CCIV

When Marsile had seen Baligant, in a loud voice he cried
Unto two Spanish Saracens, " Take me on either side
And raise me up. " A gauntlet he took in his left hand.
Said Marsile:
" My Lord Amiral, all of the Spanish land
I yield thee, and Saragossa and all that hangs thereby.
I have ruined all the people, and a ruined man am I. "
And Baligant gave answer:
" And therefore woe is me.
But now I cannot tarry to parley long with thee.
I know full well my coming is unknown to Charlemagne.
However, this same gauntlet I will take from thee again. "
And for the sorrow that he had, weeping he turned him there.
Forth out of Marsile's palace he descended on the stair.
He rode so hard that forth he came before the foremost ranks,
Shouting as he came: " On, Paynims! Already flee the Franks. "

CCV

And early in the morning, when first the dawning broke,
Then Charlemagne the Emperor from his deep sleep awoke.
Saint Gabriel, that by him for the guard of God had stayed,
Lifted his hand and o'er him the sacred sign he made.
Up rose the King and in the place he let his armor lie.
The others of the army likewise their arms put by.
And then to horse they got them and gallantly did ride
A long way on those mighty tracks and on the highroads wide.
Forth went the host to look upon that wondrous overthrow,
Where had been fought the battle in the pass at Roncevaux.

CCVI

Into the pass at Roncevaux entered King Charlemagne.
And he began a-weeping when he found such store of slain.
He said unto the Frenchmen:
" Lords, ride not hastily,
For to go on before you it now behoveth me,
To seek him whom I yearn to find, even my nephew dear.
I was in Aix the city at a feast that fell each year.
There, of great fights and battles, their boasts my lads did make.
And there I harkened Roland and the matter that he spake;
If he e'er in the strange country should hap in fight to fall,
His comrades and his henchmen, he would excell them all;
Unto his foeman's country his last look would he bend;
Like a hero in his triumph he would come unto his end. "
Then, farther on than any a little stave might throw,
Up a hill before the army the Emperor did go.

CCVII

When forth to seek his nephew went the Emperor Charlemagne,
Great store of herbs and flowers he found upon the plain,
The which the blood vermilion of our good lords did steep.
The King was filled with pity, nor could he choose but weep.
Under a tree high on the hill at last the Emperor drew.
The strokes of the Count Roland on the three steps he knew.
There he beheld his nephew on the green grass where he lay.
No marvel if the King was filled with anger and dismay.
He lighted from the horse and ran as swiftly as might be.
The body of Count Roland in his two arms took he.
Then he fainted on the body, so grievous was his pain.

CCVIII

Out of his swound awakened the Emperor Charlemagne.
Count Accelin, Duke Neimes, Geoffrey of Anjou forby,
And Geoffrey's brother Thierry lifted the King on high,
They raised him underneath a pine, to earth his glance he bowed.
And the King very gently began to mourn aloud:
" Good Roland, in his mercy may the good God thee enfold.
So great a cavalier as thou never shall man behold,
To order and accomplish the great deeds of the fight.
Now greatly doth mine honor go downward from the height. "
There swooned again King Charlemagne. He could not bear the thing.

CCIX

At last out of his dreadful swound, woke Charlemagne the King.
There were four of the King's barons by the hands that held him high.
He looked to earth, and Roland beheld where he did lie.
Faded was the red. His body yet looked both fair and stark.
His eyes were turned within his head, and terrible and dark.
And Charlemagne wept for him in perfect faith and love:
" Roland! God keep thy spirit in His place of flowers above.
Among the Saints of Heaven. How thou camest to ill in Spain!
Good Captain! not a day shall be but I shall suffer pain
For thee. My strength and courage are fallen in the sere.
No man is left unto me to keep mine honor clear.
Not a friend under heaven is left unto me now.
If I have any kinsmen, is none so brave as thou. "
And with both hands he tore his hair. So great their grief did grow,
Of an hundred thousand Frenchmen was none but wept for woe.

CCX

" Friend Roland, I will go to France. In Laon when I stand,
Within my chamber, strangers will come from many a land,
They will ask for the Count-Captain; I will say he is dead in Spain.
In bitter sorrow thereafter in my kingdom shall I reign.
No day shall pass but I shall weep and groan aloud in ruth.

CCXI

" Roland! my friend! oh hero, and lovely in thy youth,
When I am in mine own chapel in the town of Aix once more,
Then men will come unto me asking tidings of the war,
And I will tell them tidings most marvellous and dread:
He who was wont to conquer, my nephew, he is dead.
Hereafter shall the Saxons rebel against my grace,
And the Huns and the Bulgarians and many another race,
The Romans and Apulians, and the men of Sicily,
And whosoe'er in Afric and Califerne there be.
And my suffering and sorrow shall grow from hour to hour.
What man can guide my army with such a strength and power
When he is dead that at the head thereof was wont to ride?
Ah! sweet my France, how utterly a waste thou shalt abide!
I have so great a sorrow to perish am I fain. "
And then to rend his long white beard began King Charlemagne,
And with both hands, moreover, to tear and pluck his hair.
A hundred thousand Frenchmen on the ground fainted there.

CCXII

" Friend Roland, great misfortune thy life has overcast,
Therefore thy gallant spirit to Paradise has passed.
He who slew thee all the land of France has smirched exceeding sore.
I am so full of sorrow that I would live no more,
For the slaughter that upon my house because of me was done.
But to God I make this prayer, to the Holy Virgin's Son:
Ere to the Sizre Passes in the mount I make my way,
May the spirit from my body depart from me this day.
And with theirs may now this soul of mine be sent forth to abide,
And may my flesh hereafter be forever them beside. "
Then he wept very greatly and plucked his beard again,
Said Duke Neimes: " Heavy sorrow is come on Charlemagne. "

CCXIII

" Ah! grieve not so, Lord Emperor, " Geoffrey of Anjou said,
" But over all the field of fight let now search out our dead
That there were slain by them of Spain, and command them to be borne
To a charnel-house. "
Then said the King: " Now blow upon thy horn. "

CCXIV

And straightway Geoffrey of Anjou upon the horn did sound.
Charles gave command. The Frenchmen descended to the ground.
And all of their companions that they found in battle slain
Forthwith unto a charnel-house they carried them amain.
Of bishops and of abbots there was a mighty store,
Canons and clerks and parsons that tonsured foreheads bore.
And there they did absolve the dead and bless them in God's name.
And myrrh and precious incense they lighted with the flame.
And gallantly they censed them and graved in noble kind.
Then — what more could they? forth they rode and left the dead behind.

CCXV

A watch the Emperor Charlemagne set Roland's body o'er,
And o'er the corpse of Olivier and of Turpin furthermore.
Likewise he there let open the bodies of the three,
And their three hearts, moreover, let wrap in cramoisy.
In caskets of white marble the hearts they then did lay.
The bodies of the barons they carried thence away.
They lapped them well in leather wrought of the red-deer hide,
And with the wine and spices washed them and purified.
To Tybalt and to Geboin and Count Milo spake the King,
And likewise Marquis Otho and commanded them this thing:
" Onward in three chariots do ye now bear them forth. "
Well were the bodies covered with cloth of gold of worth.

CCXVI

Now was the Emperor Charlemagne set in his heart to go.
When there arose before him the vanguards of the foe.
From the forefront of the army two messengers there came
For to denounce the battle in Baligant his name.
" Proud King, it is not right nor meet that thou shouldst now go back.
Behold the Emir Baligant, that rideth on thy track.
And mighty is that army that he leads from Araby.
This day shall we discover if there be strength in thee. "
King Charlemagne plucked at his beard. On the strange overthrow
He thought, that came upon him in the fight at Roncevaux.
He looked proudly on his army. Then he cried with all his force:
" Arm you, ye Frankish barons, and straightway get to horse. "

CCXVII

The Emperor armed him foremost, and his hauberk swift did don,
And laced his helm, and Joyous the great sword girded on,
That bated not its brightness for the flaming of the sun.
And a Girondian buckler at his neck the King did hang.
He gripped his lance, and the good steel, he brandished it and swang.
And thereupon he mounted on the great horse Tençendor
That at Marsonne by the river-ford he won, when he made war
On Malpalin, the Narbonnese that by the King was slain.
And fierily he spurred the steed and loosed the bridle-rein.
Before an hundred thousand men at a gallop did he come,
Praising God and his Apostle, who hath his place in Rome.

CCXVIII

Down over that great meadow the men of France did ride.
Were more than an hundred thousand that armed them side by side.
Their armor well becomes them and swiftly run their steeds.
Fair are their spears. They get to horse and are ripe for gallant deeds.
They deem there will be a battle, if they come upon the foe.
Down over their bright helmets the gonfalons hang low.
When King Charles had seen their faces how they were very fair,
Then Josseran of Provence he summoned to him there,
Anthelm of Maintz and Neimes:
" In such heroes as be here
A man should trust. He is a fool who giveth way to fear.
If their coming they repent not, dear shall the Arabs buy
Count Roland's death. "
" God grant it us, " said Neimes in reply.

CCXIX

Charles called Guinemant and Rabel:
" To you I give command,
My lords, in the place of Roland and Olivier to stand.
One shall bear the sword, and the other, the mighty horn of war.
At the head of the first legion do ye ride out before.
And fifteen thousand Frenchmen shall ride along with you,
The young men of the army, courageous youths and true.
And after you shall follow as many more beside;
And these shall the two marshals Geboin and Lawrence guide. "
Count Josseran and Duke Neimes those columns did array.
If they come upon the Paynims there will be a fearful fray.

CCXX

French are the first two columns. When stablished were the twain,
Of the vassals of Bavaria the third they did ordain.
The full of twenty thousand that troop was deemed to be.
There was not one among them that from a fight would flee.
Never a race neath heaven more dear the Emperor knew
Except for his own Frenchmen that the kingdoms overthrew.
They were led of the Dane Ogier, so well that loved the fight.
It was a gallant company of arrogance and might.