Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 3, 2025
Charlemagne hears it thirty leagues away, and orders his army to return to Roncesvalles. Ganelon alone seeks to dissuade him, and is put in chains by the desire of the nobles, who suspect him. The army of Charles hurries back, but all too late. They will not arrive in time. Away in the Pass of Cizra, Roland looks around on his dead comrades and weeps.
'You will not conquer him this time, said Ganélon, 'and in a fight thousands of your soldiers would be killed. Hear my counsel. Send Charles yet more gold and silver, and offer twenty other hostages, on condition he returns himself to France, leaving his rear-guard behind him. This, being the post of danger, will be claimed by his nephew Roland, whose comrade Oliver is always by his side.
Such battle as awaiteth us have we never fought before." "Let him be accursed who fleeth!" cried the Franks. "There be few among us who fear death." "It is Ganelon the felon, who hath betrayed us," said Oliver, "let him be accursed." "Hush thee, Oliver," said Roland; "he is my stepsire. Let us hear no evil of him." "The heathen are in fearful force," said Oliver, "and our Franks are but few.
There he clad himself in his finest armor. Commending his wife and child to the care of the knights who pressed round to bid him Godspeed, Ganelon, with bent head, turned slowly from their sight and rode to join the heathen Blancandrin. As Ganelon and Blancandrin rode along together beneath the olive-trees and through the fruitful vineyards of sunny Spain, the heathen began to talk cunningly.
'See, said the Saracens, 'did you ever behold a prouder warrior? Ganélon drew near the King and repeated the message that Charles had given him. When he had finished he held out the letter, and Marsile, who had studied in the best schools of learning, broke the seal and read it to himself. 'Listen to this, my lords, he cried, 'and say if ever you heard such madness!
He ought to rest now from his labors in his city of Aix." Ganelon shook his head. "Nay," he said, "such is not Charlemagne. All those who have seen him know that our Emperor is a true warrior. I know not how to praise him enough before you, for there is nowhere a man so full of valor and of goodness. I would rather die than leave his service." "In truth," said Marsil, "I marvel greatly.
Beside him stand his nephew Roland, the Lord Marquis of the marches of Bretagne; Sir Olivier; Geoffrey of Anjou, the progenitor of the Plantagenets; "and more than a thousand Franks of France." The Moslem knights are introduced to this council of war, King Marsil's offer is accepted, and Sir Ganelon is sent to Saragossa to represent the emperor.
To him I leave all my lands. Guard him well, for I shall see him no more. 'Your heart is too tender, said Charles, 'but there is no help for it, you must go. At the words of the King, Ganélon flung his fur mantle to the ground in fury. 'It is to you, he cried, turning to Roland, 'that I owe this peril.
"To whom now," said the king to his peers, "shall we intrust our rear-guard while we pass safely through the mountain gates?" "Give It to Roland, your nephew," said Ganelon. "There is none more worthy than he." "And who shall lead the vanguard?" "Ogier, the Dane. Next to Roland, he is the bravest of your barons." Right willingly did Roland accept the dangerous trust.
'Our men are fighting, he cried, but Ganélon answered, 'If another man had said that, we should have called him a liar. Count Roland was sorely wounded and the effort to sound the horn caused the blood to pour from his mouth. But he sounded it once more, and the echoes leaped far. Charles heard it in the defiles, and all his Franks heard it too.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking