第78章 XCIX(10)

The Franks dismount in those deserted tracts, Their saddles take from off their horses' backs, Bridles of gold from off their heads unstrap, Let them go free; there is enough fresh grass --No service can they render them, save that.

Who is most tired sleeps on the ground stretched flat.

Upon this night no sentinels keep watch.

CLXXXIII

That Emperour is lying in a mead;

By's head, so brave, he's placed his mighty spear;On such a night unarmed he will not be.

He's donned his white hauberk, with broidery, Has laced his helm, jewelled with golden beads, Girt on Joiuse, there never was its peer, Whereon each day thirty fresh hues appear.

All of us know that lance, and well may speak Whereby Our Lord was wounded on the Tree:

Charles, by God's grace, possessed its point of steel!

His golden hilt he enshrined it underneath.

By that honour and by that sanctity The name Joiuse was for that sword decreed.

Barons of France may not forgetful be Whence comes the ensign "Monjoie," they cry at need;Wherefore no race against them can succeed.

CLXXXIV

Clear was the night, the moon shone radiant.

Charles laid him down, but sorrow for Rollant And Oliver, most heavy on him he had, For's dozen peers, for all the Frankish band He had left dead in bloody Rencesvals;He could not help, but wept and waxed mad, And prayed to God to be their souls' Warrant.

Weary that King, or grief he's very sad;

He falls on sleep, he can no more withstand.

Through all those meads they slumber then, the Franks;Is not a horse can any longer stand, Who would eat grass, he takes it lying flat.

He has learned much, can understand their pangs.

CLXXXV

Charles, like a man worn out with labour, slept.

Saint Gabriel the Lord to him hath sent, Whom as a guard o'er the Emperour he set;Stood all night long that angel by his head.

In a vision announced he to him then A battle, should be fought against him yet, Significance of griefs demonstrated.

Charles looked up towards the sky, and there Thunders and winds and blowing gales beheld, And hurricanes and marvellous tempests;Lightnings and flames he saw in readiness, That speedily on all his people fell;Apple and ash, their spear-shafts all burned, Also their shields, e'en the golden bosses, Crumbled the shafts of their trenchant lances, Crushed their hauberks and all their steel helmets.

His chevaliers he saw in great distress.

Bears and leopards would feed upon them next;Adversaries, dragons, wyverns, serpents, Griffins were there, thirty thousand, no less, Nor was there one but on some Frank it set.

And the Franks cried: "Ah! Charlemagne, give help!"Wherefore the King much grief and pity felt, He'ld go to them but was in duress kept:

Out of a wood came a great lion then, 'Twas very proud and fierce and terrible;His body dear sought out, and on him leapt, Each in his arms, wrestling, the other held;But he knew not which conquered, nor which fell.

That Emperour woke not at all, but slept.

CLXXXVI

And, after that, another vision came:

Himseemed in France, at Aix, on a terrace, And that he held a bruin by two chains;Out of Ardenne saw thirty bears that came, And each of them words, as a man might, spake Said to him: "Sire, give him to us again!

It is not right that he with you remain, He's of our kin, and we must lend him aid."A harrier fair ran out of his palace, Among them all the greatest bear assailed On the green grass, beyond his friends some way.

There saw the King marvellous give and take;But he knew not which fell, nor which o'ercame.

The angel of God so much to him made plain.

Charles slept on till the clear dawn of day.

CLXXXVII

King Marsilies, fleeing to Sarraguce, Dismounted there beneath an olive cool;His sword and sark and helm aside he put, On the green grass lay down in shame and gloom;For his right hand he'd lost, 'twas clean cut through;Such blood he'd shed, in anguish keen he swooned.

Before his face his lady Bramimunde Bewailed and cried, with very bitter rue;Twenty thousand and more around him stood, All of them cursed Carlun and France the Douce.

Then Apollin in's grotto they surround, And threaten him, and ugly words pronounce:

"Such shame on us, vile god!, why bringest thou?

This is our king; wherefore dost him confound?

Who served thee oft, ill recompense hath found."Then they take off his sceptre and his crown, With their hands hang him from a column down, Among their feet trample him on the ground, With great cudgels they batter him and trounce.

From Tervagant his carbuncle they impound, And Mahumet into a ditch fling out, Where swine and dogs defile him and devour.

CLXXXVIII

Out of his swoon awakens Marsilies, And has him borne his vaulted roof beneath;Many colours were painted there to see, And Bramimunde laments for him, the queen, Tearing her hair; caitiff herself she clepes;Also these words cries very loud and clear:

"Ah! Sarraguce, henceforth forlorn thou'lt be Of the fair king that had thee in his keep!

All those our gods have wrought great felony, Who in battle this morning failed at need.

That admiral will shew his cowardice, Unless he fight against that race hardy, Who are so fierce, for life they take no heed.

That Emperour, with his blossoming beard, Hath vassalage, and very high folly;Battle to fight, he will not ever flee.

Great grief it is, no man may slay him clean."CLXXXIX

That Emperour, by his great Majesty, I Full seven years in Spain now has he been, And castles there, and many cities seized.

King Marsilies was therefore sore displeased;In the first year he sealed and sent his brief To Baligant, into Babilonie:

('Twas the admiral, old in antiquity, That clean outlived Omer and Virgilie,)To Sarraguce, with succour bade him speed, For, if he failed, Marsile his gods would leave, All his idols he worshipped formerly;He would receive blest Christianity And reconciled to Charlemagne would be.

Long time that one came not, far off was he.

Through forty realms he did his tribes rally;His great dromonds, he made them all ready, Barges and skiffs and ships and galleries;Neath Alexandre, a haven next the sea, In readiness he gat his whole navy.

That was in May, first summer of the year, All of his hosts he launched upon the sea.