CHAPTER IV.

Romances of Chivalry relating to Charlemagne and his Peers-Chronicle of Turpin-Huon de Bordeaux-Guerin de Monglave-Gallien Rhetoré-Milles et Amys-Jourdain de Blaves-Ogier le Danois, &c.

to be clearly ascertained, but is supposed by however, seems not to have been renowned some to have been a Canon of Barcelona, who for a retentive memory, and accordingly the attributed his work to Turpin. apostle took the precaution, on the following night, of renewing his suggestion.

This production, it is well known, turns on the expedition of Charlemagne to the In consequence of these successive admonipeninsula. Some French writers have denied tions, Charles entered Spain with a large army, that Charlemagne ever was in Spain, but the and invested Pampeluna. He lay three months authority of Eginhart is sufficient to establish before this town, but could not take it; bethe fact. It seems certain, that about the cause, says the chronicle, it was impregnable. year 777, the assistance of Charlemagne was At the end of this period, however, he beinvoked by one of those numerous sovereigns, thought himself of prayer, on which the walls among whom the Spanish provinces were followed the example of their tottering protoat that time divided; that, on pretence of types of Jericho. The Saracens who chose to defending this ally from the aggressions of embrace Christianity were spared, but those his neighbours, he extended his conquests who persisted in infidelity were put to the over a great part of Navarre and Arragon; sword. Charles then paid his respects to the and, finally, that on his return to France he sarcophagus of James, and Turpin had the experienced a partial defeat from the treach- satisfaction of baptising a great proportion of erous attack of an unexpected enemy. These the Galicians in the neighbourhood. simple events have given rise to the famous The main object with this bishop and his battle of Roncesvalles, and the other extra-master was to destroy all the idols which vagant fictions recorded in the chronicle of could be discovered; an undertaking which, Turpin.

among a people who abominate idolatry, must have required a very patient research. At length these images were completely extirpated, except an obstinate mawmet at Cadiz, which could not be broken, because it was inhabited by a cluster of demons.

After this Charles founded a number of churches, and endowed them with much wealth; grants which were afterwards reclaimed with great zeal by a successor, who boasted him as a prototype.

Charles had scarcely returned to France, when a strenuous pagan, named Aigolandus, recovered the whole country, which obliged the French monarch to return with great armies, of which he gave the command to Milo, the father of Orlando.

Charlemagne, according to that work, having conquered Britain, Italy, Germany, and many other countries, proposed to give himself some repose, though the Saracens were not yet extirpated; but while in this frame of mind, being fortunately addicted to star-gazing, he one night perceived a cluster of stars,' which, commencing their procession at the Frisian sea, moved by way of Germany and France into Galicia. This phenomenon being repeated, attracted the thoughts of Charles, but he could form no rational conjecture as to what was portended. The prodigy, which eluded the waking researches of the monarch, was satisfactorily expounded in a vision. A figure appeared to Charles while he was asleep, introduced itself as the apostle James, and While these troops were lying at Bayonne, a announced that the planetary march typified soldier, named Romaricus, died, after having the conquest of Spain, adding, that he had ordered one of his relations to sell his horse, himself been slain by King Herod, and that and distribute the price among the clergy and his body had long lain concealed in Galicia. the poor. His kinsman sold the horse, but Hence, continued he, I am astonished that spent the money in carousing. After thirty you have not delivered my land from the yoke days the deceased, who had been detained that of the Saracens. The apostle's appropriation | time in purgatory, appeared in a dream, upof territory was somewhat whimsical, but braided his faithless executor for the misapCharles did not dispute his title. This prince,

1"Intentione sagaci," says Eginhart, "siderum cursum curiosissime rimabatur." (C. 25.)

plication of the alms, and notified to him that he might depend on being in Tartarus in the course of the following day. While reporting this uncomfortable assurance next morning

Next day a pitched battle was fought, in which Aigolandus having only a hundred thousand troops, and his enemy a superiority of thirty-four thousand, was entirely defeated, and was himself slain, which demonstrated the propriety of the mode which Charles had adopted of entertaining the representatives of the apostles.

to his fellow soldiers, he is hurried off by a this singular species of warfare, agreed to be flight of demons, and dashed against a rock as baptized with his people. For this purpose a preliminary to subsequent punishment. he came to Charles next day, and found that After this there follows a long account of monarch carousing, while thirteen naked the war with Aigolandus, which was first beggars were sitting on the ground looking carried on by two hundred, or two thousand, on the feast. The malapert heathen asked soldiers, on one part, engaging an equal number who these were. Charles replied, rather unof the enemy; but at length a general battle fortunately, that they were the people of was fought, in which were slain forty thousand God whom he was feeding, and that they Christians, Milo the commander of the forces, represented the apostles. Aigolandus thereand the horse of Charles. Next day, how-upon notified that he would have nothing to ever, the French having been reinforced by do with such a faith. four thousand men from the coast of Italy, Aigolandus fled to a different part of the peninsula, and Charles departed for France. Aigolandus now carried the war into Gascony, followed by the Moabites, Ethiopians, Parthians, and Africans. At Sanctona (Xantonge), previous to a great battle, certain Christians having fixed their spears in the ground towards night, found them decorated next morning with leaves, which signified to the proprietors of these warlike instruments that they were about to obtain the crown of martyrdom. Aigolandus was defeated in the battle with the loss of four thousand of his troops, and fled to Pampeluna. Thither he was followed by Charles, and an army of a hundred and thirty-four thousand men. On this occasion the reader is presented with a list of the chief warriors, among whom are mentioned the names of Orlando, Rinaldo, Oliviero, and Gano. Charles having arrived at Pampeluna, received a message from Aigolandus, requesting a truce till his army should come forth fully prepared for war.

The French monarch next carried on a war against Furra, a prince of Navarre. On the approach of a battle, he prayed that the sign of the cross might appear on the shoulder of those who were predestined to perish in the action. In order to evade the decrees of Providence, Charles shut up the soldiers who had been marked in consequence of this application, in his oratory; but on returning from the battle, in which he vanquished the enemy, he found that all those he had in ward were dead, to the number of a hundred and fifty, which evinced the impiety of his precaution.

While in Navarre, it is reported to Charles that a Syrian giant of first-rate enormity, This being granted, Aigolandus in the in- called Ferracutus (the Ferran of the Italians), terval paid a visit to Charles, and was much had appeared at Nagera. This creature posastonished to hear himself attacked as an sessed most exuberant proportions: he was usurper in the Arabic tongue, which Charles twelve cubits high, his face was a cubit in had learned at Coletus (Thoulouse). Aigo- length, and his nose a measured palm. As landus expostulated, that his competitor had soon as Charles arrived at Nagera, this unno right either in his own person, or derived wieldy gentleman proposed a single combat, from his ancestors, to the throne of Spain; but the king was so little tempted by a but Charles replied, that the country must be personal survey, that he declined his offer. conquered for the extension of the christian Ogerius the Dane was therefore selected as religion. This brought on a theological dispute the christian champion, but the giant trussing between the two sovereigns, which terminated him under one arm, carried him off to the in a resolution to fight on the following day, town. Having served a succession of knights with a hundred soldiers against a hundred, in a similar manner, Orlando at length went and a thousand against a thousand: but out against him. The Saracen, as usual, Aigolandus being ultimately vanquished in commenced the attack by pulling his anta

gonist from the saddle, and rode off with him, other topics, but entrenched himself within till Orlando, exerting all his force, seized him what he considered his last stronghold, that by the chin, and both fell to the ground. the God who died could not come alive again. When they had remounted, the knight think-It was argued by Orlando, that there was noing to kill the pagan, only cut off the head of thing impossible in this, as Elijah and Elisha his horse. Ferrau being now on foot, Orlando readily revived after their death, and that the struck a blow on his arm that knocked the dead cubs of a lioness can be resuscitated on sword from his hand; on which the giant the third day, by the breath of the mother. slew his adversary's horse with a pat of his Orlando must, no doubt, have expected, that fist. After this the opponents fought on foot, the ingenuity of this last illustration would and with swords, till towards evening, when have completed the work of conversion; what Ferrau demanded a truce till next day. then must have been his disappointment, In the morning Orlando had recourse to when the pertinacious Saracen, by demanda new sort of implement; he attacked his ing that a sword should be admitted into the enemy with an immense club, which had conference, proved that his head was as imno more effect than the finer weapon. The penetrable to argument as his body to the champions now assaulted each other with incomparable edge of Durindana. In the stones; but when this species of warfare was ensuing combat, Orlando made great use of at the hardest, giants being naturally prone to the information he had received concerning somnolency, Ferrau became overpowered with the perforable part of his antagonist, who sleep, and again begged a truce. When he being slain in consequence, the city of Nagera had composed himself to rest, his courteous surrendered to the arms of Charlemagne. antagonist placed a stone below his head, that After this success, the French monarch rehe might sleep more softly. When he awoke, ceived intelligence that Ebraim, king of Sibilia Orlando took an opportunity of asking him (Seville), who had escaped from the battle how he was so hardy, that he neither dreaded before Pampeluna, was encamped at Cordova, sword nor batoon. The giant, who must have ready to resist his invasion. Charles, without been more remarkable for strength than loss of time, marched to the south of Spain. caution, explained the whole mystery, by When the French vanguard approached the acknowledging that he was every where in- enemy, it found that the troops of the hostile vulnerable except in the navel. Ferrau, in army wore bearded masks, that they had added his turn, made less pertinent inquiries con- horns to their heads, and that each soldier cerning the name, lineage, and faith of his held a drum in his hand, which he beat with foe. This last subject being started, Orlando, prodigious violence. The horses, quite unhoping to make a convert, explained the accustomed to this sort of masquerade, immearticles of his creed. The giant opened the diately took fright, and spread considerable controversy by questioning the possibility of confusion in the christian army, which with three being one, but Orlando vanquished his difficulty retreated to an eminence. arithmetical scruples by a number of ingeni- day, however, previous to an attack, Charles ous illustrations; as that an almond is a single ordered his horses to be hood-winked, and nut, though it consists of three things, the their ears to be stopped with wax. husk, the shell, and the kernel. The dispu- stratagem, or ars mirabilis, as it is called in tant replied, that he had now a very clear the chronicle, rendered useless the martial conception how three made one, but that prelude of the enemy, and gained Charles the he was scandalized at a virgin producing. victory. A similar device is resorted to, on Orlando reminded him that there was no- a like occasion, in the metrical romance of thing more remarkable in this, than in Richard Cœur de Lion, by the English mothe original creation of Adam. Our giant narch. readily waved this point, but could not The capture of Cordova was the immediate comprehend how a God could die. The fruit of the success of Charlemagne, and Spain arguments on this head he seems to have being now entirely subdued, the conqueror been as little prepared to canvass as the made a proper partition of the kingdom. He

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bestowed Navarre on the Britons, Castille on division, commanded by Orlando, consisting

the French, and Arragon on the Greeks, while Andalusia and Portugal were assigned to the Flemings.

of 20,000 men, was unexpectedly attacked in the defiles of Roncesvalles, by a guerilla of 50,000 Saracens, and was cut to pieces, except Orlando and a few knights.1

After the account of this distribution, the historian most seasonably introduces a descrip- The main body of the pagans having retired, tion of the person of his hero, and the capa- Orlando discovered a stray Saracen, whom he cities of his stomach. As to his external bound to a tree. After this exploit he asappearance, he had dark hair, a ruddy coun- cended an eminence, and sounded his ivory tenance, a stern aspect, but a graceful and horn, which rallied around him a hundred elegant form. This, indeed, appears from Christians, the remains of his army. Though his dimensions, for his legs were thick, his the pagans had, with little loss to themselves, altitude eight feet, and his belly protuberant. reduced his soldiers from 20,000 to 100, His daily consumption of provisions, though Orlando by no means despaired of discomfitalmost incredible, scarcely exceeds that of ing the host of his enemy. He returned with Lewis XIV., of whose diet an account has his small band to the Saracen he had put in been served up in the Walpoliana. During durance, and threatened to kill him unless he night, Charles was guarded by a hundred and would show him Marsirius. The Saracen twenty of the orthodox, who relieved each yielded to so powerful an argument, and other during three watches, ten being placed pointed out his king, who was distinguished at his head, ten at his feet, and the same by his bay horse and round shield. Orlando number on either side, each holding a naked rushed among the pagans and slew their falchion in one hand and a burning torch in monarch, which induced Beligandus to fall the other. back with his army on Saragossa. In this When Charles had arrived as far as Pam- brilliant enterprise the hundred Christians peluna on his return to France, he bethought were killed, and their commander severely himself that he had yet left in Spain two wounded. Wandering through a forest, OrSaracen kings, Marsirius (the same who in lando arrived alone at the entrance to the Ariosto is present at the siege of Paris by pass of Cisera, where, exhausted with wounds, Agramante), and his brother Beligandus, who and grieving for the loss of his army, he reigned jointly at Cæsaraugusta (Saragossa). threw himself under a tree. As a refreshTo these miscreants he despatched Gannalon ment, he commenced a long address to his (the Gan Traditor of Italian poets) to expa- sword Durindana, which he complimented tiate on the necessity of their paying tribute with all the superlatives in the Latin language and receiving baptism. They sent Charles a -"Fortitudine firmissime, capulo eburneo quantity of sweet wine and a thousand houris, candidissime, cruce aurea splendidissime," but at the same time bribed the ambassador to betray his master. Gannalon, on his return to head-quarters, reported that Marsirius was well disposed to become a Christian and to pay tribute. Trusting to this information, Charles made a disposition on his march to France, by which he lost the half of his army. He himself passed the Pyrenees in safety with part of his troops; but the second

1 The valley of Roncesvalles, where this catastrophe is supposed to have happened, lies to the north-east of Pampeluna. It extends to St Jean Pied de Porte in Basse Navarre, and receives its name from the mountain of Roncesvalles, which terminates this plain, and is accounted, the highest of the Pyrenees.

? This horn has been of infinite service to future poets and romancers. Logystilla, in the Orlando

&c. &c.

The dying champion next blew his horn with such force that he burst it.2 Charles, who was then in Gascony, heard the peal distinctly, and wished to return to the succour of his nephew, but was persuaded by Gannalon that he could be in no danger, and that he was merely taking the diversion of hunting in the forests. The blast, however, brought Furioso (c. 15), bestows it on Astolpho, and Prince Arthur's squire is furnished with a similar one by Spenser. The notion probably came to Turpin from Simeon Seth's Life of Alexander, where that monarch gives his war signal by a horn of immense power. All these have perhaps been derived from the horn of Alecto, in the 7th book of the Æneid.