There are few places so renowned in the early literature of the Romance languages as the pass through the Western Pyrenees, at the southern extremity of which lies the village of Roncesvalles. The Song of Roland handed down the memories of Roncesvalles from the early Middle Ages; but this famous poem (dating in its present form from the latter part of the eleventh century) must be regarded only as the final and successful effort to collect the traditions which form the foundations of French and Spanish history. The traditions find their earliest record in the legends and “chansons de geste,” which, in the first instance, served to commemorate the successful rising of the people of Spain to expel an invader, Charlemagne, the Emperor of the North. The rearguard of his retreating host, consisting chiefly of Frankish subjects of the Emperor under the leadership of the Count Roland, Captain-General of the Breton March, the Emperor’s nephew, was overwhelmed and annihilated, while traversing the Pass on their retreat from Spain in the year 778. The ancient history of Eginhard, telling of the Spaniards, says very suggestively “usque ad unum omnes interficiunt ac ... summa cum celeritate in diversa disperguntur.” Even “li gentilz quens” did not escape the massacre. The Chanson de Roland gives the French version of this tradition, which was accepted by the Normans in England; the Spanish legend of the hero Bernardo del Carpio gives, as it is to be expected, a very different account of the overthrow of the Emperor. In the course of the succeeding centuries the Pass of Roncesvalles occupies on more than one occasion a prominent place in British history. One of the most picturesque passages in Froissart tells how the army of Edward the Black Prince traversed the Pass in the ill-omened invasion of Spain that led to his fatal illness. His remarkable victory at Navarrete scarcely relieves the gloomy record of this adventure. Little more than one hundred years have elapsed since Roncesvalles and the neighbouring defiles once more saw the advance of war-worn British soldiery. In the defence of these passes against the advance of the French under Soult, so nearly successful in overwhelming Wellington’s right flank, and in the subsequent pursuit of the retreating French armies, some of the most remarkable of the feats of arms which distinguished the Peninsular War took place. British military history contains few more stirring episodes than the combats between the French and the allied troops in the Passes of Maya and Roncesvalles. [Illustration: FIG. 2. _Stanfords Geog^. Estab^. London._ A chart of the Western Pyrenees, showing the roads through the passes and the position of Roncesvalles and Ibañeta. ]