Ogier, promptly disengaging himself, pressed Bruhier with so much
impetuosity that he drove him to a distance from his horse, to whose
saddle-bow the precious balm was suspended; and very soon Charlemagne
saw Ogier, now completely in the advantage, bring his enemy to his
knees, tear off his helmet, and, with a sweep of his sword, strike his
head from his body.
After the victory, Ogier seized Marchevallee, leaped upon his back, and
became possessed of the precious flask, a few drops from which closed
his wounds and restored his strength. The French knights who had been
Bruhier's captives, now released, pressed round Ogier to thank him for
their deliverance.
Charlemagne and his nobles, as soon as their attention was relieved
from the single combat, perceived from their elevated position an
unusual agitation in the enemy's camp. They attributed it at first to
the death of their general, but soon the noise of arms, the cries of
combatants, and new standards which advanced, disclosed to them the
fact that Bruhier's army was attacked by a new enemy.
The Emperor was right; it was the brave Carahue of Mauritania, who,
with an army, had arrived in France, resolved to attempt the liberation
of Ogier, his brother in arms. Learning on his arrival the changed
aspect of affairs, he hesitated not to render a signal service to the
Emperor, by attacking the army of Bruhier in the midst of the
consternation occasioned by the loss of its commander.
Ogier recognized the standard of his friend, and leaping upon
Marchevallee, flew to aid his attack. Charlemagne followed with his
army; and the Saracen host, after an obstinate conflict, was forced to
surrender unconditionally.
The interview of Ogier and Carahue was such as might be anticipated of
two such attached friends and accomplished knights. Charlemagne went to
meet them, embraced them, and putting the King of Mauritania on his
right and Ogier on his left, returned with triumph to Paris. There the
Empress Bertha and the ladies of her court crowned them with laurels,
and the sage and gallant Eginhard, chamberlain and secretary of the
Emperor, wrote all these great events in his history.
A few days after Guyon, King of Denmark, arrived in France with a
chosen band of knights, and sent an ambassador to Charlemagne, to say
that he came, not as an enemy, but to render homage to him as the best
knight of the time and the head of the Christian world. Charlemagne
gave the ambassador a cordial reception, and mounting his horse, rode
forward to meet the King of Denmark.
These great princes, being assembled at the court of Charles, held
council together, and the ancient and sage barons were called to join
it.
It was decided that the united Danish and Mauritanian armies should
cross the sea and carry the war to the country of the Saracens, and
that a thousand French knights should range themselves under the banner
of Ogier, the Dane, who, though not a king, should have equal rank with
the two others.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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