Roland thereupon hurried to the archbishop to learn full particulars of the disaster, and together they sought the emperor, who was prepared to give them a stern reprimand, but who was seized with such consternation on hearing their story that he contented himself with giving them instructions to be more vigilant in future while they were before an enemy so active as Maugis. This exciting episode, as well as the fact that he had not been able to defeat his enemies, caused the emperor to become so exasperated that he resolved he never would quit his camp until the château fortress was taken. Ganelon advised him to attack Maugis by securing the perfidy and abandonment of his allies, which counsel Charlemagne finally reluctantly followed. An envoy was sent to the King of Acquitaine, that he had entered the kingdom with one hundred thousand men, and that it was his intention to put everything to fire and the sword. King Yon was very much disturbed by these menaces, and his courtiers were at once divided into two parties. The one headed by the treacherous abbé, who pointed out to the worried monarch that what was occurring was what was predicted to him as the result of harboring Maugis and his brothers, and that now was the time to yield them up and save the kingdom and its people from certain destruction. The other side, however, the true soldiers and brave men, urged upon the king that they respect their word once given. “Sire!” exclaimed a brave old knight, “these five intrepid knights, when they found you in distress and your kingdom all but destroyed, spared neither themselves nor their soldiers in thy succor. It would surely be an offense to heaven to now retract all thy pledges to them and to desert them in their necessity. It would be the basest ingratitude.” These brave words met with a murmur of approval from the assembled courtiers, and emboldened several other knights to speak out in support of the fair treatment of the brave brothers. The king was sore perplexed, beset on one side by the influence of the foul conspirators who had gained his confidence, and more than all by a desire to save his kingdom from devastation and the possible overthrow of his dynasty. His countenance plainly evidenced the confusion which these varying demands had brought upon him. It is an old proverb that “He who hesitates is lost.” And the active and ever ready abbé, seizing this moment as a favorable opportunity, leaned forward and whispered in the ear of the hesitating king: “Sire, this is truly a matter too important to decide with undue haste. Sleep upon its consideration until the morrow, that a proper issue of this most unhappy matter may be conceived.” This suggestion for delay did not meet with the approval of many of the knights present, who, admiring the bravery of the sons of Aymon, were unfavorable to any hesitancy in according them just treatment.