Gautier gives references to no other) "la curtoise Orable" does not seem to deserve his hard words. There is nothing improper in her conduct, and her words do not come to much more than-- "I am your wife if you will marry me." [Footnote 39: Jonckbloet, i. 112-162.] _La Prise d'Orange_ ends with the couplet-- "Puis estut il tiex xxx ans en Orenge Mes ainc un jor n'i estut sanz chalenge." [Sidenote: _The story of Vivien._] Orange, in short, was a kind of Garde Douloureuse against the infidel: and William well earned his title of "Marchis." The story of his exploits diverges a little--a loop rather than an episode--in two specially heroic _chansons_, the _Enfances Vivien_ and the _Covenant Vivien_,[40] which tell the story of one of his nephews, a story finished by Vivien's glorious death at the opening of the great _chanson_ of _Aliscans_. Vivien is the son of Garin d'Ansene, one of those "children of Aimeri" who have sought fortune away from Narbonne, and one of the captives of Roncesvalles. Garin is only to be delivered at the cost of his son's life, which Vivien cheerfully offers. He is actually on the pyre, which is kindled, when the pagan hold Luiserne is stormed by a pirate king, and Vivien is rescued, but sold as a slave. An amiable paynim woman buys him and adopts him; but he is a born knight, and when grown up, with a few allies surprises Luiserne itself, and holds it till a French army arrives, and Garin recovers his son, whom he had thought dead. After these _Enfances_, promising enough, comes the _Covenant_ or vow, never to retreat before the Saracens. Vivien is as savage as he is heroic; and on one occasion sends five hundred prisoners, miserably mutilated, to the great Admiral Desrame. The admiral assembles all the forces of the East as well as of Spain, and invades France. Vivien, overpowered by numbers, applies to his uncle William for help, and the battle of Aliscans is already half fought and more than half lost before the actual _chanson_ of the name begins. _Aliscans_[41] itself opens with a triplet in which the "steel clash" of the _chanson_ measure is more than ever in place:-- "A icel jor ke la dolor fu grans, Et la bataille orible en Aliscans: Li quens Guillaumes i soufri grans ahans." [Footnote 40: _Enfances Vivien_, ed. Wahlen and v. Feilitzer, Paris, 1886; _Covenant Vivien_, Jonckbloet, i. 163-213.] [Footnote 41: Jonckbloet, i. 215 to end; separately, as noted above, by Guessard and de Montaignon, Paris, 1870.] [Sidenote: _Aliscans._]