The Junior Classics, Volume 4: Heroes and heroines of chivalry
General
The Junior Classics, Volume 4: Heroes and heroines of chivalry
Children's literature
Turpin the archbishop, Count Gaulter, and Roland set themselves
together with the fixed intent to sell their lives as dearly as they
might; and when the pagans ran upon them in a multitude with shouts
and cries, Roland slew twenty, Count Gaulter six, and Turpin five.
Then the pagans drew back and gathered together all the remnant of
their army, forty thousand horsemen and a thousand footmen with spears
and javelins, and charged upon the three. Count Gaulter fell at the
first shock. The archbishop's horse was killed, and he being brought
to earth, lay there a-dying, with four wounds in his forehead, and
four in his breast. Yet gat Roland never a wound in all that fight,
albeit the pain in his temples was very sore.
Then Roland took the horn and sought to wind it yet again. Very feeble
was the sound, yet Charles heard it away beyond the mountains, where
he marched fast to help his guard. And the king said, "Good barons,
great is Roland's distress; I know it by the sighing of the horn.
Spare neither spur nor steed for Roland's sake." Then he commanded to
sound all the clarions long and loud; and the mountains tossed the
sound from peak to peak, so that it was plainly heard down in the
Valley of Roncesvalles.
The pagans heard the clarions ringing behind the mountains, and they
said, "These are the clarions of Charles the Great. Behold Charles
cometh upon us with his host, and we shall have to fight the battle
again if we remain. Let us rise up and depart quickly. There is but
one man more to slay." Then four hundred of the bravest rode at
Roland; and he, spurring his weary horse against them, strove still to
shout "Montjoy!" but could not, for voice failed him. And when he was
come within spear-cast, every pagan flung a spear at him, for they
feared to go nigh him, and said, "There is none born of woman can slay
this man." Stricken with twenty spears, the faithful steed,
Veillantif, dropped down dead. Roland fell under him, his armor
pierced everywhere with spear-points, yet not so much as a scratch
upon his body. Stunned with the fall he lay there in a swoon. The
pagans came and looked on him, and gave him up for dead. Then they
left him and made all speed to flee before Charles should come.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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