THE DAYS OF CHIVALRY
OR THE LEGEND OF CROQUEMITAINE
By Ernest Louis Victor Jules L’Epine
FREELY TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF L’EPINE BY TOM HOOD.
ILLUSTRATED WITH 177 DESIGNS ON WOOD
BY GUSTAVE DORÉ.
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PREFACE.
IN translating L’Epine’s charming legend, I have felt it my duty to
adhere as closely as possible to the text. “Adaptations” and “versions,”
whether presented on the stage or set down in black and white, seem to
claim for those, who give them in English, a greater share of the
glory than I feel myself to deserve, in the slightest degree, in
this instance. The delicacy with which the moral is interwoven in the
narrative, without in the least injuring the true legendary tone of the
adventures related, is as far beyond any improvement I could make, as
it is above the usual clap-trap “tag” with which dramas and children’s
stories are ordinarily burdened.
I scarcely know to whom I should appeal as my readers, for the story I
have delighted in rendering into English seems to me likely to afford
pleasure in the perusal to older heads than those which I am sure would
gather over the pages in the nursery. For there are a quiet humour and
a delicate fancy running through the legend, amid all the exciting
accounts of loves and wars, tourneys and battles, accidents and
adventures, which do not lose interest because they are illustrated by
the powerful pencil of Gustave Doré. That great artist’s fancy supplies
these introductory lines with a tail-piece, which aptly typifies the
book. Its author has ably made the doings of knights and paladins point
a useful moral as well as adorn an interesting tale, just as the artist
makes the arms of the chivalric age serve to frighten the birds from the
fields that supply our humble daily bread.
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BOOK THE FIRST -- THE TOURNEY AT FRONSAC -- A.D. 769.
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CHAPTER I. CHARLEMAGNE.
THE story which I am about to relate happened (if it ever did happen)
in the time of the famous Emperor Charlemagne. There is no necessity,
in speaking of that remarkable epoch, to invent facts. The truth is so
astounding that it will make you open your eyes quite wide enough. What
marvellous doings of fairies, ogres, or demons, can compare with the
deeds of Charlemagne? and what magic ring could be as potent as his
sword?
But before I proceed further it will be as well to sketch for you, in a
few lines, the portrait of this hero.
He was eight feet in height, according to the measurement of his own
feet, which historians allege with fervour were of remarkable length.
His eyes were large and piercing. When he was enraged you could almost
have fancied they flashed fire. His face was broad and ruddy, his hair
brown, and he wore a beard that was innocent of the barber’s shears.
Although he measured eight feet round the middle, his figure was
wellproportioned. He devoured with ease at one repast a quarter of
mutton, or a goose, or a ham, or a peacock. He was moderate in the
matter of wine, which he used to take with water. His strength was so
enormous that it was mere child’s play to him to straighten with his
naked hands three horse-shoes at a time. He could lift at arm’s length,
on the palm of his hand, a knight in full armour; and lie could cleave
in twain, with one blow of his sword, a horseman in panoply of war--aye,
and his horse into the bargain. This was mere sport to him, and often,
with a charming complaisance which was peculiarly his own, he would take
pleasure in thus giving those about him an ocular demonstration of his
superhuman strength.
His anger was as terrible as the thunder, for it was as ready to burst
forth and to strike.
He carves out a kingdom, with the compassion of a Titus, the sound
judgment of a Solomon, the piety of a Joseph, the magnificence of a
Sardanapalus, and the wisdom of an Æsop, he united two qualities more
rare than all these put together? when he spoke he meant what he said,
and when others spoke to him he took time for reflection, in order to
make sure that he thoroughly understood their meaning.
The dominion which his father bequeathed him did not suit the largeness
of his views, so he carved out for himself a kingdom which was more in
harmony with his gigantic instincts.
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Born in 742, and raised to the throne in 768, he had in 770 already
made conquest of Aquitaine and Lombardy. Four years after Germany was
subjugated by him. He made fifty-three military expeditions, and he
began the ninth century by having himself crowned Emperor of the West by
Pope Leo the Third. He was a generous dispenser of crowns, and gave
away principalities and duchies as freely as now-a-days we give away
recorderships. Pie had two capitals in his dominions: the one was Rome,
the other was Aix-la-Chapelle. He promulgated the code of laws known as
Capitularies. He defended religion, spread the Gospel, encouraged the
fine arts, and introduced into his cathedrals organs which he imported
from Lombardy. Surrounded by mighty minds, whose efforts he stimulated,
and whose labours he shared, he founded many schools and
universities. He died in 814, after three-and-forty years of sovereign
power--three-and-forty years of victories and wonders.
Really, my dear readers, if you are not satisfied with Charlemagne for a
hero, you must be very difficult to please!
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