WHILE I have been wandering with you, my friends, on the Blocksberg,
Charlemagne, followed by his brilliant retinue, has been making a tour
of the list upon his prancing charger. He had just regained the royal
tent when a shout was heard from the crowd. All eyes were turned towards
the Southern gate, whence proceed strains of wild music and strange
cries. Charlemagne halted, and sent to inquire who ventured to disturb
the ceremony. A squire rode off at full galop, and promptly returned to
make the following report:--
“Sire, certain miscreant Saracens from Spain have come to challenge your
peers in the name of King Marsillus, who holds his court at Saragossa.
Their appearance is frightful. They come in procession, preceded by a
band of unearthly music truly worthy of pagans, and demand admittance to
your presence.”
“Let them enter,” said Charlemagne, motioning to the heralds who guarded
the gate. “See,” he added, turning to his barons, “what a lucky to try
your hands 011 the Spanish hounds in anticipation of the time when we
shall pay them a visit at Saragossa--ay, and even at Granada, for we
must compel then to be baptised for the glory of God and the safety of
their souls.”
“Have they lost all shame that they dare look a Christian in the face?”
said Miton of Rennes. “Why, the earth has barely yet had time to drink
up all the blood that was shed on the plains of Poitiers.”
“No doubt they are bent upon a pilgrimage thither,” remarked Turpin, “to
pray for the repose of their sires--that is, if such miscreants have
fathers, and do not spring fully grown and ready armed from the jaws of
hell!”
“How could they blush?” said Aude, pointing to the first of the Saracens
who had passed the barriers; “their complexion is of the colour of our
horses’ harness.”
“Oh, the hideous brutes!” said Himiltrude, shutting her eyes. “It is
impossible they can be men.”
“Let none forget that these are our guests,” said Charlemagne. “We must
be courteous even to Pagans.”
Curiosity was at its height. Every one rose to catch a glimpse of the
emissaries of Marsillus; even the knights of Charlemagne’s escort raised
themselves in their stirrups to obtain a view of the strangers.
There entered first sixty horsemen, blacker than Satan. Their flattened
noses, their huge ears decorated with large ear-rings, their thick lips,
were for the spectators so many objects of ridicule. Their bare arms
were loaded with bracelets from wrist to shoulder; their heads were
protected by light casques, around which were wound turbans of white
silk. All were clad in the richest stuffs, and vied with one another in
appearance. Some were loudly beating kettle-drums; others were blowing
with distended cheeks horns of extraordinary shape; others, again, were
ringing hand-bells or striking triangles of steel; while from time
to time there resounded the deep bellowing of ten bronze gongs, whose
vibrations so vehemently shook the spectator as even to induce a desire
to cough!
Immediately after these came a hundred knights, of noble aspect, clad in
triple mail, so flexible and light that a girl of fifteen might wear it
with ease, and yet so stout that it was proof against the thrust of a
Saracen lance; as for the thrust of a French lance, we will see about
that by and by. Their faces were protected by Saragossan helmets, and
they were armed with the heavy spear of Valence; while their swords’,
although light, could cut through or hack away steel armour, so
dexterous were they in wielding them.
Behind them marched twelve standard-bearers. Here the crescent and
the horse-tail of the Moslem took the place of the red cross and the
bannerets which led the Christians to combat.
Last of all, ten horse-lengths from this vanguard, appeared the envoys
of Marsillus, King of Portugal, Castile, Arragon, Leon, and Valence. All
who beheld them trembled, and ridicule gave place to alarm.
[Illustration: 044]
He was twelve cubits in height, and his face measured three feet across,
his nose being nine inches long. His arms and legs were six feet long;
his fingers were six inches and two lines. His inordinately large mouth
was armed with sharp-pointed yellow tusks, and seemed less like human
jaws than the portcullis of some rude stronghold. He was descended from
Goliath, and assumed the title of Governor of Jerusalem. He had the
strength of thirty men, and his mace was made of the trunk of an oak
three hundred years old.*
This monster was attired in the hides of strange wild beasts, slain by
himself on the peaks of Atlas, whither no other mortal had been able to
penetrate.
His horse was without a match in the world, for it was up to his
enormous weight. It gave a loud neigh on entering the list, and so
alarmed all the other steeds that they reared, and in some instances
unseated their riders--a disaster at which the Saracens burst into roars
of laughter.
Himiltrude, in her terror, crossed herself, convinced that the
new-comers would vanish in smoke before she could say “Amen!” But the
Pagans continued to advance in good order.
[Illustration: 046]
“Hell must surely have gaped to-day!” said Mita.
“I do not know,” said Oliver, “whether these miscreants have issued
thence this morning, but I’m sure they will sleep there to-night!”
Charlemagne knitted his brows. Aude trembled for Roland, whose thoughts
she could read in his face.
Hard by Angoulaffre of the Brazen Teeth rode Murad Henakyeh
Meimoumovassi, son of Marsillus. He was styled “The Lord of the Lion.”
* Some of the learned have alleged that Angoulaffre
travelled in Italy, and that one evening, while at Pisa,
being a little the worse for his potations, he leant against
the well-known tower, which, unable to bear his weight, lost
from that moment its centre of gravity. This is an error,
which I am glad to have an opportunity of rectifying. The
Leaning Tower, begun in the year 1174 was not finished until
the middle of the fourteenth century.
[Illustration: 047]