Charles the great king had tarried with his host seven years in Spain, until he conquered all the land down to the sea, and his banners were riddled through with battle-marks. There remained neither burg nor castle the walls whereof he brake not down, save only Zaragoz, a fortress on a rugged mountain top, so steep and strong that he could not take it. There dwelt the pagan King Marsilius, who feared not God.

King Marsilius caused his throne to be set in his garden beneath an olive-tree, and thither he summoned his lords and nobles to council. Twenty thousand of his warriors being gathered about him, he spake to his dukes and counts saying, “What shall we do? These seven years the great Charles has been winning all our lands till only Zaragoz remains to us. We are too few to give him battle, and were it not so, man for man we are no match for his warriors. What shall we do to save our lands?”

Then up and spake Blancandrin, wily counsellor, “It is plain we must be rid of this proud Charles; Spain must be rid of him. And since he is too strong to drive out with the sword, let us try what promises will do. Send an ambassage and say we will give him great treasure in gold and cattle, hawk and hound. Say we will be his vassals, do him service at his call. Say we will be baptized, forsake our gods and call upon his God. Say anything, so long as it will persuade him to rise up with his host and quit our land.”

And all the pagans said, “It is well spoken.”

Charles the emperor held festival before Cordova, and rejoiced, he and his host, because they had taken the city. They had overthrown its walls. They had gotten much booty, both of gold and silver and rich raiment. They had put cables round about its towers and dragged them down. Not a pagan remained in the city, for they were all either slain or turned Christian.

The emperor sat among his knights in a green pleasance. Round about him were Roland his nephew, captain of his host, and Oliver, and Duke Sampson, proud Anseis, Geoffrey of Anjou the king’s standard-bearer, and fifteen thousand of the noblest born of gentle France. Beneath a pine-tree where a rose-briar twined, sat Charles the Great, ruler of France, upon a chair of gold. White and long was his beard, huge of limb and hale of body was the king, and of noble countenance. It needed not that any man should ask his fellow, saying, “Which is the king?” for all might plainly know him for the ruler of his people.

When the messengers of King Marsilius came into his presence, they knew him straightway, and lighted quickly down from their mules and came meekly bending at his feet. Then said Blancandrin, “God save the king, the glorious king whom all men ought to worship. My master King Marsilius sends greeting to the great Charles, whose power no man can withstand, and he prays thee make peace with him. Marsilius offers gifts of bears and lions and leashed hounds, seven hundred camels and a thousand moulted falcons, of gold and silver so much as four hundred mules harnessed to fifty chariots can draw, with all his treasure of jewels. Only make the peace and get thee to Aachen, and my master will meet thee there at the feast of St. Michael, and he will be thy man henceforth in service and worship, and hold Spain of thee. Thou shalt be his lord, and thy God shall be his God.”

The emperor bowed his head the while he thought upon the purport of the message, for he never spake a hasty word, and never went back from a word once spoken. Having mused awhile he raised his head and answered, “The King Marsilius is greatly my enemy. In what manner shall I be assured that he will keep his covenant?”

The messengers said, “Great king, we offer hostages of good faith, the children of our noblest. Take ten or twenty as it seemeth good to thee, but treat them tenderly, for verily at the feast of St. Michael our king will redeem his pledge, and come to Aachen to be baptized and pay his homage and his tribute.”

Then the king commanded a pavilion to be spread wherein to lodge them for the night. On the morrow, after they had taken their journey home, he called his barons to him and showed them after what manner the messengers had spoken, and asked their counsel.

With one voice they answered, “Beware of King Marsilius.”

Then spake Roland and said, “Parley not with him, trust him not. Remember how he took and slew Count Basant and Count Basil, the messengers whom we sent to him aforetime on a peaceful errand. Seven years have we been in Spain, and now only Zaragoz holds out against us. Finish what has been so long a-doing and is well nigh done. Gather the host. Lay siege to Zaragoz with all thy might, and conquer the last stronghold of the pagans. So win Spain, and end this long and weary war.”

The End, Part One