THE ROYAL HOUSE OF FRANCE - outriders poetry project

The Begetting of Charlemagne
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© 2009 Max Wickert
When the second day had passed, King Philip asked King Pepin’s leave to return to Hungary and
commended Bertha to him. King Pepin answered; “What are you saying to wish to depart? You
have barely stayed with me for two days! It is my wish that you see my hunting grounds by the
Maine, and I have had it made ready for love of you.” King Philip, so as not to rouse his suspicions,
answered that he was most eager to see it, and so, on the next morning, the hunt was made ready.
King Philip commanded his wife to visit Falisetta and to pretend not to recognize her. The queen
said to him: “Ah, my lord, you keep calling her Falisetta, but I will henceforth call her Falsetta, for
verily she has been false and pernicious to me.” (Because of these words, the woman was ever after
called Falsetta.)
King Pepin and King Philip mounted their steeds, and with them rode Bernard of Clairmont,
Raymond of Trier, Morand of Riviera and many others. Having left Paris and reaching the forest,
they pursued the hunt all day with great pleasure. It was near evening when King Pepin wounded a
stage with an arrow and, seeing that he had hit it, sent a pack of hounds in chase of it and followed
its tracks until he had taken it and put it on his horse. He wanted to rejoin his company, but he had
turned so far into the forest that he did not find his way back to his men, but found himself by the
river Maine. Walking upstream, he arrived at the house of the aforesaid Lambert, where his true
wife, Bertha of the Large Foot, was lodged. He dismounted and called out to see if any one was
there. Lambert answered him, and when he saw him, he recognized him and said, smiling: ”O my
royal lord of France, what are you doing so late at night in these parts?” Said the king, “By my faith,
I have lost my way and my retinue,” and asked if any of them had arrived there. Lambert said that