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THE ROYAL HOUSE OF FRANCE - outriders poetry project

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215<br />

© 2009 Max Wickert<br />

Young Roland turned back and Rainier faced him. Coming up to him, he said, ‘Who has appointed<br />

you captain to oppose me?’ and lifted his fist and gave him a blow. Orlando struck him in the face<br />

and knocked him back, threw him to the ground and showered him with blows from his fist, and<br />

nobody came to his aid.<br />

That evening Rainier returned to his father, utterly beaten, and made a great outcry. The next day<br />

his father ordered Young Roland to be seized and brought to him. In the evening Young Roland<br />

returned to his mother, his eyes blackened with blows, and she asked him what had happened. He<br />

told her what he had done at the boxing contest and related what Rainier had done and what he had<br />

done to him. Bertha began to weep, begging him nevermore to fight with Rainier, saying: “His<br />

father could do you harm, for he is master here.”<br />

On the next morning Young Roland went begging in Sutri, and Lucius Albinus’ servant took him<br />

and brought him before Lucius. Young Roland had more than a hundred boys at his back. Lucius<br />

asked him why he had beaten his son Rainier. Young Roland recounted the whole boxing contest,<br />

and how Rainier had struck him first. When Lucius heard this account, he called for his son and<br />

said to him: “Well, you miserable rascal, what of last night? Did you lie to me?” He told them to let<br />

Young Roland go and make peace, and had bread, wine and meat given to Young Roland. He<br />

returned to Bertha and told her everything. At this she felt more joy than she had earlier felt sorrow.<br />

It came to pass that Young Roland was so loved by the boys of the city, that he received more<br />

generous alms than ever before, until, at every festival where a crowd of boys was present, Young<br />

Roland was made captain and they all cried out: “Long live the excellent Young Roland!” The time<br />

was near at hand for the great feast day of the city of Sutri, and in a shortly all the boys gathered in<br />

the main square, more than a hundred of them, with Young Roland in their midst, and cried out:

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