THE ROYAL HOUSE OF FRANCE - outriders poetry project

310
© 2009 Max Wickert
direction! Almont descended into a very narrow valley with five thousand of his knights, so that the
Christians abandoned the pursuit and turned back. They gained great wealth from the pagan
treasury, and then they came to lodge in the tower with Gerard, who was much delighted by the
victory he had won, crying shame on Charles and his followers.
BOOK THREE: ROLAND
Charlemagne and Gerard Reconciled
Almont’s Grief
1
Next, in his third book, our author tells how king Almont during his retreat encamped with five
thousand Saracens on the summit of a hill, for his greater safety, without tents and with few
companions, unprovided with luggage and supplies. He dismounted and roared like a lion. Doffing
his helmet, he walked a little hither and thither and then sat down on a great rock, put one knee
upon the other and rested his chin upon his arm and sighed. His men gathered in a circle around
him and said: “Our lord, what shall we do now? Here there is nothing to live on. For God’s sake,
let us turn back to Reggio at your father’s, who will avenge us.”
Almont angrily replied: “O false men of mine, you recreant folk, I it by through your fault and by
your cowardice that we have lost my father’s four idols and my banners and my fortress tower. You
used to say that you would first die in Africa rather than turn your backs, and yesterday morning
fewer than ten thousand of Christian knights defeated a hundred thousand African knights. Ah, you
cowards of little worth, you were wont to greatly curse Balant and to say he did not speak truly, and