THE ROYAL HOUSE OF FRANCE - outriders poetry project

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© 2009 Max Wickert
He may thus give us some kind of favorable answer, and if Marsilius is baptized, we will have
conquered all of Spain.”
When Ganelon had spoken these words, all present assented to them. Then Charles said: “Who
shall be our messenger to carry this embassy to Marsilius?” At once Algiron’s brother Baldwin rose
to his feet and said: “Your majesty, so please you, I shall go to Marsilius in Saragossa and tell him on
your behalf to renounce Mahound and take whole baptism. I shall also tell him to send the unpaid
tribute of twenty-two years to your nephew Roland. If he refuses, I shall tell him to be on his guard
against you. Unless he give me a favorable answer, we shall pull his crown from his head and
bestow it on Count Roland.” Then Charles said: “I am very well pleased.” So Baldwin took up his
armor, shield and lance, mounted his horse, and took his leave from Charles and the assembled
nobles. He crossed the high mountains. Charles commended him to God, for he had in former
days sent more than ten nobles to Marsilius, who had killed them all; therefore Charles feared for
Baldwin.
Baldwin rode swiftly until he arrived near Saragossa. He saw that more than four hundred 90
Saracens kept watch around the city. As Baldwin was entering the city, those Saracens said to each
other, “Thus must be a messenger from the Christians,” and hurried toward him in wonder.
Baldwin rode on until he reached the great square inside the city. Amid this square, he saw a high
pine tree, with a clear fountain beneath it. Next to that fountain stood a canopy 91 all of gold and
fine silk, studded with countless precious stones. Marsilius and his nobles were assembled under
90 More than four hundred: This number (it occurs twice in the chapter) is rather small, given the hyperbolic counts
in tens or hundreds of thousands elsewhere in the narrative. In the manuscript, numbers are generally written in
modified Roman form (e.g. “xx m ” for “twenty thousand”). The number of Saracens here appears as “cccc.”
Could this be a scribal slip for “cccc m ”? Perhaps. On the other hand, at the end of the chapter the size of
Marsilius’ entire army is given as “ccc m ”; moreover, a city garrison of nearly half a million seems excessive by
any standard.
91 Canopy: orig. paviglione. I have elsewhere translated this as ‘pavilion’ or ‘tent’, but the context here suggests
something more like a large baldachin or awning