A Book of Myths, by Jean Lang - Umnet

"I had taken thee for another man, Ganelon. Gladly will I take thy place.
Wilt give me the honour to bear thy staff and glove to Saragossa, sire?"
And eagerly he looked Charlemagne in the face--eager as, when a child,
he had craved the cup of wine for his mother's sake.
But Charlemagne, with darkened brow, shook his head.
"Ganelon must go," he said, "for so have I commanded. Go! for the
honour of Jesus Christ, and for your Emperor."
Thus, sullenly and unwillingly, and with burning hatred against Roland
in his heart, Ganelon accompanied the Saracens back to Saragossa. A
hate so bitter was not easy to hide, and as he rode beside him the wily
Blancandrin was not long in laying a probing finger on this festering
sore. Soon he saw that Ganelon would pay even the price of his honour
to revenge himself upon Roland and on the other Douzeperes whose
lives were more precious than his in the eyes of Charlemagne. Yet,
when Saragossa was reached, like a brave man and a true did Ganelon
deliver the insulting message that his own brain had conceived and that
the Emperor, with magnificent arrogance, had bidden him deliver. And
this he did, although he knew his life hung but by a thread while
Marsile and the Saracen lords listened to his words. But Marsile kept
his anger under, thinking with comfort of what Blancandrin had told
him of his discovery by the way. And very soon he had shown Ganelon
how he might be avenged on Roland and on the friends of Roland, and
in a manner which his treachery need never be known, and very rich
were the bribes that he offered to the faithless knight.
Thus it came about that Ganelon sold his honour, and bargained with
the Saracens to betray Roland and his companions into their hands in
their passage of the narrow defiles of Roncesvalles. For more than fifty
pieces of silver Marsile purchased the soul of Ganelon, and when this
Judas of the Douzeperes returned in safety to Cordova, bringing with
him princely gifts for Charlemagne, the keys of Saragossa, and the
promise that in sixteen days Marsile would repair to France to do
homage and to embrace the Christian faith, the Emperor was happy
indeed. All had fallen out as he desired. Ganelon, who had gone forth
in wrath, had returned calm and gallant, and had carried himself