plancons par terre et leurs armures et se misrent a la
fuitte vers Courtray et ailleurs. Ilz n'avoient cure que
pour eulx mettre a sauvete. Et Franchois et Bretons apres,
quy les chassoient en fossez et en buissons, en aunois et an
mares et bruieres, cy dix, cy vingt, cy trente, et la les
recombatoient de rechief, et la les occioient, se ilz
n'estoient les plus fors. Si en y eut ung moult grant nombre
de mors en la chace entre le lieu de la bataille et
Courtray, ou ilz se retraioient a saulf garant. Ceste
bataille advint sur le Mont d'Or entre Courtray et Rosebeque
en l'an de grace nostre seigneur, mil iij'c. iiij'xx. et
II., le jeudi devant le samedi de l'advent, le xxvij'e.
jour de novembre, et estoit pour lors le roy Charles de
France ou xiiij'e. an de son eage.

FOOTNOTES:

[131] The chronicle of the pseudo-Turpin is of little real importance in
the history of French literature, because it is admitted to have been
written in Latin. The busy idleness of critics has however prompted them
to discuss at great length the question whether the _Chanson de Roland_
may not possibly have been composed from this chronicle. The facts are
these. Tilpin or Turpin was actually archbishop of Rheims from 753-794,
but nobody pretends that the chronicle going under his name is
authentic. All that is certain is that it is not later than 1165, and
that it is probably not earlier than the middle, or at most the
beginning, of the eleventh century, while the part of it which is more
particularly in question is of the end of that century. _Roland_ is
almost certainly of the middle at latest. Curiosity on this point may be
gratified by consulting M. Gaston Paris, _De pseudo-Turpino_, Paris,
1865, or M. Leon Gautier, _Epopees Francaises_, Paris, 1878. But, from
the literary point of view, it is sufficient to say that, while _Turpin_
is of the very smallest literary merit, _Roland_ is among the capital
works of the middle ages.

[132] Ed. N. de Wailly. Paris, 1874.

[133] Ed. P. Paris. 2 vols., 1879-80. It is characteristic of the middle
ages that this work usually bore the title of _Roman d'Eracle_, for no
other reason than that the name of Heraclius occurs in the first
sentence.

[134] Ed. N. de Wailly. Paris, 1874. Besides the _Histoire de St.
Louis_, Joinville has left an interesting _Credo_, a brief religious
manual written much earlier in his life.

[135] Ed.