Li quenz Rollanz veit l'arcevesque a terre,
defors sun cors veit gesir la buelle,
desuz le frunt li buillit la cervelle.
desur sun piz, entre les dous furcelles,
cruisiedes ad ses blanches mains, les belles.
forment le pleint a la lei de sa terre.
'e, gentilz hom, chevaler de bon aire,
hoi te cumant al glorius celeste:
ja mais n'ert hume plus volenters le serve.
des les apostles ne fut honc tel prophete
pur lei tenir e pur humes atraire.
ja la vostre anme nen ait doel ne sufraite!
de pareis li seit la porte uverte!'

[Sidenote: Amis et Amiles.]

As _Roland_ is by far the most interesting of those Chansons which
describe the wars with the Saracens, so _Amis et Amiles_[21] may be
taken as representing those where the interest is mainly domestic. _Amis
et Amiles_ is the earliest vernacular form of a story which attained
extraordinary popularity in the middle ages, being found in every
language and in most literary forms, prose and verse, narrative and
dramatic. This popularity may partly be assigned to the religious and
marvellous elements which it contains, but is due also to the intrinsic
merits of the story. The Chanson contains 3500 lines, dates probably
from the twelfth century, and is written, like _Roland_, in decasyllabic
verse, but, unlike _Roland_, has a shorter line of six syllables and not
assonanced at the end of each stanza. Its story is as follows:--

Amis and Amiles were two noble knights, born and baptized on the same
day, who had the Pope for sponsor, and whose comradeship was specially
sanctioned by a divine message, and by the miraculous likeness which
existed between them. They were however brought up, the one in Berri,
the other in Auvergne, and did not meet till both had received
knighthood. As soon as they had joined company, they resolved to offer
their services to Charles, and did him great service against rebels.
Here the action proper begins. The friends arouse the jealousy of
Hardre, a felon knight, of Ganelon's lineage and likeness. Hardre
engages Gombaud of Lorraine, an enemy of the Emperor, to attack the two
friends; but the treason does not succeed, and the traitor, to escape
unpleasant enquiries, recommends Charles to bestow his own niece Lubias
on Amiles. The latter declares that Amis deserves her better, and to
Amis she is married, bearing however no good-will to Amiles for his
resignation of her and for his firm hold on her husb