and the qualities slumbering
in this son of the Khalifs may be judged when we relate that the heads
of the Abbaside leaders were put into a bag with descriptive labels
attached to their ears, and sent to the reigning Khalif as a present.

This little incident does not seem to have injured him in the
estimation of Mansur, the new Khalif, who said of him: "Wonderful
is this man! Such daring, wisdom, prudence! To throw himself into a
distant land; to profit by the jealousies of the people; to turn their
arms against one another instead of against himself; to win homage and
obedience through such difficulties; and to rule supreme--lord of all!
Of a truth there is not such another man!" Abd-er-Rahman (the Sultan,
as he was called) merited this praise. He knew when to be cruel and
when to show mercy; and how to hold scheming Arab chiefs, fierce,
jealous Berbers, and vanquished Christians, and could placate or
crucify as the conditions required.

CHAPTER XI.

Charlemagne was at this time building up his colossal empire. His
Christian soul was mightily stirred by seeing an infidel kingdom set
up in Andalusia; and when, in 777, the Saracen governor and two other
Arab chiefs appealed to him for aid against the Omeyyad usurper,
Abd-er-Rahman, he eagerly responded. His grandfather Charles Martel
had driven these infidels back over the Pyrenees; now he would drive
them out of Spain, and reclaim that land for Christianity!

His army never reached farther than Saragossa. He was recalled to
France by a revolt of the recently conquered Saxons, and the "Battle
of Roncesvalles" is the historic monument of the ill-starred attempt.
The battle in itself was insignificant. No action of such small
importance has ever been invested with such a glamour of romance,
nor the theme of so much legend and poetry. It has been called the
Thermopylae of the Pyrenees, because of the personal valor displayed,
and the tragic death of the two great Paladins (as the twelve Peers of
Charlemagne were called) Roland and Olivier. The _Chanson de Roland_
was one of the famous ballads in the early literature of Europe, and
Roland and Olivier were to French and Spanish minstrelsy what the
knights of King Arthur were to the English.

The simple story about which so much has been written and sung is
this: As the retreating army of Charlemagne was crossing the Pyrenees,
the rear of the army under Roland and Olivier was ambuscaded in the
narrow pass of Ro