ering presse of knightes,
When as their war-cryes swelle,
May tole from heaven an angel bright,
And rouse a fiend from hell.

Then mounte! Then mounte! brave gallants all,
And don your helms amain;
Deathe's couriers, Fame and Honour, call
Up to the field againe;
No shrewish tear shall fill our eye
When the sword hilt's in our hand;
Heart-whole we'll parte and no whit sighe
For the fayrest of the land.
Let piping swaine and craven wight,
Thus weepe and puling aye;
Our business is like to men to fighte
And like to Heroes, die!

MOTHERWELL'S _Ancient Minstrelsy_
(_Author unknown_).

ROLAND AND OLIVER

THE TRAGEDY OF RONCESVALLES

"Roland is daring and Oliver wise,
Both of marvelous high emprise;
On their chargers mounted and girt in mail,
To the death in battle they will not quail."

ROLAND AND OLIVER

"Montjoie! Whoever heard that cry
Would hold remembrance of chivalry."

In days of old there lived a powerful Christian emperor by the name of
Charlemagne. His kingdom extended over the greater part of the territory
which now constitutes the countries of France, Germany, and Italy; and
the "Franks," as his people were called, followed him with a loving
loyalty that has been celebrated in song and story for twelve hundred
years. Around Charlemagne were gathered not a few knights whose names
will forever be remembered with that of their emperor, and whose deeds
will live as long as the chivalric instinct thrills the breast of man.

Now this great emperor, though loving and generous toward his subjects,
could yet brook no shadow of opposition; and when he discovered that his
beloved sister Bertha had, without his consent, wedded the knight,
Milon, he at once banished the disobedient pair from the land of
France.

Fleeing before the awful displeasure of Charlemagne, Milon and his wife
wandered about in foreign parts as mendicants, and at length took refuge
in a cave near a small town in Italy. Here, under these adverse
circumstances, a little son was born to them--one destined to be the
hero of two countries, the "Roland" of "the French Iliad" and the
"Orlando" of Italian song and story.

While Roland was yet a little lad, his father departed for unknown lands
to seek fame and fortune, leaving the boy and his mother to eke out a
scanty existence as best they might.

As Roland grew