is legions were still
some leagues away; he might not hope to meet his emperor again, but he
desired much that Charlemagne should know that his Roland had died
unconquered.

So he grasped his Durindana and his ivory horn, and recrossed the
marches of Spain--as far as he had followed the fleeing heathen. There,
on a mound, between two great trees, he laid him down to die. Yet was
his spirit troubled, for he knew that if he died thus, his good sword
might fall into unworthy and unknightly hands.

"Ah, my ill-starred blade!" he cried; "no longer may I be thy guardian.
Yet never shalt thou know master who shall turn his face from mortal
enemy."

So saying, he struggled to his feet, and essayed to shatter his blade
upon a great rock. Many blows he smote with it, yet it broke not. Then
Roland was sorely grieved. Once more he summoned his failing strength,
and showered such mighty strokes upon the stone that the blade, unbroken
still, was bent "past word to tell."

Then, for death was upon him, Roland laid him down in the shade of a
pine. His sword and his horn he placed beneath his head, that Karl might
know he had not surrendered. When this was done, he raised his right
glove to heaven as a sign of repentance, and cried aloud,--

"O God, I do repent me of my sins, both great and small, from my natal
hour to this day. Father, receive my soul!"

Saint Gabriel leaned from heaven, so the legend says, and took the
raised glove from his hand.

And Karl, his emperor, came, and found him with his head upon his
unsurrendered sword, and his face toward Spain.

* * * * *

The vengeance that Charlemagne wreaked upon the traitor, Ganelon, and
upon the Moslems in Spain was unspeakably terrible.

It is touching to know, however, that Roland's lady-love--Oliver's
gentle sister Alda--refused to be comforted when she heard of her
lover's death. She died of a broken heart at the feet of Charlemagne,
even as the emperor begged her to accept his own son in marriage, and
thus become, in time, empress of all the Franks.

THE CID

As warlike sons, with mighty deeds,
Exalt the power of Rome;
And Arthur deathless glory adds
Unto his island home;
As France will ever nobler seem
Because of Charlemagne--
So dost thou, ever-conquering Cid,
Immortalize thy Spain!

_Paraphrase of Latin epitaph_,
D. W. K.

THE CID RODRIGO DIAZ DE BIVAR

(1035-1099 A