th
delight a romance in which the great emperor is represented strutting
about before his barons, his crown on his head and his sword in his
hand, asking the queen if he is not the most admirable prince in the
world.[203] To his surprise, the queen says no, there is a better, there
is King Hugon, emperor of Greece and of Constantinople. Charlemagne
wishes to verify on the spot, and pledges his word that he will cut the
queen's head off if she has not spoken truth. He mounts a donkey; the
twelve peers follow his example, and in this fashion the flower of
French chivalry takes its way to the East.

At Constantinople, the city of marvels, which had not yet become the
city of mosques, but was still enriched by the spoils of Athens and
Rome, where St. Sophia shone with all the glory of its mosaics intact,
where the palace of the emperors dazzled the sight with its gold and its
statues, the French princes could scarcely believe their eyes. At every
step they were startled by some fresh wonder; here bronze children
blowing horns; there a revolving hall set in motion by the sea-breeze;
elsewhere a carbuncle which illuminated apartments at night. The queen
might possibly have spoken truth. Evening draws on, they drink deep,
and, excited by their potations, indulge in _gabs_, or boasts, that are
overheard by a spy, and carefully noted. Ogier the Dane will uproot the
pillar which supports the whole palace; Aimer will make himself
invisible and knock the emperor's head on the table; Roland will sound
his horn so loudly that the gates of the town will be forced open.
Threatened and insulted by his guests, Hugon declares they shall either
accomplish their _gabs_ or pay for their lies with their heads.

This is too much, and the author changes his tone. Will God permit the
confusion of the emperor of the Franks, however well deserved it be?
"Vivat qui Francos diligit Christus!" was already written in the Salic
law: Christ continues to love the Franks. He takes their cause into His
own hands, not because of their deserts but because they are Franks. By
a miracle, one after another, the _gabs_ are realised; Hugon
acknowledges the superiority of Charles, who returns to France, enriches
St. Denis with incomparable relics, and forgives the queen. This poem is
exactly contemporaneous with the Song of Roland.

But there is better still, and the comedy is much more general in the
famous "Roman de Renart."[204] This romance, of which the bra