e Saracen's offers of submission should be
met half-way, and, as the remainder of the French agree with him,
Charlemagne calls for a messenger to bear his acceptance to Marsile.
Although Roland, Oliver, and Naimes eagerly sue for this honor,
Charlemagne, unwilling to spare his peers, bids them appoint a baron.
When Roland suggests his step-father, Ganelon--who deems the
expedition hazardous--becomes so angry that he reviles his step-son in
the emperor's presence, vowing the youth is maliciously sending him to
his death, and muttering he will have revenge. These violent threats
elicit Roland's laughter, but Charlemagne checks the resulting quarrel
by delivering message and emblems of office to Ganelon. To the dismay
of all present, he, however, drops the glove his master hands him, an
accident viewed as an omen of ill luck. Then, making speedy
preparations and pathetically committing wife and son to the care of
his countrymen, Ganelon starts out, fully expecting never to return.

_The Embassy and the Crime of Ganelon._ On his way to Saragossa,
Ganelon converses with the Saracens, who express surprise that
Charlemagne--whom they deem two hundred years old--should still long
for conquest. In return Ganelon assures them his master will never
cease fighting as long as Roland is one of his peers, for this knight
is determined to conquer the world. The Saracens, noticing his bitter
tone, now propose to rid Ganelon of his step-son, provided he will
arrange that Roland command the rear-guard of the French army. Thus
riding along, they devise the plot whereby this young hero is to be
led into an ambush in the Valley of Roncevaux (Roncesvalles), where,
by slaying him, they will deprive Charlemagne of his main strength.

"For whoso Roland to death shall bring,
From Karl his good right arm will wring,
The marvellous host will melt away,
No more shall he muster a like array."

Arriving in the presence of the Saracen king, Ganelon reports
Charlemagne ready to accept his offers, provided he do homage for one
half of Spain and abandon the other to Roland. Because Ganelon adds
the threat that, should this offer be refused, Charlemagne proposes to
seize Saragossa and bear Marsile a prisoner to Aix, the Saracen king
angrily orders the execution of the insolent messenger. But the
Frenchmen's truculent attitude forbids the guards' approach, and thus
gives the ambassadors a chance to inform Marsile that Ganelon has
promised to