t, and precipitate them to the bottom of the
valley. There took place a fight in which the Franks were killed to a
man. The Basques, after having plundered the baggage-train, profited by
the night which had come on to disperse rapidly. They owed all their
success in this engagement to the lightness of their equipment and to
the nature of the spot where the action took place; the Franks, on the
contrary, being heavily armed and in an unfavorable position, struggled
against too many disadvantages. Eginhard, master of the household of the
King; Anselm, count of the palace; and Roland, prefect of the marches of
Brittany, fell in this engagement. There were no means, at the time, of
taking revenge for this check; for, after their sudden attack, the enemy
dispersed to such good purpose that there was no gaining any trace of
the direction in which they should be sought for."

History says no more; but in the poetry of the people there is a longer
and a more faithful memory than in the court of kings. The disaster of
Roncesvalles and the heroism of the warriors who perished there, became
in France the object of popular sympathy and the favorite topic for the
exercise of the popular fancy. _The Song of Roland_, a real Homeric poem
in its great beauty, and yet rude and simple as became its national
character, bears witness to the prolonged importance attained in Europe
by this incident in the history of Charlemagne. Four centuries later the
comrades of William the Conqueror, marching to battle at Hastings for
the possession of England, struck up _The Song of Roland_, "to prepare
themselves for victory or death," says M. Vitel in his vivid estimate
and able translation of this poetical monument of the manners and first
impulses toward chivalry of the Middle Ages. There is no determining
how far history must be made to participate in these reminiscences of
national feeling; but, assuredly, the figures of Roland and Oliver, and
Archbishop Turpin, and the pious, unsophisticated, and tender character
of their heroism are not pure fables invented by the fancy of a poet or
the credulity of a monk. If the accuracy of historical narrative must
not be looked for in them, their moral truth must be recognized in their
portrayal of a people and an age.

The politic genius of Charlemagne comprehended more fully than would be
imagined from his panegyrist's brief and dry account all the gravity of
the affair of Roncesvalles. Not only did he take