fted her behind,
Saint Denis speed the milk-white steed--no Moor their path shall find.

THE MARCH OF BERNARDO DEL CARPIO.

Of Bernardo del Carpio, we find little or nothing in the French romances
of Charlemagne. He belongs exclusively to Spanish History, or rather
perhaps to Spanish Romance; in which the honour is claimed for him of
slaying the famous Orlando, or Roland, the nephew of Charlemagne, in the
fatal field of Roncesvalles.

The continence which procured for Alonzo, who succeeded to the
precarious throne of the Christians, in the Asturias, about 795, the
epithet of the Chaste, was not universal in his family. By an intrigue
with Sancho Diaz, Count of Saldana, or Saldenha, Donna Ximena, sister of
this virtuous prince, bore a son. Some historians attempt to gloss over
this incident, by alleging that a private marriage had taken place
between the lovers: but King Alphonso, who was well-nigh sainted for
living only in platonic union with his wife Bertha, took the scandal
greatly to heart. He shut up the peccant princess in a cloister, and
imprisoned her gallant in the castle of Luna, where he caused him to be
deprived of sight. Fortunately, his wrath did not extend to the
offspring of their stolen affections, the famous Bernardo del Carpio.
When the youth had grown up to manhood, Alphonso, according to the
Spanish chroniclers, invited the Emperor Charlemagne into Spain, and
having neglected to raise up heirs for the kingdom of the Goths in the
ordinary manner, he proposed the inheritance of his throne as the price
of the alliance of Charles. But the nobility, headed by Bernardo del
Carpio, remonstrated against the king's choice of a successor, and would
on no account consent to receive a Frenchman as heir of their crown.
Alphonso himself repented of the invitation he had given Charlemagne,
and when that champion of Christendom came to expel the Moors from
Spain, he found the conscientious and chaste Alphonso had united with
the infidels against him. An engagement took place in the renowned pass
of Roncesvalles, in which the French were defeated, and the celebrated
Roland, or Orlando, was slain. The victory was ascribed chiefly to the
prowess of Bernardo del Carpio.

The following ballad describes the enthusiasm excited among the Leonese,
when Bernard first raised his standard to oppose the progress of
Charlemagne's army.

I.
With three thousand Men of Leon, from the city Bernard goes,
To protect t