ed them, saying:

"The hour is come to make good your brags. But an if ye fail so to do, I
will have your heads cut off. Begone therefore, straightway, escorted by
my men-at-arms, each one of you to the place meet for the doing of the
fine things ye have insolently boasted ye will accomplish."

At this order they separated and went divers ways, each followed by a
little troop of armed men. Whiles some returned to the hall where they
had passed the night, others betook them to the gardens and orchards.
Bernard de Brabant made for the river, Roland hied him to the ramparts,
and all marched valiantly. Only Olivier and Charlemagne tarried in the
Palace, waiting, the one for the knight that he had sworn to cleave in
twain, the other for the maiden he was to wed.

But in very brief while a fearful sound arose, awful as the last trump
that shall proclaim to mankind the end of the world. It reached the
Great Hall of the Palace, set the birds of ruby trembling on their
emerald perches and shook King Hugo on his throne of gold.

'Twas a noise of walls crumbling into ruin and floods roaring, and
high above the din blared out an ear-splitting trumpet blast. Meanwhile
messengers had come hurrying in from all quarters of the city, and
thrown themselves trembling at the King's feet, bearing strange and
terrible tidings.

"Sire," said one, "sixty fathoms' length of the city walls is fallen in
at one crash."

"Sire," cried another, "the pillar which bare up your vaulted hall is
broken down, and the dome thereof we have seen walking like a tortoise
toward the sea."

"Sire," faltered a third, "the river, with its ships and its fishes,
is pouring through the streets, and will soon be beating against your
Palace walls."

King Hugo, white with terror, muttered:

"By my faith! these men are wizards."

"Well, Sir King," Charlemagne addressed him with a smile on his lips,
"the Knight I wait for is long of coming."

The King sent for him, and he came. He was a knight of stately stature
and well armed. The good Emperor clave him in twain, as he had said.

Now while these things were a-doing, Olivier thought to himself:

"The intervention of Our Most Blessed Lady is plain to see in these
marvels; and I am rejoiced to behold the manifest tokens she vouchsafes
of her love for the Realm of France. Not in vain have the Emperor and
his companions implored the succour of the Holy Virgin, Mother of God.
Alas! _I_ shall pay for all the res