his refusal to accept the heritage of Auberi le Bourgoing, and
thereby wrong Auberi's little son, even though "sa marrastre
Hermengant de Tori" is also offered by the generous monarch with the
odd commendation--

"La meiller feme qui onc beust de vin,"

is justly praised. But when the venerable Aymon not unnaturally
protests against almost the whole army accompanying William, and the
wrathful peer breaks his jaw with his fist, when the peasants who
grumble at their casks and their oxen being seized are hanged or have
their eyes put out--then the less amiable side of the matter certainly
makes its appearance.

[Footnote 38: Jonckbloet, i. 73-111.]

[Sidenote: _The_ Prise d'Orange.]

William has thus entered on part, though the least part, of the king's
gift to him--a gift which it is fair to Louis to say that the hero had
himself demanded, after refusing the rather vague offer of a fourth of
the lands and revenues of all France. The _Prise d'Orange_[39] follows
in time and as a subject of _chanson_, the _Charroi de Nimes_. The
earlier poem had been all sheer fighting with no softer side. In this
William is reminded of the beautiful Orable (wife, if only in name, of
King Thibaut), who lives there, though her husband, finding a wife
who bewitches the nuptial chamber unsatisfactory, has left her and
Orange to the care of his son Arragon. The reminder is a certain
Gilbert of Vermandois who has been prisoner at Orange, and who, after
some hesitation, joins William himself and his brother Guibelin in a
hazardous expedition to the pagan city. They blacken themselves with
ink, and are not ill received by Arragon: but a Saracen who knows the
"Marquis au Court Nez" informs against him (getting his brains beaten
out for his pains), and the three, forcing a way with bludgeons
through the heathen, take refuge in Gloriette, receive arms from
Orable, who has never ceased to love the Marquis, and drive their
enemies off. But a subterranean passage (this probably shows the
_chanson_ to be a late one in this form) lets the heathen in: and all
three champions are seized, bound, and condemned to the flames. Orable
demands them, not to release but to put in her own dungeons,
conveniently furnished with vipers; and for a time they think
themselves betrayed. But Orable soon appears, offers them liberty if
William will marry her, and discloses a second underground passage.
They do not, however, fly by this, but only send Gilbert to Ni