dmiral" (emir), for one of the Christian
heroes. Here again _Roland_ stands alone, and though the mention of
Aude, Oliver's sister and Roland's betrothed, who dies when she hears
of his death, is touching, it is extremely meagre. There is
practically nothing but the clash of arms in this remarkable poem. But
elsewhere there is, in rather narrow and usual limits, a good deal
else. Charlemagne's daughter, and the daughters of peers and paladins,
figure: and their characteristics are not very different from those of
the pagan damsels. It is, indeed, unnecessary to convert them,--a
process to which their miscreant sisters usually submit with great
goodwill,--and they are also relieved from the necessity of showing
the extreme undutifulness to their more religiously constant sires,
which is something of a blot on Paynim princesses like Floripas in
_Fierabras_. This heroine exclaims in reference to her father, "He is
an old devil, why do you not kill him? little I care for him provided
you give me Guy," though it is fair to say that Fierabras himself
rebukes her with a "Moult grant tort aves." All these ladies, however,
Christian as well as heathen, are as tender to their lovers as they
are hard-hearted to their relations; and the relaxation of morality,
sometimes complained of in the later _chansons_, is perhaps more
technical than real, even remembering the doctrine of the mediaeval
Church as to the identity, for practical purposes, of betrothal and
marriage. On the other hand, the courtesy of the _chansons_ is
distinctly in a more rudimentary state than that of the succeeding
romances. Not only is the harshest language used by knights to
ladies,[21] but blows are by no means uncommon; and of what is
commonly understood by romantic love there is on the knights' side
hardly a trace, unless it be in stories such as that of _Ogier le
Danois_, which are obviously late enough to have come under Arthurian
influence. The piety, again, which has been so much praised in these
_chansons_, is of a curious and rather elementary type. The knights
are ready enough to fight to the last gasp, and the last drop of
blood, for the Cross; and their faith is as free from flaw as their
zeal. _Li Apostoiles de Rome_--the Pope--is recognised without the
slightest hesitation as supreme in all religious and most temporal
matters. But there is much less reference than in the Arthurian
romances, not merely to the mysteries of the Creed, but even to the