would not, and now the time
is past.'

'The battle is sore,' said Roland, 'I shall sound the horn, and
Charles will hear it.'

'You refused to do it while yet there was time,' answered Oliver. 'If
the Emperor had come then, so many of our best warriors would not be
lying dead before us. It is not his fault that he is not here. But if
you sound the horn now, I will never give you my sister, the fair
Aude, for your wife.'

'Why do you bear such malice?' said Roland.

[Illustration: ROLAND WINDS HIS HORN IN THE VALLEY OF RONCESVALLES]

'It is your fault,' answered Oliver. 'Courage and madness are not
the same thing, and prudence is always better than fury. If so many
Franks lie dead, it is your folly which has killed them, and now we
can no longer serve the Emperor. If you would have listened to me,
Charles would have been here, and Marsile and his Saracens would have
been slain. Your courage, Roland, has cost us dear! For yourself, you
will be killed and France be covered with dishonour. And before night
falls our friendship will be ended.' Then he wept, and Roland wept
also.

The Archbishop had been near, and heard their words. 'Do not quarrel
at this hour,' he said. 'Your horn could not save them now. Charles is
too far; it would take him too long to come. Yet sound it, for he will
return and avenge himself on the Unbelievers. And they will take our
bodies and put them on biers, and lay them on horses, and will bury us
with tears of pity among the mountains, building up high walls round
us, so that the dogs and the wild boar shall not devour us.' 'What you
say is good,' answered Roland, and he lifted his horn, and its mighty
voice rang through the mountains and Charles heard the echo thirty
miles away. 'Our men are fighting,' he cried, but Ganelon answered,
'If another man had said that, we should have called him a liar.'
Count Roland was sorely wounded and the effort to sound the horn
caused the blood to pour from his mouth. But he sounded it once more,
and the echoes leaped far. Charles heard it in the defiles, and all
his Franks heard it too. 'It is Roland's horn,' said the King, 'and he
is fighting.'

'He is not fighting,' answered Ganelon; 'you are old, and your words
are those of a child. Beside, you know how great is the pride of
Roland; it is a marvel that God has suffered him to live so long. For
a hare, Roland would sound his horn all day, and at this moment he is
most likely laughing with his Twelv