Their Emperor of the hoary beard,
In valor's desperation reared,
Will never fly for mortal foe.
Till he be slain, how deep my woe[2]!"
[Footnote 2: Here intervenes the episode of the great battle fought
between Charlemagne and Baligant, Emir of Babylon, who had come,
with a mighty army, to the succor of King Marsil his vassal. This
episode has been suspected of being a later interpolation. The
translation is resumed at the end of the battle, after the Emir had
been slain by Charlemagne's own hand, and when the Franks enter
Saragossa in pursuit of the Saracens.]
* * * * *
CCXXI
Fierce is the heat and thick the dust.
The Franks the flying Arabs thrust.
To Saragossa speeds their flight.
The queen ascends a turret's height.
The clerks and canons on her wait,
Of that false law God holds in hate.
Order or tonsure have they none.
And when she thus beheld undone
The Arab power, all disarrayed,
Aloud she cried, "Mahound us aid!
My king! defeated is our race,
The Emir slain in foul disgrace.
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