When now it saw the Pilgrim kneel in place,
It leap'd with joy and lick'd his rev'rend face.

"From head to foot the animal would range,
Fawning upon him with a fierce delight:
The empress mark'd the dog's demeanour strange
And wonder'd at the new, unwonted sight,
And what had wrought within her dog such change.
It seem'd as if it knew the Pilgrim wight;
Then said she, 'Pilgrim, tell me now, I pray,
Why with such joy my dog with thee doth play?

"Hast thou ere now within this palace been,
And serv'd its long-lost lord as squire or page?
Before this day, save Charles, was never seen
One who its playful fondness could engage.'
Then royal Charles made answer to his queen:
'Nor squire nor varlet in my earlier

Can I be recogniz'd by this poor beast,

age!

And thou, my wife, know thine own husband least?

"Behold me, Charles, of royal Pepin son,
The emperor of Rome and king of France;
And though thou now behold'st me here as one
On pilgrimage, the victim of mischance,
Instead of scarlet robes, in vesture dun

To hide my person; at a single glance,

And in one instant, thou ought'st well to know me,
And not compel that I declare and show me!"

He clears the careful wrinkles from his brow, and swears on the cross of his sword how he had been miraculously borne through the air to Paris :

""If so it be (she cried) then shew the ring

That I thee gave, the pledge of marriage band!'
'Behold it here, more bright (replied the king)
Than on the day I took it from thy hand!'
Yet did not this complete conviction bring
To the good queen, who did again demand;
'Shew me the cross on thy right arm with speed,
And I shall know thee to be mine indeed!'

"Great Charles compell'd his coarse attire give place,

And to the queen display'd his shoulder bare.

She saw the well-known mark before her face,
And kiss'd it joyfully to find it there.

Then met they in an uncontroul'd embrace:

She thank'd good heav'n that yet his life would spare; 'If heav'n (she cried) had ta'en that life away,

The Christian faith had lost its hope and stay!'

This uncontroulable rapture produces a very strange effect, indeed :

"After their joy's first transport and excess,

They fell exhaust together on the floor,
And thus they lay in utmost tenderness,

In the queen's chamber: through the crevic'd door,
Gione saw them, but he could not guess

The cause why strangely thus themselves they bore,
And to the king some sturdy blows he gave,

Saying, 'What do'st thou, base unmanner'd slave?'

"The queen, Hold! hold thy hand, Gione!' cried,
"This is thy king and emperor, Charlemaine!'

The young Gione threw his staff aside,

And in his arms the king did fondly strain :

'Oh God (he said) and virgin purified,

The life and power of Charles for aye maintain,
And every traitor to his rule and joy

Without remorse incontinent destroy !'

This is another proof, not only of the extreme simplicity of the author's mind, but of the uncultivated simplicity of those also to whom he addressed himself. By the aid of Gione and some old remaining friends, Charles puts an end to Machario and his conspiracy; and afterwards hastens back to Pampeluna. Orlando is warned, in a vision of the Virgin Mary, that Mazarigi, by turning a river, is about to overflow the plain where the army of the Christians is encamped, and Charles accordingly removes the tents to higher ground. The fall of Pampeluna is ultimately occasioned by the junction of King Desiderio, with thirty thousand Tuscans and Lombardians, a compliment paid by the author to his own countryThe Christians enter the place pell-mell, and Mazarigi, unhorsed by Orlando, is required to renounce his heathenish faith. For so doing, he assigns the following very satisfactory and sufficient reason.

men.

"Son of Aglante, 'tis because I want

My horse, thy strength and valour to defy,

I now renounce Mahoun and Trivigant,

And great Apollo for my god deny."

In the same way the conquered Isolieri tells Sansonet,

The death of the faithful Gione, who had rendered such important services to Charles in Paris, is the next event worthy of distinct notice, and the feelings of the reader are very powerfully excited in his behalf. He is sent on an embassy to Marsilio, at Saragossa, and on his return is beset by two hundred Moors; but, through the aid of the virgin, escapes dreadfully wounded. He falls lifeless from his horse, the instant he has delivered to the emperor the defiance Marsilio had sent back. King Salomon, his father, takes ample vengeance for the death of his son, and Orlando kills Serpentino, who trusted in vain to his enchanted armour.

We now arrive at the treachery of Ganelon of Pontiers, that famous piece of infamy, which led to the calamitous event, referred to by Dante, in the thirty-first Canto of his Inferno, in terms that seem dictated by an immediate contemplation of the bloody field, on which were strewed the bodies of the twelve Paladins, and the flower of France. His words are:

Dopo la dolorosa rotta, quando

Carlo magno perdè la santa gesta,
Non sono si terribilmente Orlando.

We know that it was proverbial in England, in the days of Chaucer, who had himself travelled in France and Italy, and has translated much from Dante. He alludes to the treachery of Gan, (as he is often contemptuously called) in his Monk's Tale.

"Not Charles Oliver that toke aie hede

Of troth and honour; but of Armorike,
Genilon Oliver, corrupt for mede,

Brought this worthy king to such a brike."

It is in this tale that Chaucer translates the story of Ugolino, under the title of "Hugeline of Pise." He mentions the punishment of Ganelon, in his Shipman's Tale:

"And but I doe, God take on me vengeaunce

As foule as ever had Ganilion of Fraunce."

It is also noticed by him in his Nun's Priest's Tale, and in the opening of his Prioress's Tale. When Milton, in Paradise Lost, speaks of the time

"When Charlemaine with all his peerage fell,
By Fontarabia,"

it is known that he did not follow the French, but the Spanish historians, who maintain that the battle took place in Biscay,

and that Charlemaine was killed among his Paladins. The author before us, Zinabi, adverts to the extreme notoriety of the guilt of Ganelon, where he observes,

"And hence that monstrous fatal treachery springs,

With whose report the universe yet rings."

It is remarkable, that Pulci, in the opening of his " Morgante," speaking of the dreadful overthrow of the Christians at Roncesvalles, uses precisely the words of Dante.

Marsilio, alarmed by the successes of Charles, sends an offer to pay an immense tribute, and to receive baptism, with all his nobility, if the Christians will withdraw into France. The proposal is accepted, and Ganelon is sent to conclude all necessary arrangements. He is brought before Marsilio, who is disposed to treat him rather unceremoniously, until one of his peers, who had accompanied the traitor to Saragossa, informs him that Ganelon was not unwilling to deliver all the Paladins into the power of the Moors. Marsilio then seats Ganelon by his side, but the throne breaking down by a miracle, they retire into the garden of the palace, where the treachery is completed. Ganelon thus explains his project.

"If over all the world you wish to reign,

Thus must you do.-The promis'd tribute bring
You have provided now for Charlemaine,
And let me bear it to your foe the king.

When he obtains it, he will not remain,

But quit your realm, his army summoning:

Thus all, except Orlando's powers, will leave you,
And he at Roncesvalles must receive you.

"I will tell Charles that you to France will speed,
To be baptiz'd on great St. Michael's feast:
Then he will leave Orlando with good heed,

And twenty thousand followers at the least,
To give you convoy through his realm at need.
Then let your force to th' utmost be increas'd;
Into three armies be the whole disperst,
With full one hundred thousand in the first.

"The Christians must this hundred thousand kill,
Against them then the second band address,
Which at the last shall meet a fate as ill:

Yet shall the Christians suffer great distress,
For rivers of their blood your troops shall spill;

And when they hope to rest their weariness,
Must your third army from behind advance,
And hunt the Christians down with sword and lance.

"Them shall it find exhausted and forlorn,

The chief part dead, and wounded all the rest;
Their horses kill'd, their flanks by weapons torn,
The living fain to fight on foot at best.
Your barons will be strong and fresh as morn,

And will accomplish well your high behest.
Of all your foes shall none survive that day,
But great Orlando whom you cannot slay.
"O'er him no power can all your weapons have,
Yet, witnessing the death of every friend,
He alone left of all his comrades brave,

His life with grief shall miserably end.

All comfort lost, Charles too shall fill the grave,
While you your rule o'er France and Spain extend.
Under your sway each town and tower shall come,
And you be lord of subject Christendom."

At the disclosure of this horrible scheme, the waters of a fountain, near which it is concerted, turn to blood. We have detailed it with particularity, not merely because it renders the sequel more intelligible; but because, in our day, few are acquainted with the facts, even by tradition, and Mr. Wharton's "Roncesvalles," and Lucien Buonaparte's "Charlemagne," have not circulated so widely, as to inform many readers. Ganelon,* returning to Charles with a smooth tale of the sincerity of the offer of Marsilio, the emperor retires with his forces to St. Jean piè de Porto, on the other side of the Pyrennees, leaving Orlando, Oliver, and the rest of the Paladins, posted at Roncesvalles, with twenty thousand six hundred men, to escort Marsilio, when he proceeds with his nobility to Paris to receive baptism. Orlando and Oliver think it necessary to keep watch, entertaining some distant suspicions, the first till midnight, and the last till morning. The first view Oliver obtains of the approaching enemy, is thus related.

"When o'er the brighten'd world the sun 'gan rise,
Oliver cast an anxious look t'ward Spain,

As an old tailor at his needle pries:

He saw a host come marching on amain,
But o'er one fourth he could not cast his eyes,

So num'rous were they upon hill and plain;

* Pulci improves upon this romance, in one respect; for he gives to Ganelon a strongly operating motive to procure the destruction of Orlando; viz. envy of his power over Charles. Zinabi represents him influenced only by the rich reward Marsilio promises.