Count Otho where, and Berengier,
Ivon and Ivor, so dear to me;
And Engelier of Gascony;
Samson the duke, and Anseis the bold;
Gerard, of Roussillon, the old;
My peers, the twelve whom I left behind?"
In vain!--No answer may he find.
"O God," he cried, "what grief is mine
That I was not in front of this battle line!"
For very wrath his beard he tore,
His knights and barons weeping sore;
Aswoon full fifty thousand fall:
Duke Naimes hath pity and dole for all.


CXCIX

Nor knight nor baron was there to see
But wept full fast, and bitterly;
For son and brother their tears descend,
For lord and liege, for kin and friend;
Aswoon all numberless they fell,
But Naimes did gallantly and well.
He spake the first to the Emperor--
"Look onward, sire, two leagues before,
See the dust from the ways arise,--
There the strength of the heathen lies.
Ride on; avenge you for this dark day."
"O God," said Karl, "they are far away!
Yet for right and honor, the sooth ye say.