And loud the queen in anguish plained,
The while she tore her streaming hair,
"Ah, Saragossa, reft and bare,
Thou seest thy noble king o'erthrown!
Such felony our gods have shown,
Who failed in fight his aids to be.
The Emir comes--a dastard he,
Unless he will that race essay,
Who proudly fling their lives away.
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.