THE PRELUDE OF THE GREAT
BATTLE

RONCESVALLES



LXXXIII


Olivier clomb to a mountain height,
Glanced through the valley that stretched to right;
He saw advancing the Saracen men,
And thus to Roland he spake agen:
"What sights and sounds from the Spanish side,
White gleaming hauberks and helms in pride?
In deadliest wrath our Franks shall be!
Ganelon wrought this perfidy;
It was he who doomed us to hold the rear."
"Hush," said Roland; "O Olivier,
No word be said of my stepsire here."

[Footnote 1: The stanzas of the translation not found in the Oxford
MS., but taken from the stanzas inserted from other versions by M.
Gautier, are, as regards Part II, the following: Stanzas 113, 114,
115, 118, 119, 120, 122, 123, 126, 127, 139, 143, 144, 145,
146, 163.]