their country, and the Moors invited Charlemagne to help them. He
therefore led an army across the Pyrenees. He succeeded in putting
his Moorish friends in possession of their lands in Spain and then
set out on his return to his own country.

On the march his army was divided into two parts. The main body
was led by Charlemagne himself. The rear guard was commanded by
a famous warrior named Roland. While marching through the narrow
pass of Roncesvalles (ron-thes-val'-yes), among the Pyrenees, Roland's
division was attacked by a tribe called the Basques (basks), who
lived on the mountain slopes of the neighboring region.

High cliffs walled in the pass on either side. From the tops of
these cliffs the Basques hurled down rocks and trunks of trees upon
the Franks, and crushed many of them to death. Besides this, the
wild mountaineers descended into the pass and attacked them with
weapons. Roland fought bravely; but at last he was overpowered,
and he and all his men were killed.

Roland had a friend and companion named Oliver, who was as brave
as himself. Many stories and songs have been written telling of
the wonderful adventures they were said to have had and of their
wonderful deeds in war.

The work of Charlemagne in Spain was quickly undone; for Abd-er-Rahman,
the leader of the Mohammedans who had come from Damascus, soon
conquered almost all the territory south of the Pyrenees.

For more than forty years Charlemagne was king of the Franks; but
a still greater dignity was to come to him. In the year 800 some