Mediaeval Tales Part 3

In the almond there is the sh.e.l.l, the coat, and the kernel. In the sun, the body, the beams, and the heat. In the wheel, the centre, the spokes, and the nave. In you, likewise, there is the body, the members, and the soul. In like manner may Trinity in Unity be ascribed to G.o.d."

"I now comprehend," replied Ferracute, "how G.o.d may be three in one, but I know not how he begot the Son." "Do you," answered Orlando, "believe that G.o.d made Adam?"--"I do." "Adam himself was not, then, born of any, and yet he begot sons. So G.o.d the Father is born of none, yet of his own ineffable grace begot the Son from all eternity."--"Your arguments,"

said the Giant, "please me exceedingly, but still I am at a loss to know how he that was G.o.d became man." "The Creator of heaven and earth, who made all things out of nothing, could certainly," said Orlando, "engender his Son of a pure Virgin, by divine afflation."--"There lies the difficulty," returned Ferracute, "how without human aid, as you affirm, he could spring from the womb." "Surely," said Orlando, "G.o.d, who formed Adam from no seed, could form his Son in like manner; and as from G.o.d the Father he was without Mother, so from his Mother did he spring without an earthly Father."--"It makes me blush," said the Giant, "to think that a virgin should conceive without a man." "He," answered Orlando, "that causes the worm in the bean, and many species of birds, beasts, and serpents, to engender without the help of the male, could procure G.o.d and Man of a pure Virgin without the help of Man. For as his power enabled him to produce the first man from the ground, so could he produce the second from a virgin."--"I grant it," replied the Giant; "he might be born of a virgin; but if he was the Son of G.o.d, how could he die, for G.o.d never dies?" "That indeed is true," said Orlando; "as G.o.d, he could not die; but when he took our nature upon him, and was made man, he became subject to death, for every man dies. As we believe his nativity, so may we likewise believe his pa.s.sion and resurrection."

"And what is it we are to believe of his resurrection?" inquired Ferracute. "That he died, and rose again the third day."--The Giant, hearing this, was greatly astonished, and exclaimed to Orlando, "Why do you talk so idly? It is impossible that a man, after he is once dead, can return to life again." "Not only did the Son of G.o.d rise from the dead," replied Orlando, "but all the men that have died since the creation of the world shall rise again, and appear before his tribunal, where they shall be rewarded everyone according to his deeds, whether they be good or evil. That G.o.d, who makes the tree spring from the soil, and the grain of wheat to rot in the ground, that it may revive with fresh increase, can at the last day clothe the souls of men with their own bodies, and restore them to life. Take the mystic example of the lion, which on the third day revives his dead cubs with his breath by licking them. What wonder, then, that G.o.d should after three days revive his Son? Nor ought it to seem strange that, as the Son of G.o.d rose from the dead, many others of the dead should rise even before his own resurrection. If Elijah and Elisha by the power of G.o.d could perform this miracle, how much more easily could the Father restore the Son, whom it was indeed impossible that Death could retain in his fetters.

Death fled at his sight, as he shall fly likewise at the sound of his voice, when the whole phalanx of the dead shall rise again."--"Enough,"

said Ferracute, "I clearly perceive all this; but how could he ascend into heaven?" "He that descended," answered Orlando, "could easily ascend. He that rose of himself could enter the skies in triumph. Does not the wheel of the mill descend low, and return to its height again?

Does not the bird in the air ascend and descend? Can you not yourself come down from a mountain, and return thither? Did not the sun yesterday rise in the east and set in the west, and yet rise again in the east to-day? To that place from whence the Son of G.o.d descended, did he likewise ascend."

"Well," said Ferracute, "to end our arguments, I will fight you on these terms: If the faith you profess be the true faith, you shall conquer; otherwise the victory shall be mine; and let the issue be eternal honour to the conqueror, but dishonour to the vanquished." "Be it so!" said Orlando: whereupon they immediately fell to blows. But the very first which the Giant aimed at him would have certainly been fatal, if Orlando had not nimbly leaped aside, and caught it on his staff, which was however cut in twain. The Giant, seeing his advantage, then rushed in upon him, and both came to the ground together. Orlando then, finding it impossible to escape, instantly implored the divine a.s.sistance, and, feeling himself re-invigorated, sprung upon his feet, when, seizing the Giant's sword, he thrust it into his navel, and made his escape.

Ferracute, finding himself mortally wounded, called aloud upon Mahomet; which the Saracens hearing, sallied from the city, and bore him off in their arms. Orlando returned safe to the camp; the Christians then boldly attacked the city, and carried it by storm. The Giant and his people were slain, his castle taken, and all the Christian warriors liberated.

CHAPTER XVIII.

_The War of the Masks._

Soon after the Emperor heard that Ibrahim, King of Seville, and Almanzor, who escaped from the battle of Pampeluna, had gathered together at Cordova a body of troops from seven[1] of the neighbouring cities of Seville. Thither then did the King pursue his march with six thousand men, and found the Saracens, ten thousand strong, about three miles from the city. The King formed his army into three divisions. The first composed of his best troops, all cavalry; the two last, foot. The Saracens formed theirs in a similar manner. But when the King in person advanced against the first squadrons of Pagans, he found them all disguised in bearded masks, with horns upon their heads, like demons, making so strange a din with their hands upon their drums and other instruments, that the horses were terrified, and galloped back in spite of all their riders could do to prevent them. Whereupon the foot retreated likewise to an adjacent mountain, where, uniting in one squadron, they stopped for the Saracens, who would then advance no further, but gave our people time to pitch their tents, and encamp that night.

Charles then called a council of his captains, and agreed to tie bandages over their horses' eyes, and to stuff their ears, in order to disconcert this stratagem on the morrow. Admirable experiment! For now we fought the enemy from morning till night, and slew a great number, though it was by no means a general slaughter; for the Saracens, again joining in martial array, brought forward a castle, drawn by eight oxen, with a certain red banner waving upon it, which so long as they saw present, it was their rule never to fly. The King, knowing this, armed himself with a strong breast-plate, a mighty spear, and invincible sword, and, aided by divine a.s.sistance, hewed his way through his enemies, overturning them to right and left, till he reached the car, when, cutting the flag-pole with his sword, the Saracens instantly fled in all directions. Prodigious shouts were made by both armies. We then slew eight thousand Moors, together with Ibrahim, King of Seville.

Almanzor made good his retreat into the city, but submitted to Charles the day after, consenting to be baptized, and to do homage for his dominions.

The King now divided the conquered countries of Spain amongst his soldiers. Navarre and Bearn he gave to the inhabitants of Brittany; Castile to the Franks; Nadres and Saragossa to the Apulians; Arragon to the Ponthieuse; Andalusia, on the sea-coast, to the Germans; and Portugal to the Dacians and Flemings. But the French would not settle in the mountain parts of Gallicia. Thus there seemed to be no more foes in Spain to hurt the Emperor.

CHAPTER XIX.

_Of the Council the Emperor summoned; and of his Journey to Compostella._

Charles then sent away the greatest part of his troops, and came to Gallicia, where he behaved very liberally to the Christians he found there, but either put to death or banished those that had revolted to the Moorish faith. He then appointed bishops and prelates in every city, and, a.s.sembling a council of the chief dignitaries in Compostella, decreed that the church of St. James should be henceforth considered as the Metropolitan, instead of Iria, as it was no city, subjecting Iria likewise to Compostella. In the same council I, Turpin, Archbishop of Rheims, together with forty other Bishops and Prelates, dedicated, by the King's command, the church and altar of St. James, with extraordinary splendour and magnificence. All Spain and Gallicia were made subject to this holy place: it was moreover endowed with four pieces of money from every house throughout the kingdom, and at the same time totally freed from the royal jurisdiction; being from that hour styled the Apostolic See, as the body of the holy Apostle laid entombed within it. Here likewise the general councils of Spain are held; the Bishops ordained, and the Kings crowned by the hand of the Metropolitan Bishop, to the Apostle's honour. Here too, when any crying sin is committed, or innovations made in the faith and precepts of our Lord, through the meritoriousness of this venerable edifice the grievance is discovered, and atonement made. As the Eastern Apostolic See was established by St.

John, the brother of St. James, at Ephesus, so was the Western established by St. James.

And those Sees are undoubtedly the true Sees. Ephesus on the right hand of Christ's earthly kingdom, and Compostella on the left, both which fell to the share of the sons of Zebedee, according to their request.

There are, then, three Sees which are deservedly held pre-eminent, even as our Lord gave the pre-eminence to the three Apostles, Peter, James, and John, who first established them. And certainly these three places should be deemed more sacred than others, where they preached, and their bodies lie enshrined. Rome claims the superiority from Peter, Prince of the Apostles. Compostella holds the second place from St.

James, the elder brother of St. John, and first inheritor of the crown of martyrdom. He dignified it with his preaching, consecrated it with his sepulchre, and ceases not to exalt it by miracles and dispensations of mercy. The third See justly is Ephesus; for there St. John wrote his gospel, "In the beginning was the Word," a.s.sembling there likewise the bishops of the neighbouring cities, whom he calls Angels in the Apocalypse. He established that church by his doctrines and miracles, and there his body was entombed. If, therefore, any difficulty should occur that cannot elsewhere be resolved, let it be brought before these Sees, and it shall, by divine grace, be decided. As Gallicia was freed in these early ages from the Saracen yoke, by the favour of G.o.d and St.

James, and by the King's valour, so may it continue firm in the orthodox faith till the consummation of ages!

CHAPTER XX.

_Of the Emperor's Person and Courage._

The Emperor was of a ruddy complexion, with brown hair; of a well-made handsome form, but a stern visage. His height was about eight of his own feet, which were very long. He was of a strong robust make; his legs and thighs very stout, and his sinews firm. His face was thirteen inches long; his beard a palm; his nose half a palm; his forehead a foot over.

His lion-like eyes flashed fire like carbuncles; his eyebrows were half a palm over. When he was angry, it was a terror to look upon him. He required eight spans for his girdle, besides what hung loose. He ate sparingly of bread; but a whole quarter of lamb, two fowls, a goose, or a large portion of pork; a peac.o.c.k, crane, or a whole hare. He drank moderately of wine and water. He was so strong, that he could at a single blow cleave asunder an armed soldier on horseback from the head to the waist, and the horse likewise. He easily vaulted over four horses harnessed together; and could raise an armed man from the ground to his head, as he stood erect upon his hand.

He was liberal, just in his decrees, and fluent of speech. Four days in the year, especially during his residence in Spain, he held a solemn a.s.sembly at court, adorning himself with his royal crown and sceptre; namely, on Christmas-day, at Easter, Whitsuntide, and on the festival of St. James. A naked sword, after the imperial fashion, was then borne before him. A hundred and twenty orthodox soldiers matched nightly round his couch, in three courses of forty each. A drawn sword was laid at his right hand, and a lighted candle at his left. Although many would delight to read his great actions, they would be too tedious to relate.

How he invested Galifer, Admiral of Coleto, where he was banished, with the military order, and, in return for his kindness, slew Bramantes, his enemy, the proud Saracen King; how many kingdoms and countries he conquered; Abbeys he founded; bodies of the saints and relics he enshrined in gold; how he was made Emperor of Rome, and visited the holy supulchre, bringing back with him the wood of the Holy Cross, wherewith he endowed the shrine of St. James; of all this I shall say no more: the hand and the pen would sooner fail than the history. But what befel his army at his return to France, we now briefly proceed to tell.

CHAPTER XXI.

_Of the Treachery of Ga.n.a.lon; the Battle of Ronceval, and the Sufferings of the Christian Warriors._

When this famous Emperor had thus recovered Spain to the glory of our Lord and St. James, after a season he returned to Pampeluna, and encamped there, with his army. At that time there were in Saragossa two Saracen Kings, Marsir, and Beligard, his brother, sent by the Soldan of Babylon from Persia to Spain. Charles had bowed them to his dominion, and they served him always, but only with feigned fidelity. For the King having sent Ga.n.a.lon to require them to be baptized, and to pay tribute, they sent him thirty horse-load of gold, silver, and jewels; forty load of wine likewise for his soldiers, and a thousand beautiful Saracen women. But at the same time they covenanted with Ga.n.a.lon to betray the King's army into their hands for twenty horse-load of gold and silver; which wicked compact being accordingly made, Ga.n.a.lon returned to the King with intelligence that Marsir would embrace the Christian faith, and was preparing to follow him into France to receive baptism there, and would then hold all Spain under oath of fealty to him. The old soldiers would accept the wine only, but the young men were highly gratified with the present of the women.

Charles, confiding in Ga.n.a.lon, now began his march through the pa.s.s of the mountains, in his return to France; giving the command of the rear to his nephew, Orlando, Count of Mans and Lord of Guienne, and to Oliver, Count of Auvergne, ordering them to keep the station of Ronceval with thirty thousand men, whilst he pa.s.sed it with the rest of the army.

But many, who had on the night preceding intoxicated themselves with wine, and been guilty of fornication with the Saracen women, and other women that followed the camp from France, incurred the penalty of death.

What more shall we say? When Charles had safely pa.s.sed the narrow strait that leads into Gascony, between the mountains, with twenty thousand of his warriors, Turpin, the Archbishop, and Ga.n.a.lon, and while the rear kept guard, early in the morning Marsir and Beligard, rushing down from the hills, where, by Ga.n.a.lon's advice, they had lain two days in ambush, formed their troops into two great divisions, and with the first of twenty thousand men attacked our army, which making a bold resistance, fought from morning to the third hour, and utterly destroyed the enemy.

But a fresh body of thirty thousand Saracens now poured furiously down upon the Christians, already faint and exhausted with fighting so long, and smote them from high to low, so that scarcely one escaped. Some were transpierced with lances; some killed with clubs; others beheaded, burnt, flayed alive, or suspended on trees: only Orlando, Baldwin, and Theodoric, were left; the two last gained the woods, and finally escaped. After this terrible slaughter the Saracens retreated a league from the field of battle.

And here it may be asked, why G.o.d permitted those to perish who in no wise had defiled themselves with women? It was, indeed, to prevent them from committing fresh sins at their return home and to give them a crown of glory in reward for their toils. However neither is it to be doubted but those who were guilty of this fault amply atoned for it by their death. In that awful hour they confessed his name, bewailing their sins, and the all-merciful G.o.d forgot not their past labours for the sake of Christ, for whose faith they lost their lives. The company of women is evidently baneful to the warrior: those earthly Princes Darius and Mark Antony were attended by their women, and perished; for l.u.s.t at once enervates the soul and the body.

Those who fell into intoxication and lasciviousness typify the priests that war against vice, but suffer themselves to be overcome by wine and sensual appet.i.tes till they are slain by their enemy the devil, and punished with eternal death.

CHAPTER XXII.

_Of the Death of Marsir, and the Flight of Beligard._

As Orlando was returning after the battle was over to view the Saracen army, he met a certain black Saracen, who had fled from the field, and concealed himself in the woods, whom he seized and bound to a tree with four bands. Then, ascending a lofty hill, he surveyed the Moorish army, and seeing likewise many Christians retreating by the Ronceval road he blew his horn, and was joined by about a hundred of them, with whom he returned to the Saracen, and promised to give him his life if he would show him Marsir; which having performed, he set him at liberty.

Animating his little band, Orlando was soon amidst the thickest of the enemy, and finding one of larger stature than the rest, he hewed him and his horse in twain, so that the halves fell different ways. Marsir and his companions then fled in all directions, but Orlando, trusting in the divine aid, rushed forward, and overcoming all opposition, slew Marsir on the spot. By this time every one of the Christians was slain, and Orlando himself sorely wounded in five places by lances, and grievously battered likewise with stones. Beligard, seeing Marsir had fallen, retired from the field with the rest of the Saracens; whilst Theodoric and Baldwin, and some few other Christians, made their way through the pa.s.s, towards which Orlando, wandering, came likewise to the foot of it, and, alighting from his steed, stretched himself on the ground, beneath a tree, near a block of marble, that stood upright in the meadows of Ronceval.

Here drawing his sword, Durendal, which signifies a hard blow, a sword of exquisite workmanship, fine temper, and resplendent brightness, which he would sooner have lost his arm than parted with, as he held it in his hand, regarding it earnestly, addressed it in these words: "O sword of unparalleled brightness, excellent dimensions, admirable temper, and hilt of the whitest ivory, decorated with a splendid cross of gold, topped by a berylline apple, engraved with the sacred name of G.o.d, endued with keenness and every other virtue, who now shall wield thee in battle? who shall call thee master? He that possessed thee was never conquered, never daunted at the foe; phantoms never appalled him. Aided by Omnipotence, with thee did he destroy the Saracen, exalt the faith of Christ, and acquire consummate glory. Oft hast thou vindicated the blood of Jesus, against Pagans, Jews, and heretics; oft hewed off the hand and foot of the robber, fulfilling divine justice. O happy sword, keenest of the keen; never was one like thee! He that made thee, made not thy fellow! Not one escaped with life from thy stroke! If the slothful timid soldier should now possess thee, or the base Saracen, my grief would be unspeakable! Thus, then, do I prevent thy falling into their hands."--He then struck the block of marble thrice, which cleft it in the midst, and broke the sword in twain.

CHAPTER XXIII.

_Of the Sound of Orlando's Horn; of his Confession, and Death._

He now blew a loud blast with his horn, to summon any Christian concealed in the adjacent woods to his a.s.sistance, or to recal his friends beyond the pa.s.s. This horn was endued with such power, that all other horns were split by its sound; and it is said that Orlando at that time blew it with such vehemence, that he burst the veins and nerves of his neck. The sound reached the King's ears, who lay encamped in the valley still called by his name, about eight miles from Ronceval, towards Gascony, being carried so far by supernatural power. Charles would have flown to his succour, but was prevented by Ga.n.a.lon, who, conscious of Orlando's sufferings, insinuated it was usual with him to sound his horn on light occasions. "He is, perhaps," said he, "pursuing some wild beast, and the sound echoes through the woods; it will be fruitless, therefore, to seek him." O wicked traitor, deceitful as Judas! What dost thou merit?