* * *
"'He would sound all day for a single hare.'"
The third time, Roland blew; his nostrils and mouth are filled with blood, his temples crack with the stress:
"Said Karl: 'That horn is full of breath!'
Said Naimes: ''Tis Roland who travaileth,'"
—and the Emperor instantly gave the command to turn and rush to the rescue.
But the battle had gone too far. Again and again the little band of Franks clove its way into the enemy; the latter wavered, retreated, fell by hundreds, and came back in thousands. Roland's tears fell fast over his dead companions:
"'Land of France, thou art soothly fair!
To-day thou liest bereaved and bare.
It was all for me your lives ye gave,