"O God, I do repent me of my sins, both great and small, from my natal hour to this day. Father, receive my soul!"
Saint Gabriel leaned from heaven, so the legend says, and took the raised glove from his hand.
And Karl, his emperor, came, and found him with his head upon his unsurrendered sword, and his face toward Spain.
The vengeance that Charlemagne wreaked upon the traitor, Ganelon, and upon the Moslems in Spain was unspeakably terrible.
It is touching to know, however, that Roland's lady-love—Oliver's gentle sister Alda—refused to be comforted when she heard of her lover's death. She died of a broken heart at the feet of Charlemagne, even as the emperor begged her to accept his own son in marriage, and thus become, in time, empress of all the Franks.
THE CID
As warlike sons, with mighty deeds,
Exalt the power of Rome;
And Arthur deathless glory adds
Unto his island home;
As France will ever nobler seem
Because of Charlemagne—
So dost thou, ever-conquering Cid,
Immortalize thy Spain!