“Yes, the future is ours. You alone delay the coming of the day of glory. We shall conquer, but while you live it will be only at the price of terrible sacrifices that we can purchase victory. Why persist in returning to a world in which death awaits you? I offer you the sovereignty of this realm, its wealth, its women, its warriors. The inhabitants of air, earth, and water, the stars which move in the firmament—all that is gifted with reason or instinct, essence and matter—in one word, everything shall belong to you and owe to you unreserved obedience. If the sun annoys you, the moon shall take its place. Give but the sign, and rivers shall dry up to let you pass. A population more vast than all the nations of earth put together shall live only to serve you. These warriors are brave.”
“Of what use is their bravery if they have no enemies to contend with?”
“These horses are more swift than the wind.”
“Of what service is their speed, since there is here no goal that I desire to reach?”
“These women are lovely.”
“Their beauty is sheer waste, for I do not love them!”
“Durandal is famous on earth, and yet the humblest of these soldiers could cut it in two with the edge of his poniard.”
“Enough!” interposed Roland. “I have already told you I am in a hurry. You have not, I imagine, the impudence to suppose you are rich enough in wonders to induce me to commit a base action—your Allah himself would be ashamed of such a thing. You have told me I am the bravest of living knights: should I be so if I feared the death you threaten me with? ‘My single arm is worth a whole army,’ you add. Have I any right, then, to deprive my comrades of its aid at that moment, of all others, when you profess that they are in danger? ‘My judgment is sound:’ allow me to offer you a further proof of it by laughing at your menaces, and predicting your complete overthrow. Mahomet and Jupiter will soon meet and shake hands, and the crescent will be sent where the old moons go.”
“You will not listen?”
“I have heard too much already!”