L. 6-10. These words are taken almost verbatim from Jubinal's adaptation of the story in the Musée des Familles. Jubinal's words are:
'L'etcheco-sauna (le laboureur des montagnes) est rentré chez lui avec son chien; il a embrassé sa femme et ses enfants. Il a nettoyé ses flèches ainsi que sa corne de boeuf, et les ossements des héros qui ne sont plus blanchissent déjà pour l'éternité.'
In a note Jubinal says: 'Ces paroles sont empruntées au chant basque d'Altabicar.'
Son cheval syrien. In the Chanson Charlemagne rides on a mulet de Sulie (Syrie). Jubinal changed the mule into a horse. This is one of the points of detail which show that Hugo followed the modern author.
L. 25. The city, as we learn subsequently, was Narbonne. Narbonne is on the west coast of the Gulf of Lyons, near the eastern end of the Pyrenees. Originally a Roman colony, it was one of the chief seats of the Visigoths, from whom it was taken by the Saracens, when they overran Southern France. Charlemagne took it from the latter in 759. Till the fourteenth century it was a port, but the sand has blocked up the harbour and the town is now some distance from the sea.
mâchicoulis, battlements; or, more exactly, a gallery round the tower with openings in it from which projectiles could be hurled upon an enemy below.
vermeil. The word is one of Hugo's favourite adjectives, and is used to suggest a bright vivid red, and almost invariably in connexion with objects that have pleasurable associations.
The following are a few typical instances of its use:—
'L'aube vermeille.' (Les Feuilles d'Automne: Madame, autour de vous.)
'Les cônes vermeils' (du palais dans les nuages). (Ibid.: Soleils Couchants.)