Chapter XLIII

Again the Pagan:--"I am wonder-struck
On knowing Carle so old and so white-haired!
Methinks he passed two hundred years; by arms
He won so many lands--so many wounds
In battle he received from trenchant swords!
So many powerful kings on battle-fields
Conquered or slew!--When will he cease to war?"
"--Never!"--said Ganelon, "while lives Rolland:
From here to farthest east no knight his peer
E'er lived: his comrade too, Count Olivier,
Is brave; and the twelve Peers, so dear to Carle,
The van-guard make of twenty thousand knights.
Carle may have peace, and fears no living man!"
Aoi.