There were no means, at the time, of
taking revenge for this check; for, after their sudden attack, the enemy
dispersed to such good purpose that there was no gaining any trace of
the direction in which they should be sought for."
History says no more; but in the poetry of the people there is a longer
and a more faithful memory than in the court of kings. The disaster of
Roncesvalles and the heroism of the warriors who perished there, became
in France the object of popular sympathy and the favorite topic for the
exercise of the popular fancy. _The Song of Roland_, a real Homeric poem
in its great beauty, and yet rude and simple as became its national
character, bears witness to the prolonged importance attained in Europe
by this incident in the history of Charlemagne. Four centuries later the
comrades of William the Conqueror, marching to battle at Hastings for
the possession of England, struck up _The Song of Roland_, "to prepare
themselves for victory or death," says M. Vitel in his vivid estimate
and able translation of this poetical monument of the manners and first
impulses toward chivalry of the Middle Ages.
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