Read "Stories of Charlemagne and the Twelve Peers of France" by Alfred John Church online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
King Charles said to his knights and barons, "See now how this / villain Reynaud has deceived me, and carried away my crown. Devise / some means by which I may recover that which I have lost. " "You must / besiege," said the Duke Naymes, "his castle of Montalban. " So the / King gathered together a great army, so great indeed that provisions / failed them. After Easter he set out from Paris, and in due time / came to Reynaud's castle, Montalban.
The King had made Roland captain of his host. When Roland therefore / saw the castle, he being even overbold, said to the King, "Let us / assault this place without delay. " But the King answered, "Not so, / we will first try them, whether they will yield up the place / peaceably. " He sent therefore a messenger who should say to Reynaud, / "The King bids you yield up your castle and also your brother / Richard. If you refuse he will take it by force, and hang up both / you and him. " Reynaud answered, "I am not one that betrays friends. / But if the King will assure to us our lives and our castle we will / yield ourselves to him. " To this the King would not consent. / Therefore he besieged the place meaning to reduce it by famine, for / he perceived that it could not be taken by force.