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.
It happened about seven days after these things that the King rode by / the castle, for he would fain know how the besieged fared. When he / could see no man on the walls, he was not a little astonished, and / going back straightway to the camp called his Barons together and / told them of this matter.
The Duke Naymes said, "We must find out what has overtaken these / people; let us feign to make an assault. " So they feigned to make an / assault, but no man came forth to defend the castle. Then the King / said: "They are all dead of hunger," and he commanded that a long / ladder should be set against the walls. By this certain of the Peers / mounted, Roland being first of all, and after him Ogier the Dane and / Oliver. But finding no man they descended on the other side and / opened the gates that the King might come in.