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.
Balan, who was admiral of the Moors in Spain, had a son, Fierabras by / name, who was the most marvellous giant that ever was born of woman. / There was no man that could be matched with him for height, and / bigness of limb, and strength of body. This Fierabras was King of / Alexandria, and ruled the whole land of Babylon from the Red Sea / eastwards. Russia also he possessed, and Cologne; he was lord, / moreover, of Jerusalem, and had possession of the Sepulchre of our / Lord. It happened on a certain day that this man came riding / furiously to the camp where King Charles lay with his army, and asked / that some one should come forth and fight with him. No man answering / him or coming forth, he fell into a great rage and sware by his god / Mahomet that he would not depart from the place till he should have / done battle with some Christian man; but still no one came forth to / him. Then he cried with a very loud and terrible voice, "King of / Paris, send out to me your strongest and bravest knight, be he / Roland, or Oliver, or Thierry, or Ogier the Dane, that he may fight / with me. Nay, and if you will send out against me six or seven of / your strongest knights, I swear by my god Mahomet that I will not / refuse to fight with them all. But if you will not send out any man, / then I will assuredly assail your camp before nightfall this very / day, and strike off your head, and lead away Roland and Oliver as / prisoners. You have come into this my land without cause, and verily / you shall depart without honour."
When he had thus spoken he lay down under a tree, and having tied his / horse to one of the boughs, took off his armour. This done, he cried / to the King, "Send now Roland or Oliver to fight with me. And if / these dare not come alone then let two others come together with / them; and if the four be afraid let six come. Ten kings have I slain / already in single combat; there was not one of them, for all that / they were mighty men of valour, that could stand against me."