Stories of Charlemagne and the Twelve Peers of France by Alfred John Church

In due course the French knights came to the town of Aygremore, and / having entered by the gate, came, a Saracen guiding them, to where / the Admiral sat in the shade of a tree. The Duke Naymes said to his / companions, "I am the bearer of the King's letter, and I therefore / will speak first. " At this Roland was ill content, desiring greatly / to have this office for himself. But the Duke would not suffer it; / "Nay," said he, "speak not one word; you cannot keep yourself in / bounds; if you have your way you will bring us all to death before / sunset."

So the Duke spake first, beginning in this fashion, "Now may God / Almighty save and defend our mighty Lord King Charles, and confound / Balan the Admiral and his subjects. For these have borne themselves / to us most dishonourably, seeking to take from us our horses and / other possessions. " When the Admiral heard these words, he had much / ado to keep under his anger. Before he could make answer to the Duke / there came the one King who had escaped from the Frenchmen, and told / him saying, "These are the same eight villains that slew the Kings; / avenge yourself on them. " Balan said, "Let them be for the present," / and turning to Duke Naymes, he said, "Finish now your message. " The / Duke answered that he would gladly do this, and so proceeded: "The / great and noble King of France bids you render to him the crown of / thorns with which our Lord Christ was crowned and the other Holy / Things. Also he commands you to set free certain knights of his whom / you hold in prison; which things if you fail to do forthwith he will / cause you to be hanged by the neck till you die. " Balan said, "You / have reviled me with violent words; but I have heard you courteously. / Go now, and sit down by yonder pillar, and let these others speak, / whom I have not yet heard."