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.
When King Charles and his men had hidden themselves in a wood that / was hard by, Duke Richard and his company came to the bridge, driving / pack-horses before them, laden, as has been said, with false / merchandise. But when the knights saw the River Flagot, how swiftly / it ran and with how great a roaring, and the bridge how perilous it / was to pass, and the gates how they were barred with iron, they were / not a little troubled. Richard said, "I will go before. Do you / follow me, and when you have passed the first gate throw off your / cloaks and smite with your swords. And whatever may happen, see that / you fail not one another. " And to this they all agreed.
Gallafer, the keeper of the bridge, stood by the first gate holding a / great axe in his hand that had an edge on every side. He was a giant / of great stature, with fiery eyes and skin as black as pitch, more / like to a devil than to a man. The Admiral was his nephew, and loved / him greatly, trusting him so that he made him warder of the bridge / and ruler of all the countryside.