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.
Meanwhile it was told Balan that Gallafer had been slain and the / Bridge Mantryble taken. He was as one out of his wits with rage, / and, crying out to his god Mahomet that he was accursed and recreant, / he smote the image with a club that he held in his two hands and / brake it down. Nor was this ill done, seeing that such things are of / no use or profit. Nevertheless Sortibrant reproved him, and bade him / repent of such injurious deeds. "That cannot I do," answered the / Admiral, "seeing that this Charles has won my strong city of / Mantryble. " Sortibrant said, "Send a spy, Sir Admiral, that you may / know what King Charles is doing; afterwards, let us march together / against him, and if we prevail over him then shall you hang him and / his people without mercy, and you shall cut off the head of your son / Fierabras, for the help that he has given your enemies."
This the Admiral said that he would do. First he humbled himself / before his gods, and vowed that he would offer to them a thousand / pounds of fine gold. This done, he bade the trumpets sound to gather / together the Saracens. These brought great engines of war with which / to throw great stones against the Tower. And this they did to such / good purpose that they made three great breaches in the wall by the / least of which a cart might have passed. But Roland and Oliver stood / over with their shields and stopped the way. Then cried the Admiral, / "Friends, if you would have my love, do your duty, and bring this / Tower to the ground. Verily, when I shall have taken it, I will burn / with fire this ill daughter of mine, Floripas."