[Sidenote:  Rolandseck.] This view of the lady he loved seemed a slight consolation to the hero, who built a retreat on this rock, which is known as Rolandseck.  Here he spent his days in penance and prayer, gazing constantly at the island at his feet, and the swift stream which parted him from Hildegarde.

One wintry day, many years after he had taken up his abode on the rocky height, Roland missed the graceful form he loved, and heard, instead of the usual psalm, a dirge for the dead.  Then he noticed that six of the nuns were carrying a coffin, which they lowered into an open tomb.

Roland’s nameless fears were confirmed in the evening, when the convent priest visited him, and gently announced that Hildegarde was at rest.  Calmly Roland listened to these tidings, begged the priest to hear his confession as usual, and, when he had received absolution, expressed a desire to be buried with his face turned toward the convent where Hildegarde had lived and died.

The priest readily promised to observe this request, and departed.  When he came on the morrow, he found Roland dead.  They buried him reverently on the very spot which bears his name, with his face turned toward Nonnenwoerth, where Hildegarde lay at rest.

CHAPTER IX.

THE SONS OF AYMON.

The different chansons de gestes relating to Aymon and the necromancer Malagigi (Malagis), probably arose from popular ballads commemorating the struggles of Charles the Bald and his feudatories.  These ballads are of course as old as the events which they were intended to record, but the chansons de gestes based upon them, and entitled “Duolin de Mayence,” “Aymon, Son of Duolin de Mayence,” “Maugis,” “Rinaldo de Trebizonde,” “The Four Sons of Aymon,” and “Mabrian,” are of much later date, and were particularly admired during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

One of the most famous of Charlemagne’s peers was doubtless the noble Aymon of Dordogne; and when the war against the Avars in Hungary had been successfully closed, owing to his bravery, his adherents besought the king to bestow upon this knight some reward.  Charlemagne, whom many of these later chansons de gestes describe as mean and avaricious, refused to grant any reward, declaring that were he to add still further to his vassal’s already extensive territories, Aymon would soon be come more powerful than his sovereign.

[Sidenote:  War between Aymon and Charlemagne.] This unjust refusal displeased Lord Hug of Dordogne, who had pleaded for his kinsman, so that he ventured a retort, which so incensed the king that he slew him then and there.  Aymon, learning of the death of Lord Hug, and aware of the failure of his last embassy, haughtily withdrew to his own estates, whence he now began to wage war against Charlemagne.

Instead of open battle, however, a sort of guerrilla warfare was carried on, in which, thanks to his marvelous steed Bayard, which his cousin Malagigi, the necromancer, had brought him from hell, Aymon always won the advantage.  At the end of several years, however, Charlemagne collected a large host, and came to lay siege to the castle where Aymon had intrenched himself with all his adherents.