Legends of Charlemagne eBook

Thomas Bulfinch
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 344 pages of information about Legends of Charlemagne.

Legends of Charlemagne eBook

Thomas Bulfinch
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 344 pages of information about Legends of Charlemagne.

Ogier advanced into the country, looking for some marks of inhabitancy, but found none.  On a sudden he encountered two monstrous animals, covered with glittering scales, accompanied by a horse breathing fire.  Ogier drew his sword and prepared to defend himself; but the monsters, terrific as they appeared, made no attempt to assail him, and the horse, Papillon, knelt down, and appeared to court Ogier to mount upon his back.  Ogier hesitated not to see the adventure through; he mounted Papillon, who ran with speed, and soon cleared the rocks and precipices which hemmed in and concealed a beautiful landscape.  He continued his course till he reached a magnificent palace, and, without allowing Ogier time to admire it, crossed a grand court-yard adorned with colonnades, and entered a garden, where, making his way through alleys of myrtle, he checked his course, and knelt down on the enamelled turf of a fountain.

Ogier dismounted and took some steps along the margin of the stream, but was soon stopped by meeting a young beauty, such as they paint the Graces, and almost as lightly attired as they.  At the same moment, to his amazement, his armor fell off of its own accord.  The young beauty advanced with a tender air, and placed upon his head a crown of flowers.  At that instant the Danish hero lost his memory; his combats, his glory, Charlemagne and his court, all vanished from his mind; he saw only Morgana, he desired nothing but to sigh forever at her feet.

We abridge the narrative of all the delights which Ogier enjoyed for more than a hundred years.  Time flew by, leaving no impression of its flight.  Morgana’s youthful charms did not decay, and Ogier had none of those warnings of increasing years which less favored mortals never fail to receive.  There is no knowing how long this blissful state might have lasted, if it had not been for an accident, by which Morgana one day, in a sportive moment, snatched the crown from his head.  That moment Ogier regained his memory, and lost his contentment.  The recollection of Charlemagne, and of his own relatives and friends, saddened the hours which he passed with Morgana.  The fairy saw with grief the changed looks of her lover.  At last she drew from him the acknowledgment that he wished to go, at least for a time, to revisit Charles’s court.  She consented with reluctance, and with her own hands helped to reinvest him with his armor.  Papillon was led forth, Ogier mounted him, and, taking a tender adieu of the tearful Morgana, crossed at rapid speed the rocky belt which separated Morgana’s palace from the borders of the sea.  The sea-goblins which had received him at his coming awaited him on the shore.  One of them took Ogier on his back, and the other placing himself under Papillon, they spread their broad fins, and in a short time traversed the wide space that separates the isle of Avalon from France.  They landed Ogier on the coast of Languedoc, and then plunged into the sea and disappeared.

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Project Gutenberg
Legends of Charlemagne from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.