CHARLEMAGNE: ROLAND BATTLES MOROCCAN CORSAIRS

These are the legends about Charlemagne and his Paladins, not the actual history, so there will be dragons, monsters and magic. 

FOR MY FIRST CHAPTER ON CHARLEMAGNE’S PALADINS CLICK HERE.

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ROLAND BATTLES MOROCCAN CORSAIRS – The Paladins recently freed by Astolpho from the prison of the sorcerer Atlantes all hastened to rejoin Emperor Charlemagne’s army. The war against the Muslim invaders from colonized Spain and North Africa was still raging. 

Roland, the greatest of those Paladins, was so anxious to link up with the forces of his uncle the Emperor that he tried riding his horse up a mountainside as a shortcut. Part way up, Roland spotted light emerging from the entrance of a cave.

Our hero investigated and found a young woman being held against her will by a toothless hag who threatened and abused her repeatedly. Roland entered the furnished cave and asked the captive about her plight.

The hag tried to stop the young lady from answering, but Roland warned her not to interfere. The captive identified herself as Princess Isabella from Galicia. Months earlier, her father the king had held a tournament and invited warriors from all the known world to attend.

When that tournament was held, the man who emerged victorious over all others was Prince Zerbino of Scotland. Isabella fell in love with him and when Zerbino proposed marriage she consented for him to ask her father for her hand.

Unfortunately, her father had other ideas about Isabella’s potential husbands and refused. Soon after, word came from Scotland by ship that Prince Zerbino was to return home to take command of the army that Scotland was sending to aid Emperor Charlemagne against the invaders of his realm. 

Zerbino asked Isabella to run away with him to Scotland and the couple covertly boarded a ship captained by a Scot named Oderic with the crew that had come to call Zerbino home. A storm at sea caused a shipwreck and Isabella plus Captain Oderic were separated from the prince and the others.

Giving up his prince for dead, Oderic sold Isabella to corsairs under the Sultan of Morocco. That was how she came to be in this cave, watched over by the hag until the corsairs saw who would pay more for her – her father or the sultan.

Suddenly, a half dozen of the corsairs arrived for one of their periodic checks on their hostage. From Roland’s armor they could tell he was part of Charlemagne’s armies and attacked him with swords, spears and clubs. The Paladin drew his sword Durindana to defend himself and Princess Isabella.

The unequal battle saw Roland fight as fiercely as ever and before long he had dispatched all of the corsairs, even killing one with a brand from the cave’s firepit. With the men dead, the hag guarding Isabella made no attempt to interfere as the princess fled with Roland.

The pair reached the Paladin’s horse and walked it the remaining distance up the mountainside. Once at the top they mounted it and rode off. 

*** I’ll be examining more tales of Charlemagne soon, picking up from this one. 

FOR LINKS TO THE PREVIOUS CHARLEMAGNE INSTALLMENTS CLICK HERE.