The brightness of its varying ray.

Meanwhile the wounded Marsile has returned to Saragossa, where, while
binding up his wounds, his wife comments it is strange no one has been
able to get the better of such an old man as Charlemagne, and exclaims
the last hope of the Saracens now rests in the emir, who has just
landed in Spain.

At dawn the emperor returns to Roncevaux, and there begins his sad
search for the bodies of the peers. Sure Roland will be found facing
the foe, he seeks for his corpse in the direction of Spain, and,
discovering him at last on the little hill, swoons from grief. Then,
recovering his senses, Charlemagne prays God to receive his nephew's
soul, and, after pointing out to his men how bravely the peers fought,
gives orders for the burial of the dead, reserving only the bodies of
Roland, Oliver, and the archbishop, for burial in France.

The last respects have barely been paid to the fallen, when a Saracen
herald summons Charlemagne to meet the emir. So the French mount to
engage in a new battle.

Such is the stimulus of Charlemagne's word's and of his example, that
all his men do wonders. The aged emperor himself finally engages in a
duel with the emir, in the midst of which he is about to succumb, when
an angel bids him strike one more blow, promising he shall triumph.
Thus stimulated, Charlemagne slays the emir, and the Saracens, seeing
their leader slain, flee, closely pursued by the Frenchmen, who enter
Saragossa in their wake. There, after killing all the men, they
pillage the town.