That Guenès die with marvellous great pangs.
So to lead forth four stallions they bade;
After, they bound his feet and both his hands;3965
Those steeds were swift, and of a temper mad;
Which, by their heads, led forward four serjeants
Towards a stream that flowed amid that land.
Sonès fell Gue into perdition black;
All his sinews were strained until they snapped,3970
And all the limbs were from his body dragged;
On the green grass his clear blood gushed and ran.
Guenès is dead, a felon recreant.
Who betrays man, need make no boast of that.
CCXC
When the Emperour had made his whole vengeance,3975
He called to him the Bishops out of France,
Those of Baviere and also the Germans:
“A dame free-born lies captive in my hands,
So oft she s heard sermons and reprimands,
She would fear God, and christening demands.3980
Baptise her then, so God her soul may have.”
They answer him: “Sponsors the rite demands,
Dames of estate and long inheritance.”
The baths at Aix great companies attract;
There they baptised the Queen of Sarazands,3985
And found for her the name of Juliane.
Christian is she by very cognisance.
CCXCI
When the Emperour his justice hath achieved,
His mighty wrath’s abated from its heat,
And Bramimunde has christening received;3990
Passes the day, the darkness is grown deep,
And now that King in ’s vaulted chamber sleeps.
Saint Gabriel is come from God, and speaks:
“Summon the hosts, Charlès, of thine Empire,
Go thou by force into the land of Bire,3995
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