The Emperor first directing his hand aright, struck at his opponent with his spear, which passed right through his breast, and out at the back. Straightway the barbarian fell to the ground and gave up the ghost on the spot, for the wound was mortal. And next the Emperor dashed right through the middle of the company and rode away, for by slaying that one barbarian he had gained safety for himself.
As soon as the Franks saw their hero wounded and hurled to the ground, they crowded round the fallen and busied themselves about him. And when those who had been pursuing the Emperor saw them, they, too, dismounted, and on recognizing the dead man, began beating their breasts and wailing. However, the man was not Robert, but one of the nobles, second only in rank to Robert. While they were thus occupied, the Emperor continued his flight.
My history free from suspicion
VIII And truly when writing this, partly from the nature of history and partly because of the extravagance of the events, I forgot that it was my father’s deeds that I was describing. In my desire to make my history free from suspicion, I often treat my father’s doings in a cursory way, neither amplifying them nor investing them with sentiment. Would that I had been free and released from this love of my father, in order that I might have, as it were, laid hold upon the rich material and shown the licence of my tongue, how much at home it is in noble deeds.
But now my zeal is hampered by my natural love, for I should not like to afford the public a suspicion that in my eagerness to speak about my relations I am serving them with fairy tales! Indeed very often I recall my father’s successes, but I could have wept my life away in tears when recording and describing the many ills that befell him, and it is not without private lamentation and plaint that I quit the subject.
But no elegant rhetoric must mar this part of my history, and therefore I pass lightly over my father’s misadventures, as if I were an insensible piece of adamant or stone. I ought really to have used them as a form of oath, as the young man does in the Odyssey (for I am not inferior to him who says “No, by Zeus, Agelaus, and by my father’s sufferings “) and then I should both really be, and be called, a lover of my father. However, let my father’s woes be a subject of marvel and lamentation to me alone, and let us proceed with our history.
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