It is in Roncesvalles that poets have laid the scene of his death, where-- "On Fontarabian echoes borne The dying hero's call" resounded; and, if truth attaches to the received story of his death, Roncesvalles is, no doubt, the site.

But the legend has shed its romance on the immortal heights of the towers of Marbore; and, to account for the fissure in the rock, it must be with these in our recollection, that we read that quaint apostrophe to his sword which the chronicler has preserved:-- After laying himself down beneath a rock, Roland drew his sword, Durendal, and regarding it _"with great pity and compassion,"_ he exclaimed, in a loud voice, "plorant et larmoyant:"-- "O tres beau cousteau resplendissant, qui tant as dure et qui as este si large, si ferme et si forte, en manche de clere yvoire: duquel la croix est faicte d'or et la supface doree decoree et embellye du pommeau faiet de pierres de beril; escript et engrave du grand no de Dieu singulier, Alpha et OO.

Si bien tranchant en la pointe et environne de la vertu de Dieu.

Qui est celluy qui plus et oultre moy usera de ta saincte force, mais qui sera desormais ton possesseur?
Certes celluy qui te possedera ne sera vaincu ny estonne, ne ne redoubtera toute la force des ennemys; il n'aura jamais pour d'aucunes illusions et fantasies, car luy de Dieu et de la grace serot en profection et sauvegarde.

O que tu es eureuse espee digne de memoire, car par toy sot Sarrazins destruictz et occis et les gens infideles mis a mort; dont la foy des Chrestiens est exaltee et la louenge de Dieu et gloire partout le mode universel acquise.