la légende des siecles

soldiers proclaimed another emperor, Vitellius was found hiding in his palace. He was
dragged out into the Forum and killed on the Gemoniae (les Gémonies), a staircase
which went up the Capitoline Hill and on which the corpses of criminals were exposed
before being thrown into the Tiber. This is the Escalier referred to in the next line.
L. 57. These tortures were not known in Rome. They suggest rather the Middle Ages.
le cirque. The circus where chariot-races took place. Hugo seems to be confusing it with
the Colosseum, where the gladiatorial combats were fought.
Le noir gouffre cloaque. The Cloaca Maxima was the great sewer of Rome. It is still in
existence and in use. Hugo here first makes it the symbol of the destruction towards
which the Roman Empire was tending, and then treats it half as a concrete reality, half
as a figure for some underworld in which dethroned but living emperors meet. This
blending of the symbol and the thing symbolized is characteristic of the poet.
chiffres du fatal nombre: the figures or digits that stand for the doomed number, i.e. the
number with which a doomed man is marked.
Attila, the famous king of the Huns, 'the Scourge of God' as he was called, reigned A.D.
434-53.
LE MARIAGE DE ROLAND.
The poem is founded on the 'Chanson de Girart de Viane,' one of the Carolingian cycles
of epic poems, written by Bertrand de Bar-sur-Aube, a poet of Champagne who lived in
the first half of the thirteenth century.
The story, as told in the Chanson, is as follows:—
Girard, or Girart, the son of Garin of Montglave, a poor nobleman, goes with his brother
Renier to the court of Charlemagne to seek his fortune. After being at court for some
time he quarrelled with the Emperor, owing to the latter marrying the widow of Aubery,
duc de Bourgogne, who was pledged to Girart. As a compensation for the loss of his
bride, he was given the Comté of Vienne, in Dauphiné. When he presented himself
before Charlemagne to do homage, the queen, whose affection for her old lover had
changed to contempt, forced him by a trick to kiss her foot instead of that of her
husband. Some time after, Girart learnt the truth, and, furious at the insult placed upon
him, he rebelled against his sovereign. Renier, who had been made duke of Genoa, with
his son Olivier and his daughter 'la belle Aude,' came to help him. Charlemagne
besieged Vienne with a great army, and amongst his warriors was his nephew Roland,
who was his principal champion, just as Olivier was that of Girart. A siege, like that of
Troy, ensued, many doughty deeds being done by the two heroes. In the course of the
fighting Roland sees Aude and falls in love with her. He takes her prisoner, and almost
succeeds in carrying her off to his tent, but Olivier rescues her. Finally, it is agreed that
the quarrel between the monarch and his vassal shall be settled by a duel between the
two champions. Needless to say, the latter fall in readily with the proposal. Olivier is
armed by an aged Jew, Joachim, who with others of his nation had fled to Vienne with