THE HORSE AS AN EPIC CHARACTER 



Let us now, in conclusion, pass in review the careers of 

 four epic horses, two from the west and two from the east. 



Our first horse hero shall be Marchegai, and his story 

 is told in the French epic, Aiol. Aiol is the son of a 

 certain Count Elie, who has been banished from Charle- 

 magne's court and has lived for fifteen years with his 

 wife in the dreariest spot of all France, the landes near 

 Bordeaux — that is, in Gascony. At the end of that 

 time Aiol, a lad now some thirteen years old, decides 

 that the time has come to go forth into the world, 

 avenge his father, and recoup the family fortunes. All 

 that EHe can give him is his blessing, a liberal store of 

 good advice, his lance (which because of long exposure 

 to wind and rain had become rusty and bent), the 

 old hauberk and helmet, the good sword which he had 

 kept polished, and, best of all, his horse Marchegai. 

 " He is ill groomed now, very lean and sickly," says the 

 father, " his four feet are unshod; but do not sell him 

 nor pawn him, do not stint him of fodder, and he will 

 soon be fairer than any other horse." Thus equipped, 

 Aiol started forth like another young Gascon gentleman, 

 some eight hundred years later, whose acquaintance 

 nearly every one has made in the Three Musketeers, 

 poor, shabby, but with a high heart and great am- 

 bition. And the mockery that greeted D'Artagnan 

 mounted upon his buttercup-colored Rosinante, wel- 

 comed Aiol as he entered the cities of Poitiers and 

 Orl^ns. According to Dumas, D'Artagnan checked 



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