<P> The Franks discover Ganelon's betrayal and keep him in chains until his trial, where Ganelon argues that his action was legitimate revenge, not treason . While the council of barons assembled to decide the traitor's fate is initially swayed by this claim, one man, Thierry, argues that because Roland was serving Charlemagne when Ganelon delivered his revenge on him, Ganelon's action constitutes a betrayal . </P> <P> Ganelon's friend Pinabel challenges Thierry to trial by combat . By divine intervention, Thierry kills Pinabel . By this the Franks are convinced of Ganelon's treason . Thus, he is torn apart by having four galloping horses tied one to each arm and leg and thirty of his relatives are hanged . </P> <P> The poem is written in stanzas of irregular length known as laisses . The lines are decasyllabic (containing ten syllables), and each is divided by a strong caesura which generally falls after the fourth syllable . The last stressed syllable of each line in a laisse has the same vowel sound as every other end - syllable in that laisse . The laisse is therefore an assonal, not a rhyming stanza . </P> <P> On a narrative level, the Song of Roland features extensive use of repetition, parallelism, and thesis - antithesis pairs . Roland proposes Ganelon for the dangerous mission to Sarrogossa; Ganelon designates Roland to man the rearguard . Charlemagne is contrasted with Baligant . Unlike later Renaissance and Romantic literature, the poem focuses on action rather than introspection . The characters are presented through what they do, not through what they think or feel . </P>

The following song is sung from the perspective of which character