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diff --git a/33274-8.txt b/33274-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e702c4d --- /dev/null +++ b/33274-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5248 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Abbatial Crosier, by Eugène Sue + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Abbatial Crosier + or Bonaik and Septimine. A Tale of a Medieval Abbess + +Author: Eugène Sue + +Translator: Daniel De Leon + +Release Date: July 27, 2010 [EBook #33274] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ABBATIAL CROSIER *** + + + + +Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was +produced from scanned images of public domain material +from the Google Print project.) + + + + + + + + + +THE ABBATIAL CROSIER + + +THE FULL SERIES OF + +The Mysteries of the People + +OR + +History of a Proletarian Family + +Across the Ages + +By EUGENE SUE + +_Consisting of the Following Works_: + + THE GOLD SICKLE; or, _Hena the Virgin of the Isle of Sen_. + THE BRASS BELL; or, _The Chariot of Death_. + THE IRON COLLAR; or, _Faustine and Syomara_. + THE SILVER CROSS; or, _The Carpenter of Nazareth_. + THE CASQUE'S LARK; or, _Victoria, the Mother of the Camps_. + THE PONIARD'S HILT; or, _Karadeucq and Ronan_. + THE BRANDING NEEDLE; or, _The Monastery of Charolles_. + THE ABBATIAL CROSIER; or, _Bonaik and Septimine_. + THE CARLOVINGIAN COINS; or, _The Daughters of Charlemagne_. + THE IRON ARROW-HEAD; or, _The Buckler Maiden_. + THE INFANT'S SKULL; or, _The End of the World_. + THE PILGRIM'S SHELL; or, _Fergan the Quarryman_. + THE IRON PINCERS; or, _Mylio and Karvel_. + THE IRON TREVET; or _Jocelyn the Champion_. + THE EXECUTIONER'S KNIFE; or, _Joan of Arc_. + THE POCKET BIBLE; or, _Christian the Printer_. + THE BLACKSMITH'S HAMMER; or, _The Peasant Code_. + THE SWORD OF HONOR; or, _The Foundation of the + French Republic_. + THE GALLEY SLAVE'S RING; or, _The Family Lebrenn_. + +Published Uniform With This Volume By + +THE NEW YORK LABOR NEWS CO. + +28 CITY HALL PLACE NEW YORK CITY + + + + + +THE + +ABBATIAL CROSIER + +OR + +BONAIK AND SEPTIMINE + +A Tale of a Medieval Abbess + +By EUGENE SUE + +TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL FRENCH BY + +DANIEL DE LEON + +NEW YORK LABOR NEWS COMPANY, 1908 + + + + +Copyright 1908, by the + +NEW YORK LABOR NEWS CO. + + + + +INDEX + + +TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE v + +PROLOGUE. + +CHAPTER. + +I. NARBONNE 3 + +II. ABD-EL-KADER AND ROSEN-AER 6 + + +PART I--THE CONVENT OF ST. SATURNINE. + +I. THE LAST OF THE MEROVINGIANS 15 + +II. CHARLES MARTEL 23 + +III. FATHER CLEMENT'S REFECTORY 33 + +IV. MORDECAI THE SLAVE-DEALER 40 + + +PART II--THE ABBEY OF MERIADEK. + +I. ELOI THE GOLDSMITH 47 + +II. THE INTENDANT RICARIK 57 + +III. THE ABBESS MEROFLEDE 62 + +IV. IN SIGHT OF THE ABBEY 69 + +V. ASYLUM 78 + +VI. WARRIOR AND ABBESS 83 + +VII. THE MOUSE-TRAP 89 + +VIII. THE MIRACLE OF ST. LOUP'S TEETH 94 + +IX. BRENN--KARNAK 102 + +X. MISTRESS AND MAN 117 + +XI. THE FLIGHT 122 + +XII. MOTHER AND SON 129 + + + + +TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE + + +The turbulent epoch that rocked the cradle of the Carlovingian dynasty, +the dynasty from which issued the colossal historic figure of +Charlemagne, is the epoch of this touching story--the eighth of the +series of Eugene Sue's historic novels known collectively under the +title "_The Mysteries of the People; or, History of a Proletarian Family +Across the Ages_." From the seething caldron of the valleys of the +western Rhine, inundated by the Arabs from the south, the Frisians from +the north, the Saxons from the west, and in which the chants of Moslems, +of Christians and of barbarians mixed into the one common cry of +desolating war, the feudal social system, previously introduced by +Clovis, and now threatened to be engulfed, emerged from the chaos as a +social institution. Many a characteristic of feudalism would be missed +if this, a crucial period of its existence, is not properly apprehended. +As in all the others of this series of Eugene Sue's stories, the +information is imparted without the reader's knowledge. What may be +termed the plot seizes and keeps the interest from start to finish, +steadily enriching the mind with knowledge historically inestimable, +besides connecting with the era described in the previous story--_The +Branding Needle; or, The Monastery of Charolles_--and preparing the +ground for the thrilling events that are the subject of the succeeding +narrative--_The Carlovingian Coins; or, The Daughters of Charlemagne_. + +DANIEL DE LEON. + +New York, 1904. + + + + +PROLOGUE + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +NARBONNE. + + +Cruel intestine wars between the descendants of the Frankish conquerors +were devastating Gaul when the Arab invasion took place in 719. The +invaders poured down from the Pyrenees and drove back or subjugated the +Visigoths. The exchange of masters was almost a gain to the inhabitants +of the region. The conquerors from the south were more civilized than +those from the north. Many of the Gauls,--either freemen, or colonists +or slaves--took so strongly to the southern invader that they even +embraced his religion, the religion of Mahomet, allured thereto by the +promises of a paradise peopled with houris. "The virtuous believer," +declared the Koran, "will be taken to the delicious home of Eden, +enchanted gardens, through which well-shaded rivers flow. There, +ornamented with bracelets of gold, clad in green clothes of woven silk +and resplendent with glory, the faithful will recline upon nuptial beds, +the happy prize in the dwelling of delights." Preferring, accordingly, +the white houris promised by the Koran to the winged seraphs of the +Christian paradise, many Gauls embraced Mohamedanism with ardor. Mosques +rose in Languedoc beside Christian churches. More tolerant than the +bishops, the Arabs allowed the Christians to follow their own religion. +Moreover, Mohamedanism, founded by Mahomet during the previous century, +608, acknowledged the divinity of the Scriptures and recognized Moses +and the Jewish prophets as beings chosen by God, only it did not +recognize the godship of Jesus. "Oh, ye, who have received the +Scriptures, keep within the bounds of the faith. Speak only the truth +about God. Jesus is the son of Mary, and he was sent by the All-High, +but is not his son. Say not that God is a trinity. God is one. Jesus +will not blush at being the servant of God. The angels that surround the +throne of God obey God!"--thus spoke the Koran. + +The town of Narbonne, capital of Languedoc under the dominion of the +Arabs, had in 737 quite an Oriental aspect, due as much to the clearness +of the sky as to the dress and customs of a large number of its +inhabitants. The laurel shrubs, the green oaks and palm trees recalled +the vegetation of Africa. Saracen women were seen going to or coming +from the fountains with earthen vessels nicely balanced on their heads, +and draped in their white clothes like the women of the time of Abraham, +or of the young master of Nazareth. Camels with their long necks and +loaded with merchandise left the town for Nimes, Beziers, Toulouse or +Marseilles. The caravans passed on these journeys, along the fields, a +great variety of settlements--mud hovels thatched with straw and +inhabited by Gallic peasants, who were successively the slaves of the +Visigoths and of the Musselmen; tents of a Barbary tribe, Arabian +mountaineers who had descended to the plains from the peak of Mt. Atlas, +and who preserved in Gaul the nomad habits of their old home, warriors, +ever ready to mount their tireless and swift horses in answer to the +first call of battle from the emir of the province; finally, and at long +distances apart, on the crests of the mountains, high towers where, +during war, the Saracens lighted fires for the purpose of signaling the +approach of the enemy to one another. + +In the almost Musselman town of Narbonne, the same as in all the other +towns of Gaul under the sway of the Franks and the bishops, there were, +sad to say, public market-places where slaves were set up for sale. But +that which imparted a peculiar character to the market of Narbonne was +the diversity of the races of the captives that were offered to +purchasers. There were seen negroes and negresses in large numbers, as +well as Ethiopians of ebony blackness; copper-colored mestizos; handsome +young Greek girls and boys brought from Athens, Crete or Samos and taken +prisoner on some of the frequent maritime raids made by the Arabs. A +skilful politician, Mahomet, their prophet, had incited in his +sectarians a passion for maritime expeditions. "The believer who dies on +land feels a pain that is hardly comparable with the bite of an ant," +says the Koran, "but the believer who dies at sea, feels on the contrary +the delicious sensation of a man, who, a prey to burning thirst, is +offered iced water mixed with citron and honey." Around the slave market +stood numerous Arabian shops filled with merchandise mainly manufactured +at Cordova or Granada, centers, at the time, of Saracen art and +civilization: brilliant arms inlaid in arabesques with gold and silver, +coffers of chiseled ivory, crystal cups, rich silk fabrics, embroidered +hose, precious collars and bracelets. Around the shops pressed a crowd +of as various races as costumes: aboriginal Gauls in their wide hose, an +article that gave this section of Gaul the name of "Bracciata" with the +Romans; descendants of the Visigoths who remained faithful to their old +Germanic dress, the furred coat, despite the warmth of the climate; +Arabians with turbans of all colors. From time to time, the cry of the +Musselman priests, calling the believers to prayer from the height of +the minarets, mixed with the chimes of basilicas that summoned the +Christians to their devotions. + +"Christian dogs!" said the Arabs or Musselman Gauls. "Accursed heathens, +damned degenerates!" answered the Christians; whereupon both proceeded +to exercise their own cult in peace. More tolerant than the bishops of +Rome, Mahomet said in the Koran: "Do not do violence upon men for reason +of their religion." + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +ABD-EL-KADER AND ROSEN-AER. + + +Abd-el-Kader, one of the bravest chiefs of the warriors of Abd-el-Rhaman +during the life of this emir, who was killed five years before on the +field of Poitiers where he delivered a great battle to Charles Martel +(the Hammer)--Abd-el-Kader, after ravaging and pillaging the country and +the churches of Tours and of Blois, occupied one of the handsomest +dwellings in Narbonne. He had the house arranged in Oriental +fashion--the outside windows were closed up, and laurels were planted in +the inner courtyard, from the center of which a fountain jetted its +steady stream. His harem occupied one of the wings of the house. In one +of the chambers of this harem, covered with rich carpets of gay colors, +furnished with silk divans, and lighted by a window with gilded bars, +sat a woman of rare beauty, although about forty years of age. It was +easy to recognize by the whiteness of her skin, the blondness of her +hair and the blue of her eyes that she was not of Arabian stock. Her +pale and sad face revealed a settled and profound sorrow. The curtain +that covered the door of the chamber was pushed aside and Abd-el-Kader +entered. The swarthy-complexioned warrior was about fifty years of age; +his beard and moustache were grizzled; his face, calm and grave, +expressed dignity and mildness. He stepped slowly towards the woman and +said to her: "Rosen-Aër, we meet to-day for the last time, perhaps." + +The Gallic matron seemed surprised and replied: "If I am not to see you +again, I still shall remember you. I am your slave, but you have been +kind and generous to me. I shall never forget that six years ago, when +the Arabians invaded Burgundy and raided the valley of Charolles, where +my family lived in happiness for more than a century, you respected me +when I was taken to your tent. I declared to you then that at the first +act of violence on your part, I would kill myself ... you ever treated +me as a free woman--" + +"Mercy is the badge of the believer. I only obeyed the voice of the +prophet. But you, Rosen-Aër, did you not, shortly after you were brought +here a prisoner and Ibraham, my youngest son, was nearly dying, did you +not ask to take care of him the same as a mother would? Did you not +watch at his bedside during the long nights of his illness as if he were +your own son? It was, accordingly, in recompense for your services, as +well as in obedience to the behest of the Koran--_deliver your brothers +from bondage_--that I offered you your freedom." + +"What else could I have done with my freedom? I am all alone in the +world.... I saw my brother and husband killed under my own eyes in a +desperate fight with your soldiers when they invaded the valley of +Charolles; and before those days I wept my son Amael, who had +disappeared six years before. I wept him then, as I do still every day, +inconsolable at his absence." + +Rosen-Aër spoke these words and could not keep back the tears that +welled in her eyes and inundated her face. Abd-el-Kader looked at her +sadly and replied: "Your motherly sorrow has often touched me. I can +neither console you, nor give you hope. How could your son now be found, +seeing he disappeared when barely fifteen years of age! It is a question +whether he still lives." + +"He would now be twenty-five; but," added Rosen-Aër drying her tears, +"let us not now talk of my son; I am afraid he is lost to me +forever.... But why say you that we see each other to-day, perhaps, for +the last time?" + +"Charles Martel, the chief of the Franks, is advancing with forced +marches at the head of a formidable army to drive us out of Gaul. I was +notified yesterday of his approach. Within two days, perhaps, the Franks +will be upon the walls of Narbonne. Abd-el-Malek, our new emir, is of +the opinion that our troops should go out and meet Charles.... We are +about to depart. The battle will be bloody. God may wish to send me +death. That is why I came to tell you we may never meet again.... If God +should will it so, what will become of you?" + +"You have several times generously offered me freedom, money and a guide +to travel through Gaul and look for my child. But I lacked the courage +and strength, or rather my reason told me how insane such an undertaking +would be in the midst of the civil wars that are desolating our unhappy +country. If I am not to see you again and I must leave this house, where +at least I have been able to weep in peace, free from the shame and the +trials of slavery, there will be nothing left to me but to die." + +"I do not like to see you despair, Rosen-Aër. This is my plan for you. +During my absence you shall leave Narbonne. My forces are to take the +field against the Franks; my army is brave, but the will of God is +immovable. If it be his pleasure that victory fall to Charles and that +the Franks prevail over the Crescent, they may lay siege to this town +and take it. In that event you and all its inhabitants will be exposed +to the fate of people in a place carried by assault--death or slavery. +It is with an eye to withdrawing you from so sad a fate that I would +induce you to leave the town, and to take temporary shelter in one of +the Gallic colonies nearby that cultivate my fields." + +"Your fields!" exclaimed Rosen-Aër with bitterness; "you should rather +say the fields that your soldiers seized by force and rapine, the +inseparable companions of conquest." + +"Such was the will of God." + +"Oh, for the sake of your race and of yourself, Abd-el-Kader, I hope the +will of God may save you the pain of some day seeing the fields of your +fathers at the mercy of conquerors!" + +"God ordains ... Man submits. If God decrees against Charles Martel at +the approaching battle and we are victorious, you can return here to +Narbonne; if we are vanquished, if I am killed in the battle, if we are +driven out of Gaul, you shall have nothing to fear in the retreat that I +am providing for you. You can remain with the family of my servant. Here +is a little purse with enough gold pieces to supply your wants." + +"I shall remember you, Abd-el-Kader, as a generous man, despite the +wrong your race has done mine." + +"God sent us hither to cause the religion preached by Mahomet to +triumph, the only true religion. May his name be glorified." + +"But the Christian bishops, priests and monks also pretend that their +religion is the only true one." + +"Let them prove it ... we leave them free to preach their belief. Barely +a century since its foundation, the Musselman faith has subjugated the +Orient almost entirely, Spain and a portion of Gaul. We are instruments +of the divine will. If God has decided that I shall die in the +approaching battle, then we shall not meet again. Should I die and yet +our arms triumph, my sons, if they survive me, will take care of you.... +Ibraham venerates you as his own mother." + +"Do you take Ibraham to battle?" + +"The youth who can manage a steed and hold a sword is of battle age.... +Do you accept my offer, Rosen-Aër?" + +"Yes; I tremble at the very thought of falling into the hands of the +Franks! Sad days these are for us. We have only the choice of +servitudes. Happy, at least, are those who, like myself, meet among +their masters compassionate hearts." + +"Make yourself ready.... I myself shall depart in an hour at the head of +a part of my troops. I shall come for you. We shall leave the house +together; you to proceed to the colonist who occupies my country house, +and I to march against the Frankish army." + +When Abd-el-Kader returned for Rosen-Aër, he had donned his battle +costume. He wore a brilliant steel cuirass, and a red turban wrapped +around his gilded casque. A scimitar of marvelous workmanship hung from +his belt; its sheath as well as its handle of massive gold was +ornamented with arabesques of corals and diamonds. The Arab warrior said +to Rosen-Aër with suppressed emotion: "Allow me to embrace you as a +daughter." + +Rosen-Aër gave Abd-el-Kader her forehead, saying: "I pray that your +children may long retain their father." + +The Arab and the Gallic woman left the harem together. Outside they met +the five sons of the chief--Abd-Allah, Hasam, Abul-Casem, Mahomet and +Ibraham, the youngest, all in full armor, on horseback and carrying over +their arms long and light white woolen cloaks with black tufts. The +youngest of the family, a lad of barely fifteen, alighted from his horse +when he saw Rosen-Aër, took her hand, kissed it respectfully and said: +"You have been a mother to me; before departing for battle I greet you +as a son." + +The Gallic woman thought of her son Amael, who also was fifteen years +when he departed from the valley of Charolles, and answered the young +man: "May God protect you, you who are now to incur the risk of war for +the first time!" + +"'Believers, when you march upon the enemy, be unshakable,' says the +prophet," the lad replied with mild yet grave voice. "We are going to +deliver battle to the infidel Franks. I shall fight bravely under the +eyes of my father.... God alone disposes of our lives. His will be +done." + +Once more kissing the hand of Rosen-Aër, the young Arab helped her mount +her mule that was led by a black slave. From the distance the martial +bray of the Saracen clarions was heard. Abd-el-Kader waved his last +adieu to Rosen-Aër, and the Arab, with whom age had not weakened the +martial ardor of younger years, leaped upon his horse and galloped off, +followed by his five sons. For a few moments longer the Gallic woman +followed with her eyes the long white cloaks that the rapid course of +the Arab and his five children raised to the wind. When they had +disappeared in a cloud of dust at a turning of the street, Rosen-Aër +ordered the black slave to lead the mule towards the main gate of the +town in order to ride out and reach the colonist's house. + + + + +PART I. + +THE CONVENT OF ST. SATURNINE + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE LAST OF THE MEROVINGIANS. + + +About a month had elapsed since the departure of Abd-el-Kader and his +five sons to meet Charles Martel in battle. + +A boy of eleven or twelve years, confined in the convent of St. +Saturnine in Anjou, was leaning on his elbows at the sill of a narrow +window on the first floor of one of the buildings of the abbey, and +looking out upon the fields. The vaulted room in which the boy was kept +was cold, spacious, bare and floored with stone. In a corner stood a +little bed, and on a table a few toys roughly cut out of coarse wood. A +few stools and a trunk were its only furniture. The boy himself, dressed +in a threadbare and patched black serge, had a sickly appearance. His +face, biliously pale, expressed profound sadness. He looked at the +distant fields, and tears ran down his hollow cheeks. While he was +dreaming awake, the door of the room opened and a young girl of about +sixteen stepped in softly. Her complexion was dark brown but extremely +fresh, her lips were red, her hair as well as her eyes jetty black, and +her eyebrows were exquisitely arched. A more comely figure could ill be +imagined, despite her drugget petticoat and coarse apron, the ends of +which were tucked under her belt and which was full of hemp ready to be +spun. Septimine held her distaff in one hand and in the other a little +wooden casket. At the sight of the boy, who remained sadly leaning on +his elbows at the window, the young girl sighed and said to herself: +"Poor little fellow ... always sorry ... I do not know whether the news +I bring will be good or bad for him.... If he accepts, may he never +have cause to look back with regret to this convent." She softly +approached the child without being heard, placed her hand upon his +shoulder with gentle familiarity and said playfully: "What are you +thinking about, my dear prince?" + +The child was startled. He turned his face bathed in tears towards +Septimine, and letting himself down with an air of utter dejectment on a +stool near the window, said: "Oh, I am weary!... I am weary to death!" +and the tears flowed anew from his fixed and red eyes. + +"Come now, dry those ugly tears," the young maid replied affectionately. +"I came to entertain you. I brought along a large supply of hemp to spin +in your company while talking to you, unless you prefer a game of +huckle-bones--" + +"Nothing amuses me. Everything tires me." + +"That is sad for those who love you; nothing amuses you, nothing pleases +you. You are always downcast and silent. You take no care of your +person. Your hair is unkempt ... and your clothes in rags! If your hair +were well combed over your forehead, instead of falling in disorder, you +would not look like a little savage.... It is now three days since you +have allowed me to arrange it, but to-day, will ye, nill ye, I shall +comb it." + +"No; no; I won't have it!" said the boy stamping his foot with feverish +impatience. "Leave me alone; your attentions annoy me." + +"Oh, oh! You can not frighten me with your stamping," Septimine replied +mirthfully. "I have brought along in this box all that I need to comb +you. Be wise and docile." + +"Septimine.... Leave me in peace!" + +But the young girl was not to be discouraged. With the authority of a +"big sister" she turned around the chair of the recalcitrant boy and +forced him to let her disentangle his disordered hair. While thus giving +him her care with as much affection as grace, Septimine, standing behind +him said: "Are you not a hundred times better looking this way, my dear +prince?" + +"What is the difference, good looking or not?... I am not allowed to +leave this convent.... What have I done to be so wretched?" + +"Alack, poor little one ... you are the son of a king!" + +The boy made no answer, but he hid his face in his hands and fell to +weeping, from time to time crying in a smothered voice: "My father.... +Oh, my father.... Alas!... He is dead!" + +"Oh, if you again start crying, and, worst of all, to speak of your +father, you will make me also cry. Although I scold you for your +negligence, I do pity you. I came to give you some hope, perhaps." + +"What do you mean, Septimine?" + +Having finished dressing the boy's hair, the young girl sat down near +him on a stool, took up her distaff, began to spin and said in a low and +mysterious voice: "Do you promise to be discreet?" + +"Whom do you expect I can talk to? Whom could I reveal secrets to? I +have an aversion to all the people in this place." + +"Excepting myself.... Not true?" + +"Yes, excepting you, Septimine.... You are the only one who inspires me +with some little confidence." + +"What distrust could a little girl, born in Septimany, inspire you with? +Am not I as well as my mother, the wife of the outside porter of this +convent, a slave? When eighteen months ago you were brought to this +place and I was not yet fifteen, I was assigned to you, to entertain you +and play with you. Since then we have grown up together. You became +accustomed to me.... Is it not of course that you should have some +confidence in me?" + +"You just told me you had some hope to give me.... What hope can you +give me? I want to hear?" + +"Do you first promise to be discreet?" + +"Be easy on that score. I shall be discreet." + +"Promise me also not to begin to weep again, because I shall have to +speak about your father, a painful subject to you." + +"I shall not weep, Septimine." + +"It is now eighteen months since your father, King Thierry, died on his +domain in Compiegne, and the steward of the palace, that wicked Charles +Martel, had you taken to this place and kept imprisoned ... poor dear +innocent boy!" + +"My father always said to me: 'My little Childeric, you will be a king +like myself, you will have dogs and falcons to hunt with, handsome +horses, chariots to ride in, slaves to serve you'; and yet I have none +of these things here. Oh, God! Oh, God! How unhappy I am!" + +"Are you going to start weeping again?" + +"No, Septimine; no, my little friend." + +"That wicked Charles Martel had you brought to this convent, as I was +saying, in order to reign in your place, as he virtually reigned in the +place of your father, King Thierry." + +"But there are in this country of Gaul enough dogs, falcons, horses and +slaves for that Charles to have an abundance and I also. Is it not so?" + +"Yes ... if to reign means simply to have all these things ... but I, +poor girl, do not understand these things. I only know that your father +had friends who are enemies of Charles Martel, and that they would like +to see you out of this convent. That is the secret that I had for you." + +"And I, Septimine, would also like to be out of here! The devil take the +monks and their convent." + +After a moment's hesitation, the young girl stopped spinning and said +to the young prince in a still lower voice and looking around as if +fearing to be heard: "It depends upon you to get out of this convent." + +"Upon me!" cried Childeric. "That would be quickly done on my part. But +how?" + +"Mercy! Do not speak so loud," replied Septimine uneasily and casting +her eyes towards the door. "I always fear some one is there listening." +She rose and went on tip-toe to listen at the door and peep through the +keyhole. Feeling reassured by the examination, Septimine returned to her +seat, again started to spin, and went on talking with Childeric: "You +can walk in the garden during the day?" + +"Yes, but the garden is surrounded by a high wall, and I am always +accompanied by one of the monks. That is why I prefer to remain in this +room to walking in such company." + +"They lock you up at night--" + +"And a monk sleeps outside before my door." + +"Just look out of this window." + +"What for?" + +"To see whether the height of the window above the ground would frighten +you." + +Childeric looked out of the window. "It is very high, Septimine; it is +really very high." + +"You little coward! It is only eight or ten feet at most. Suppose a rope +with large knots were fastened to that iron bar yonder, would you have +the courage to descend by the rope, helping yourself with your feet and +hands?" + +"Oh, I never could do that!" + +"You would be afraid? Great God, is it possible!" + +"The attempt looks to me above my strength." + +"I would not be afraid, and I am only a girl.... Come, have courage, my +prince." + +The boy looked once more out of the window, reflected and proceeded to +say: "You are right.... It is not as high as it looked at first. But +the rope, Septimine, how am I to get it? And then, when I am down there, +at night.... What shall I do then?" + +"At the bottom of the window you will find my father. He will throw upon +your shoulders the caped cloak that I usually wear. I am not really much +taller than you. If you wrap the mantle well around you and lower the +cape well over your face, my father could, with the help of the night, +make you pass for me, traverse the interior of the convent, and reach +his lodge outside. There, friends of your father would be waiting on +horseback. You would depart quickly. You would have the whole night +before you, and in the morning, when your flight was discovered, it +would be too late to start in your pursuit.... Now answer, Childeric, +will you have the courage to descend from this window in order to regain +your freedom?" + +"Septimine, I have a strong desire to do so ... but--" + +"But you are afraid.... Fie! A big boy like you! It is shameful!" + +"And who will give me a rope?" + +"I.... Are you decided? You will have to hurry; your father's friends +are in the neighborhood.... To-night and to-morrow night they will be +waiting with horses not far from the walls of the convent ... to take +you away--" + +"Septimine, I shall have the courage to descend, yes ... I promise you." + +"Forget not, Childeric, that my mother, my father and I are exposing +ourselves to terrible punishment, even death perhaps, by favoring your +flight. When the proposition was made to my father to help in your +escape, he was offered money. He refused, saying: 'I want no other +reward than the satisfaction of having contributed in the deliverance +of the poor little fellow, who is always sad and weepful all these +eighteen months, and who is dying of grief.'" + +"Oh, be easy. When I shall be king, like my father, I shall make you +handsome presents; I shall give you fine clothes, jewelry--" + +"I do not need your presents. You are a child that one must sympathize +with. That is all that concerns me. 'It is not because the poor little +fellow is the son of a king that I take an interest in him,' my father +has said to me, 'because, after all, he is of the race of those Franks +who have held us in bondage, us the Gauls, ever since Clovis. No, I wish +to help the poor little fellow because I pity him.' Now, remember, +Childeric, the slightest indiscretion on your part would draw terrible +misfortunes upon my family." + +"Septimine, I shall say nothing to anybody, I shall have courage, and +this very night I shall descend by the window to join my father's +friends. Oh! What happiness!" the child added, clapping his hands, "what +happiness! I shall be free to-morrow!... I shall be a king like my +father!" + +"Wait till you are away to rejoice!... And now, listen to me carefully. +You are always locked in after evening prayers. The night is quite dark +by that time. You will have to wait about half an hour. Then tie the +rope and let yourself down into the garden. My father will be at the +foot of the window--" + +"Agreed.... But where is the rope?" + +"Here," said Septimine, taking from amidst the flax that she held in her +apron a roll of thin but strong rope, furnished with knots at intervals. +"There is at the end, as you see, an iron hook; you will fasten that to +this bar, and you will then let yourself down from knot to knot till you +reach the ground." + +"Oh! I am no longer afraid! But where shall I hide the rope? Where shall +I keep it until evening?" + +"Under the mattress of your bed." + +"Good! Give it to me!" and the young prince, helped by Septimine, hid +the rope well under the mattress. Hardly had they re-covered the bed +when trumpets were heard blowing at a distance. Septimine and Childeric +looked at each other for a moment in astonishment. The young girl +returned to her seat, took up her distaff and observed in great +excitement: + +"Something unusual is going on outside of the abbey.... They may come +here.... Take up your huckle-bones and play with them." + +Childeric mechanically obeyed the orders of the young girl, sat down on +the floor, and began to play huckle-bones, while Septimine, with +apparent unconcern, spun at her distaff near the window. A few minutes +later the door of the room opened. Father Clement, the abbot of the +convent, came in and said to the young girl: "You can go away; I shall +call you back if I want you." + +Septimine hastened to leave; but thinking she could profit by a moment +when the monk did not see her, she placed her finger to her lips in +order to convey to Childeric a last warning of discretion. The abbot +happening to turn around suddenly, the girl hardly had time to carry her +hand to her hair in order to conceal the meaning of her first gesture. +Septimine feared she had aroused the suspicion of Father Clement, who +followed her with penetrating eyes, and her apprehensions ripened into +certainty when, having arrived at the threshold of the door and turning +a last time to salute the Father, her eyes met his scrutinizing gaze +fixed upon her. + +"May God help us," said the poor girl seized with mortal anxiety and +leaving the room. "At the sight of the monk the unhappy prince became +purple in the face.... He did not take his eyes from the bed where we +hid the rope. Oh, I tremble for the little fellow and for us!... Oh! +What will come of it?" + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +CHARLES MARTEL. + + +Charles the Hammer, or Martel, had arrived at the convent of St. +Saturnine escorted by only about a hundred armed men. He was on the way +to join a detachment of his army that lay encamped at a little distance +from the abbey. The steward of the palace and one of the officers of the +squad that accompanied him were installed in a room that served as the +refectory of Father Clement, while the latter went for the little +prince. + +At this period in the full vigor of his age, Charles Martel exaggerated +in his language and costume the rudeness of his Germanic stock. His +beard and hair, which were of a reddish blonde, were kept untrimmed and +shaggy, and framed in a face of high color, that bore the imprint of +rare energy coupled with a good nature that was at times both jovial and +sly. His keen eyes revealed an intelligence of superior order. Like the +lowest of his soldiers, he wore a coat of goat-skin over his tarnished +armor. His boots, made of heavy leather, were armed with rusty iron +spurs. From his leather baldric hung a long sword of Bordeaux, a town +renowned for its manufacture of arms. + +The officer who accompanied Charles Martel seemed to be twenty-five +years of age--tall, slender, powerfully built. He wore his brilliant +steel armor with military ease, half-hidden under a long white cloak +with black tufts, after the Arabian fashion. His magnificent scimitar, +with both handle and scabbard of solid gold and ornamented with +arabesques of coral and diamonds, likewise was of Arabian origin. The +young man's face was of rare manly beauty. He had placed his casque upon +a table. His wavy black hair, divided in the middle of his head, fell in +ringlets on both sides of his forehead, which was furrowed by a deep +scar, and shaded his manly face that bore a slight brown beard. His eyes +of the blue of the sea, usually mild and proud, seemed however to reveal +a secret sorrow or remorse. At times a nervous twitch brought his +eyebrows together, and his features would for a while become somber. +Soon, however, thanks to the mobility of his impressions, the ardor of +his blood, and the impetuosity of his character, his face would again +resume its normal expression. + +Charles, who for a while had been silently contemplating his young +companion with a kind and sly satisfaction, at last broke the silence, +saying in his hoarse voice: + +"Berthoald, how do you like this abbey and the fields that we have just +traversed?" + +"The abbey seems to me large, the fields fertile. Why do you ask?" + +"Because I would like to make you a present to your taste, my lad." + +The young man looked at the Frankish chief with profound astonishment. + +Charles Martel proceeded: "In 732, it is now nearly six years ago, at +the time that those heathens from Arabia, who had settled in Gaul, +pushed forward as far as Tours and Blois, I marched against them. One +day I saw arrive at my camp a young chief followed by fifty daring +devils. It was you, the son, as you told me, of a Frankish seigneur, who +was dead and had been dispossessed of his benefice, like so many others. +I cared nothing about your birth. When the blade is well tempered I care +little about the name of the armorer," Charles explained as he noticed a +slight quiver in the eyelashes of Berthoald whose forehead swiftly +mantled with a blush and whose eyes dropped in involuntary confusion. +"You searched your fortune in war and had assembled a band of determined +men. You came to offer me your sword and your services. The next day, on +the plains of Poitiers, you and your men fought so bravely against the +Arabs that you lost three-fourths of your little troop. With your own +hands you killed Abd-el-Rhaman, the general of those heathens, and you +received two wounds in disengaging me from a group of horsemen who were +about to kill me, and would thereby have ended the war to the lasting +injury of the Franks." + +"It was my duty as a soldier to defend my chief. I deserve no praise for +that." + +"And it is now my duty as your chief to reward your soldierly courage. I +shall never forget that I owe my life to your valor. Neither will my +children. They will read in some notes I have left on my campaign: 'At +the battle of Poitiers, Charles owed his life to Berthoald; let my +children remember it every time they see the scar that the brave warrior +carries on his forehead.'" + +"Charles, your praises embarrass me." + +"I love you sincerely. Since the battle of Poitiers I have looked upon +you as one of my best companions in arms, although at times you are as +stubborn as a mule and quite odd in your tastes. If the matter in hand +is a war in the east or the north against the Frisians or the Saxons, or +in the south against the Arabs, there is no more rageful hammerer on the +enemies' heads than yourself; but when we had to suppress some revolts +of the Gauls you fought gingerly, almost against your will.... You no +longer were the same daring champion.... Your sword did not leave its +scabbard." + +"Charles, tastes differ," answered Berthoald laughing with so obvious an +effort that it betrayed some poignant recollection. "In matters of +battle it is as in matters of women, tastes differ. Some like blondes, +others brunettes; they are all fire for the one, and all ice for the +other. And so my preference is for war against the Frisians, Saxons and +Arabs." + +"I have no such predilections. As true as I have been surnamed Martel, +so long as I can strike and crush what stands in my way, all enemies are +equally to my taste.... I believed that those Arabian dogs who had been +so roughly hammered would recross the Pyrenees in a hurry after their +rout at Poitiers. I was mistaken. They still hold their ground firmly in +Languedoc. Despite the success of our last battle we have not been able +to seize Narbonne, the place of refuge of those heathens. I am now +called back to the north of Gaul to resist the Saxons who are returning +with more threatening forces. I regret to have to leave Narbonne in the +hands of the Saracens. But we have at least ravaged the neighborhood of +that large town, made an immense booty, carried away a large number of +slaves, and devastated in our retreat the countries of Nimes, of +Toulouse and of Beziers. It will be a good lesson for the populations +who took the side of the Arabs. They will long remember what is to be +gained by leaving the Gospels for the Koran, or rather, because, after +all, I care as little for the Pope as I do for Mahomet, what is to be +gained by an alliance with the Arabs against the Franks. For the rest, +although they remain masters of Narbonne, these pagans worry me little. +Travelers from Spain have informed me that civil war has broken out +between the Caliphs of Granada and of Cordova. Busy with their own +internal strifes, they will not send fresh troops into Gaul, and the +accursed Saracens will not dare to advance beyond Languedoc, whence I +shall drive them away later. At rest about the south, I now return +north. But before doing so I wish to provide, to their own taste and +mine, for a large number of soldiers, who, like yourself, have served +me valiantly, and turn them into fat abbots, rich bishops or other large +beneficiaries." + +"Charles, would you make out of me an abbot or a bishop? You are surely +joking." + +"Why not? It is the abbey and the bishopric that make the abbot and the +bishop, whoever be the incumbent." + +"Please explain yourself more clearly." + +"I have been able to sustain my great wars in the north and south only +by constantly recruiting my forces from the German tribes on the other +side of the Rhine. The descendants of the seigneurs who were the +beneficiaries of Clovis and his sons have degenerated. They have become +do-nothings like their kings. They seek to escape their obligations of +leading their columns to war, under the pretext that they need hands to +cultivate the soil. Apart from a few fighting bishops, old men with the +devil in them, who changed the casque for the mitre, and who, redonning +their cuirasses brought their men to my camp, the Church has not wished +and does not wish to contribute to the expenses of the war. Now, upon +the word of Martel, that will not do! My brave warriors, fresh from +Germany, the chiefs of the bands that have served me faithfully, have a +right to a share of the lands of Gaul. They have more right thereto than +the rapacious bishops and the debauched abbots who keep harems like the +Caliphs of the Arabs. I want to restore order in the matter; to reward +the brave and to punish the cowards and do-nothings. I propose to +distribute a part of the goods of the Church among my men who have +recently arrived from Germany. I shall in that manner provide for my +chiefs and their men, and instead of leaving so much land and so many +slaves in the hands of the tonsured brothers, I shall form a strong +reserve army of veterans, ever ready to take the field at the first +signal. And to begin, I present this abbey to you, its lands, buildings, +slaves, with no other charge upon you than to contribute a certain sum +into my treasury and to turn out with your men at my first call." + +"I a count of this country! I the possessor of such broad estates!" the +young chief cried with joy, hardly believing so magnificent a gift +possible. "But the goods of this abbey are immense! Its lands and +forests extend more than two leagues in a circle!" + +"So much the better, my lad! You and your men will settle down here. +Handsome female slaves are sure to abound on the place. You will raise a +good breed of soldiers. Moreover this abbey is bound, due to its +situation, to become an important military post. I shall grant to the +abbot of this convent some more land ... if any is left. And that is not +all, Berthoald; I entertain as much affection for [you] as I place +confidence in you. I make the gift to you out of affection; now, as to +my confidence. I shall give you a strong proof of it by establishing you +here and charging you with so important a duty ... that, in the end, it +will be I who remain your debtor...." + +"Why do you halt, Charles?" asked Berthoald noticing the chief of the +Franks reflect instead of continuing. + +After a few seconds of silence, Charles resumed: "During the century and +a half and more that we have reigned in fact, we the stewards of the +palace ... of what earthly use have the kings been, the descendants of +Clovis?" + +"Have I not heard you say a hundred times that those do-nothings spend +their time drinking, eating, playing, hunting, sleeping in the arms of +their concubines, going to church and building churches in atonement for +some crime committed in the fury of their drunkenness?" + +"Such has been the life of those 'do-nothing' kings--well named such. We +the stewards of the palace govern in fact. At every assembly of the +Field of May, we pulled one of our royal mannikins out of his residence +of Compiegne, of Kersey-on-the-Oise, or of Braine. We had him set up in +a gilded chariot drawn by four oxen according to the old Germanic +custom, and, with a crown upon his head, a scepter in his hand, purple +on his back, his face ornamented with a long artificial beard, if he had +no beard, so as to impart to him a certain degree of majesty, the image +was promenaded around the Field of May, and received the pledge of +homage from the dukes, counts and bishops, gathered at the assembly from +all parts of Gaul.... The comedy over, the idol was thrust back into its +box until the next year. But what useful purpose can these mummeries +serve? He only should be king who governs and fights. Consequently, as I +have no taste for what is superfluous, I have suppressed the royalty.... +I confiscated the King." + +"You deserve to be praised for that, Charles; the Frankish kings +descended from Clovis, have inspired me with hatred and contempt--" + +"But whence the hate?" + +Berthoald blushed and puckered up his brows: "I have always hated +idleness and cruelty." + +"The last one of these kings, Thierry IV, dead now eighteen months, left +a son behind ... a child of about nine years.... I had him deported to +this abbey--" + +"What do you purpose to do with him?" + +"To keep him.... We Franks are fickle folks. For a century and a half we +fell into the habit of despising the kings that one time we +worshipped.... Accordingly, when the first Field of May took place +without the royal mummery, not one of the dukes and bishops missed the +idol that was absent from the feast. This year, however, some did ask +where was the king; and others answered: 'What is the use of the king?' +It may, nevertheless, happen that one of these days they may demand to +see the royal mannikin make the tour of the Field of May according to +the old custom.... I do not care, provided I reign. Accordingly, I keep +in reserve for them the child that is here. With the aid of a false +beard on his chin and a crown on his head, the little monkey will play +his role in the chariot neither better nor worse than so many other +kings of twelve or fifteen years who preceded him. In case of need, next +year he will be Childeric III, if I think it advisable." + +"Kings of twelve!... How low can royalty fall!... How low the +degradation of the people!" + +"The stewardship of the palace, a post that became hereditary, came very +near dropping to the same level.... Did I not have a brother of eleven +who was the steward of the palace to a king of ten?" + +"You joke, Charles!" + +"No, indeed, I do not, because those days were far from pleasant for +me.... My step-mother, Plectrude, had me cast into prison after the +death of my father Pepin of Heristal.... According to the dame, I was +only a bastard, good either for the gibbet or the priest's frock, while +my father left to my brother Theobald the post of steward of the palace; +hereditary in our family.... And so it happened that my brother, then +only eleven, became the steward of the palace of the then king, who was +only ten, and who became the grandfather of this little Childeric, who +is a prisoner in this convent. That king and steward could exercise no +rivalry over each other except at tops or huckle-bones. Thus the good +dame Plectrude expected to rule in the place of the two urchins, while +they would be at play. Such audacity and folly aroused the Frankish +seigneurs. At the end of a few years Plectrude was driven away with her +son, while I, Charles, for whom she had only bad names, came out of +prison, and now became steward of the palace of Dagobert III. Since then +I have made so much noise in the world, hammering here and yonder upon +the heads of Saxons, Frisians and Saracens, that the name of Martel has +stuck to me. Dagobert III left a son, Thierry IV, who died eighteen +months ago, and he was the father of little Childeric, the prisoner of +this place. While having to cross the region, I wished to pay a visit to +the royal brat and learn how he stood his captivity. I said I had a +token of confidence to give.... I confide to you the keeping of that +child, the last scion of the stock of Clovis, of the Merovingian +conquerors of Gaul." + +"I shall keep this last scion of Clovis?" cried Berthoald, at first +stupefied, but immediately thrilled with savage joy. "I shall keep him? +The boy who has among his ancestors a Clotaire, the murderer of +children! a Chilperic, the Nero of the Gauls! a Fredegonde, a second +Messalina! a Clotaire II, the executioner of Brunhild, and so many other +crowned monsters! Shall I be the jailor of their last issue?... The fate +of man is often strange.... I to be the guardian of the last descendant +of that conqueror of Gaul so much abhorred by my fathers!... Oh, the +gods are just!" + +"Berthoald, are you going crazy? What is there so astonishing in your +becoming the watcher of this child?" + +"Excuse me, Charles," answered Berthoald recollecting and fearing to +betray himself. "I was greatly struck with the thought that I, an +obscure soldier, should watch and hold as a prisoner the last scion of +so many kings! Is it not a strange fate?" + +"Indeed this stock of Clovis, once so valiant, ends miserably!... But +how else could it be! These kinglets--fathers before fifteen, decayed at +thirty, brutified by wine, dulled by idleness, unnerved by youthful +debauchery, emaciated, stunted, and stupid--could not choose but end +this-wise.... The stewards of the palace, on the contrary--rough men, +always on the march from north to south, from east to west, and back +again, always on horseback, always fighting, always governing--they run +out into a Charles, and he is not frail, he is not stunted! Not he! His +beard is not artificial; he will be able to raise a breed of true +kings.... Upon the word of Martel, this second breed of kings will not +allow themselves to be exhibited in carts neither before nor after the +assemblies of the Field of May by any stewards of palaces!" + +"Who can tell, Charles! It may happen that if you raise a breed of +kings, their stock will run down just as that of Clovis has done, whose +last scion you wish to put under my charge." + +"By the devil! By the navel of the Pope! Do you see any sign of decay in +us, the sons of Pepin of Old, who have been the hereditary stewards of +the palace since the reign of Queen Brunhild?" + +"You were not kings, Charles; and royalty carries with it a poison that +in the long run enervates and kills the most virile stock--" + +At this moment Father Clement came tumbling into the room in great +excitement, and broke the thread of the conversation between Charles +Martel and Berthoald. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +FATHER CLEMENT'S REFECTORY. + + +"Seigneur," said Father Clement to Charles, as he precipitately broke +into the room, "I have just discovered a plot! The young prince +obstinately refused to accompany me hither--" + +"A plot! Ho, ho! The folks of your abbey indulge in conspiracies!" + +"Thanks be to heaven, seigneur, myself and brothers are utter strangers +to the unworthy treason. The guilty ones are the miserable slaves who +will be punished as they deserve!" + +"Explain yourself! And stop circumlocutions!" + +"I must first of all inform you, sir, that when the young prince first +arrived at this convent, Count Hugh who brought him, recommended to me +to place near the child some young female slave, a pretty girl, if +possible, above all one that would provoke love ... and who would be +willing to submit to the consequences--" + +"In order, I suppose, that he be educated after the fashion that old +Queen Brunhild followed towards her own grandchildren.... Count Hugh +exceeded my orders; and you, holy man, did you not blush at the role of +coupler in the infamous scheme?" + +"Oh, seigneur! What an abomination! The two children remained pure as +angels.... To make it short, I placed a young female slave near the +prince. The girl, an innocent creature, together with her father and +mother took pity on the fate of Childeric. They listened to detestable +propositions, and this very night and by means of a rope, the child was +to slip from his room with the connivance of the porter slave, and join +some faithful adherents of the deceased King Thierry who are lying in +hiding near the convent. That was the plot." + +"Ha! Ha! The old royal party is stirring! They thought I would be long +kept busy with the Arabs! They planned to restore the royalty in my +absence!" + +"A minute ago, as I entered the room of the young prince, my suspicions +were awakened. The confusion he was in and the redness in his face told +of his guilt. He would not take his eyes from his bed. A sudden idea +occurred to me. I raised the mattress, and there I found a rope +carefully stowed away. I pressed the child with questions, and amidst +tears he confessed to me the full project of escape." + +"Treason!" cried the chief of the Franks, affecting more rage than he +really felt. "How came I to confide this child to the care of monks who +are either traitors or incapable of defending their prisoner!" + +"Oh, seigneur!... We traitors!" + +"How many men did this abbey contribute to the army?" + +"Seigneur, our colonists and slaves are hardly enough to cultivate the +land; our vines are neglected; our fields lie fallow. We could not spare +a single man for the army." + +"How much did you pay into the treasury towards the expenses of the +war?" + +"All our revenues were employed in charitable works ... in pious +foundations." + +"You extend fat charities to yourselves. Such are these churchmen! +Always receiving and taking, never giving or returning! Ye are a race of +vipers! Under whom does this old abbey hold the land?" + +"From the liberalities of the pious King Dagobert. The charter of our +endowment is of the year 640 of our Lord Jesus Christ." + +"Do you, monk, believe that the Frankish kings made these endowments to +you of the tonsured fraternity to the end that you might grow fat in +idleness and abundance, and without ever contributing towards the +expenses of the war with either men or money?" + +"Seigneur ... remember the obligations of the monastery ... keep in mind +the expenses of the cult!" + +"I confide an important prisoner to you and you prove unable to watch +him ... you miserable tonsured idlers ... topers and do-nothings!" + +"Seigneur, we are innocent and incapable of betraying you!" + +"That will never do. I shall settle soldiers on the domain ... men who +will be able to watch the prisoner, and, when need be, defend the abbey, +if the folks of the royal party should attempt to carry off the prince +by force," and turning to Berthoald, Charles said: "You and your men +will take possession of this abbey. I present it to you!" + +The abbot raised his hands to heaven in sign of mute desolation, while +Berthoald, who had pensively stood near, said to Charles Martel: + +"Charles, the commission of jailor is repugnant to my character of a +soldier. I feel thankful to you, but I must decline the gift." + +"Your refusal afflicts me. You have heard the monk. I need here a +vigilant guardian. This abbey is, by its position, an important military +post." + +"Charles, there are other soldiers in your army whom you can charge with +the child and to whom you can confide the defence of the post. You will +find men enough who will not be restrained by any scruples such as +restrain me." + +For a few minutes the chief of the Franks remained silent and +thoughtful, then he said: "Monk, how much land, how many colonists and +slaves have you?" + +"Seigneur, we have five thousand eight hundred acres of land, seven +hundred colonists, and nineteen hundred slaves." + +"Berthoald ... you hear it! That is what you decline for yourself and +your men. Moreover, I would have created you count of the domain." + +"Reserve for others than myself the favor you meant to bestow upon me. I +absolutely refuse the function of jailor." + +"Seigneur," put in Father Clement with a holy resignation that, however, +but ill-concealed his anger at Charles: "You are the chief of the Franks +and all-powerful. If you establish your armed men on this domain, we +shall have to obey, but what will become of us?" + +"And what will become of my companions in arms, who have valiantly +served me during the war while you were counting your beads?... Are they +to steal or beg their bread along the roads?" + +"Seigneur ... there is a way of satisfying both your companions in arms +and ourselves. You wish to change this abbey into a military post. I +admit it, your armed men would be better keepers of the young prince +than we poor monks. But since you dispose of this abbey, deign, +illustrious seigneur, to bestow another one upon us. There is near +Nantes the abbey of Meriadek. One of our brothers, who died recently, +lived there several years as the intendant. He left with us an inventory +containing an exact list of the goods and persons of that abbey. It was +at the time under the rule of St. Benoit. We have learned that later it +was changed into a community of women. But we have no positive +information on that head. But that would matter little." + +"And that abbey," Charles asked, rubbing his beard with a sly look, "you +ask me for it as a charity to you and your monks?" + +"Yes, seigneur; since you dispossess us of this one, we solicit +indemnity." + +"And what is to become of the present holders of the abbey of Meriadek?" + +"Alack! what we would have become. The will of God be done. Charity +begins at home." + +"Yes, provided the will of God turn in your favor. Is the abbey rich?" + +"Seigneur, with the aid of God, we could live there humbly and in +seclusion and prayer and with a little privation." + +"Monk, no false pretences! Is that abbey worth more or is it worth less +than this one? I wish to know whether it is a cow or a goat I am giving +away. If you deceive me, I may some day go back upon my gift. Moreover, +you just said you had an exact inventory of the abbey's havings. Come, +speak up, you old dotard!" + +"Yes, seigneur," answered the abbot biting his lips and proceeding to +look in a drawer among several rolls of parchment for the inventory of +the abbey of Meriadek. "Here," said he, producing the document, "you +will see from this that the revenues of Meriadek are worth about as much +as those that we draw here.... We may even, by retrenching upon our good +works, by reducing our charities, contribute two hundred gold sous +annually to your treasury." + +"You say that rather late," replied Charles turning the leaves of the +inventory which did, indeed, accurately set forth the extent and limits +of the domain of Meriadek. "Have you parchments to write on? I wish to +make the bequest in due form." + +"Yes, seigneur," cried the monk in great glee, running to his trunk and +believing himself in full possession of the abbey of Meriadek. "Here is +a roll of parchment, gracious seigneur. Be kind enough to dictate the +terms of the bequest ... unless you prefer to adopt the usual formula." + +Saying this the abbot was about to sit down and take pen in hand, when, +pushing him away from the table, Charles said: "Monk, I am not like the +do-nothing and ignorant kings; I know how to write; and I like to +transact my business myself." + +Consulting from time to time the parchments that the abbot had handed to +him, and from time to time casting a look upon Berthoald, who had +remained steeped in thought and a stranger to what was going on near +him, Charles began to write. A few steps from the table, and following +the hand of Charles with greedy eyes, the monk was congratulating +himself upon his having thought of the abbey of Meriadek, and he no +doubt was computing the advantage that would accrue to himself by the +exchange. Addressing the chief of the Franks, who was silently writing, +the monk said: "Mighty seigneur, my names are Bonaventure Clement, an +unworthy priest and monk of the order of St. Benoit." + +Charles raised his head, looked fixedly at the abbot and a singular +smile played around his lips. He then proceeded to write, and a few +minutes later said: "Wax!... I wish to place my seal on this charter as +a last formality." + +The abbot hastened to fetch what he was ordered; Charles pulled from his +finger a large gold ring and placed it on the burning wax. "Now the +charter of the bequest is in good shape." + +"Gracious seigneur," cried the abbot extending his hands, "we shall +every day pray that heaven may protect you." + +"You have my thanks, monk; disinterested prayers are particularly +agreeable to the Almighty;" and turning towards his young officer: +"Berthoald, by this charter I make you count of the county of Nantes, +and I donate to you and your men the abbey of Meriadek, together with +its dependencies." + +The abbot remained petrified. Berthoald trembled with joy, and cried in +accents of profound gratitude: "Charles, will your generosity never +tire?" + +"No, no, my valiant boy! No more than your arm tires in battle.... And +now, to horse, noble count. Should the abbey of Meriadek turn out to be +a convent of tonsured friars with some fighting abbot at their head who +refuses to make room for you, you have your sword; your men have their +lances. If it happens to be a convent of women and that the nuns are +young and handsome, by the devil!--" + +Again the conversation in the monk's refectory was suddenly broken in +upon; this time by Septimine. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +MORDECAI THE SLAVE-DEALER. + + +Pale, affrighted, her face in tears, her hair unloosened, Septimine +broke into the room and threw herself at the feet of the abbot, crying: + +"Mercy, Father, mercy!" + +Close upon the heels of Septimine entered two slaves armed with whips, +and carrying rolls of rope. They had run after the young girl, but now +stood respectfully awaiting the abbot's orders. Septimine was so +beautiful, her distress so touching, her suppliant attitude, accentuated +by the tears that flowed down her charming face, so pathetic, that +Berthoald was struck with admiration and suddenly felt an irrepressible +interest in the distracted girl. Charles Martel himself could not hold +back the cry of admiration: "My faith, what a pretty girl!" + +"What do you want here?" brutally asked Father Clement, smarting under +the pain of having seen the gift of the abbey of Meriadek slip from him; +and turning to the two slaves, who remained motionless at the door: "Why +have you not punished this wretch?" + +"Father, we were about to strip off her clothes and tie her to the +whipping-post. But she fought us so hard that she slipped away from us." + +"Oh, Father!" cried Septimine in a voice suffocated with sobs and +raising her suppliant hands to the abbot; "order me killed, but spare me +the disgrace!" + +"Charles," said Father Clement, "this slave girl sought to help the +young prince to escape!... Drag her away!" he added to the slaves at +the door; "Have her well whipped!" + +The slaves took a step forward, but Berthoald held them back with a +menacing gesture. Approaching Septimine he took her hand and said: "Fear +not, poor child; Charles the chief of the Franks will not allow you to +be punished." + +The young woman, not yet daring to rise, turned her charming face +towards Berthoald, and remained no less struck by the generosity of the +young man than by his comely looks. Their eyes met. Berthoald felt a +profound emotion, while Charles said to Septimine: "Come, I pardon you; +but why the devil, my little girl, did you want that royal urchin to run +away?" + +"Oh, seigneur, the child is so unhappy! My father and mother, the same +as myself, felt pity for him.... That is all our crime, seigneur.... I +swear by the salvation of my soul;" and sobs again choked her voice. +Again joining her hands, she could only utter the words: "Mercy; mercy +for my father and mother! Have pity upon us, noble seigneur!" + +"You are weeping fit to choke yourself," said Charles, touched, despite +his roughness, at the sight of such youth, anguish and beauty: "I forbid +that your father and mother be punished." + +"Seigneur ... they want to sell me and to separate me from my +parents.... Have pity upon us!" + +"What about that, monk?" asked Charles, while Berthoald, who felt his +sorrow, admiration and pity increase by the second, could not take his +eyes from the charming maid. + +"Seigneur," answered Father Clement, "I gave orders that, after being +severely whipped, the three slaves, father, mother and daughter, be sold +and taken far away from the convent. One of those slave-dealers who +travel through the country came this morning to offer me two carpenters +and a smith that we stand in need of. I offered him the young girl in +exchange together with her father and mother. But Mordecai refused the +exchange." + +"Mordecai!" involuntarily exclaimed Berthoald, whose face, suddenly +turning pale, now expressed as much fear as anxiety. "That Jew!" + +"What the devil is the matter with you?" said Charles to the young man. +"You look as white as your cloak." + +Berthoald sought to control his emotions, dropped his eyes and answered +in a quivering voice: "The horror that these accursed Jews inspire me +with is such ... that I can not see them, or even hear their names +mentioned, without shuddering, despite myself." Saying this, Berthoald +quickly took his casque from the table and put it on his head, pushing +it down as far as he could so that the visor might conceal his face. + +"I can understand your horror for the Jews," replied Charles; "I share +your aversion for that race. Proceed, monk." + +"Mordecai consented to take the girl, for whom he has a place; but he +does not want either the father or the mother. I, accordingly, sold him +the girl, reserving the right of having her punished before delivery to +him. I shall sell her parents to some other slave-dealer." + +"Seigneur!" cried Septimine breaking out into a fresh flood of tears, +"slavery is a cruel condition, but it seems less hard when borne in the +company of those whom we love--" + +"The bargain is closed," said the abbot. "Mordecai paid me earnest +money; he has my word; he is waiting for the girl." + +When Berthoald heard that the Jew was in the convent he trembled anew, +retreated into a niche in the wall, and threw the cape of his long +Arabian cloak over his casque so as to conceal his face. He then +addressed the Frankish chief in a hurried voice like a man in fear of +some imminent danger and anxious to leave the place: + +"Charles, before I bid you good-bye, perhaps for a long time, cap the +climax of your generosity towards me. Give the father and mother of this +child their freedom, and buy her back from the Jew to prevent her being +separated from her parents. Guilty though she was, it was only pity that +led her astray. You are about to place vigilant soldiers in this place. +The little prince's escape will not need to be feared." + +Hearing the tender words of Berthoald, Septimine raised her face to him, +full with ineffable gratitude. + +"Rest assured, Berthoald," said Charles; "and you, my girl, rise; this +abbey, where I wish to establish my warriors, shall have three slaves +less. I can refuse nothing to this valiant officer." + +"Take this, my child," said the young man putting several Arabian gold +pieces into the hand of Septimine. "This is to help you, your father and +mother to live. May you be happy! Bless the generosity of Charles +Martel; and remember me occasionally." + +With an unconscious movement that absolutely controlled her will, +Septimine took the hand that Berthoald reached out to her, and without +taking the gold pieces that he tendered and that rolled down over the +floor, she kissed the young man's hand with such passionate +thankfulness, that his own eyes were moistened with tears. Charles +Martel noticed the circumstance, and pointing at the young folks, cried +with the boisterous laugh peculiar to himself: + +"Upon the word of Martel, I believe he weeps!" + +Berthoald pulled the cape of his cloak further down over his face, +leaving it now almost wholly covered. + +"You are right, my brave fellow, to lower your cape and conceal your +tears." + +"I shall not long treat you to the spectacle of my weakness, Charles; +allow me to depart immediately with my men for the abbey of Meriadek." + +"Go, my good companion in arms. I excuse your impatience. Be vigilant! +Keep your men in daily exercise; let them be ever ready to answer my +first call. I may have to use them against the accursed Bretons who have +withstood our arms since the days of Clovis. You are the count of the +county of Nantes, close to the frontiers of that bedeviled Armorica. +Your loyal sword may yet have occasion to render me such service that in +the end it may yet be I who will be your debtor. May we soon meet again! +A happy trip and a fat abbey are my best wishes to you." + +Thanks to the cape that almost wholly veiled Berthoald's face, he was +able to conceal from Charles the cruel agony that he became a prey to +the moment he heard Charles say that some day he might receive orders to +invade the country of the Bretons that had so far remained indomitable. +He bent a knee before the chief of the Franks and left the refectory in +such a state of wild and complex anxiety that he did not even have a +parting look for Septimine, who remained upon her knees amidst the +Saracen gold pieces that lay strewn around her. + +The young officer crossed the courtyard of the abbey to reach his horse, +when, turning the corner of a wall, he found himself face to face with a +little grey-bearded man. It was the Jew Mordecai. Berthoald shivered and +walked quickly by; but although his face was hidden under the cape of +his cloak, his eyes encountered the piercing ones of the Jew, who smiled +sardonically while the young chief walked rapidly away. + +The Jew had recognized Berthoald. + + + + +PART II. + +THE ABBEY OF MERIADEK + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +ELOI THE GOLDSMITH. + + +A gold and silversmith's shop is a sight agreeable to the eye of the +artisan who, freeman or slave, has grown old at the beautiful art made +illustrious by Eloi, the most celebrated of all Gallic goldsmiths. The +eye rests with pleasure upon the burning furnace, upon the crucible +where the metal boils, upon the anvil that seems to be of silver veined +with gold--so much gold and silver has been beaten on it. The +work-bench, equipped with its files, its hammers, its chip-axes, its +burins, its bloodstone and agate polishing stones is no less pleasing to +the eye. Then there are also the earthen molds into which the metal is +poured, and here and there upon little tables some models taken from the +debris of antique art that have been found among the ruins of Roman +Gaul. There is nothing from the grinding of the files to the panting +breath of the bellows, that is not like sweet music to the ear of the +artisan grown old at the trade. Such is the passion of this art that the +slave at times forgets his bondage, and has no thought but for the +marvels that he fashions for his master. + +Like other rich convents of Gaul, the abbey of Meriadek had its little +gold and silver shop. An old man, almost ninety-six years of age, was +overseeing the work of four young apprentices, slaves like himself, all +busy in a vaulted ground floor room, lighted by an arched window, that +was furnished with iron bars and that opened upon a moat full of water, +the convent having been built upon a sort of peninsula almost wholly +surrounded by deep ponds. The forge was placed against one of the walls, +into the thick body of which a kind of vault was dug that led below by +several steps. It contained the supply of charcoal required for the +work. The old goldsmith, whose face and hands were blackened by the +smoke of the forge, wore a smock-frock half hidden by a large leathern +apron, and was engaged in chiseling with great professional delight a +little silver abbatial crosier that he held on his knees. + +"Father Bonaik," said one of the young slaves to the old man, "this is +the eighth day that our comrade Eleuthere has not come at all to the +workshop ... where can he be?" + +"God knows, my boys ... but let us talk of something else." + +"I am half of your opinion, old father; on the matter of Eleuthere I +have as strong a desire to speak as to hold my tongue. I have discovered +a secret. It burns my tongue. And I fear it will be cut off if I talk." + +"Come, my lad," replied the old man, chiseling away at his work, "keep +your secret. That's the most prudent thing you can do." + +But more inquisitive than the old man, the other young apprentices +insisted so much with their comrade that, overcome by their +importunities, he told them: "Day before yesterday--it was the sixth day +since the disappearance of Eleuthere--I took, by order of Father Bonaik, +a silver bowl to the abbey. The attendant at the turning-box told me to +wait while she went inside to inquire whether there were any articles of +silver that needed mending. Left alone during her absence, I had the +curiosity to step upon a stool so as to look out of a high window that +opened upon the garden of the monastery. And what did I see? Or, rather, +what is it that I thought I saw? Because there are resemblances that are +so striking ... so extraordinary--" + +"Well, what did you see in the garden?" + +"I saw the abbess, distinguished by her high stature, walking between +two young nuns with an arm resting upon the shoulder of each." + +"You talk as though our abbess were almost a hundred years old, like +Father Bonaik--she who rides like a warrior, who hunts with falcons, and +whose upper lip is shaded by a slight reddish moustache neither more nor +less than that of a youth of eighteen!" + +"It surely was not out of feebleness but tenderness that the abbess +leaned upon the two nuns. One of them having stepped upon her robe, lost +her balance, tripped and turned her head ... and I recognized, or +believed I recognized ... guess whom ... Eleuthere!" + +"Dressed like a nun?" + +"Dressed like a nun." + +"Go away!... You must have been dreaming." + +"And yet," replied another and less incredulous slave, "that is quite +possible. Our comrade is not yet eighteen, and his chin is as innocent +of a beard as any young girl's." + +"I maintain that if that nun is not Eleuthere, she is his sister ... if +he has one." + +"I tell you," put in the old goldsmith with marked impatience, "I tell +you that you are ninnies, and that if you are anxious for a trip to the +whipping-post and to renew your acquaintance with the thongs of the +whip, all you have to do is to persevere in talks like that." + +"But Father Bonaik--" + +"I allow chattering at work; but when the words may translate themselves +into the strokes of a whip on your backs, then the subject seems to me +badly chosen. You know, as well as I, that the abbess--" + +"Is hot-tempered and bedeviled, Father Bonaik." + +"Are you anxious to have the flesh flayed off your backs, unhappy lads! +I order you to hold your tongues." + +"And what are we to talk about if not of our masters and the abbess?" + +"Here," said the old man anxious to have the subject drop, "I have often +promised you to tell you the story of the illustrious master of our +trade, the glory of the artisans of Gaul. Let us talk of that artist." + +"About the good Eloi? The great and saintly Eloi, Father Bonaik, the +friend of the good King Dagobert?" + +"Call him the 'good' Eloi, my boys; never was there a better; but do not +say the 'good' King Dagobert. That King had everybody who displeased him +throttled; he pillaged, he levied ransom upon the poor, and he kept a +harem like an Arabian Caliph. Listen, children. The good Eloi was born +in 588 or thereabouts, at Catalacte, a small village in the neighborhood +of Limoges. His parents were freemen, but of obscure and poor +condition." + +"Father Bonaik, if Eloi was born in 588, that must have been about a +hundred and fifty years ago. That is a century and a half." + +"Yes, my boys, seeing we are now almost at 738." + +"And did you know him?" asked one of the lads with an incredulous smile. +"Did you know the good Eloi?" + +"Certainly, I did, seeing I shall soon be ninety-six, and that he died +last century, in 659, nearly eighty years ago." + +"You were then quite young?" + +"I was sixteen and a half years old the last time I saw him.... His +father was called Eucher and his mother Terragie. Noticing that his son +was since early boyhood ever fashioning in wood some figure or small +utensil of pretty design, his father apprenticed him to a skilful +goldsmith of Limoges, named Master Abbon, who at that epoch also +directed the mint in the town of Limoges. After having acquired a good +deal of skill in his art, to the point that he surpassed his master, +Eloi left the neighborhood and his family, much regretted by everybody, +he being beloved by all on account of his cheerful disposition, the +mildness of his nature and his excellent heart. He went to seek his +fortune in Paris, one of the residential towns of the Frankish kings. +Eloi was recommended by his old master to a certain Bobbon, a goldsmith +and treasurer of Clotaire II. Having accepted Eloi as a workman, Bobbon +soon perceived the young man's talent. One day King Clotaire ordered a +chair of solid gold, wrought with art and ornamented with precious +stones." + +"A chair of solid gold! Father Bonaik, what magnificence! Nothing is too +costly to these kings." + +"Alack, my boys, the gold cost the Frankish kings in Gaul only the +trouble of picking it up, and they were not slow at it. Well, then, +Clotaire II had the fancy to own a gold chair. But nobody in the +workshops of the palace was able to accomplish such a task. The +treasurer Bobbon knew the skill of Eloi and proposed to him to undertake +the work. Eloi accepted; he went to the forge and the crucible, and out +of the large quantity of gold given for one chair he fashioned two. He +then took to the palace one of the two chairs and hid the other--" + +"Ho! Ho!" said one of the young slaves laughing. "The good Eloi did as +millers do who are sharp, artful and not very scrupulous. He drew double +pay for one bag--" + +"Wait, my boys, wait before you judge our venerable master. Charmed at +the elegance and delicacy of the artisan's work, Clotaire II issued +orders on the spot to recompense him generously. Eloi thereupon showed +the second chair to Bobbon saying: 'This is what I spent the rest of +your gold in so as to lose nothing of the stuff. I have acted as you +would have wished.'" + +"You are right, Father Bonaik, we were too quick in judging the good +Eloi." + +"That act of probity, so honorable in the poor artisan, was the start +of his future fortune. Clotaire II wished to attach him to his court as +a goldsmith. It was then that Eloi achieved his finest productions: +vases of chiseled gold ornamented with rubies, pearls and diamonds; +pieces of furniture of solid silver and admirable design and set off +with chiseled stone; reliquaries, curtain pins, Bible cases encrusted +with carbuncles.... I saw the chalice of enameled gold more than a foot +high that he made for the abbey of Chelles. It was a miracle in enamel +and gold." + +"It is enough to dazzle one to hear you tell of such beautiful works, +Father Bonaik." + +"Oh, children, this room could not contain the masterpieces of that one +artisan, the glory of Gallic artisanship. The coins that he has struck +as the minter of Clotaire II, of Dagobert and of Clovis II have +admirable reliefs: they are gold thirds of a sou of a superb stamp. Eloi +succeeded in all the branches of the goldsmith's art. He excelled, like +the goldsmiths of Limoges, in the incrustation of enamel and the setting +of precious stones; he also excelled, as did the goldsmiths of Paris, in +statuaries of hammered gold and silver. He chiseled jewelry as +delicately as the jewelers of Metz. The cloths of woven gold thread +manufactured under his eyes and after his designs, were not less +magnificent than those of Lyon. My boys, what a hard worker was Eloi. +Ever at his forge from earliest dawn, ever with his leathern apron on +his loins, and the file, the hammer or the burin in his hand. He often +did not leave his workshop until a late hour in the night, and had ever +at his side his favorite apprentice, a Saxon named Thil. I knew that +Thil. He was then an old man, and he also was a great artist. They +should be models for you." + +"Eloi was not a slave, and as he enjoyed the fruit of his labor he must +have become very rich, Father Bonaik?" + +"Yes, my boys, very rich. Dagobert, upon succeeding to the throne of +his father Clotaire II, kept Eloi as his goldsmith. But the good Eloi, +mindful of his hard condition as an artisan, and of the cruel fate of +the slaves who had often been his fellow-workmen, when he became rich +spent all his income in ransoming slaves. He used in that way to +emancipate twenty, thirty and even fifty on one day. He often went to +Rouen and bought whole cargoes of slaves of both sexes taken from all +countries to that town, celebrated for its market of human flesh. Among +those unfortunate people were Romans, Gauls, English, and even Moors, +but above all Saxons. If it happened that the good Eloi did not have +money enough to purchase the slaves, he used to distribute among them +all the money he had in order to relieve their misery. 'How often,' +Thil, his favorite apprentice said to me, 'his purse being exhausted, I +saw my master sell his cloak, his belt and even his shoes.' But you must +know, my boys, that that mantle, that belt, those shoes were embroidered +with gold and often enriched with pearls. The good Eloi, who ornamented +the robes of others, also took pleasure in ornamenting his own. In his +younger years he was magnificently dressed." + +"It was the least he could do to deck himself out well--he who decked +others so well. It is not as with us who work on gold and silver, and +never have but rags." + +"My poor boys, we are slaves, while Eloi had the fortune of being free; +but he utilized his freedom for the benefit of his fellows. He had +around him several servants who adored him. I knew some of them, among +others, Bauderic, Tituen, Buchin, Andre, Martin and John. So you see old +Bonaik has a good memory. But how can one fail to remember anything +connected with Eloi!" + +"Do you know, master, that it is an honor to us poor goldsmith slaves, +to number such a man in our profession?" + +"A great honor, my boys! Certes, we should be proud of it. Imagine that +the reputation of the good Eloi for charity was such that his name was +known all over Gaul, and even in other countries. Strangers considered +it an honor to call upon the goldsmith who was at once so great an +artist and so good a man. If anyone asked in Paris where he lived, the +first passer-by would answer: 'Do you want to know where the good Eloi +lives? Go where you will find the largest number of poor people gathered +together. He lives there.'" + +"Oh, the good Eloi," said one of the lads with eyes moist with tears. +"Oh, the good Eloi, so well named!" + +"Yes, my friends, he was as active in charity as at his trade. In the +evening, at his meal hour, he would send out his servants in different +directions to gather people who suffered hunger, and also travelers in +distress. They were taken to him and he fed them. Filling the office of +a servant when they came, he helped some to unload their packs, +sprinkled warm water on the hands of others, poured out wine into their +cups, broke their bread, carved their meat and distributed it--all +himself. After having thus served all with sweet pleasure, he would sit +down himself, and only then did he himself share in the meal that he +offered these poor people. That was his way of practicing charity." + +"And how did the good Eloi look, Father Bonaik? Was he tall or short?" + +"He was tall and of a florid complexion. In his younger days, his +apprentice Thil said to me, his black hair was naturally curly. His +hand, though hardened by the hammer, was white and well-shaped; there +was something angelic in his expression; yet his straightforward eyes +were full of keenness." + +"That is just the way I would picture him to myself, dressed in the +magnificent robes that he used to sell in order to ransom slaves." + +"When he grew in years, the good Eloi renounced splendor altogether. He +wore only a robe of coarse wool, with a cord for belt.... When about +forty he was appointed bishop of Noyon at his own request." + +"He? Did so great an artist aspire after a bishopric?" + +"Yes, my lads.... Grieved at the sight of so many covetous and wicked +prelates, who devoured the substance of his well-beloved poor, the good +Eloi applied to the King for the bishopric of Noyon, saying to himself +that at least that bishopric would be ruled by the sweet morality of +Jesus. And he put that morality into practice up to the last day of his +life, without thereby renouncing his art. He founded several +monasteries, where he set up large gold and silversmiths' shops under +the direction of the apprentices whom he raised in the abbey of Solignac +and elsewhere in Limousin. It was thither, my lads, that I was taken as +a slave at sixteen after having undergone many trials. But I was born in +Brittany ... in that Brittany that is still free to this day, and that I +never expect to see again, although this abbey lies not far from the +cradle of my family," and the old man, who during the whole of his +narrative had kept steadily at work at the abbatial crosier that he was +chiseling, dropped on his knee the hand that held the burin. He remained +silent and pensive for a few seconds. Then, waking up with a start, he +proceeded addressing the young slaves under him, who wondered at his +silence: "My lads, I have allowed myself to be carried away despite +myself by recollections that are at once sweet and painful to my +mind.... Where did I leave off?" + +"You were telling us, Father Bonaik, that you were taken as a slave at +the age of sixteen to the abbey of Solignac in Limousin." + +"Yes; well, it was there that I first saw the great artist. Once every +year he left Noyon to visit the abbey. He had inducted his apprentice +Thil abbot of the place, and the abbot directed the goldsmith's +workshop. The good Eloi was quite old then; but he loved to come to the +workshop to oversee and direct the work. He often took the file or the +burin from our hands to show us how to use it, and in such a paternal +manner did he act that all our hearts went out to him. Oh! those were +good days.... The slaves were not allowed to leave the territory of the +monastery, but they felt as happy there as one can under bondage. At +every visit that he paid the place, Eloi inquired after them to +ascertain whether they were kindly treated. After his death, however, +everything changed." + +The old goldsmith had reached this epoch in his narrative when the door +of the workshop opened and two personages stepped in. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE INTENDANT RICARIK. + + +One of the persons who entered Father Bonaik's workshop was Ricarik, the +intendant of the abbey, a Frank of a low and vulgar appearance; the +other was Septimine, the slave of the abbey of St. Saturnine, whose +freedom, together with her father's and mother's, Berthoald had a few +days previous sued for and obtained at the hands of Charles Martel. +Since her departure from the abbey of St. Saturnine, the poor child had +become hardly recognizable. Her charming face had thinned and was +pale--so much had she suffered and wept. She followed the intendant +silent and confused. + +"Our holy dame, Abbess Meroflede, sends you this slave," said Ricarik to +the old goldsmith, pointing at Septimine, who, ashamed at finding +herself among the young apprentices, did not dare to raise her eyes. +"Meroflede bought her yesterday from the Jew Mordecai.... You are to +teach her to polish jewelry; our holy abbess wishes to keep her near her +for that work. Within a month at the latest, she must be versed in her +work; if not, both she and you shall be punished." + +At these words Septimine trembled and took courage to raise her eyes to +the old man, who stepped forward and said to her kindly: "Do not be +afraid, my child; with a little good will on your part, we shall be able +to teach you how to polish jewelry and meet the wishes of our holy +abbess. You shall work there, near me." + +For the first time in several days did the features of the young girl +express sentiments other than those of fear and sadness. She timidly +raised her eyes to Bonaik, and, struck by the kindness of his face, +answered him in an accent of profound gratitude: "Oh! Thank you, good +father! Thank you for being kind to me!" + +While the apprentices were exchanging in a low voice their views on the +looks of their new shopmate, Ricarik, who carried a little casket under +his arm, said to the old man: "I bring you here the gold and silver with +which to fashion the belt that you know of, and also the Greek vase. Our +dame Meroflede is anxious to have the two articles." + +"Ricarik, I told you before that the stuff that you brought me in bits +and in gold and silver sous is not enough. It is all in that iron trunk +whose key you hold. Moreover, in order to make one of those beautiful +belts, similar to those that I saw manufactured in the workshops that +the illustrious Eloi established, about twenty pearls and as many other +precious stones will be needed." + +"I have in this purse and this casket all the gold, silver and precious +stones that you will need," saying which, Ricarik emptied out the +contents of a purse upon the old goldsmith's work-bench, and took out of +the casket a sufficient number of gold sous, several twisted lumps also +of gold, that looked as if they had been forcibly wrenched from some +article that they had served as ornament to, and finally a gold +reliquary studded with precious stones. "Have you now enough gold and +stones?" + +"I think so; these stones are superb; the reliquary is ornamented with +matchless rubies." + +"This reliquary was presented to our holy abbess; it contains a thumb of +St. Loup, of the great St. Loup, and two teeth from his jaw." + +"Ricarik, after I shall have detached the rubies and melted the gold of +the reliquary, what am I then to do with the thumb and teeth?" + +"The thumb and teeth?" + +"The bones of the blessed St. Loup that are inside." + +"Do with them what you like ... keep them as relics to prolong your old +age." + +"I would then live at least two hundred years." + +"What are you examining with so much attention?" + +"I am examining the silver sous that you have just brought in. Some of +them do not seem sound." + +"Some colonist must have cheated me.... This is the day they pay their +rents and imposts. When these people pay in money you would think they +were having their teeth extracted. It is unfortunately too late now to +discover the cheats who paid with false sous. But you shall come along +with me so that you may examine the pieces that are now to be paid in. +Woe to the thief who should then try to pass false coin upon me! His +skin will boil for it!" + +"I shall do as you order.... We shall lock these precious metals and +stones in the iron chest, if you please, until I have time to start to +work on them." + +While the Frank was examining the contents of the chest, the old +goldsmith approached his young apprentices and said to them in a low +voice: "Now, lads, so far I have always taken your side against our +masters, palliating or hiding your faults, to spare you the punishments +that you sometimes did deserve." + +"That is so, Father Bonaik." + +"In return, I demand of you that you treat that poor girl that stands +trembling there, as if she were your own sister. I am to go out with the +intendant, and shall be away, perhaps, for an hour. Promise me that you +will be decorous and reserved in your talk before her." + +"Fear not, Father Bonaik; we shall say nothing that a nun may not hear." + +"That is not enough; certain nuns can hear everything; promise me you +will say nothing that you would not say before your own mothers." + +"We promise you, Father Bonaik." + +This whispered conversation took place at the other end of the workshop, +while Ricarik was taking an inventory of the contents of the iron chest. +The old man then returned to Septimine and said to her also in a low +voice: "My child, I shall leave you for a little while; but I have +recommended those lads to treat you as a sister. Be at ease. You will +hear nothing to hurt your ears." + +Septimine had hardly thanked the old jeweler with a look of gratitude, +when the intendant closed the chest and said: "Have you heard any news +of that runaway Eleuthere?" + +The old goldsmith made a sign to the young slaves, all of whom had +raised their heads at the name of Eleuthere; but catching Father +Bonaik's eyes, all resumed work without answering a word to the +intendant's question, and without even seeming to hear him. + +"His disappearance must be a matter of surprise to you, is it not?" +asked Ricarik, letting his penetrating eye wander over the apprentices. + +"He must have found a way to escape," said the lad who believed he had +recognized Eleuthere in the cloister. "He long went with the idea of +escaping from the monastery." + +"Yes, yes," answered two other apprentices; "Eleuthere told us he would +run away from the monastery." + +"And why did you not post me, you dogs?" cried the intendant. "You are +his accomplices." + +The lads remained quiet with their eyes down. The Frank proceeded: + +"Oh! You kept the secret! Your backs will ring for it under the whip!" + +"Ricarik," replied the old goldsmith, "these lads chatter like jays, and +have no more brains than fledgling birds. Eleuthere often said as so +many others have: 'Oh, how I would like to roam over the fields, instead +of being bound to the workshop from morning till evening!' That is what +these lads call secrets. Pardon them. Then, you should remember that our +holy dame Meroflede is impatient for her belt and vase. But if you have +my apprentices whipped, they will spend more time rubbing their sores +than plying the hammer and the file, and our work will make but slow +progress. It would cause a great delay." + +"Very well, then; they shall be punished later. All of you will have to +work hard, not by day only, but also by night. By day you will work upon +gold and silver. By night you shall furbish iron. There is a double task +for you." + +"What do you mean?" + +"There will be a stack of arms brought here this evening--axes, swords, +and lances that I have bought at Nantes." + +"Arms!" cried the old man in astonishment. "Arms! Do the Arabs still +threaten the heart of Gaul?" + +"Old man, the arms will be brought to you this evening. See to it that +the lances have good points, that the swords are well sharpened, the +axes trenchant. Never you mind the rest. But this is the hour when the +colonists must bring their money taxes. Follow me, in order to ascertain +whether the thieves try to pass false coin upon me. Come, Father +Bonaik!" + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE ABBESS MEROFLEDE. + + +Upon leaving the workshop, the intendant Ricarik, followed by the old +goldsmith, proceeded to a vast shed located outside of the abbey. Almost +all the slaves and colonists who had ground-rent to pay to the monastery +were gathered at the place. There were four days in the year set aside +for the payment of major rents. At these periods, the products of the +land that was cultivated, and with so much labor, by the Gauls, flowed +in a strong and steady stream into the abbey. Thus abundance and leisure +reigned within the holy precincts of this, the same as of all the other +monasteries, while the enslaved populations, barely sheltered in +thatched hovels, lived in perpetual and atrocious misery, borne down by +all manner of exactions. Few sights could be imagined, more lively and +yet so sad, than those presented at the payment of the ground-rent. The +peasants, barely clad, whether slaves outright or only colonists, whose +leanness told of their trials, arrived carrying on their shoulders or +pushing in carts provisions and products of all sorts. To the tumultuous +noise of the crowd was added the bleating of sheep and calves, the +grunting of pigs, the lowing of cattle, the cackling of poultry--animals +that the rent payers had to bring alive. Some of the men bent under the +weight of large baskets filled with eggs, cheese, butter and honeycombs; +others rolled barrels of wine that were taken to the abbey's gate on a +sort of sled; yonder, wagons were unloaded of their heavy bags of wheat, +of barley, of spelt, of oats or of mustard grain; here, hay and straw +were being heaped up in high piles; further away, kindling wood or +building material, such as beams, planks, boards, vine poles, stakes; +forester slaves brought in bucks, wild boars and venison to be smoked; +colonists led by the leash hunting dogs that they had to train, or +carried in cages falcons and sparrow-hawks that they had taken from +their nests for falconry; others, taxed in a certain quantity of iron +and lead, necessary articles in the construction of the buildings of the +abbey, carried these metals, while others brought rolls of cloth and of +linen, bales of wool or of hemp for spinning, large pieces of woven +serge, packages of cured hides, ready for use. There were also tenants +whose rent consisted in certain quantities of wax, of oil, of soap and +even resinous torches; baskets, osier, twisted rope, hatchets, hoes, +spades and other agricultural implements. Finally, others had to pay +with articles of furniture, and household utensils. + +Ricarik sat down at one of the corners of the shed near a table to +receive the money tax of the colonists who were in arrears, while +several turning-box sisters of the convent, dressed in their long black +robes and white veils, went from group to group with a parchment scroll +on which they entered the rent in kind. The old goldsmith stood behind +Ricarik and examined one after another the sous and the silver and +copper deniers that were being paid in. He approved them all. The +venerable old man feared to expose the poor people to bad treatment if +he rejected any coin, seeing the intendant was merciless. The colonists +who were unable to pay on that day made a considerable group, and +anxiously awaited their names to be called. Many of them were +accompanied by their wives and children. Those who had the money to pay +having acquitted themselves, Ricarik called in a loud voice: +"Sebastian!" The colonist advanced all in a tremble with his wife and +two children at his side, all of them as miserably dressed as himself. + +"Not only have you not paid your rent of twenty-six sous," said the +intendant, "but last week you refused to cart to the abbey the woolen +and linen goods that the abbess sent to Rennes. A bad payer, a +detestable servant." + +"Alack, seigneur! If I have not paid my rent it is because shortly +before harvest time the storm destroyed my ripe wheat. I might still +have saved something if I could have attended to the crop immediately, +but the slaves who work the field with me were requisitioned away five +out of seven days in order to work at the enclosures of the new park of +the abbey and in draining one of the ponds. Left alone, I could not take +in the remnants of the harvest; then came the heavy rains; the wheat +rotted on the ground and the whole harvest was lost. All I had left was +one field of spelt; it had not been badly treated by the storm; but the +field is contiguous to the forest of the abbey, and the deer ravaged the +crops as they did the year before." + +Ricarik shrugged his shoulders and proceeded: "You owe besides, six +cart-loads of hay; you did not fetch them in, yet the meadows that you +cultivate are excellent. With the surplus of six cart-loads you could +easily get money and fulfill your engagements." + +"Alack, seigneur! I never get to see the first cut of those meadows. The +herds of the abbey come to pasture on my lands from early spring. If I +set slaves to keep them off, a fight breaks out between my slaves and +those of the abbey; one day mine are beaten, the next mine beat the +others. But however it be, I am deprived of the help of their arms. +Besides, seigneur, almost every day has its special duties; one day we +have to prune the vines of the abbey, another we have to plow, harrow +and plant its fields; yet another, we have its crops to cart away; +another day it is the fences that have to be repaired. We have lately +also had ditches to dig when the abbess feared that the convent was to +be attacked by some bands of marauders. At that time we also had to +mount guard.... If out of three nights one is compelled to spend two on +his feet, and then to work from early dawn, strength fails and the work +is neglected." + +"What about the cartage that you refused?" + +"No, seigneur, I did not refuse to make the cartage. But one of my +horses was foundered with too heavy a load and too long a stretch for +the abbey. It was not possible to execute your orders for the last +cartage." + +"If you have only one foundered horse, how do you expect to cultivate +your fields? How will you pay your back rent and the rent of next year?" + +"Alack, seigneur! I am in a cruel fix. I have brought with me my wife +and children. Here they are. They join me in beseeching you to remit +what I owe. Perhaps in the future I shall not meet so many disasters one +after another." + +At a sign from the unhappy Gaul, his wife and children threw themselves +at the feet of the intendant and with tears in their eyes implored him +to remit the debt. Ricarik answered the colonist: "You have done wisely +in bringing your wife and children with you; you have saved me the +trouble of sending for them. I know of a certain Jew of Nantes called +Mordecai, who loans money on bodily security. He will advance at least +ten gold sous on your wife and two children, both of whom are old enough +to work. You will be able to invest the money in the purchase of a horse +to replace the one that was foundered. Later, after you shall have +reimbursed the Jew his loan, he will return you your wife and children." + +The colonist and his family heard with stupor the words of the +intendant, and broke out into sobs and prayers. "Seigneur," said the +Gaul, "sell me if you like as a slave; my condition will not be worse +than it is now; but do not separate me from my wife and children.... I +never shall be able to pay my back rent and reimburse the Jew; I prefer +slavery to my present life as a colonist. Have pity upon us!" + +"That will do!" said Ricarik. "You have too numerous a family to feed; +that is what is ruining you.... When you will have only your own needs +to attend to, you will be able to pay your rent, and with Mordecai's +loan you will be enabled to continue to work." Turning thereupon to one +of his men: "Take the wife and children of Sebastian to the Jew +Mordecai, he happens to be here now." + +Bonaik sought to mollify the Frank, but in vain, and Ricarik proceeded +to call up by their names other colonists who were in arrears with their +rent. The intendant was at this work when a lad of from seventeen to +eighteen was dragged before him. The lad offered violent resistance to +his captors and cried: "Let me go! I have brought three falcons and two +goshawks for the abbess' perch as my father's rent.... I took them from +their nests at the risk of breaking my bones.... What is it you want?" + +"Ricarik," said one of the slaves of the abbey who was dragging the lad, +"we were near the fence of the abbey's perch when we saw a sparrow-hawk, +still hooded, that had escaped from the falconer's hand. The bird flew +only a little distance. Being impeded by its hood, it fell down close to +the fence. This lad immediately threw his cap upon the bird and put it +into his bag. We caught the thief in the act. Here is the bag. The +sparrow-hawk is inside with its hood still on." + +"What have you to say?" asked Ricarik of the young lad who remained +somber and silent. "Do you know how the law punishes the theft of a +sparrow-hawk? It condemns the thief to pay three silver sous or to allow +the bird to eat six ounces of flesh from his breast. I have a good mind +to apply the law to you as a salutary example to other hawk thieves.... +What have you to say?" + +"If our abbess," the lad answered boldly, "gives our flesh for pasture +to her hunting birds, as true as my name is Broute-Saule, sooner or +later I shall have my revenge on her and you!" + +"Seize him!" cried Ricarik. "Let him be tied down to a bench outside of +the shed so that his punishment be public.... Let the flesh on his +breast be offered to the sparrow-hawk for pasture!" + +"Butcher!" cried the lad. "If I ever catch you or your abbess of the +devil alone, you will make the acquaintance of my knife!" + +The crowd of slaves who witnessed the scene broke out into violent +shouts against Broute-Saule, who was impious enough to express himself +in such terms on the abbess Meroflede, and the wretches crowded each +other in their curiosity to witness the punishment. The young Gaul was +stripped of his clothes to the waist and tied down, face up, to a stout +bench that stood outside of the shed. Ricarik then made a slight +incision on the right breast of the lad so as to whet the hawk's +appetite. Attracted by the blood, the bird pounced upon the breast of +Broute-Saule, into whose flesh it stuck its beak. + +At this moment the tramp of several horses was heard, and immediately +the slaves and colonists who stood near the bench on which Broute-Saule +lay, and with a greedy gap watched his punishment, fell upon their +knees. The abbess Meroflede had ridden in among them, mounted upon a +vigorous grey stallion. Curious to ascertain the cause of the excited +crowd that stood outside of the shed, the abbess reined in her horse +with a sudden tug at the reins. Meroflede was dressed in a long black +robe; a white veil, fastened under her chin, framed in her face. Clasped +at the height of her neck, a sort of caped red cloak floated in the +breeze over her monastic garb. Slender, tall and graceful, the woman was +about thirty years of age. Her features would have been handsome but for +their combined expression that was alternately sensuous, haughty or +savage. Her face, wan from excess, rivaled by its pallor the whiteness +of the veil that surrounded it, the same as the color of her cloak vied +with her red and lascivious lips that were shaded by a light moustache +of reddish gold. Her hooked nose terminated in palpitating and inflated +nostrils. Her large eyes of sea-green color glistened under thick and +reddish eyebrows. Meroflede reined in her horse near the crowd, which +knelt down, and in doing so discovered to her sight the half-naked +youth, whose breast the sparrow-hawk had begun to peg into. Broute-Saule +turned towards her his face that nestled in his black and wavy hair, and +despite the pain that the bird's beak gave him, the young Gaul, whose +features were expressive of involuntary admiration, cried: "How +beautiful she is!" + +Motionless, with the gloved hand that held her whip reclining upon her +thigh, Meroflede looked steadily upon the slave whose flesh the hawk was +eating up; on the other hand, insensible to his own pain, Broute-Saule +contemplated the abbess and repeated in a low voice as if in a rapture: +"How beautiful she is! Oh, madam, the Queen Mary and mother of God is +not more beautiful!" + +For a few seconds Meroflede contemplated the spectacle; she then called +Ricarik, leaned down over her saddle, whispered a few words to him, and +casting a last look at Broute-Saule she departed at a gallop without +bestowing upon the kneeling slaves and colonists the benediction that +the poor wretches expected from their abbess. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +IN SIGHT OF THE ABBEY. + + +Upon leaving the convent of St. Saturnine, Berthoald took with his men +the road to the abbey of Meriadek. The march of the troop was delayed by +the condition in which they found two of the bridges on their route; the +roads, moreover, were in such a state that the carts containing the +booty of the warriors, together with the Arabian and Gallic women whom +they had captured in the environs of Narbonne, frequently sank to the +axles of the wheels in the mud. + +Two days after Broute-Saule had been delivered to the claws and beak of +the sparrow-hawk, Berthoald and his men arrived near Nantes. The sun was +going down, night was near. The young chief on horseback rode a few +paces ahead of his companions, among whom were several fresh recruits +raised by Charles from the other side of the Rhine--men as savage and +fierce as the first soldiers of Clovis, and, like them, dressed in skins +and wearing their hair tied at the top of their heads--just as, more +than two centuries before, Neroweg, one of the leudes of the Frankish +king, had worn his. The other warriors were casqued and cuirassed. +Berthoald was reserved, almost haughty towards the men of his band. They +grumbled at his coolness and general bearing towards them. But the +ascendency of his courage, his redoubtable physical strength, his rare +dexterity in arms, the promptitude of his war expedients, finally, the +high favor that he enjoyed with Charles held the savage men of war in +control. Accordingly, Berthoald rode alone at the head of his troop. +Often, since his departure from the abbey of St. Saturnine, he had +dropped into a reverie at the thought of the charming Septimine. He was +thinking of the young girl when Richulf, one of his men, rode up to his +chief and said to him: + +"According to the information that we gathered on the way, our abbey +must lie hereabouts. If you will, let us interrogate the slaves that we +see on the fields." + +Awakening from his reverie, Berthoald made an affirmative sign with his +head, and the two hastened the pace of their horses. + +"As for me," said Richulf, a sort of German giant of an enormous girth, +"I am enjoying in advance the face that our abbot will make when we +shall tell him: 'We are here by the grace of Charles Martel. Vacate the +place, priest of Satan, and give us the key of the cellar and pantry for +us to eat and drink our fill!'" + +Being now near the slaves towards whom they had ridden, Berthoald asked +one of them where the abbey of Meriadek was. + +"Not far from here, seigneur; the crossroad that you see there down +below, bordered with poplars, leads straight to the abbey." + +"Is an abbot or an abbess at the head of the abbey of Meriadek?" + +"It is our holy abbess Meroflede." + +"An abbess!" repeated Berthoald in surprise. And laughing he asked +again: "Is she young and handsome, this abbess Meroflede?" + +"Seigneur, I could not answer your question, never having seen her but +from a distance and enveloped in her veils." + +"If she envelops herself in her veils she must be ugly," put in Richulf, +shaking his head doubtfully. "Are the lands of the abbey fertile? Has it +many herds of swine? Does it gather in good wine?" + +"The lands of the abbey are very fertile, seigneur ... the herds of +swine and sheep are very large. Two days ago we carried our rent to the +abbey and the colonists their money. It was with difficulty that the +large shed of the monastery could contain all the cattle and provisions +taken there." + +"Berthoald," said Richulf, "Charles Martel has dealt generously by us. +But we arrive two days too late. The rents are paid, perhaps also +consumed by the abbess and her nuns. We will find neither pork nor wine +left." + +The young chief did not seem to share the apprehensions of his +companion, and said to the slave: "Well, my poor fellow, that road lined +with poplars, there ahead of us, leads to the abbey of Meriadek?" + +"Yes, seigneur; you can reach the place in half an hour." + +"Thank you for the information." + +Berthoald and Richulf were about to turn their horses' heads and rejoin +their troop when the latter, breaking out into a loud guffaw, observed: +"By my beard, I have never seen anyone so kind and civil towards these +dogs as you, Berthoald." + +"It pleases me to be so--" + +"And that makes you an odd man in everything that concerns these slaves. +One would think that it hurts you to see them.... We have about twenty +female slaves in the carts that we are dragging after us as part of the +booty. Some of them are very beautiful. You never as much as had the +curiosity of looking at them ... yet they belong to you as much as to +the rest of us." + +"I have told you that I lay no claim whatever to my share of human +flesh," impatiently answered Berthoald. "The sight of those poor +creatures is painful to me. You refused to give them their freedom.... +Have your way.... But do not mention them again to me." + +"Well, it is no loss to us. After having amused ourselves with them on +the road we can sell them for at least from fifteen to twenty gold sous +each, according to what a Jew, who looked at them, said to us." + +"Enough!... I have heard enough about the Jew and the slaves!" and +wishing to put an end to a conversation that was painful to him, he +touched the flanks of his horse with his spurs to join his Frankish +companions whom he hailed from afar. "Friends, good news! Our abbey is +rich, well stocked with cattle, and fertile; and we are to succeed an +abbess; whether she be young or old, handsome or ugly, I do not yet +know. We shall see her within an hour and shall be able to judge." + +"Long live Charles Martel!" cried one of the warriors. "There's no +abbess without nuns.... We shall have a good laugh with the nuns!" + +"I would have preferred to have dispossessed some fighting abbot. But I +console myself with the thought that we are to be masters of numerous +herds of swine." + +"Richulf, you can think of nothing but loins of beef and ham!" + +Thus gaily conversing, the warriors followed the avenue bordered with +poplars. The abbey was presently descried from the distance, rising in +the center of a sort of peninsula, and reached from this side by a +narrow road that was built between two ponds. + +"Hurrah for Charles Martel!" + +"What a magnificent building! Look at it, Berthoald!" + +"Vast domains! And that grand forest in the horizon--it surely all +belongs to our abbey. We shall be able to hunt at our ease." + +"It must be full of game. We shall hunt deer, bucks and wild boars.... +Long live Charles Martel!" + +"And the ponds that extend down there on either side of the road, they +must be full of fish.... We shall fish carp, tench and pike that I like +so well!... Long live Charles!" + +"Do you not find, comrades, that this abbey has a certain martial +aspect, with its high battlements, its counter forts, its ramparts, its +few and narrow windows and its ponds that surround it like a natural +defence?" + +"So much the better! Within its walls we shall be entrenched as within a +fortress; and should it please the successors of our good Charles, or +the phantom kings, to dispossess us in turn, as we are about to +dispossess this abbess, we shall be able to prove that we wear hose and +not skirts." + +"Our tapers are lances, our benedictions sabre cuts." + +"Let us hasten our horses; it will soon be night and I am hungry.... +Upon the word of Richulf, two whole hams, four pikes and a whole +mountain of cabbage will barely suffice to appease my hunger." + +"Sharpen your teeth, glutton! As to me, I propose to invite the abbess +and her nuns. The feast will then be complete." + +"I shall invite the young and handsome ones to share our lodgings at the +abbey. What say you, comrades?" + +"What! Invite them, Sigewald!... They must, by my beard! They shall be +forced to remain with us.... The good Charles will laugh at the move. If +the Bishop of Nantes should raise a howl, we shall tell him to come and +take his sheep from the wolves." + +"The devil take the Bishop of Nantes! The day of these tonsured people +has gone by, that of the soldier has come!... We are masters in our +house!" + +While his companions were delivering themselves of these gross jokes, +Berthoald preceded them silent and pensive. Charles had invested him +with the high dignity of count; he dragged a rich booty behind him in +his carts; the donation of the abbey insured to him the possession of a +large income; all notwithstanding, the young chief seemed troubled in +mind; at times a bitter and painful smile curled his lips. The Frankish +riders were presently on the narrow road at either side of which an +immense pond extended as far as the eye could reach. Richulf presently +said to the young chief: "I do not know whether it is the dusk that +impedes my sight, but it looks to me as if this road is cut off by a +mound of earth a little distance ahead of us." + +"Let us look at that a little closer," said Berthoald, putting his horse +to a gallop. Richulf and Sigewald followed him. Soon the three found +their advance intercepted by a deep and wide moat cut into the road and +filled with water that flowed into it from two ponds. On the other side +of the moat rose a kind of breastwork of earth protected with enormous +piles. The obstacle was serious. Night drew near, and on either side the +ponds extended as far as the eye could reach. Berthoald turned around to +his companions who were no less surprised than himself: "The breastwork, +like the abbey, has a decidedly martial mien." + +"This ground has been recently thrown up. The bark of the piles is still +fresh, as also the leaves of the hedge that crowns the parapet.... What +the devil can these precautions of defence mean?" + +"By the hammer of Charles!" said Berthoald. "Here we have an abbess who +is well up in the art of entrenchment! But there must be some other +route to reach the abbey and--" Berthoald did not finish the sentence. A +volley of stones thrown by slingers hid behind the hedge that crowned +the parapet, reached the three warriors. Their casques and cuirasses +broke the shock, but the young chief was rudely struck in the shoulder, +while the horse of Richulf, that was near the edge of the road and was +hit in the head, reared so violently that it fell over upon its rider +and both rolled into the pond, which was so deep at that spot that horse +and rider disappeared completely. The Frank soon rose back to the +surface and managed with great difficulty to clamber up the bank, while +his horse swam away frightened towards the center of the pond, where, +finally exhausted, it rolled over and sank. + +"Treason!" cried Berthoald. + +The deep moat filled with water was thirty feet wide. In order to cross +it, according to the art of war, it would have been necessary to fetch +lumber from a great distance and commence a regular siege. Night, +moreover, was on. While the young chief consulted with his companions +upon the unexpected occurrence, a voice from behind the hedge called +out: "This first volley of stones is but a shower of roses to what is in +store for you if you attempt to force a passage." + +"Whoever you be, you shall pay dearly for this assault," cried +Berthoald. "We are come by orders of Charles, chief of the Franks, who +made a gift of the abbey of Meriadek to me and my men. I command here. +It is for you to obey." + +"And I," replied the voice, "make you a gift, preparatory to something +better, of that volley of stones that you just got." + +"We can not to-night force a passage; but we shall encamp on this road. +To-morrow, at break of day, we shall storm your entrenchment. So, I warn +you, the abbess of this convent and her nuns will be treated like women +of conquered towns. The young ones will be distributed among us, the old +ones will be whipped, and the men will be slaughtered." + +"Our holy abbess, Dame Meroflede, minds not such threats," answered the +voice. "The abbess consents to admit the chief of those bandits, but +alone, into the convent.... His companions will camp for the night on +the causeway. To-morrow at break of day he shall rejoin his troop. And +when he shall have reported to them what he saw in the monastery, and in +what style preparations are making to receive them, they will realize +that the very best thing for them to do will be to return and fight +near Charles, the heathen who dares to dispose of the goods of the +Church! By the horns of Satan, we shall know how to chase you hence!" + +"I shall punish your insolence!" + +"My horse is drowned," added Richulf in a rage; "the water streams from +my armor; I am chilled through; my stomach is empty; and yet we are +condemned to spend the night in the open!" + +"Enough words! Decide!" replied the voice. "From the top of this +breastwork a long plank will be lowered over to you. However unsteady of +foot your chief may be, he will be able to cross the moat in safety. I +shall take him to the abbey; to-morrow he shall rejoin his companions, +and may the devil, who brought you here, lead you back to hell!" + +During this debate the other Franks of Berthoald's troop and presently +also the carts and baggages, all of which entered without mistrust upon +the narrow causeway, had come up to where the young chief stood. He +explained what had happened, and showed them the moat and the opposite +breastwork, which, under the circumstances, could neither be cleared nor +taken. The straggling beneficiaries of the abbey, no less nonplussed and +no less furious than Berthoald himself, broke out into threats and +imprecations against the abbess. Nevertheless, night having now fallen, +there was no choice but to camp upon the road. It was also decided that +Berthoald should proceed alone to the abbey, and that early the next +morning they were to consider what to do, according to his report; but +whatever their decision might be upon Berthoald's report, it was +determined that if Berthoald should fall a victim to treason and not +return in the morning, force would be immediately resorted to. As to +himself, wholly disregarding any danger that might threaten, Berthoald +insisted upon accepting the offer of admitting him to the monastery. The +young chief yielded in this as much to the spirit of adventure as to an +overpowering curiosity to see the fighting abbess. Agreeable to the +tender made by Ricarik, who guarded the breastwork, a plank was pushed +out horizontally from within the parapet, it swayed to the right and +left for a moment and then dropped so that one end rested on the side of +the ditch where Berthoald stood and the other remained firmly fastened +to the parapet. Berthoald left his horse in charge of one of his +companions, and with a firm and light step walked over the plank, +quickly reaching the parapet, into which the plank was immediately drawn +back. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +ASYLUM. + + +Berthoald was received by the intendant, whom, controlling his own +anger, he followed to a near spot where two horses stood saddled. +Ricarik left about a dozen slaves and colonists behind to watch the +trench under the starry sky, and motioning Berthoald to one of the +horses, leaped upon the other and galloped ahead. The young chief rode +in the wake of his guide, rage alternating in his breast with curiosity +concerning the fighting abbess who gave such unsatisfactory tokens of +resignation to the decree that dispossessed her of her benefice. In the +course of the ride towards the abbey, Berthoald encountered two other +protected ditches, like the first, but crossable by means of drawbridges +that were let down to allow him and his guide to pass. A short while +after crossing the second of these two ditches, Berthoald stood near the +outer enclosure of the abbey. The enclosure consisted of thick joists +well fastened together and planted from bank to bank of the two ponds +that lay on both sides. The buildings of the abbey rose upon a vast +peninsular field, accessible only from the side of the causeway that had +just been put in a state of defence. Behind the monastery, a tongue of +land connected with the forest, whose crest bordered the horizon, thus +offering another passage. Berthoald noticed many lights inside of the +enclosure, projected, no doubt, by torches. The intendant took a copper +horn that hung from the pommel of his saddle and blew a call. An +iron-barbed door facing the jetty opened slowly. Preceded by his guide, +Berthoald entered the first courtyard of the abbey, and found himself +face to face with the abbess on horseback, surrounded by several +torch-bearing slaves. Meroflede had lowered the cape of her scarlet +cloak half over her forehead. At her side hung a gold-handled hunting +knife in a steel sheath. Berthoald was seized with astonishment at the +sight of the woman as she sat in the light of the torches. Her costume, +at once monastic and martial, set off the supple and easy frame of the +abbess. The young chief found her handsome as far as he could judge +across the shadow projected upon her face by her half-drawn cowl. + +"I know that you are Berthoald," said Meroflede in a vibrating and +sonorous voice; "and so you have come to take possession of my abbey?" + +"This abbey has been given me and my companions of war by Charles, the +chief of the Franks. Yes, I have come to take possession." + +Meroflede indulged in a laugh of disdain, and despite the shadow that +veiled her face, her laughter exposed to the eyes of Berthoald two rows +of pearly white teeth. The abbess gave her horse a slight touch of her +heel and bade the young man follow. + +At the moment when Meroflede's horse was put on the march, +Broute-Saule--now healed of the peckings of the sparrow-hawk, and no +longer clad in rags, but wearing on the contrary an elegant green +jacket, buck-skin hose, neat leather shoes and a rich fur cap--placed +himself at the horse's head with his hands on the reins. Thus walking +between the abbess and Berthoald, the young hawk thief watched +attentively the slightest motion of Meroflede and covered her with +ardent and jealous eyes. From time to time he cast an uneasy glance at +the young chief. The torch-bearing slaves followed close behind the +abbess and Berthoald to the inner courtyard. Meroflede entered with +Berthoald and indicated to him fifty colonists in martial order and +armed with bows and slings. + +"Do you think these premises are sufficiently protected, my valiant +captain?" asked Meroflede. + +"For me and my men, a slinger or an archer is no more dangerous than a +dog that barks at a distance. We let the arrows whiz, the stones fly and +get within our sword's length. To-morrow at break of day you will know +what you have to expect, dame abbess ... should you insist upon +defending the abbey." + +Meroflede again laughed and said: "If you love a fight at close quarters +your taste will be suited to-morrow." + +"Not to-morrow!" cried Broute-Saule, casting upon Berthoald a look of +concentrated hatred and mistrust; "if you wish to fight, fight on the +spot ... right here in this yard, by the light of the torches and under +the eyes of our holy abbess; although I have neither casque nor cuirass, +I am your man!" + +Meroflede playfully struck Broute-Saule's cap with her whip and said +smiling: "Hold your tongue, slave!" + +Berthoald made no answer to the challenge of the hot-headed lad, and +silently followed the abbess, who, riding out of this second yard, moved +towards a spacious building from which confused cries were heard to +proceed. She leaned over her horse, and said a few words in the ear of +Broute-Saule. The latter seemed to hesitate before obeying. Seeing this, +she added imperiously: + +"Did you hear me?" + +"Holy dame--" + +"Will you obey!" cried Meroflede impetuously, striking Broute-Saule with +her whip. "Do as you are told, slave!" + +The face of Broute-Saule became livid and his furious eyes fell not upon +Meroflede but upon Berthoald. But the lad made a violent effort to +control himself; he obeyed, and ran forward to execute his mistress' +orders. Immediately after, about a hundred men of sinister and +determined mien and dressed in rags came out of the building, drew up +in line and brandished their lances, swords and axes, shouting: "Long +live our holy abbess, Meroflede!" Several women who were among the men +cried no less noisily: "Long live our abbess! Long live our holy dame!" + +"Do you, who have come to take possession of this monastery," said +Meroflede to the young chief with a caustic smile, "know what the right +of asylum imports?" + +"A criminal who takes refuge in a church is protected from the justice +of men." + +"You are a treasure of science, worthy of carrying the crosier and the +mitre! Well, these good folks that you see there are the flower of the +bandits of this region; the least guilty of them has committed one or +two murders. Apprised of your approach, I offered them to leave the +asylum of the basilica of Nantes by night, and promised them asylum in +the chapel of the abbey, and the indulgence of the good old times. If +they leave this place the gibbet awaits them. That will give you an idea +of the fury with which they will defend the monastery against your men, +who would not be Christian enough to extend to them a similar +protection. It is easy enough to accept the gift of an abbey, it is more +difficult to take possession of it. You now know what forces I have at +my command. Let us enter the monastery. After so long a journey, you +must feel tired. I extend hospitality to you. You shall sup with me.... +To-morrow, at daybreak, you shall rejoin your companions. You surely are +a prudent councilor. You will induce your band to look for some other +abbey, and you will lead them in the search." + +"I see with pleasure, holy abbess, that solitude and the austerities of +the cloister have not impaired the joviality of your temper." + +"Ah! You think I am jovial?" + +"You suggest with an amusing seriousness that I and my men who have +been fighting the Arabs, Frisians and Saxons since the battle of +Poitiers, shall now turn tail to this handful of murderers and robbers, +reinforced by poor colonists who have left the plow for the lance, and +the hoe for the sling!" + +"You braggart!" cried Broute-Saule, who had returned to his place at the +head of Meroflede's horse. "Will you have us two take an axe? We shall +strip to the waist, and you will find out whether the men of this place +are cowards!" + +"You look to me to be a brave lad," answered Berthoald smiling. "If you +would like to remain with us at the abbey, you will find a place in the +ranks of my companions." + +"We must have a truce from now till to-morrow.... You are surely tired. +You shall be taken to a bath. That will refresh you. After that we shall +sup. I can not treat you to a feast such as St. Agnes and St. Radegonde +treated their favorite poet, Bishop Fortunat, to at their abbey of +Poitiers, in short skirts. But you will not starve." Meroflede then +turned to Ricarik: "You have my orders, obey them!" + +While speaking, Meroflede had drawn near the interior door of the abbey. +With a light leap she alighted from her horse and disappeared within the +cloister, after throwing the bridle to Broute-Saule. The lad followed +the fascinating woman with looks of despair, and he then slowly returned +to the stables, after shaking his fist at Berthoald. The latter, who was +more and more struck by the oddities of the abbess, did not notice +Broute-Saule's threatening gesture but was steeped in thought when +Ricarik recalled him to his surroundings, saying: "Alight; the slaves +will conduct you to the bath; they will help you take off your armor, +and as your baggage is not here they will furnish you with proper +vestments--they are a new hose and coat that I never used. You may put +them on should you prefer them to your iron shell. I shall later come +for you to sup with our holy dame." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +WARRIOR AND ABBESS. + + +Refreshed by his bath and daintily dressed, Berthoald was half an hour +later led by Ricarik to the apartment of the abbess. When he appeared in +the hall where Meroflede awaited him, he found her alone. The abbess had +doffed her black vestments to array herself in a long white robe. A +light veil half hid the tresses of her thick and reddish hair. A +necklace and bracelets of precious stones ornamented her neck and bare +arms. The Franks, having preserved the custom, introduced before them in +Gaul by the Romans, of surrounding their banquet tables with couches, +the abbess, extended almost at full length upon a long and wide lounge +furnished with cushions, made a sign to the young chief to sit down near +her. Berthoald obeyed, increasingly taken with the unusual beauty of +Meroflede. A large fire flamed in the hearth. Rich vessels of silver +glistened on the table, which was covered with embroidered linen; +daintily carved flagons stood near gold cups; the plates held toothsome +dishes; a candelabrum, on which two little wax candles were burning, +barely lighted the spacious apartment, which was thrown into +semi-obscurity a few paces away from Meroflede and her guest, and into +complete darkness at its further ends. The lounge stood against a +wainscoted wall from which hung two portraits, one of them, coarsely +painted on an oak panel in Byzantine style, representing a Frankish +warrior barbarously accoutred after the fashion of the leudes of Clovis +three centuries earlier. Below the painting was the inscription: +"Gonthram Neroweg." Beside this picture was one of the abbess Meroflede +herself, draped in her long black and white veils; in one hand she held +her abbatial crosier, in the other a naked sword. The second picture was +much smaller than the first; it was painted on parchment, in the style +of the miniatures that sacred books were then commonly illuminated with. +Berthoald's eyes fell upon the two pictures at the moment when he was +about to sit down beside his hostess. At their sight a tremor ran +through him, and he remained as if thunder-struck. Presently he looked +from Gonthram Neroweg to Meroflede, and from the abbess back to the +former. He seemed to compare the resemblance between the two, an obvious +resemblance; like Neroweg, Meroflede's hair was reddish, her nose +beaked, her eyes green. The young chief could not conceal his +astonishment. + +"You seem to contemplate with deep interest the portrait of one of my +ancestors, deceased several centuries ago!" + +"You are of the race of Neroweg!" + +"Yes, and my family still inhabits its vast domains of Auvergne, +conquered by my ancestors' swords, or bestowed upon them by royal +gifts.... But that is quite enough for the past. Glory to the dead, joy +to the living! Sit down here near me, and let us take supper.... I am an +odd abbess. But by Venus, I live like the other abbots and bishops of my +time, with the only difference that these mitred folks sup with young +girls, while I shall spend the night with a handsome soldier.... Will +that be to your taste?" and raising one of the heavy silver flagons with +a virile hand, she filled to the brim the gold cup that was placed near +her guest. After merely moistening her own red lips in the cup, she +reached it to the young chief and said resolutely: + +"Let us drink your welcome to this convent!" + +Berthoald held the cup for a moment between his two hands, and casting +one more look at the portrait of Neroweg, he smiled caustically, fixed +upon the abbess a look as bold as that which she cast at him, and +replied: "Let us drink, beautiful abbess!" and emptying the cup at one +draught, he added: "Let us drink to love!... which overpowers the +abbesses as it does the simple maids!" + +"Aye! Let us drink to love, the god of the world, as the pagans used to +say!" answered Meroflede, and filling her own cup from a little red +flagon, and replenishing the cup of the young chief, who fixedly gazed +at her with eyes that shot fire, she added: "I have drunk to your toast; +now drink to mine!" + +"Whatever it be, holy abbess, and even though this cup be filled with +poison, I shall empty it to your toast, I swear by your snow-white +arms!--by your beautiful eyes!--by your voluptuous lips! I drink to +Venus Callipyge!" + +"Well, then," said the abbess, fixing a penetrating look upon the young +man, "let us drink to the Jew Mordecai!" + +Berthoald had his cup at his lips, but at the name of the Jew he +shivered, laid his cup down abruptly, his face grew dark and he cried in +terror: + +"Drink to the Jew Mordecai?" + +"Come, by Venus, the patroness of lovers, do not tremble like that, my +brave friend!" + +"Drink to the Jew Mordecai!... I----" + +"You said to me: 'Let us drink to Love!'" replied the abbess, without +losing the effect of her words upon Berthoald; "you swore by the +whiteness of this arm," and she raised her sleeves, "you swore to drink +my toast. Fulfill your promise!" + +"Woman!" cried Berthoald with impatience and embarrassment, "what whim +is that? Why do you wish me to drink to the Jew Mordecai, to a merchant +of human flesh?" + +"I shall satisfy your curiosity.... Had not Mordecai sold you as a slave +to the Seigneur Bodegesil, you would not have stolen your master's horse +and armor to go in search of adventures, and palmed yourself off upon +that devil of a Charles Martel--you, a Gaul of the subject race--for a +noble of the Frankish race and son of a dispossessed beneficiary, and +finally, Charles, one of whose best captains you have become, would not +have presented you with this abbey. Consequently, you would not be here +now, at my side, at this table, where we are together drinking to +Love.... That is the reason why, my valiant warrior, I empty this cup to +the memory of that filthy Jew! And now, will you drink to the Jew +Mordecai?" + +While Meroflede was uttering these words, Berthoald contemplated her +with increased astonishment, now mixed with fear, and could find not one +word in answer. + +"Ah! Ah! Ah!" said the abbess laughing, "see how dumb he has become. Why +grow alternately pale and red? What does it matter whether you are of +Gallic or Frankish race? Does that render your eyes less blue, your hair +less black, your shape less comely? Come, shame upon you, my warrior! +Must I teach a soldier how cups are emptied, and how love is made?" + +Berthoald felt as if in a dream. Meroflede did not seem to despise him; +she did not seem to triumph at the advantage that she had gained over +him by the knowledge of his secret. Frank in her cynicism, she +contemplated the young chief with mild and ardent eyes. Her looks that +at once troubled his mind and fired his veins; the strangeness of the +adventure; the effect of the large cup that he had just drained at one +draught, either a heady wine or perchance mixed with some philtre, and +that began to throw his brain into disorder;--all these thoughts crowded +upon Berthoald's mind. He took a sudden resolve--to vie with the abbess +in audacity, and said resolutely to her: "You are of the race of +Neroweg, I of that of Joel!" + +"We shall drink to Joel ... he has raised a breed of handsome soldiers." + +"Are you acquainted with the death of the son of Gonthram Neroweg, whose +portrait I see there on the wall?" + +"A tradition in my family has it that he was killed in his domain of +Auvergne by the chief of a troop of bandits and revolted slaves. May the +devil keep his soul!" + +"The chief of those bandits was named Karadeucq ... he was the great +grandfather of my grandfather!" + +"By heaven! That is a singular coincidence! And how did the bandit kill +Neroweg?" + +"Your ancestor and mine fought valiantly with axes, and the count +succumbed. The Gaul triumphed over the Frank!" + +"Indeed ... you refresh the recollections of my childhood. Did not your +ancestor cut some words in the trunk of a tree with the point of a +dagger after the combat?" + +"Yes--'_Karadeucq, a descendant of Joel, killed Count Neroweg_'!" + +"A few months after her husband's death, the count's wife, Godegisele, +gave birth to a son, who was the grandfather of my grandfather." + +"Strange coincidence, indeed ... and you, my beautiful abbess, listen to +the story with great calmness!" + +"What are those combats of our ancestors and of our races to me? By +Venus! By her beautiful hips! I know but one race in all the world--the +race of lovers! Empty your cup, my valiant warrior, and let us sup +merrily. To-night there is a truce between us two.... War to-morrow!" + +"Shame! Remorse! Reason! Duty!--let them all be drowned in wine!... I +know not whether I am awake or dreaming on this strange night!" cried +the young chief, and taking up his full cup, he rose and proceeded with +an air of feverish defiance while turning towards the somber and savage +portrait of the Frankish warrior: "To you, Neroweg!" Having emptied his +cup, Berthoald felt seized with a vertigo and threw himself upon the +lounge, saying to Meroflede: "Long live Love, abbess of the devil! Let +us love each other to-night, and fight to-morrow!" + +"We shall fight on the spot!" cried a hoarse and strangling voice, that +seemed to proceed from the extremity of the large hall that lay in utter +darkness, and, the curtains of one of the doors being thrust aside, +Broute-Saule, who, without the knowledge of the abbess and driven by +savage jealousy, had managed to penetrate into the apartment, rushed +forward agile like a tiger. With two bounds he reached Berthoald, seized +him by the hair with one hand and raised a dagger over him with the +other, determined to plunge the weapon into the young chief's throat. +The latter, however, although taken by surprise, quickly drew his sword, +held with his iron grip the armed hand of Broute-Saule, and ran his +weapon through the unfortunate lad. Deadly wounded, Broute-Saule +staggered about for a few seconds and then dropped, crying: "Meroflede +... my beautiful mistress ... I die under your eyes!" + +Still holding his bloody sword in his hand, and aware that the powerful +wine was making further inroads upon his senses, Berthoald mechanically +fell back upon the lounge. The dazed chief for a moment scrutinized the +darkness of the apartment, apprehensive of further attempts upon his +life, when he saw the abbess knock over with her fist the candelabrum +which alone lighted the room, and in the midst of the total darkness +that now pervaded the place he felt himself in the close embrace of the +monster. Hardly any recollection remained to him of what happened during +the rest of that night of drunkenness and debauchery. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE MOUSE-TRAP. + + +Dawn was about to succeed the night in which Broute-Saule was killed by +Berthoald. Profoundly asleep and with his hands pinioned behind his +back, the young chief lay upon the floor of Meroflede's bedchamber. +Wrapped in a black cloak, her face pale and half veiled by her now loose +thick red hair that almost reached the floor, the abbess proceeded to +the window, holding in her hand a lighted torch of rosin. Leaning over +the sill whence the horizon could be seen at a distance, the abbess +waved her torch three times, while intently looking towards the east +which began to be tinted with the approaching day. After a few minutes, +the light of a large flame, that rose from a distance behind the +retreating shades of night, responded to Meroflede's signal. Her +features beamed with sinister joy. She dropped her torch into the moat +that surrounded the monastery, and then proceeded to awaken Berthoald by +shaking him rudely. Berthoald was with difficulty drawn from his +lethargy. He sought to take his hand to his forehead, but found that he +was pinioned. He raised himself painfully upon his leaden feet, and +still unclear of mind he contemplated Meroflede in silence. The abbess +extended her bare arms towards the horizon, that dawn was feebly +lighting, and said: "Do you see yonder, far away, the narrow road that +crosses the pond and prolongs itself as far as the outer works of the +abbey?" + +"Yes," said Berthoald, struggling against the strange torpor that still +paralyzed his mind and will, without thereby wholly clouding his +intellect; "yes, I see the road surrounded by water on all sides." + +"Did not your companions in arms camp on that road during the night?" + +"I think so," replied the young chief, seeking to collect his confused +thoughts; "last evening ... my companions--" + +"Listen!" put in the abbess nervously and placing her hand upon the +young man's shoulder. "Listen ... what do you hear from the side on +which the sun is about to rise?" + +"I hear a great rumbling noise ... that seems to draw nearer towards us. +It sounds like the rush of waters." + +"Your ear does not deceive you, my valiant warrior;" and leaning upon +Berthoald's shoulder: "Yonder, towards the east, lies an immense lake +held in by dikes and locks." + +"A lake? What of it?" + +"The level of its waters is eight to ten feet above those of the +ponds.... Do you understand what will follow?" + +"No, my mind is heavy ... I hardly remember ... our charming night ... +but why am I pinioned?" + +"For the purpose of checking your joy when, as will soon be the case, +you will have recovered your senses.... Now, let us continue our +confidential chat. You will understand that the moment the dikes are +broken through and the locks opened, the water will rise in these ponds +to the extent that they will submerge the narrow road on which your +companions encamped for the night with their horses and the carts that +held their booty and slaves.... Now, watch.... Do you notice how the +water is rising? It is now up to the very edge of the jetty.... Within +an hour, the jetty itself will be entirely submerged. Not one of your +companions will have escaped death.... If they seek to flee, a deep +trench, cut at my orders over night, will stop their progress.... Not +one will escape death.... Do you hear, my handsome prisoner?" + +"All drowned!" murmured Berthoald, still under the dominion of a dull +stupor; "all my companions drowned----" + +"Oh, does not yet that new piece of confidential news wake you up?... +Let us pass to another thing," and the abbess proceeded with a voice of +ringing triumph: "Among the female slaves, taken from Languedoc, that +your band brought in its train, there was a woman ... who will drown +with the rest, and that woman," said Meroflede, emphasizing each word in +the hope of each being a dagger in Berthoald's heart, "is--your--mother!" + +Berthoald trembled violently, leaped up in his bonds, and vainly sought +to snap them. He uttered a piercing cry, cast a look of despair and +terror upon the immense sheet of water that, tinted with the first rays +of the rising sun, now extended in every direction. The wretched man +called aloud: "Oh, my mother!" + +"Now," said Meroflede with savage joy, "the water has almost completely +invaded the causeway. The tent-cloths that cover the carts can hardly be +seen. The flood still rises, and at this very hour your mother is +undergoing the agonies of death ... agonies that are more horrible than +death itself." + +"Oh, demon!" cried the young man, writhing in his bonds. "You lie! My +mother is not there!" + +"Your mother's name is Rosen-Aër, she is forty years of age; she lived +one time in the valley of Charolles in Burgundy." + +"Woe! Woe is me!" + +"Fallen into the hands of the Arabs at the time of their invasion of +Burgundy, she was taken to Languedoc as a slave. After the last siege of +Narbonne by Charles, your mother was captured in the vicinity of the +town together with other women. When the division of the booty took +place, Rosen-Aër having fallen to the lot of your band was brought as +far as here.... If still you should doubt, I shall give you one more +token. That woman carries on her arm, like you, traced in indelible +letters the two words: '_Brenn_' and '_Karnak_'.... Are these details +accurate enough?" + +"Oh, my mother!" cried the unfortunate Berthoald casting upon the waters +of the pond a look of most poignant pain. + +"Your mother is now dead.... The jetty has disappeared under the waters, +and still they rise.... Aye, your mother was drowned in the covered +cart, where she was held confined with the other slaves." + +"My heart breaks," murmured Berthoald, crushed by the weight of pain and +despair: "My suffering is beyond endurance!" + +"Are you so soon at the end of your strength?" cried Meroflede with a +peal of infernal laughter. "Oh! no, no! You have not yet suffered +enough. What! You stupid slave! You Gallic renegade! Cowardly liar, who +brazenly deck yourself with the name of a noble Frank! What, did you +imagine vengeance did not boil in my veins because you saw me smile last +evening at the death of my ancestor, who was killed by a bandit of your +race! Aye! I smiled because I thought how at daybreak I would have you +witness from a distance the death agonies of your own mother! I was but +preparing my vengeance." + +"Monster of lewdness and ferocity!" cried Berthoald, making superhuman +efforts to break his bonds. "I must punish you for your crimes!... Yes, +by Hesus, I shall throttle you with my own hands!" + +The abbess realized the impotence of Berthoald's fury, shrugged her +shoulders and continued: "Your ancestor, the bandit, set fire a century +and a half ago to the castle of my ancestor, Count Neroweg, and killed +him with an axe. I reply to the fire with the inundation, and I drown +your mother! As to the fate that awaits you, it will be terrible!" + +"Did my mother know that I was the chief of the Franks who took her +prisoner?" + +"My vengeance lacked only that!" + +"But who, miserable woman, could have told you what you know about my +mother?" + +"The Jew Mordecai." + +"How did he know her? Where did he see her?" + +"At the halt that you made at the convent of St. Saturnine with Charles +Martel; it was there that the Jew recognized you." + +"God was merciful to me! My mother did not live to know my shame. Her +death would have been doubly terrible.... And now, monster, deliver me +of your presence and of life. I am in a hurry to die!" + +"Have patience! I have prepared for you a refined punishment, and a +prolonged agony." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE MIRACLE OF ST. LOUP'S TEETH. + + +On the morning of the fateful day when the abbess Meroflede drowned, as +in a mouse-trap, the troop of Frankish warriors that had presumed to +dispossess her, the goldsmith Bonaik entered his workshop at the +accustomed hour. He was soon joined by his slave apprentices. After +lighting the fire in the forge, the old man opened the window that +looked over the fosse, to let the smoke escape. With no little +astonishment Bonaik observed that the water in the moat had risen so +high as to be within a foot of the window sill. "Oh, my lads," said he +to the apprentices, "I fear some great calamity happened last night! For +very many years the water of this moat did not reach the height of +to-day, and then it happened when the dike of the upper lake broke, and +caused widespread disasters. Look yonder at the other end of the moat. +The water is almost up to the air-hole cut into the cavern under the +building opposite us." + +"And it looks as if the water were still rising, Father Bonaik." + +"Alack, yes, my lad! It is still rising. Oh, the bursting of the dikes +will bring on great calamities. There will be many victims!" + +While Bonaik and his apprentices were looking at the rising water in the +moat, the voice of Septimine was heard calling on the outside: "Father +Bonaik, open the door of the workshop!" One of the apprentices ran to +the door and the girl entered, supporting a woman whose long hair +streamed with water; her clothes were drenched, her face livid; she was +barely able to drag herself along; so weak was she that after taking a +few steps in the shop she fell fainting in the arms of the old goldsmith +and Septimine. + +"Poor woman! She is cold as ice!" exclaimed the old man, and turning to +his apprentices: "Quick, quick boys! Fetch some coal from the vault, ply +the bellows and raise the fire in the forge to warm up this unfortunate +woman. I thought so! This inundation must have caused much damage." + +At the words of the goldsmith, two apprentices ran down into the vault +behind the forge for charcoal, and the other blew upon the fire, while +the old man approached Septimine, who, on her knees before the +unconscious woman, wept and said: "Oh, she is going to die!" + +"Reassure yourself," the old man said; "this poor woman's hands, icy +cold a minute ago, are becoming warmer. But what has happened? Your +clothes also are drenched. You look strangely shocked." + +"Good father, at daybreak this morning, the girls who sleep in my room +and I woke up and went into the courtyard. There we heard other slaves +crying that the dikes had burst. The girls all ran to see the progress +of the inundation. I went along without knowing why. They dispersed. I +advanced to a tongue of land that is washed by the water of the pond. A +large willow stands near the spot. I presently saw a half-submerged cart +floating a little way off. It was being turned around by the opposite +currents, and it was covered by a tent-cloth." + +"Thanks be to God! The spreading tent-cloth acted like a balloon and +kept the cart from sinking." + +"The wind blew into this sort of a sail, driving the cart towards the +shore where I stood. I then saw this unfortunate woman, holding to the +tent-cloth, the rest of her body in the water." + +"And what happened then, my daughter?" + +"There was not a second to lose. The failing hands of the poor woman, +whose strength was exhausted, were about to drop. I fastened one end of +my belt to one of the branches of the willow-tree and the other to my +wrist and I leaned forward towards the poor woman calling out to her: +'Courage!' She heard me, and seized my right hand convulsively. The +sudden pull caused my feet to slip from the edge and I fell into the +water." + +"Fortunately your left wrist was tied to one of the ends of the belt +that you had fastened to the tree!" + +"Yes, good father. But the shock was violent. I thought my arm was +wrenched from its socket. Fortunately the poor woman took hold of the +edge of my dress. My first pain having passed I did my best, and with +the aid of my belt that remained fastened to the tree and on which I +tugged away, I succeeded in reaching the shore and pulling out this +woman, on the point of drowning. Our workshop being the nearest place +that I could think of, I brought her here; she could hardly support +herself; but, alack!" added the girl at the sight of the still inanimate +face of Rosen-Aër, for it was Berthoald's mother that Septimine had just +saved, "I may only have retarded the supreme moment for a few seconds!" + +"Do not lose hope," answered the old man, "her hands are growing +warmer." + +With the aid of the apprentices, who were no less compassionate than +Septimine and the old man, Rosen-Aër was drawn sitting on a stool near +the forge. Little by little she felt the salutary effect of the +penetrating heat, she gradually recovered her senses, and finally awoke. +Gathering her thoughts, she stretched out her arms to Septimine and said +in a feeble voice: "Dear child, you saved me!" + +Septimine threw herself around Rosen-Aër's neck, shedding glad tears, +and answered: "We have done what we could; we are only poor slaves." + +"Oh! my child, I am a slave like yourselves, brought to this country +from the center of Languedoc. We spent the night on the road between the +two ponds of this monastery. The oxen had been unhitched from the carts. +We were caught in the inundation that began at daybreak----" But +Rosen-Aër suddenly broke off and rose to her feet. Her face was at first +expressive of stupor, but immediately a delirious joy seized her, and +precipitating herself towards the open window, she passed her arm +through the thick iron bars, crying: "My son! I see my son Amael +yonder!" + +For a moment both Septimine and Bonaik believed the unhappy woman had +become demented, but when they approached the window the young girl +joined her hands and cried out: "The Frankish Chief, he in an +underground passage of the abbey?" + +Rosen-Aër and Septimine saw on the other side of the moat Berthoald +holding himself up with both hands by the iron bars of the air-hole of +the cavern. He suddenly saw and as quickly recognized his mother, and, +delirious with joy, he cried in a thrilling voice that, despite the +distance, reached the workshop: "Mother!... My dear mother!" + +"Septimine," Bonaik said anxiously to the girl, "do you know that young +man?" + +"Oh, yes! He was as good to me as an angel from Heaven! I saw him at the +convent of St. Saturnine. It is to that warrior that Charles donated +this abbey." + +"To him!" replied the old man, bewildered. "How, then, comes he in that +cavern?" + +"Master Bonaik," one of the apprentices ran by saying, "I hear outside +the voice of the intendant Ricarik. He stopped under the vault to scold +some one. He will be here in a minute. He is coming on his morning +round, as is his habit. What is best to be done?" + +"Good God!" cried the old man in terror. "He will find this woman here, +and will question her. She may betray herself and acknowledge that she +is the mother of that young man--undoubtedly a victim of the abbess." +And the old man, running to the window, seized Rosen-Aër by the arm and +said to her while he dragged her away: "In the name of your son's life, +come! Come quick!" + +"What threatens my son's life?" + +"Follow me, or he is lost, and you also." And Bonaik, without further +explanations to Rosen-Aër, pointed out to her the vault behind the +forge, saying: "Hide there, do not stir," and turning to his apprentices +while he put on his apron: "You, boys, hammer away as loud as you can, +and sing at the top of your voices! You, Septimine, sit down and polish +this vase. May God prevent that poor young man from remaining at the +air-hole or from being seen by Ricarik!" Saying this the old goldsmith +started to hammer upon his anvil, striking with a sonorous voice the old +and well-known goldsmith's song in honor of the good Eloi: + + "From the station of artisan + He was raised to that of bishop,-- + With his duties of pastor, + Eloi purified the goldsmith. + His hammer is the authority for his word, + His furnace the constancy of zeal, + His bellows the inspirer, + His anvil, obedience!" + +Ricarik entered the workshop. The goldsmith seemed not to notice him, +and proceeded with his song while flattening with hammer blows a silver +leaf into which the abbatial cross terminated. "You are a jolly set," +remarked the intendant stepping to the center of the workshop; "stop +your singing ... you dogs ... you deafen my ears!" + +"I have not a drop of blood in my veins," Septimine whispered to Bonaik. +"That wicked man is drawing near the window.... If he were to see the +Frankish chief--" + +"Why have you so much fire in the forge?" the intendant proceeded to +say, taking a step towards the fireplace, behind which was the cave that +Rosen-Aër was concealed in. "Do you amuse yourself burning coal +uselessly?" + +"No, indeed! This very morning I shall melt the silver that you brought +me yesterday." + +"Metal is melted in crucibles, not in forges--" + +"Ricarik, everyone to his trade. I have worked in the workshops of the +great Eloi. I know my profession, seigneur intendant. I shall first +subject my metal to the strong fire of the forge, then hammer it, and +only after that will it be ready for the crucible. The cast will then be +more solid." + +"You never lack for an answer." + +"Because I always have good ones to give. But there are several +necessary things that I shall want from you for this work, the most +important of any that I shall have made for the monastery, seeing the +silver vase is to be two feet high, as you may judge from the cast on +the table." + +"What do you need, dotard?" + +"I shall need a barrel that I shall fill with sand, and in the middle of +which I shall place my mold.... That is not all.... I have often found +that, despite the hoops that hold the staves of the barrel, where molds +are placed inside of the sand, the barrel bursts when the molten metal +is poured into the hollow. I shall need a long rope to wind tightly +around the barrel. If the hoops snap, the rope will hold. I shall also +need a long thin string to hold the sides of the mold." + +"You shall have the barrel, the rope and string." + +"These young folks and I shall be forced to spend part of the night at +the work. The days are short at this season. Order a pouch of wine for +us, who otherwise drink only water. The good cheer will keep up our +strength during our hard night's work. On casting days, at the workshops +of the great Eloi, the slaves were always treated to something extra.... +Eatables were not spared." + +"You shall have your pouch of wine ... seeing that this is a holy-day at +the convent. A miracle has taken place--" + +"A miracle! Tell us about it!" + +"Yes.... A just punishment of heaven has struck a band of adventurers +upon whom Charles the accursed had the audacity of bestowing this abbey +that is consecrated to the Church. They camped last night upon the +jetty, expecting to attack the monastery at daybreak. But the Lord, by +means of a redoubtable and astonishing prodigy opened the cataracts of +heaven. The ponds swelled and the whole band of criminals was drowned!" + +"Glory be to the Lord!" cried the old goldsmith, making a sign to his +apprentices to imitate him. "Glory be to the Lord, who drowns impious +wretches in the cataracts of his wrath!" + +"Glory be to the Lord!" repeated the young slaves in chorus at the top +of their voices. "Glory be to the Lord, who drowns impious wretches in +the cataracts of his wrath! Amen!" + +"It is a miracle that does not at all surprise me, Ricarik," added the +goldsmith; "it is surely due to the teeth of St. Loup, to the holy relic +that you brought me yesterday." + +"That's probable ... it is certain.... You do not need anything else?" + +"No," answered the old man, rising and looking into several boxes; "I +have here for the mold enough sulphur and bitumen, there is also enough +charcoal; one of my apprentices shall go with you, Ricarik, and bring +the barrel, rope and cord, and do not forget the pouch of wine and the +victuals, seigneur intendant!" + +"You will get them later, together with your pittances at double +rations." + +"Ricarik, we shall not be able to leave the workshop one instant, on +account of the mold. Let us have our daily pittance this morning, if you +please, so that the work may not be interrupted. We shall lock the door +to keep out intruders." + +"Let one of your apprentices come with me; he shall bring all the +things, but be sure and have the vase cast to-morrow so as to please our +holy abbess; if you fail your backs will have to pay for it." + +"You may assure our holy and venerable abbess that when the vase shall +come out of the mold it will be worthy of an artisan who saw the great +Eloi handle the file and burin." Bonaik then said in a low voice to one +of the apprentices, while Ricarik was moving towards the door: "Pick up +on your way a dozen stones of the size of walnuts; keep them in your +pockets, and bring them to me." He then said aloud: "Accompany the +seigneur intendant, my boy; and be sure not to loiter on the way back." + +"Rest assured, master," said the apprentice with a significant gesture +to the old man while following the intendant out of the shop; "your +orders will be obeyed to the letter." + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +BRENN--KARNAK. + + +The goldsmith remained a few moments at the threshold of the workshop +listening to the retreating steps of the intendant; he then closed and +bolted the door and went to the vault where Rosen-Aër was in hiding, +while Septimine ran to the window to see whether Berthoald was still in +sight. But the sight that presented itself to her eyes made her exclaim +with terror: "Great God, the young chief is lost!... The water has +reached the air-hole!" + +"Lost!... My son!" cried Rosen-Aër in despair, rushing to the window +despite the old man's efforts to restrain her. "Oh, my son! To have seen +you again only to lose you.... Amael, Amael!... Answer your mother!" + +"The woman will betray us ... if she is heard outside!" said the +fear-stricken old man, vainly endeavoring to drag Rosen-Aër from the +window bars to which the distracted woman clung, hysterically calling +out to her son. But Amael did not reappear. The flood had gained the +opening of the air-hole, and despite the width of the moat that +separated the two buildings, the muffled sound of the water was heard +pouring through the opening and falling into the cavern. Pale as death, +Septimine could not utter a word. In the frenzy of her despair, +Rosen-Aër sought to break the stout iron bars of the window, while she +sobbed aloud: "To know that he is there ... in agony ... dying ... and +we unable to save him!" + +"Have hope!" cried the old man with tears in his eyes at the sight of +the mother's anguish; "hope!... I have been watching the moss-covered +stone at the corner of the air-hole. The water does not rise to it.... +It has stopped rising.... See for yourselves!" + +Septimine and Rosen-Aër dried their tears and looked at the stone that +Bonaik pointed out. In fact it was not submerged. Presently even the +noise of the water flowing down through the air-hole sounded with less +distinctness, and finally ceased altogether. The flood seemed checked. + +"He is saved!" cried Septimine. "Thank God, the young chief will not +drown!" + +"Saved!" stammered Rosen-Aër in a heart-rending tone of doubt. "And if +enough water has poured into the cavern to drown him.... Oh! If he were +still alive he would have answered my voice.... No, no! He is dying! He +is dead!" + +"Master Bonaik, some one knocks," an apprentice said. "What shall I do? +Open?" + +"Return to your hiding place," the old man said to Rosen-Aër, and as she +did not seem to hear, he added: "Are you determined to perish and have +us all perish with you, we who are ready to sacrifice ourselves for you +and your son?" Rosen-Aër left the window and returned to the vault, +while the old man walked to the door and inquired: "Who is there?" + +"I," answered from the outside the voice of the apprentice who had gone +out with Ricarik; "I, Justin, I have executed your commissions, Father +Bonaik." + +"Come in, quick," said the goldsmith to the lad who carried an empty +barrel on his shoulders and had in his hand a basket of provisions, the +wine pouch, and a large roll of rope and cord. Re-bolting the door, the +old man took the wine pouch out of the basket and going to the vault +where Rosen-Aër was hiding said to her: "Take a little wine to comfort +you." + +But Amael's mother pushed the pouch aside, crying in despair: "My son! +My son! What has become of my son Amael?" + +"Justin," the old man said to the apprentice, "give me the stones I told +you to pick up." + +"Here, Master Bonaik, are they. I filled my pockets with them." + +The old man picked out a small stone and went to the window, saying: "If +the unfortunate man is not drowned, he will understand, when he sees +this stone drop into the cave, that it is a signal." Father Bonaik took +accurate aim and threw the stone through the air-hole. Rosen-Aër and +Septimine awaited the result of Bonaik's attempt in mortal anguish. Even +the apprentices observed profound silence. A few seconds of intense +anxiety passed. "Nothing," murmured the old goldsmith with his eyes +fixed upon the air-hole. + +"He is dead!" cried Rosen-Aër, held by Septimine in her arms. "I shall +never more see my son!" + +The old man threw a second stone. Another interval of anxiety ensued. +All held their breath. A few seconds later, as Rosen-Aër raised herself +on tip-toe, she cried: "His hands! I see his hands! He is holding to the +bar of the air-hole. Thanks, Hesus! Thanks! You have saved my son!" and +the woman fell upon her knees in an attitude of prayer. + +Bonaik thereupon saw the pale face of Amael, framed in his long black +hair that now streamed with water, rise between the iron bars of the +air-hole. The old man made him a sign to withdraw quickly, while saying +in a low voice as if he expected to be heard by the prisoner: "Now, hide +yourself, disappear and wait!" and turning to Rosen-Aër: "Your son has +understood me. No imprudence. Be calm." Bonaik then went to his +work-bench, took a piece of parchment from a little roll that he used to +trace his models on, and wrote these words: + + * * * * * + +"If the water has not invaded the cavern so that you cannot stay there +without danger until night, then give three pulls to the string at the +end of which will be attached the stone tied in this note. This cord can +then serve as a means of communicating. When you see it shake get ready +for further information. Until then do not show yourself at the +air-hole. Courage!" + + * * * * * + +Having written these words, the goldsmith rolled the stone in the +parchment, happily impermeable to water, and tied both in a knot to one +end of the string, at about the middle of which he attached a piece of +iron in order that the body of the rope might be held under water, and +thus the means of communication between the workshop and the cavern +remain invisible. Bonaik slung the stone through the air-hole, retaining +in his hand the other end of the string. Almost immediately after, three +pulls given to the string announced to Bonaik that Amael could remain +until evening without danger in his prison, and that he would follow the +orders of the old man. Hope revived the spirits of Rosen-Aër. In the +fulness of her thanks she took the goldsmith's hands and said to him: +"Good father, you will save him, will you not? You will save my son?" + +"I hope so, poor woman! But let me collect my thoughts.... At my age, +you know, such experiences are trying. In order to succeed, we must be +prudent. The task is difficult.... We cannot be too cautious." + +While the goldsmith, leaning on his elbows at his work-bench, held his +head in his hands, and the apprentices remained silent and uneasy, +Rosen-Aër, struck by a sudden recollection, said to Septimine: "My +child, you said my son had been good to you, like an angel from +heaven.... All that concerns you interests me. Where did you meet him?" + +"Near Poitiers, at the convent of St. Saturnine.... My family and I, +touched with pity for a young prince, a boy, who was kept confined in +the monastery, wished to help him to escape; all was discovered, they +meant to punish me in a shameful, infamous manner," Septimine said +blushing; "and they decided to sell me and separate me from my father +and mother.... It was at that moment that your son, a favorite of +Charles, the Chief of the Franks, interceded in my behalf and took me +under his protection--" + +"My son, say you, dear child?" + +"Yes, madam, the seigneur Berthoald." + +"You call him Berthoald?" + +"That is the name of the young Frankish chief who is locked up in that +cavern--" + +"My son Amael with the name of Berthoald! My son a favorite of the +Frankish chief!" cried Rosen-Aër struck with amazement. "My son, who was +raised in horror for the conquerors of Gaul, those oppressors of our +race! My son one of their favorites! No, no.... It is impossible!" + +"Live a hundred years, and never shall I forget what happened at the +convent of St. Saturnine--the touching kindness of the seigneur +Berthoald towards me, whom he had never seen before. Did he not obtain +my liberty from Charles, and also the liberty of my father and mother? +Was he not generous enough to give me gold to meet my family's wants?" + +"I am lost in the attempt to penetrate this mystery. The troop of +warriors, that brought us slaves in their train, did indeed stop at the +abbey of St. Saturnine," replied Rosen-Aër in great agony, and she +added: "but if he whom you call Berthoald obtained your freedom from the +chief of the Franks, how come you to be a slave here, my poor child?" + +"The seigneur Berthoald trusted the word of Charles, and Charles trusted +the word of the abbot of the convent. But after the departure of the +chief of the Franks and your son, the abbot, who had previously sold me +to a Jew named Mordecai, kept his bargain with the Jew.... In vain did I +beseech the warriors whom Charles left behind in possession of the +monastery, and as a guard over the little prince, to stand by me. I was +torn away from my family. The Jew kept the gold that your son had +generously given me, and brought me to this country. He sold me to the +intendant of this abbey that was donated by Charles to the seigneur +Berthoald, as I learned at the convent of St. Saturnine." + +"This abbey was donated to my son!... He a companion in arms of these +accursed Franks!... He a traitor! a renegade! Oh, if you speak truly, +shame and perdition upon my son!" + +"A traitor! A renegade!... The seigneur Berthoald! The most generous of +men! You judge your son too severely!" + +"Listen, poor child, and you will understand my sorrow.... After a great +battle, delivered near Narbonne against the Arabs, I was taken by the +warriors of Charles. The booty and slaves were divided by lot. I and my +female fellow prisoners were told that we belonged to the chief +Berthoald and his men." + +"You, a slave of your own son!... But, God, he did not know it!" + +"Yes, the same as I did not know that my new master, the young Frankish +chief Berthoald, was my son Amael." + +"And probably your son, who marched at the head of his troop, did not +see you on the journey." + +"We were eight or ten female slaves in a covered cart. We followed the +army of Charles. Occasionally the men of chief Berthoald visited us, and +... but I shall spare your blushes, poor child, and shall not dilate +upon their infamous conduct!" added Rosen-Aër shuddering at the +disgusting and horrible recollection. "My age protected me from a shame +that, however, I was determined to escape by death.... My son never +joined in those orgies, frequently stained with blood and moistened in +tears--the men beat the girls to the point of shedding their blood when +they sought to resist being outraged. In that way we arrived in the +vicinity of the convent of St. Saturnine. We stopped there several +hours. The Jew Mordecai happened to be at the monastery. Learning, no +doubt, that there were slaves to buy in the train of the army, he came +to us accompanied by some men of the band of Berthoald. You were sold, +poor child; you know the disgraceful examination that these dealers in +Gallic flesh submit the slaves to." + +"Yes, yes; I had to undergo the shame before the monks of the abbey of +St. Saturnine when they sold me to the Jew," answered Septimine, hiding +her face, purple with shame. + +Rosen-Aër proceeded: + +"Women and young girls, despite their prayers and resistance, were +stripped of their clothes, profaned and spoiled by the looks of the men +who wanted either to sell or to buy us. My age could not spare me this +general disgrace--" and breaking out into tears and wringing her arms in +despair, the mother of Amael added amidst moans: "Such are the Franks +whose companion of war my son is!" + +"It is horrible!" + +"The baseness confounds my senses and makes my heart to sicken. At the +age of fifteen my son disappeared from the valley of Charolles, where he +lived free and happy ... before the Saracen invasion. What happened +since? I do not know." + +Hearing the name of the valley of Charolles, Bonaik, who had remained +steeped in thought, trembled and listened to the conversation between +Septimine and the mother of Amael, who proceeded to say: "Perhaps the +Jew holds the secret of my son's life." + +"That Jew?... How?" + +"When, despite the pain it gave me, the Jew came to inspect me, I had to +undergo the fate of the rest. I was stripped of my clothes.... Oh, may +my son never know of my shame! The thought alone would haunt him as a +perpetual remorse through life, if he should live," Rosen-Aër +interjected in a low voice. "While I underwent the fate of my companions +in slavery ... the Jew observed with a start on my left arm these two +words traced in indelible letters: '_Brenn_,' '_Karnak_.'" + +"'_Brenn_,' '_Karnak_'!" cried the old goldsmith. + +"The custom of doing so was adopted in my family several generations +back, because, alack, in those troubled days of continuous war, families +were exposed to being rent apart and dispersed far and wide. 'Twas an +indelible sign which might help them to recognize one another." + +Rosen-Aër had hardly pronounced these words when, drawing near her in +deep emotion, Bonaik cried: "Are you of the family of Joel, the brenn of +the tribe of Karnak?" + +"Yes, father!" + +"Did you live in Burgundy in the valley of Charolles, once ceded to +Loysik, the brother of Ronan, by King Clotaire I?" + +"But, good father, how do you know all that?" + +For only answer, the old man rolled up the sleeve of his blouse and +pointed with his finger to two words indelibly traced on his left arm: +"_Brenn_," "_Karnak_." + +Rosen-Aër remained stupified, and recovering said: "You also?... You +also.... You, good father.... Are you of the family of Joel?" + +"One of my ancestors was Kervan, the uncle of Ronan. That is my +affiliation." + +"Does your family live in Brittany, near Karnak?" + +"My brother Allan or his children remained at the cradle of our stock." + +"And how did you fall into slavery?" + +"Our tribe crossed the frontier and came, according to their custom from +time immemorial, to trade arms for the vines of the Franks near the +county of Rennes. I was then fifteen, and accompanied my father on his +journey. A troop of Franks attacked us. I was separated during the fight +from my father, was captured and taken far away into bondage. Sold from +one master to another, accident brought me to this country where I am +now twelve years. Alack! Often have my eyes wandered towards the +frontier of our old Brittany, ever free! My advanced age coupled to the +habit of a profession that I love and that consoles me, have kept me +from thinking of escape. And so we are relatives!... The unhappy young +man yonder, near us, imprisoned in the cavern, is of our blood?... But +how did he become chief of this Frankish troop that the inundation has +just swallowed up?" + +"I was telling this poor child that a Jew, a dealer in slaves, having +noticed these two words--'_Brenn_,' '_Karnak_'--on my arm seemed +astonished, and said to me: 'Have you not a son who must be about +twenty-five years old, and who carries like you, those two words traced +on his arm?' But despite the horror that the Jew inspired me with, his +words revived in me the hope of finding my son again. 'Yes,' I answered +him, 'ten years ago my son disappeared from the place where we lived.' +'And you lived in the valley of Charolles?' the Jew asked. 'Do you know +my son?' I cried. But the infamous man refused to answer me, and he +walked away casting a cruel look upon me." + +"And you have seen him since?" asked Septimine. + +"Never again. The carts resumed their march to this country, where I +arrived with my fellow female slaves. All the women must have perished +this morning ... and without the efforts of this brave girl I would have +perished also." + +"The Jew Mordecai," replied the goldsmith reflecting, "that dealer in +the flesh of Gauls, a great friend of the intendant Ricarik, arrived +here a few days ago. He was at the convent of St. Saturnine when the +donation of this abbey was made to your son and his band. He must, +undoubtedly, have run ahead to warn the abbess, and she, accordingly, +made her preparations of defence against the warriors who came to +dispossess her." + +"The Jew was in a great hurry to arrive here after his departure from +the convent of St. Saturnine, where he took me from," replied Septimine. +"We were only three slaves and he packed us on his light wagon that was +drawn by two horses. He must have arrived here two or three days ahead +of the troop of the seigneur Berthoald, who must have been delayed on +his march by his large baggage." + +"So that the Jew must have notified Meroflede in advance, and must also +have revealed to her the secret of the alleged Frankish chief being of +the Gallic race," observed Bonaik. "Hence the terrible vengeance of the +abbess, who must have had your son cast into that subterranean prison, +expecting to expose him to certain death. The thing now is how to save +him, and to protect ourselves from the vengeance of Meroflede. To remain +here after your son's escape would be to expose these poor apprentices +and Septimine to death." + +"Oh, good father! What shall we do?" put in Septimine, joining her +hands. "No one can penetrate into the building under which the seigneur +Berthoald is imprisoned." + +"Call him Amael, my child," said Rosen-Aër bitterly. "The name of +Berthoald constantly reminds me of a shame that I would forget." + +"To extricate Amael out of the cavern is not an impossible feat," said +the old goldsmith, raising his head. "I have just been thinking it over. +We have a fair chance of success." + +"But, good father," asked Rosen-Aër, "what about the iron bars at the +window of this workshop, and those at the air-hole of the cave in which +my son is confined? And then that large and deep moat? What obstacles!" + +"These are not the most difficult obstacles to surmount. Suppose night +has set in and Amael is with us, free. What then?" + +"Leave the abbey," said Septimine; "escape ... we shall all flee--" + +"And how, my child? Do you forget that with nightfall the gate of the +jetty is locked? A watchman is there on guard. But, even if we cleared +the gate, the inundation covers the road. It will take two or three days +for the waters to withdraw. Until then this abbey will remain surrounded +by water like an island." + +"Master Bonaik," said one of the young apprentices, "there are the +fishing boats." + +"Where are they usually fastened, my boy, at what part of the pond?" + +"On the side of the chapel." + +"To reach them we would have to cross the interior court of the +cloister, and its door is every evening bolted and barred from within!" + +"Alack!" exclaimed Rosen-Aër, "must we renounce all hope of escape?" + +"Never give up hope. Let us first think of Amael. Whatever may happen, +once he is out of the cavern, his fate will not be worse. Now, my lads," +the goldsmith added, addressing the apprentices, "what we are about to +attempt is grave ... your lives and ours are at stake. You have no +choice but to help us or betray us. To betray us would be a base act. +Nevertheless your only interest in this flight is the uncertain hope of +recovering your freedom. Do you prefer to betray us? Say so frankly, and +now.... In that event I shall not undertake anything, and the fate of +the worthy woman and her son is sealed.... If, on the contrary, we +succeed with your help to save Amael and leave this abbey, this is my +plan: I am told it is about four days' march from here to Armorica, the +only territory in all Gaul that is still free. Arrived in Brittany, we +shall take the road to Karnak. There we shall find my brother or his +descendants. My tribe will receive us all as children of its own family. +From goldsmith's apprentices you will become apprentices in field-labor, +unless you should prefer to pursue your trade in some town of Brittany, +only no longer as slaves but as free artisans. Reflect ripely, and +decide. The day is slipping by. Time is precious." + +Justin, one of the apprentices, consulted with his companions in a low +voice, and then answered: "Our choice is not doubtful, Master Bonaik. We +shall join you in restoring a son to his mother; hap what hap may, we +shall share your fate." + +"Thank you, my generous boys!" said Rosen-Aër, with her eyes full of +tears. "Alack! All I can offer you in exchange for your noble conduct is +the gratitude of a mother!" + +"Now," said the goldsmith, who seemed to have regained the agility and +vivacity of his youth, "no more words! To work! Two of you will see to +the sawing of the bars of the window. But do it so that they remain in +position." + +"We understand, Father Bonaik," said Justin; "the bars will remain in +position; all that will be needed to throw them down will be a slight +tap of the hammer when you tell us." + +"There is no fear of being seen from without. The opposite building has +no windows facing us." + +"But how are the bars of the air-hole to be sawed?" + +"The prisoner will do that himself with the aid of this file that I +shall throw over to him wrapped in another note directing him what to +do." Saying this the old man sat down upon his work-bench and wrote the +following lines which Septimine, leaning over his shoulders, read aloud +as fast as he wrote: + + * * * * * + +"Saw off with this file the iron bars of the air-hole, keeping them, +however, in position. When it is dark remove them. Three pulls given to +the string, one end of which you hold, will announce to us that you are +ready. You will then draw towards the air-hole an empty barrel that we +shall have tied to the end of the string." + + * * * * * + +"What! Good father! You had so much presence of mind as to think of all +these means of escape and prepare for them? How grateful my heart is to +you!" + +"We must find means of escape," answered the old man, starting to write; +"the lives of us all are now at stake----" + +"And we who are of the trade, we really believed you were preparing +these articles for the cast," said Justin. "This is a fine trick! The +wicked Ricarik will himself have furnished us the barrel and ropes." + +Septimine continued to read as Bonaik wrote: + + * * * * * + +"When the barrel is near enough to the air-hole, you will take firm hold +of a rope that is wound around the barrel and throw yourself into the +water. You will push the barrel, and we will pull it gently toward the +window, which you will then be able to scale easily with our help. We +shall consider the rest." + + * * * * * + +"Oh, good father," exclaimed Rosen-Aër tenderly, "thanks to you, my son +is saved!" + +"Alack! Not so fast, poor woman! I told you before, to take him out of +the cavern is possible; but after that the need will be to get out of +this accursed convent.... Well, we shall try!" and he proceeded to write +these last lines: + + * * * * * + +"Perhaps you can swim; no imprudence! The best swimmers get drowned. +Reserve your strength so as to be able to help your mother to escape +from this abbey. When you receive this parchment tear it up in little +bits; the same with the first, throw them into the darkest corner of +your prison because it is possible that you may be sent for and taken +from there before evening." + + * * * * * + +"Oh, God!" exclaimed Rosen-Aër joining her hands in terror. "We never +thought of that. Such a misfortune is possible." + +"We must foresee every eventuality," replied the old man closing his +letter with these words: + +"Do not despair, and place your hope in Hesus, the God of our fathers!" + +"Oh!" murmured Rosen-Aër in distress, "the faith of his fathers, the +teachings of his family, the sufferings of his race, and the hatred for +the stranger--he has forgotten it all!" + +"But the sight of his mother will have brought all back again to him," +answered the old man. Saying this he gave a pull to the string to notify +Amael. The latter answered the signal in the same way. Bonaik then +wrapped the file in the parchment and threw it to the other side of the +moat. The aim was again accurate. The missive, together with the file, +flew through the air-hole and dropped on the floor of the cavern. After +having informed himself on these further instructions from the old man, +Amael showed himself behind the bars. His eager eyes seemed to ask for +his mother. + +"He is looking for you," said Septimine to Rosen-Aër; "show yourself to +him; do not deny him this consolation." + +The Gallic matron sighed, and leaning upon Septimine took two steps +towards the window. There, with a solemn and resigned mien, she raised a +finger to heaven, as if to say to her son to trust the God of his +fathers. At the sight of his mother and Septimine, the sweet image of +whom had never left him since he first saw her at the convent of St. +Saturnine, Amael joined his hands, and raised them above his head. His +face indicated at once resignation, respect and happiness. + +"And now, my boys," the goldsmith said to the young apprentices, "take +your files and start filing off the bars of the window; I and one of you +shall place the crucible on the brasier and melt the metal. Ricarik may +come back. He must be made to believe that we are busy at the cast. The +door is bolted inside. You, Rosen-Aër, remain near the entrance of the +vault so as to escape into it quickly should that accursed intendant +take it into his head to return here, a probable thing. His early +morning round being done, we hardly ever see him again, thanks to God! +But the least imprudence may be fatal." + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +MISTRESS AND MAN. + + +Night has returned. Clad in her monastic vestments, the abbess Meroflede +reclines on the lounge in the banquet hall where the evening before +Amael was seated near her. The woman's pale face has a sinister aspect. +Seated opposite her at the table lighted by a wax taper, Ricarik had +been writing under the dictation of the abbess. + +"Madam," said Ricarik, "you need only to attach your signature to the +letter for the Bishop of Nantes," and seeing that, absorbed in her own +thoughts, Meroflede did not answer, the intendant repeated in a louder +voice: "Madam, I am waiting for your signature." + +Her forehead resting on her hand, her eye fixed, her bosom heaving, +Meroflede said to her intendant in a slow and hollow voice: "What did +Berthoald have to say this morning when you went to see him in his +prison?" + +"He remained silent and somber." + +The abbess rose brusquely and paced the hall in great agitation. +Overpowering the storm within her breast she said to the intendant: + +"Go and bring me Berthoald." + +"Madam!... Is it you who issue such an order?" + +"I have commanded; obey without delay." + +"But the messenger whom you sent for is waiting for this letter to the +Bishop of Nantes. The boat is ready with its oarsmen." + +"The Bishop of Nantes will receive my missive a day later. Fetch me +Berthoald!" + +"I obey the orders of my noble mistress." + +Ricarik walked slowly towards the entrance of the hall and was about to +disappear behind the curtain when, after another equally violent +struggle, Meroflede called to him: "No ... come back!" and letting +herself heavily down upon the lounge, the abbess covered her face with +her hands, uttering prolonged and woeful moans that resembled the +howlings of a wounded she-wolf. The intendant drew near and waited in +silence for the crisis that was convulsing his mistress to spend itself. +A few seconds later the abbess rose again. Her cheeks were inflamed; her +eyes shot fire, her lips curled disdainfully. "I am too weak!" she +cried. "Oh, that man! that man! He shall pay dearly for what he makes me +suffer!" Again Meroflede paced the hall in violent agitation, but +presently she grew calmer, sat down upon the lounge and said to the +intendant: "Read me the letter over again.... I was temporarily insane!" + +The intendant read: + + * * * * * + +"Meroflede, the maid-servant of the maid-servants of the Lord, to her +beloved father in Christ, Arsene, Bishop of the diocese of Nantes, +respectful greeting. Very beloved father, the Lord has shown by a +wonderful miracle what terrible punishment he reserves for the wicked +who wrong him in the person of his poor hand-maids. Charles, the chief +of the Franks, contemner of all divine laws, desolator of the Church, +devastator of faithful women, had the sacrilegious audacity of bestowing +upon a band of his warriors the possession of this abbey, a patrimony of +God. The chief of these adventurers summoned me outrageously to vacate +this monastery, adding that if I did not obey, he would attack us by +main force at daybreak. In order to be nearer to their damnable work, +these accursed men camped over night behind one of the approaches of the +abbey. But the eye of the Lord watched over us. The Almighty has known +how to defend us against the ravishing wolf. During the night the +cataracts of heaven opened with a frightful crash. The waters of the +ponds, miraculously swollen, swallowed up the sacrilegious warriors. Not +one of them escaped the punishment of heaven! It was a terrible prodigy! +Red lights shimmered at the bottom of the waves as if a mouth of hell +had opened to recover its detestable prey. The justice of the Lord being +accomplished, the waters again became calm and limpid, and peacefully +returned to their bed. So that, after the deluge the white dove of peace +and hope winged its flight out of the holy ark. This letter, oh, my +venerable father in Christ, is to notify you of the miracle. This fresh +proof of the omnipotence of the Lord will serve to edify, comfort, +console and delight all pious, and terrify the impious. I close asking +your apostolic benediction." + + * * * * * + +After Ricarik had finished reading this pious letter he again said to +the abbess: "Madam, may it please you to sign." + +Meroflede took the pen and wrote at the bottom, "MEROFLEDE, ABBESS OF +MERIADEK," after which she said with a satanic leer: "The Bishop of +Nantes is a skilful man; he will know how to make the miracle tell; a +century hence people will speak of the prodigy to which the virgins of +the convent of Meriadek owed their deliverance." An instant later she +said distractedly: "The fires of hell are burning in my veins!" + +"What, madam, are you still thinking of Berthoald? How strong an +impression must he have made upon you!" + +"What I feel for that man is a mixture of contempt, hatred and amorous +frenzy.... I am frightened at my own feelings.... No other man ever +inspired me with such a passion!" + +"There is a very simple method of ridding yourself of these agonies.... +I proposed the method to you.... I am ready to apply it." + +"Take care! No violence upon him! Your life answers to me for his!" + +"What are your intentions?" + +"I do not know what to decide upon.... One moment I wish him to undergo +a thousand deaths ... the next I am ready to fall at his knees, and ask +pardon.... I am out of my mind ... out of my mind with love!" And the +abbess wrung her hands, bit into the cushions of the lounge, and tore +them with her nails in savage fury. Suddenly rising, her eyes wet with +tears and glistening with passion, she cried: "Give me the key of +Berthoald's prison!" + +"It is on this bunch," answered the intendant pointing to several keys +that hung from his belt. + +"Give me that one quick!" + +"Here it is," said the intendant, detaching a large iron key from the +bunch. Meroflede took the key, contemplated it in silence, and fell into +a revery. + +"Madam," said Ricarik, "I shall order the messenger in waiting to depart +with your letter to the Bishop of Nantes." + +"Go.... Go.... Take the letter and return!" + +"I shall also take a look at the old goldsmith's shop.... He is to cast +the large silver vase to-day!" + +"Oh! What do I care!" + +"There is a vague suspicion in my mind. I imagined this morning I +noticed a sign of embarrassment on the face of the wily old man. He told +me he was to lock himself in the whole day. I suspect he has a plot with +his apprentices to pilfer a portion of the metal. He also notified me +the casting would not commence until night. I wish to see how it is +done. I shall then come back, madam. Have you any other orders for me, +my abbess?" + +Meroflede remained plunged in revery, holding in her hand the key of +Amael's prison. After a few seconds of silence, and without raising her +eyes that remained fixed upon the floor, she said to the intendant: + +"When you go out, tell Madeleine to bring me my cloak and a lighted +lamp." + +"Your cloak, madam? Do you expect to go out? Do you need it to go to +Berthoald in his prison----?" + +Meroflede interrupted the intendant by stamping her foot in a rage, and +pointed him to the door with an imperious gesture, saying: + +"Begone, vile slave!" + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +THE FLIGHT. + + +Bonaik, his apprentices, Rosen-Aër, and Septimine, confined since +morning in the workshop, had impatiently waited for night. Everything +was in readiness for the escape of Amael from the cavern when darkness +should set in. The glare of the brasier in the forge and the furnace +alone lighted the workshop. + +"You are young and strong," said the old man to his apprentices; "for +want of better weapons, the iron bars that have been removed from the +window may serve you to defend us. Deposit them in a corner. Now pass +the barrel out of the window, and fasten to one of the hoops this +string, the other end of which is in Amael's hands. He is ready. He has +just answered my signal." + +Their hearts beating with hope and anxiety, Rosen-Aër and Septimine +stood near the window in a close embrace. The apprentices pushed out the +barrel. The darkness was thick. Not even the whiteness of the building +in whose lower part lay Amael's prison, was distinguishable. Drawn +towards himself by the latter, the barrel soon disappeared in the dark. +In the measure that it went, one of the apprentices paid out the rope +attached to it. The rope was to help pull the barrel back as soon as +Amael had seized it. At that critical moment a profound silence reigned +in the workshop. All seemed to hold their breath. Despite the pitchy +darkness of the night that prevented anything being seen without, the +eyes of all sought to penetrate the obscurity. Finally, after a few +minutes of anxiety, the apprentice, who, leaning out of the window, +held the cord that was to pull the barrel back, said to the old man: +"Master Bonaik, the prisoner is out of the cavern; he is holding the +barrel; I feel the cord tighten." + +"Then, you pull, my boy!... Pull gently.... Do not jerk!" + +"He is coming," replied the apprentice joyfully; "the prisoner's weight +is upon the barrel." + +"Great God!" suddenly cried Rosen-Aër, pointing out of the window. "Look +in the cavern! There is a light!... All is lost!" + +Indeed, a strong light, shed by a lamp, suddenly appeared in the +subterranean prison. The semi-circular opening of the air-hole was +luminously marked across the darkness. The reverberation of the light +projected itself upon the water in the moat--and revealed the fugitive, +who, half submerged, held himself up with his two hands on the floating +barrel. Immediately after, Meroflede appeared at the air-hole wrapped in +her scarlet cloak with its hood thrown back, and leaning against the +remaining bars which Amael had not had time to remove. At the sight of +the fugitive, the abbess uttered a scream of rage and cried twice, +"Berthoald! Berthoald!" She then disappeared, taking her lamp with her, +so that again all was left in thickest darkness without. Frightened at +the appearance of the abbess, the apprentice who drew the barrel threw +himself back and dropped the cord. Fortunately the goldsmith seized it +as soon, and amidst the mortal fear of all, drew the barrel close to the +window, saying: "Let us first save Amael." + +Thanks to the barrel, which floated almost on a level with the window +sill, the latter was easily scaled by the prisoner. His first movement +upon stepping into the workshop was to throw himself on his mother's +neck. Mother and son for a moment forgot their common danger and were +holding each other in a passionate embrace when a rap was heard at the +door. + +"Woe is us!" muttered one of the apprentices. "It is the abbess!" + +"Impossible!" said the goldsmith. "To ascend from the prison, pass the +cloister, cross the courtyard, and come as far as our workshop she would +need more than ten minutes." + +"Bonaik!" cried from the outside the rough voice of Ricarik, "open the +door instantly." + +"Oh! what shall we do! The coal vault is too narrow to conceal Rosen-Aër +and her son," muttered the old man; then raising his voice, he answered: +"Seigneur intendant, we are just at the cast, we cannot leave it----" + +"That is the very operation I want to witness," cried back the +intendant. "Open immediately." + +"You, Septimine, and your son remain near the window, lean out your +heads; you will otherwise be suffocated," hastily said the old man to +Rosen-Aër, taking a swift resolution. And pushing Amael, his mother and +Septimine to the casement, he whispered to one of the apprentices: "Pour +the full contents of the box of sulphur and bitumen upon the forge +brasier.... We shall fill the workshop with smoke." + +The young slave obeyed mechanically. At the moment when Ricarik began +again to knock at the door with redoubled force, a sulphurous and +bituminous smoke began to spread in the workshop, and soon was so +intense that one could hardly see his hand before his eyes. Thus, when +the old man finally proceeded to open the door to the intendant, the +latter, blinded and suffocated by a puff of the pungent and thick vapor, +instead of stepping in, jumped back. + +"Walk in, seigneur intendant," said Bonaik, "this is the effect of the +casting after the fashion of the great Eloi.... We could not open to you +sooner out of fear of chilling the liquid metal, which we were pouring +into the mold.... Step forward, seigneur intendant; come and see the +casting." + +"Go to the devil!" answered Ricarik, coughing fit to strangle and +stepping further away from the threshold. "I am suffocated ... blinded!" + +"It is the effect of the casting, dear seigneur," and watching the bunch +of keys at the belt of the intendant, who was rubbing his smarting +eyelids with both hands, Bonaik seized him by the throat and cried: +"This way, boys! He has the keys of the gates!" + +At the call of the old man, the apprentices and Amael rushed forward, +precipitated themselves upon the intendant and smothered his cries by +holding his throat tight, while Bonaik, seizing the bunch of keys, said: +"Drag this fellow into the workshop and throw him out of the window into +the moat. That will settle him quickly, and he will no longer punish and +kill poor slaves!" + +The old man's orders were immediately executed. Despite the resistance +of the Frank, the noise of his body was soon heard, dropping into the +water. + +"Now," cried the old man, "all come here! Follow me and let us run!" + +Hardly had the old man taken a few steps in the alley when he saw the +slave who watched the gate approaching from a distance with a lighted +lantern in his hand. "Remain hidden in the shadow," the goldsmith said +in a low voice to the fugitives, and he walked briskly toward the +gateman, who met him with a look of surprise: + +"Helloa, old Bonaik! Is not the intendant in your workshop? I do not +know what the man is thinking about. It is two hours since the boat and +oarsmen are waiting for his messenger.... They are growing impatient and +want to go." + +"They will not have long to wait; I am the messenger." + +"Are you going to fill the functions of messenger?" + +"Do you know this bunch of keys?" + +"Surely I know this bunch of keys. It is the one the intendant always +carries at his belt." + +"He confided it to me so that I could get out of the abbey yard in case +you were not at your lodge. Let us go quick to the boat. Walk ahead." + +Convinced by the sincerity of the old man, whose presence of mind seemed +to grow with the difficulties that arose in his way, the gateman marched +ahead of him. Bonaik, however, slackened his pace, and, calling to one +of the apprentices, in a low voice said: "Justin, you and the others +follow me at a distance; the night is dark, the light of the gateman's +lantern will guide us, but the moment you hear me whistle, all run up to +me." Having attended to that, Bonaik addressed the gateman who had gone +far ahead: "Helloa, Bernard! Do not walk so fast; you forget that at my +age one's legs are not as nimble as yours." Thus, preceded by the +gateman and followed at a distance in the dark by the rest of the +fugitives, Bonaik arrived at the outer court of the monastery. Bernard +stopped and seemed to listen. + +"What's the matter?" asked the goldsmith. "Why do you halt?" + +"Do you not see the flare of torches lighting the top of the wall of the +inside court? Do you not hear voices?" + +"March, man! March! I have other business in hand than to stop to look +at torches, or listen to noises. I must obey our holy abbess and deliver +Ricarik's message as soon as possible. I have not a second to lose. +Quick, let's hurry." + +"But something out of the usual order is going on in the monastery!" + +"It is for that very reason that the intendant sent me off with so much +haste on this message.... Hurry up! Time presses!" + +"Oh, that is something else, old Bonaik," answered Bernard, quickening +his steps. The gateman hurried on, arrived in a minute at the outside +enclosure, and opened the gate. Immediately the old man whistled. +Greatly surprised at this, the gateman asked him: "What are you +whistling for? The door is open. Go out, if you are in such a hurry. But +I hear steps. They seem to be running this way. Who are these people?" +and he raised his lantern in order to obtain a better view. "There are +two women; who may they be?" + +Bonaik cut short the gateman's observations with the peremptory order to +the fugitives: "Take the key out of the lock and close it after you. +That will keep the gateman locked in." Hardly had the old man pronounced +these words when Amael, the apprentices, Rosen-Aër and Septimine rushed +through the opening. One of the apprentices pushed Bernard roughly back +into the court, took out the key, pulled the door after him and locked +it on the outside. Bonaik took up the lantern and cried: "Helloa, there! +The boat! Come here for us to embark!" + +"Come this way!" answered several voices. "This way! The boat is tied to +the large willow tree." + +"Master Bonaik," said one of the apprentices in great trepidation, "we +are pursued. The porter is calling for help. Look at the glimmer of +approaching torches! They seem to be in the garden that we have just +left." + +"There is now nothing to fear, my lads, the gate is studded with iron +and locked from without. Before they can have time to break it down, we +shall have embarked," saying which the old man proceeded at a rapid pace +towards the willow tree. Observing on his way a full bag on Justin's +shoulder, Bonaik said to him: "What have you got in that bag?" + +"Master Bonaik, while you were talking to the intendant, Gervais and I, +fearing some oversight on your part, took, out of precaution, I, my bag +in which I stowed away the rest of our provisions, and Gervais the wine +pouch which is still half full." + +"You are wise lads; we have a long tramp before us after we shall have +disembarked." + +A few minutes later and the old man, together with his companions, +arrived at the old willow tree. A boat stood ready. Four slave oarsmen +sat on the benches, with the steersman at the rudder. "At last!" said +the steersman in a peevish tone. "Here we have been waiting over three +hours; we are chilled through, and have more than two hours to row--" + +"I am going to give you a piece of good news, my friends," answered the +goldsmith to the boatmen. "I have brought oarsmen with me to relieve +you. You can go back to the monastery. The steersman alone will have to +remain to pilot the boat." + +Glad and quickly the slaves jumped out of the boat. The steersman +resigned himself not without a murmur. Bonaik let Rosen-Aër and +Septimine enter first. Amael and the apprentices took hold of the oars, +the steersman the rudder, and the boat swiftly left the bank behind, +while Bonaik, wiping the sweat from his brow, said with a sigh of relief +and joy: + +"Oh, my boys, this was a casting day such as I never saw in the workshop +of the great Eloi!" + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +MOTHER AND SON. + + +At noon of the day following the exciting night in which the fugitives +left the abbey, they halted for rest after having been uninterruptedly +on the march from the time that they disembarked at the other shore of +the abbey's pond. Thanks to the precaution of the apprentices, one of +whom had brought provisions and another a pouch of wine, their strength +was speedily restored. The travelers had sat down upon the grass under a +wide-spreading oak whose foliage was yellowed by the late season. At +their feet flowed a stream of limpid water, behind them rose a hill that +they had just traveled over, following the track of an old Roman road +that had fallen into decay. The road continued for a long distance until +the turning of a wooded headland behind which it disappeared. Far away +in the distant horizon stood outlined the dark blue mountain-tops that +form the boundaries and frontier of Brittany. Guided by one of the +apprentices who was familiar with the surroundings of the abbey, the +fugitives had struck the old Roman road. It led to Nantes, at the +boundary line of Armorica, and in the neighborhood of which, seven +centuries earlier, Julius Cæsar established several entrenched camps in +order to protect his military colonies. Accustomed through his +profession of war to measure distances, Amael calculated that by +marching until sunset, resting an hour, and then resuming their tramp, +it would be possible to reach Brittany at the end of the next day. +Septimine sat near Rosen-Aër and Amael, and the apprentices, spread out +upon the grass, had just finished their frugal meal. The old goldsmith +having also repaired his forces, pulled out of the pocket of his blouse +a little packet that was carefully wrapped up in a piece of smooth skin. +The young folks followed the old man's movements with curiosity, and to +their great surprise they saw him take from its wrapping the little +abbatial crosier of silver, at which he had for some time been +chiseling. There were also two burins in the package. Noticing the look +of astonishment on the faces of the apprentices, he said to them: + +"You seem surprised, my children, to see that I carried this jewel from +the abbey. It is not the value of the metal that tempted me." + +"I believe that, Master Bonaik; the little crosier has but little silver +in it. But we still wonder why you brought it along." + +"Well, my boys, I love my trade.... I shall have no further +opportunities to exercise it during the remaining days of my life.... I +preserved my two best burins.... I mean to chisel this crosier so nicely +that by working upon it a little every day I shall consume the rest of +my life at it. It will be the masterpiece of my long career." + +"You congratulated us upon our foresight, Master Bonaik, because we +thought of the pouch of wine and the provisions. But we must admit that +your foresight exceeds ours." + +"Good father, and you, my friends," said Amael, addressing himself to +the goldsmith and his apprentices, "please draw near; I wish you to hear +what I have to say to my mother. I have committed a wrong, I should now +have courage to make a public confession ... and beseech forgiveness." + +Rosen-Aër sighed and listened with sad and severe curiosity to her son's +account of his conduct and career since she saw him as a boy. Looking at +her with a surprised face Septimine seemed to beseech the indulgence of +the mother, of this Gallic mother who felt so justly and so painfully +mortified at her son. + +"From the moment that all peril to me was over," Amael began, "my mother +has not spoken to me during this long journey, either by day or night; +she has refused the support of my arm, preferring that of this poor +girl, who saved her life. My mother's severity is just, I cannot +complain of it, though it pains me.... May the truthful account of my +faults, the confession of my errors, and my sincere repentance merit her +pardon." + +"A mother always forgives," said Septimine timidly, looking at +Rosen-Aër, but the latter answered in a tremulous and grave voice, +without deigning to look at Amael: + +"My son's abandonment has torn my heart; a prey to unceasing and ever +renewing anxieties on his behalf, I gave myself up alternately to +despair and to insane hope.... These torments have lasted long years. I +can pardon my son for having caused them; but what is not in my power to +pardon is his criminal alliance with the oppressors of our race, with +those accursed Franks, who enslaved our fathers, outraged our mothers, +and who continue to hold our children in bondage!" + +"My crime is great. But I swear to you, mother, that long before I saw +you again remorse gnawed at my heart. It is ten years since I left the +valley of Charolles, where I lived happily with my family. But I yielded +to curiosity, to an overpowering thirst for adventure. I believed that +beyond our own confines I was to see an entirely new world. One evening +I left, but not without shedding many a tear, not without turning more +than once to take a parting look at our valley." + +"In my youth," said the old man, "my father often told me how Karadeucq, +one of our ancestors, also left his family to run what then was called +the 'Bagaudy'--to tramp free through the woods and lie in ambush for +our oppressors. May, Rosen-Aër, the remembrance of our ancestor soften +your heart towards your son." + +"The Bagauders and the Vagres warred against the Romans and then against +the Franks; they did not ally themselves with our oppressors, and fight +on their side, as my son has done." + +"Your reproaches are merited, mother! You will see in the course of my +account that I often made them to myself. Almost immediately upon +quitting the valley I fell into the hands of a band of Franks. They were +on their way back from Auvergne and were traveling north. They made me a +slave. Their chief kept me for a time to oversee and tend his horse, and +to furbish his weapons. I had the instinct of war. The sight of arms or +of a fine horse always fascinated me since childhood. You know it, +mother." + +"Yes, your holidays were those on which the colonists of the valley +exercised themselves in arms ... or ran races on horseback." + +"Led a slave by that Frankish chief, I never sought to flee. He treated +me kindly. Besides, it was to me a pleasure to polish armors and to ride +on the march. At least, and at last, I was seeing a new country.... +Alas, quite new! The fields were ravaged, the harvest was neglected, the +frightful distress of the subjugated populations of the districts that +we traversed contrasted cruelly with the independent and happy life of +the inhabitants of our valley. It was on such occasions that, thinking +of our happy region, of you, and of my father, tears dropped from my +eyes, and my heart felt like breaking. Occasionally, the thought came to +me of running away from the Franks and returning to you. But the fear of +a severe reprimand held me back." + +"I would have felt the same way, had I committed the same fault," said +Septimine, who listened to Amael's report with tender interest. "I +never would have dared to return to my family." + +"After being more than a year with the Frankish chief, I had become a +good groom, and I could master the most spirited horses. By cleaning the +weapons I had learned to handle them. The Frank died. I was to be sold +with all his other slaves. A Jew named Mordecai, who traveled over Gaul +as a trafficker in slaves, happened to be in Amiens at the time; he +inspected my deceased master's slaves. He bought me and told me in +advance that he was to sell me to a rich Frankish seigneur named +Bodegesil, Duke of the country of Poitiers. The seigneur, said the Jew, +owned the finest horses and the finest armors imaginable. 'If you flee' +said the Jew to me, 'I would lose a fat sum of money, because I bought +you for a large amount, knowing I could dispose of you to the seigneur +Bodegesil at a good profit. If you run away you will lose a chance of +making your fortune. Bodegesil is a generous seigneur. Serve him +faithfully and he will take you to war with him whenever he is called to +take the field with his men, and we have seen in these days of war more +than one manumitted slave become a count.' The Jew's words fired my +ambition, pride intoxicated me, I believed what he said, and did not try +to run away. He himself, in order to confirm my purpose, treated me at +his best; he even promised me to have a letter that I wrote to you reach +you through another Jew who was to go to Burgundy." + +"The man did not keep his promise," said Rosen-Aër. "No tidings from you +ever reached me." + +"I am not surprised at his breach of promise. That Jew was greedy and +faithless. He took me to Duke Bodegesil. That Frank did indeed raise +superb horses on the immense meadows of his domain, and one of the halls +of his burg, an ancient Roman castle, was fitted out with splendid +armors. But the Jew had lied to me on the duke's character. He was a +violent, cruel man. Still, struck almost immediately after my arrival at +the manner in which I broke in a savage colt that had until then been +the terror of the stable slaves, he treated me with less severity than +he did my Gallic or Frankish companions, because, you know, mother, +that, thanks to the ups and downs of the times, a large number of the +descendants of the conquerors of the Gauls have fallen into poverty, and +from poverty into slavery. Bodegesil was as cruel towards his slaves of +his own German extraction as towards those of the Gallic race. Always on +horseback, always busy furbishing and handling weapons, I now steadily +pursued an idea that was destined to be realized. The renown of Charles, +the steward of the palace, had reached my ears; I had heard some of the +Frankish friends of Bodegesil say that Charles, being compelled to +defend Gaul in the north against the Frisians and in the south against +the Arabs, and finding himself ill-supported by the old lay and clerical +seigneurs, who furnished him little money and only small forces, gave a +friendly reception to adventurers, several of whom by bravely fighting +under his orders, had arrived at unexpected wealth. I was twenty years +old when I learned that Charles was approaching Poitiers for the purpose +of driving back the Arabians, who then threatened to invade the region. +The moment, long dreamed of by my ambition, had arrived. One day I took +the handsomest suit of armor from Bodegesil's racks, I sequestered a +sword, a battle-axe, a lance and a buckler. When night fell I picked out +of the stable the finest and most spirited horse. I put on the armor, +and rode rapidly away from the castle. I wished to join Charles and +decided to conceal my extraction and pass for the son of a Frankish +seigneur so as to interest Charles in my fortunes. About five or six +leagues from the castle, I was attacked early the next morning by +bandits who infested the roads. I defended myself vigorously. I killed +two of the robbers and said to the others: Charles needs brave men. He +leaves a large part of the booty to them. Come with me. It is better to +fight in an army than to attack travelers on the road. The danger is the +same, but the profit is larger! The bandits took my advice and followed +me. Our little troop was increased on the route by other idle but +determined men. We arrived at the camp of Charles on the eve of the +battle of Poitiers. I claimed to be the son of a noble Frank who died +poor and left me his horse and arms as only inheritance. Charles +received me with his habitual roughness. 'There will be a fight +to-morrow,' he answered me, 'if you and your men behave well you will be +pleased with me.' Accident willed it that at that battle against the +Arabs I saved the life of the Frankish chief by helping him to defend +himself against a group of Berbery riders who attacked him furiously. I +was wounded in several places. That day secured the affection of Charles +to me. I shall not tell you, mother, of the many proofs of favor that he +gave me. My great fortune was ever poisoned by the thought ever present +in my mind: 'I have lied; I have denied my race; I have allied myself to +the oppressors of Gaul; I have given them the aid of my sword in +repelling the Saxons and Arabs, who are neither more nor less barbarous +than our accursed Frankish conquerors.' More than once, during the +incessant struggles between the seigneurs of Austrasia and those of +Neustria or Aquitaine--impious wars in which the counts, the dukes, and +the bishops drafted their Gallic colonists as soldiers--I fought against +the men of my own race.... I reddened my sword with their blood. These +are crimes." + +"Oh, shame and sorrow," murmured Rosen-Aër, covering her face with her +hands, "to be the mother of such a son!" + +"Yes, shame and sorrow ... not for you only, but also for me. Alack! I +yielded to the consequence of a first false step; I fought the men of my +race, out of fear to be taken for a coward by Charles, out of fear to +betray my extraction. Pride intoxicated me when I saw myself admiringly +surrounded by the proudest of our conquerors--I, the son of that +conquered and subjugated people. But after such moments of vertigo were +over, I often envied the fate of the most miserable slave. They at least +were entitled to the respect that undeserved misfortune inspires. Vainly +did I look for death in battle. I was condemned to live. Only in the +intoxication of battle, in perilous undertakings did I find temporary +relief from the remorse that haunted me. Oh, how often did I not think +with sorrow of our valley of Charolles, where my family lived! When I +afterward learned of the ravages of the region by the Arabs, of the +desperate resistance that its inhabitants had offered ... my relatives, +my friends; when I thought that my sword might have defended you, or at +least avenged you, mother, from that time forward remorse embittered my +life. I never since had one instant of happiness." + +"Your father fought up to his last breath for freedom and for the +freedom of his kin. I saw him fall at my feet riddled with wounds! Where +were you when your father was defending his hearth, his freedom and his +family?... Near the Frankish chief, fawning for his favor! Perchance +even fighting your own brothers!" + +Amael covered his face with his hands and answered only with a smothered +sob. + +"Oh, for pity's sake, do not overwhelm him!" said Septimine to +Rosen-Aër. "See how wretched he feels ... how contrite he is!" + +"Rosen-Aër," added the old man, "remember that yesterday your son was +still the favorite of the sovereign chief of Gaul, and that to-day he +renounces the favors that intoxicated him. He is no less wretched than +we, and has no other wish than to live a poor and hard but free life in +the old Armorica that is the cradle of our family." + +"By Hesus!" cried Rosen-Aër. "Did my son voluntarily renounce those +goods, those lands, those favors, the accursed gifts of Charles? Did you +not extract him from a prison, where, without you, he would have +perished? Oh! The gods are just. My son owed his fortune to an impious +ambition ... and the fortune came near being fatal to him. Glorified and +enriched by the Franks, he has been shamefully punished and stripped of +all by a woman of their race." + +"Oh!" cried Septimine, breaking down in tears, "do you believe that +Amael, even if in full possession, would not have renounced all to +follow you, his mother?" + +"The man who falls away from his duty to his country and his race can +also fall away from his duty to his mother! I am justified to question +the goodness of my son's heart!" + +"Master Bonaik," suddenly cried one of the apprentices in an accent of +fear, "look down below there, at the turning of the road ... there are +soldiers. They are approaching rapidly. They will be here within short!" + +At these words of the lad the fugitives jumped to their feet. Amael +himself, forgetting for a moment the sorrow into which his mother's just +severity plunged him, dried his face that was moist with tears and took +a few steps forward to reconnoiter. + +"Great God!" cried Septimine. "They may be in pursuit of Amael.... Good +father Bonaik, let us hide in this thicket----" + +"My child, that would be to expose ourselves to being pursued. The +riders have seen us.... Our flight would awaken their suspicion. +Besides, they come from the side opposite to Nantes; they cannot have +been sent in our pursuit." + +"Master Bonaik," said one of the apprentices, "three of the riders are +hastening their horses' steps, and motion us with their hands to come to +them." + +"Perhaps a new danger now threatens us!" said Septimine, drawing close +to Rosen-Aër, who had alone remained seated, and seemed indifferent to +what went on around her. "Alack, what is to become of us!" + +"Oh, poor child!" said Rosen-Aër, "I care little for life at this +moment!... And yet the mere hope of some day finding again my son, +served to sustain my sad life!" + +"But you have found again that son whose loss you so tenderly regretted. +He is here, near you!" + +"No!" answered the Gallic mother with sorrow, "no, that is not my son!" + +Feeling not a little uneasy, Amael had walked toward the three Frankish +horsemen, who rode at the head of a more numerous troop. One of them +reined in his steed, and said to Rosen-Aër's son: "Does this road lead +to Nantes?" + +"Yes; it is the nearest road." + +"Does it also lead to the abbey of Meriadek?" + +"Yes," answered Amael, as much surprised at the meeting as at the +questions. + +"Arnulf," said the rider to one of his companions, "ride back and tell +Count Bertchram that we are on the right road; while waiting for your +return to us, I shall let my horse drink at this stream." + +The rider departed, and while his two companions were allowing their +horses to take a few throatfuls of water, Amael, who had not been able +to overcome the growing curiosity that seized him at hearing the name of +Count Bertchram, asked the two riders: "What brings Count Bertchram to +this country?" + +"He comes as a messenger of Charles, the chief of the Franks. Tell us, +young man, whether we still have a long way to ride before we reach the +abbey of Meriadek." + +"You could not reach the place until late to-night." + +"Is that abbey as rich as they claim?" + +"It is rich.... But why do you ask?" + +"Why?" said the soldier with a merry smile, "because Bertchram and we +are to take possession of the abbey, which the good Charles has bestowed +upon us." + +"But I heard it said that Charles had bestowed the monastery and all its +dependencies upon one Berthoald." + +During this conversation the other riders had joined their vanguard, +followed by several carts drawn by mules and a few horses led by the +bridle. The carts were loaded with baggage. Bertchram rode at the head +of the main body. He was an elderly warrior of rude and stupid +physiognomy. Amael took a few steps toward the count. The latter +suddenly stopped his horse, dropped the reins, and rubbed his eyes as if +he could not believe the evidence of their sense. He contemplated the +son of Rosen-Aër for a few seconds in utter amazement, and then cried: +"Berthoald! Count Berthoald!" + +"Yes, it is I.... Good-day to you, Bertchram!" + +Bertchram alighted from his horse and ran toward the young man to +contemplate him closer. "It is he ... and no mistake! And what are you +doing here, valiant count, in the company of these beggars?" + +"Speak not so loud. I am on a mission from Charles." + +"Bareheaded in that way? Without arms, your clothes soiled with mud and +almost in rags?" + +"It is a disguise that I have assumed." + +"You are a wily customer! Whenever the good Charles had some delicate +matter in hand, it was always you he charged with it, because you are +more subtle than any of us others. Charles always said to me: +'Bertchram, you would be a terrible man if your brain were as powerful +as your fist!' You probably do not know that I am the bearer of a +message to you?" + +"What is the message about?" + +"Simply this, that I come to replace you as abbot at the abbey of +Meriadek." + +"Charles is master, he can give and take back again." + +"Do not look upon the substitution as a disgrace, Berthoald! Far from +it! Charles raises you to the rank of duke, and he reserves for you the +command of his vanguard in the war he is about to undertake against the +Frisians. 'Upon the word of the Hammerer,' he said to us, 'I was a fool +in confining to an abbey one of my youngest captains, and at this season +when wars break out so unexpectedly; it is now, when I have not +Berthoald at my side, that I feel how much I need him. The post I gave +him is good for an aged soldier; it fits you better than him, old +Bertchram, go and take the place of Berthoald and his men; you shall +give him this letter from me, and as a pledge of my constant friendship, +take to him two of my best horses; besides that, take to him from me a +magnificent armor of Bordeaux. He loves fine armor and fine horses. It +will please him.' And there they are with me," added Bertchram. "The +horses are led by the bridle. They are beautiful, one is as black as a +raven, the other white as a swan. As to the armor, it is carefully +packed up in my baggage, I cannot show it to you now. It is a +masterpiece of the most famous armorer of Bordeaux. It is enriched with +gold and silver ornaments. The casque is a marvel." + +"I am truly touched with this fresh proof of Charles' affection," +answered Amael, "I shall report to him as soon as I have fulfilled his +mission." + +"But he wishes you to join him immediately, as you will see by the +letter that I have carefully put away in my cuirass," said the warrior +hunting for the parchment. + +"Charles will not regret to see me arrive a day or two later if I return +to him after successfully attending to the mission that he confided to +me. I shall find the horses and the armor at the abbey, where I shall +see you again, and now I shall move on with my men. But you must have +made a wide circuit, to judge by the road you are on!" + +"Charles gave me the command of a large troop that he has cantonned on +the frontiers of Brittany." + +"Does he expect to attack Armorica?" + +"I do not know. I left the troops entrenched in two old Roman camps, one +to the right, the other to the left of a long road that winds up there." + +"Is the troop large?" + +"About two thousand men distributed in two camps." + +"Charles can undertake nothing against Brittany with so small a number +of soldiers." + +"All he expects to do is to reconnoiter the frontier of the country +until after the war with the Frisians is ended, when he will be able to +give his attention in person to the accursed Armorica. This province has +resisted our arms for more than three centuries, since the glorious +Clovis conquered Gaul. Indeed it is a shame to us!" + +"Yes, the independence of Armorica is a shame to the arms of the +Franks." + +"Here is Charles' letter," said Bertchram pulling from under his cuirass +a scroll of parchment that he delivered to Amael, and ordering the two +horses which his slaves had unsaddled to be brought forward, he added: +"Look at them! Are there any nobler or more spirited animals in the +world?" + +"No," answered Amael unable to avoid admiring the two superb stallions, +that were with difficulty held by the slaves. The horses reared and +caracoled, daintily striking the ground with their hoofs; one was ebony +black, with a bluish tinge; the other, white as snow, shone like silver. +Their nostrils were inflated, their eyes sparkled under their long +manes, and they lashed the air with their flowing tails. + +"These are noble horses!" said Amael smothering a sigh; and motioning to +the slaves to re-cover the animals with their housings, he muttered: +"Adieu, fine battle horses! Adieu magnificent armors!" Turning to the +Frank, Amael said: "I wish you a happy journey.... I shall see you again +at the abbey of Meriadek where I hope you may enjoy yourself." + +"Adieu, Berthoald; but ... a thought strikes me. Should your men refuse +to admit me during your absence, what shall I do?" + +"Keep Charles' letter; it will notify my men of Charles' pleasure. You +may break the seal before them." + +"I shall do it that way. Adieu, I shall take your place at the abbey, +where I expect to have a dull time until your return. Adieu, and come +back soon." + +"One more question.... Who are the chiefs of the troops that are +cantonned near the frontiers of Brittany?" + +"Two friends of yours, Hermann and Gondulf. They asked me to remember +them to you." + +"Now, good-bye." + +"Good-bye, Berthoald." + +The chief of the Frankish troops, having resumed his march, followed by +his troops and train, soon disappeared before the eyes of the fugitives. +Amael returned to the tree under which his traveling companions were +assembled. Hardly had he taken a few steps towards them when his mother +opened her arms to him: "Come, my son; I have heard every word. Now, at +least, your renunciation of a brilliant career, that might have dazzled +you, is voluntary!" + +"You were near me, mother, and yonder I saw the frontiers of Brittany. +Could I be dazzled by any favors from Charles against my mother and my +country?" + +"Oh!" cried the matron tenderly pressing Amael to her breast. "This day +makes me forget all that I have suffered!" + +"And this, mother, is the first happy day that I have had in years--a +day of unalloyed happiness." + +"You see I was right, your son's heart remained true," said Septimine to +Rosen-Aër with touching kindness. + +"Septimine!" replied Amael with a look of tenderness, "would you doubt +my heart in the future?" + +"No, Amael," she answered naïvely, looking at the young man with an +expression of timidity and surprise. "I shall never doubt you." + +"Mother, this sweet and brave girl saved your life; she is now a +fugitive, forever separated from her family. If she should consent to +give me her hand, would you accept her as a daughter?" + +"Oh, with joy! With thankfulness!" said Rosen-Aër. "But would you +consent to the union, Septimine?" + +Blushing with surprise, with happiness and confusion, the girl threw +herself on the neck of Amael's mother, and holding her face on the +matron's breast, murmured: + +"I loved him since the day he showed himself so generous toward me at +the convent of St. Saturnine. Did he not there protect me?" + +"Oh, Rosen-Aër!" now exclaimed the old man who had stood near wrapped in +thought, "the gods have blessed my old age, seeing they reserved such a +day for me." And after a few seconds of silent emotion, shared in by the +young apprentices, the old man proceeded, saying: "My friends, if you +will take my advice, let us resume our march. We shall have to walk +briskly in order to arrive to-morrow evening at the frontier of +Armorica." + +"Mother," said Amael, "lean upon me; you will not now refuse the support +of my arm?" + +"No, oh, no! my child!" answered the matron with tenderness, and brimful +of happiness, taking her son's arm. + +"And you, good father," said Septimine to the old goldsmith, "you lean +on me." + +The fugitives resumed their march. After having traveled without +accident until night and the following day, they arrived at moon-rise +not far from the first spurs of the wild and high mountains that serve +both as boundary and as ramparts to Armorica. The sight of his native +soil awoke in Bonaik the recollections of his boyhood days as if by +enchantment. Having before now crossed the frontiers with his father in +order to attend the Breton fairs, he remembered that four druid stones +of colossal size rose not far from a path that was cut between the +rocks, and that was so closely hemmed in, that it allowed only one +person to march abreast. The fugitives entered the path one after the +other and began climbing the steep ascent. Amael marched first. +Presently they arrived at a little clearing or platform, surrounded by +precipices and beetled over by huge rocks. + +Suddenly the fugitives heard from a far distance above their heads a +sonorous voice, that, quivering through the surrounding and profound +silence of the night, melancholically chanted these words: + + "She was young, + She was fair, + And holy was she; + Hena her name, + Hena, the Maid of the Island of Sen." + +Rosen-Aër, Bonaik and Amael, the three descendants of Joel, remained for +a moment transfixed with exaltation, and yielding to an irresistible +impulse all three fell upon their knees. Tears ran down their cheeks. +Septimine and the apprentices, sharing the emotion which they were +unable to account for, also fell upon their knees, and all listened, +while the sonorous voice which seemed to descend from the skies, +concluded the Gallic chant now eight centuries old. + +"Oh, Hesus!" finally exclaimed Rosen-Aër, raising her tear-stained face +toward the starry vault where the sacred luminary of Gaul was shining in +its splendor, "Oh, Hesus! I see a divine omen in this chant, so dear to +the descendants of Joel.... Blessed be the chant! It salutes us at this +solemn hour when, at last setting foot on this free soil, we return to +the ancient cradle of our family!" + +Guided by the old goldsmith, Amael, his mother, Septimine and the +apprentices, arrived in the vicinity of the sacred stones of Karnak, and +were tenderly received by the sons of Bonaik's brother. Amael became a +field laborer, the young apprentices followed his example and settled in +the tribe. At the death of Bonaik, the abbatial crosier, which he had +finished at his leisure, was joined to the relics of the family of Joel +accompanied by this narrative which I, Amael, the son of Guen-Ael, who +was the son of Wanoch, who was the son of Alan a grandson of Ronan the +Vagre through Ronan's son Gregory, wrote shortly after our return to +Brittany. + + +THE END. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Abbatial Crosier, by Eugène Sue + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ABBATIAL CROSIER *** + +***** This file should be named 33274-8.txt or 33274-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/3/2/7/33274/ + +Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was +produced from scanned images of public domain material +from the Google Print project.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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