diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 33868-8.txt | 9501 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 33868-8.zip | bin | 0 -> 175935 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 33868-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 196370 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 33868-h/33868-h.htm | 9544 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 33868-h/images/ill_mysteries.png | bin | 0 -> 12626 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 33868.txt | 9501 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 33868.zip | bin | 0 -> 175889 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 |
10 files changed, 28562 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/33868-8.txt b/33868-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3b6c037 --- /dev/null +++ b/33868-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9501 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Casque's Lark, 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 Casque's Lark + or Victoria, The Mother of The Camps + +Author: Eugène Sue + +Translator: Daniel De Leon + +Release Date: October 17, 2010 [EBook #33868] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CASQUE'S LARK *** + + + + +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 CASQUE'S LARK + + 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, _Faustina 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 CASQUE'S LARK + + :: OR :: + +VICTORIA, THE MOTHER OF THE CAMPS + +A Tale of the Frankish Invasion of Gaul + +By EUGENE SUE + +TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL FRENCH + +By DANIEL DE LEON + +NEW YORK LABOR NEWS COMPANY 1909 + +Copyright, 1909, by the + +NEW YORK LABOR NEWS CO. + + + + +INDEX + + + TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE v + INTRODUCTION 1 + + PART I--FOREIGN FOES. + I. SCHANVOCH AND SAMPSO 21 + II. ON THE RHINE 26 + III. THE HORDES OF THE FRANKS 46 + IV. THE PRIESTESS ELWIG 55 + V. NEROWEG THE TERRIBLE EAGLE 69 + VI. THE FLIGHT 83 + VII. SHADOWS ACROSS THE PATH 94 + VIII. CAPTAIN MARION 99 + IX. VICTORIA THE GREAT 107 + X. TETRIK 114 + XI. VICTORIN 127 + XII. TO BATTLE 143 + XIII. THE BATTLE OF THE RHINE 156 + XIV. THE HOMEWARD RIDE 173 + + PART II--DOMESTIC TRAITORS. + I. GATHERING SHADOWS 185 + II. THE CATASTROPHE 195 + III. THE MORTUARY CHAMBER 208 + IV. FUNERAL PYRES 229 + V. ASSASSINATION OF MARION 233 + VI. THE TRAITOR UNMASKED 247 + VII. THE VISION OF VICTORIA 268 + VIII. CRIME TRIUMPHANT 274 + IX. KIDDA, THE BOHEMIAN GIRL 280 + + EPILOGUE 288 + + + + +TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE + + +The first four stories of Eugene Sue's series of historic novels--_The +Mysteries of the People; or, History of a Proletarian Family Across the +Ages_--are properly introductory to the wondrous drama in which, as +indicated in the preface to the first story of the series, "one family, +the descendants of a Gallic chief named Joel, typifies the oppressed; +one family, the descendants of a Frankish chief named Neroweg, typifies +the oppressor; and across and adown the ages, the successive struggles +between oppressors and oppressed--the history of civilization--is thus +represented in a majestic allegory." That wondrous drama opens with +this, the fifth of the stories--_The Casque's Lark; or, Victoria, the +Mother of the Camps_. + +Here, for the first time, does a descendant of Joel, the Breton chief, +encounter a Neroweg, the representative of the conquering race. Here +they cross swords for the first time, their descendants meeting again +and again in the course of the subsequent narratives, almost always in +deadly encounter, each typical of the advancing stage of civilization in +which the succeeding encounters occur. + +In point of time, the scene of this story is about the third century of +the Christian era. The great historic epoch which it describes is that +in which, the star of the Roman Empire being in the decline and the +Empire's hold upon Gaul having been greatly relaxed, the flood of the +barbarian migration of nations flowed westward from the primeval +forests and frozen fields of Germania, attempting to cross the Rhine and +enter Gaul. Foremost among these hordes were the savage and warlike +Franks, led by a number of independent chiefs. The present story +describes the two forces--Franks and Gauls, the latter supported by the +Romans--facing each other, frequently crossing swords in bloody +encounters and holding each other in check. Out of this material, into +which the thin thread of the initial introduction of Christianity in +Gaul is woven in the woof, Sue constructed the present superb +narrative--a fit overture for the following and successive fourteen +acts. + +DANIEL DE LEON + +Milford, Conn. August, 1909. + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + +I, Schanvoch, a descendant of Joel, the brenn of the tribe of Karnak; I, +Schanvoch, now a freeman, thanks to the valor of my father Ralf and the +bold Gallic insurrections that continued unabated from century to +century; I, Schanvoch, write the following narrative two hundred and +sixty-four years after my ancestress Genevieve, the wife of Fergan, +witnessed in Judea the death of the poor carpenter Jesus of Nazareth. + +I write the following account thirty-four years after Gomer, the son of +Judicaël and grandson of Fergan, who was a slave like his father and +grandfather, wrote to his son Mederik that he had nothing to add to the +family annals but the monotonous account of his life as a slave. + +Neither did my ancestor Mederik contribute aught to our family history, +and his son Justin contented himself with having a stranger's hand enter +these short lines: + +"My father Mederik died a slave, fighting as a Son of the Mistletoe for +the freedom of Gaul; he told me that he was driven to revolt against the +foreign oppression by the narrative of the bravery of our free ancestors +and by the description of the sufferance of our enslaved fathers. I, his +son Justin, a colonist, and no longer a slave of the fisc, have caused +this fact to be entered upon our family parchments, which I shall +faithfully transmit to my son Aurel, together with their accompanying +emblems, the gold sickle, the little brass bell, the fragment of the +iron collar and the little silver cross, all of which I have carefully +preserved." + +Aurel, Justin's son and a colonist like his father, was not any more +literate than the latter, and left no record whatever. After him, again +a stranger's hand inserted these lines in our family annals: + +"Ralf, the son of Aurel the colonist, fought for the freedom of his +country. Ralf having become absolutely free, thanks to the Gallic arms +and the holy war preached by our venerable druids, found himself obliged +to resort to a friend's help in order to enter the death of his father +Aurel upon our family parchments. Happier than myself, my son Schanvoch +will not be forced to avail himself of a stranger in order to enter in +our family's archives the death of myself, the first male descendant of +Joel, the brenn of the tribe of Karnak, who again regained complete +freedom. As several of my ancestors have done before me, I here declare +that it was the history of our ancestors' valor and martyrdom that +induced me to take up arms against the Romans, our masters and secular +oppressors." + +These family scrolls, together with their accompanying relics, I shall +leave to you, my dear little Alguen, the son of my beloved wife Ellen, +who gave you birth this day four years ago. + +I choose this day, the anniversary of your birth, as a day of happy +augury, in order to start, for your benefit and the benefit of our +descendants, the narrative of my life and my battles, my joys and my +sorrows, obedient to the last wishes of our ancestor Joel, the brenn of +the tribe of Karnak. + +You will grieve, my son, when you learn from these archives that, from +the death of Joel down to that of my great-grandfather Justin, seven +generations, aye, seven whole generations, were subjected to intolerable +slavery. But your heart will be cheered when you learn that my +great-grandfather had, from a slave, become a colonist or serf attached +to the glebe of Gaul--still a servile condition but greatly above that +of slavery. My own father, having regained his full freedom, thanks to +the formidable insurrections of the Sons of the Mistletoe that from +century to century were conjured up at the voice of the druids, the +tireless and heroic defenders of the freedom of oppressed Gaul, has +bequeathed to me freedom, that most precious of all wealth. I shall, in +turn, transmit it to you. + +By dint of constantly struggling for it, and also of stubborn +resistance, we Gauls have succeeded in successively reconquering almost +our full former freedom. A last and frail bond still holds us to Rome, +now our ally, after having formerly been our pitiless master. When that +last and frail bond will be snapped, we shall have regained our absolute +independence, and we shall resume our former place at the head of the +great nations of the world. + +Before acquainting you with the details of my life and time, my son, I +must fill certain voids that are left in the history of our family +through the omissions of those of our ancestors, who, either through +illiteracy or the hardness of the times, were prevented from joining +their respective accounts to our archives. Their lives must have been +the life of all the other Gauls, who, the fetters of slavery +notwithstanding, have, step by step and from century to century, +conquered through revolt and battle the deliverance of our country. + +You will find in the last lines written by our ancestor Fergan, the +husband of Genevieve, that despite the vows taken by the Sons of the +Mistletoe and despite innumerable uprisings, one of the most formidable +of which was chieftained by Sacrovir, the worthy emulator of the Chief +of the Hundred Valleys, the Roman yoke that Caesar imposed upon Gaul +remained unshaken. In vain did Jesus, the carpenter of Nazareth, +prophesy that the chains of the slave would be broken. The slaves still +dragged their blood-stained chains. Nevertheless, our old race, +weakened, mutilated, unnerved or corrupted though it was by slavery, +never once was submissive, and allowed only short intervals to pass +without endeavoring to shake off the yoke. The secret associations of +the Sons of the Mistletoe covered the country, and furnished intrepid +soldiers to each succeeding revolt against Rome. + +After the heroic attempt of Sacrovir, the account of whose sublime death +you will find in the narrative of our ancestor Fergan, the weak and +timid weaver-slave, other insurrections broke out during the reigns of +the Emperors Tiberius and Claudius; they increased in force during the +civil wars that rent Italy under the reign of Nero. At about that time, +one of our heroes, Vindex, as intrepid a patriot as Sacrovir or the +Chief of the Hundred Valleys, long held the Roman arms in check. +Civilis, another Gallic patriot, taking his stand upon the prophecies of +Velleda--one of our female druids, a virile woman, wise in council and +worthy compeer of our brave and wise mothers--roused almost all Gaul to +revolt and gave the first serious wound to the power of Rome. Finally, +during the reign of the Emperor Vitellius, a poor field slave like our +ancestor Guilhern set himself up as the messiah and liberator of Gaul, +just as Jesus of Nazareth proclaimed himself the Messiah of Judea, and +pursued with patriotic ardor the task of liberation that was started by +the Chief of the Hundred Valleys and continued after him by Sacrovir, +Vindex, Civilis and so many other heroes. That field slave's name was +Marik. He was then barely twenty-five years of age; robust, intelligent +and gifted with heroic bravery he joined the Sons of the Mistletoe. Our +venerable druids, always persecuted, had traversed Gaul inciting the +lukewarm, restraining the impatient, and preparing all for the hour of +the insurrection. It broke out. At the head of ten thousand slaves, +field laborers like himself and armed with their scythes and forks, +Marik engaged the Roman troops of Vitellius under the walls of Lyons. +That first attempt miscarried; the insurgents were cut to pieces by the +Roman army that greatly exceeded them in numbers. But so far from +feeling overwhelmed, this defeat intensified the ardor of the revolted +people. Whole populations rose in rebellion at the voice of the druids +that called them to the holy war. The combatants seemed to spring out of +the entrails of the earth, and Marik saw himself again at the head of a +numerous army. Endowed by the gods with a military instinct, he +disciplined his troops, inspired them with courage and a blind +confidence in him, and marched at their head towards the banks of the +Rhine, where, sheltered behind its trenches, lay the reserve of the +Roman army. Marik attacked it, beat it, and compelled whole legions that +he took prisoner to drop their own ensigns and substitute them with our +ancient Gallic cock. Those Roman legions had, due to their long sojourn +in our country, virtually become Gauls; carried away by the military +ascendency of Marik, they readily joined him, combatted under him +against the fresh Roman columns that were sent from Italy, and either +annihilated or dispersed them. The hour of Gaul's deliverance was about +to sound--but at that moment Marik fell through cowardly treason into +the hands of the monster Vespasian, then Emperor of Rome. Riddled with +wounds the hero of Gaul was delivered to the wild beasts in the circus, +like our own ancestor Sylvest. + +The martyr's death exasperated the population. Fresh insurrections broke +out forthwith all over Gaul. The words of Jesus of Nazareth, declaring +that the slave is the equal of his master, began to penetrate our own +country, filtering through on the lips of itinerant preachers. The +flames of hatred for the foreign domination shot up with renewed vigor. +Attacked from all sides in Gaul, harrassed on the other side of the +Rhine by innumerable hordes of Franks, barbarous warriors that issued +from the depths of the northern forests and seemed but to await the +propitious moment to pour into Gaul, the Romans finally capitulated to +us. At last we harvested the fruits of so many heroic sacrifices! The +blood shed by our fathers for the previous three centuries watered our +deliverance. Indeed, the words of the Chief of the Hundred Valleys were +prophetic: + + "Flow, flow thou blood of the captive! + Drop, drop thou dew of gore! + Germinate, sprout up, thou avenging harvest!" + +Yes, my son, those words were prophetic. It was with that refrain on +their lips that our fathers fought and overcame the foreign oppressor. +Rome, at last, yielded back to us a part of our ancient freedom. We +formed Gallic legions commanded by our own officers; our provinces were +once more governed by magistrates of our own choice. Rome reserved only +the right to appoint a "Principal" over Gaul, the suzerainty over which +she was to retain. We accepted, while waiting and striving for better +things--and these better things were not long in coming. Frightened by +our continual revolts, our tyrants had been slowly moderating the rigor +of our slavery. Terror was to force from them that which they +relentlessly refused as a matter of right and justice to the voice of +suppliant humanity. First the master was no longer allowed, as he was in +the days of Sylvest and several of his descendants, to dispose over the +life of his slaves as one disposes over the life of an animal. Later, as +their fear increased, the masters were forbidden from inflicting +corporal punishments upon their slaves, except with the express +authorization of a magistrate. Finally, my child, that horrible Roman +law, that, at the time of our ancestor Sylvest and of the five +generations that followed him, declared in its ferocious language that +the slave does not exist, that "he has no head" (_non caput habet_) that +shocking law was, thanks to the dread inspired by our unceasing revolts, +modified to the point that the Justinian code declared: + +"Freedom is a natural right; it is the statute law that has created +slavery; it has also created enfranchisement, which is the return to +natural freedom." + +Alack! It is distressing to notice that the sacred rights of humanity +can not triumph except at the cost of torrents of blood and of +unnumbered disasters! But who is to be cursed as the true cause of all +such evils? Is it not the oppressor, seeing that he bends his fellow-men +under the yoke of a frightful slavery, lives on the sweat of the brow of +his fellow-men, depraves, debases and martyrizes his fellow-beings, +kills them to satisfy a whim or out of sheer cruelty, and thus compels +them to reconquer by force the freedom that they have been deprived of? +Never forget this, my son, if, once subjugated, the whole Gallic race +had shown itself as patient, as timid, as resigned as did our poor +ancestor Fergan the weaver, our slavery never would have been abolished! +After vain appeals to the heart and reason of the oppressor, there is +but one means left to overthrow tyranny--revolt--energetic, stubborn, +unceasing revolt. Sooner or later right triumphs, as it triumphed with +us! Let the blood that our triumph has cost fall upon the heads of those +who enslaved us. + +Accordingly, my son, thanks to our innumerable insurrections, slavery +was at first replaced by the state of the colonist, or serfdom, the +regime under which my great-grandfather Justin and my grandfather Aurel +lived. Under that system, instead of being forced to cultivate under the +whip and for the exclusive benefit of the Roman masters the lands that +they had plundered us of by conquest, the colonist had a small share of +the harvest that he gathered. He could no longer be sold as a draft +horse, along with his children; he could no longer be submitted to the +torture or killed; but they were, from father to children, compelled to +remain attached to the same domain. If the domain was sold, the colonist +likewise changed hands under the identical conditions of toil. Later the +condition of the colonists was further improved; they were granted the +rights of citizenship. When the Gallic legions were formed, the soldiers +that composed them became completely free. My father Ralf, the son of a +colonist, gained his freedom in that manner; I, the son of a soldier, +brought up in camp, was born free; and I shall bequeath that freedom to +you, as my father bequeathed it to me together with the duty to +preserve it for your descendants. + +When you will read this narrative, my son, after you will have become +acquainted with the manifold sufferings of our ancestors, who were +slaves for so many generations, you will appreciate the wisdom of the +wish expressed by our ancestor Joel, the brenn of the tribe of Karnak. +You will admire his sagacity in expecting that, by piously preserving +the memory of its bravery and of the independence that it once enjoyed, +the Gallic race would be able to draw from the horror for Roman +oppression the strength to overthrow it. + +At this writing I am thirty-eight years of age. My parents are long +dead. Ralf, my father, a soldier in one of our Gallic legions, in which +he enrolled at the age of eighteen in the south of Gaul, came into this +region, near the western banks of the Rhine, along with the army. He was +in all the battles that were fought with the ferocious hordes of the +Franks, who, attracted by the fertility of our Gaul and by the wealth +contained in our borders, encamped on the opposite shore of the river, +ever ready to attempt a new invasion. + +About four years ago a descent of the insular population of England was +feared in Brittany. On that occasion several legions, the one in which +my father enlisted among them, were ordered into that province. During +several months he was quartered in the city of Vannes, not far from +Karnak, the cradle of our family. Having had one of his friends read to +him the narratives of our ancestors, Ralf visited with pious respect the +battle field of Vannes, the sacred stones of Karnak, and the lands that +we were plundered of in Caesar's time by the Roman conquerors. The lands +were held by a Roman family; colonists, sons of the Breton Gauls of our +tribe and who had formerly been in bondage, now cultivated the lands +that their ancestors one time owned. The daughter of one of those +colonists loved my father; her love was reciprocated; her name was +Madalene; she was one of those proud and virile Gallic women, that our +ancestress Margarid, the wife of Joel, was a type of. She followed my +father when his legion left Brittany to return to the banks of the +Rhine, where I was born in the fortified camp of Mayence, a military +city that our troops occupied. The chief of the legion to which my +father belonged was the son of a field laborer. His bravery won him the +post. On the day after my birth that chief's wife died in child-bed of a +baby girl--a girl who, some day perhaps, may yet, from the retreat of +her humble home, reign over the world as she reigns to-day over Gaul. +To-day, at the time that I write, Victoria, by virtue of her +distinguished wisdom, her eminent qualities, the benign influence that +she exercises over her son Victorin and over our whole army, is, in +point of fact, empress of Gaul. + +Victoria is my foster-sister. Prizing the solid qualities of mind and +heart that my mother was endowed with, when Victoria's father became a +widower, he requested my mother to nurse his little babe. Accordingly, +she and I grew up like brother and sister. We never since failed in the +fraternal affection of our childhood. From her earliest age Victoria was +serious and gentle, although she greatly delighted in the blare of +trumpets and the sight of arms. She gave promise to be some day of that +august beauty that mingles calmness, grace and energy, and that is +peculiar to certain women of Gaul. You will see medals that have been +struck in her honor when she was still a young maid. She is there +represented as Diana the huntress, with a bow in one hand and a torch +in the other. On a later medal, struck about two years ago, Victoria is +represented with her son Victorin in the guise of Minerva accompanied by +Mars. At the age of ten she was sent by her father to a college of +female druids. Being now again freed from Roman persecution, thanks to +the new birth of Gallic freedom, the druids, male and female, again +attended to the education of children as they did of yore. + +Victoria remained with these venerable women until her fifteenth year. +She drew from that patriotic and strict tuition an ardent love for her +country, and information on all subjects. She left the college equipped +with the secrets of former times, and, it is said, possessing, like +Velleda and other female druids, the power of seeing into the future. At +that period of her life the proud and virile beauty of Victoria was +sublime. When she met me again she was happy and she did not conceal her +joy. So far from declining through our long separation from each other, +her affection for me, her foster-brother, had increased. + +I must at this point make an admission to you, my son; I am free to make +it because you will not read these lines until after you will be a man. +You will find a good example of courage and abnegation in my confession. + +When Victoria returned in her dazzling beauty of fifteen years I was of +the same age and although hardly of the age of puberty myself, I fell +distractedly in love with her. I carefully concealed my feelings, out of +friendship as well as by reason of the respect that, despite the +fraternal attachment of which she every day gave me fresh proof, that +serious young maid, who brought with her from the college of the female +druids an indescribably imposing, pensive and mysterious appearance, +inspired in me. I then underwent a cruel trial. Ignorant of the feelings +of my heart, as she ever will be, at fifteen and a half Victoria gave +her hand to a young military chief. I came near dying of a slow +consuming illness caused by my secret despair. So long as my life seemed +in danger, Victoria did not leave the head of my couch. A tender sister +could not have attended me with more devoted and touching care. She +became a mother. Although a mother, she ever accompanied her husband, to +whom she was passionately devoted, whenever called to war. By force of +reflection I succeeded at last in overcoming, if not my love, at least +its violent manifestations, the pain it gave me, the senselessness of +the passion. But there remained in me a sense of boundless devotion +towards my foster-sister. She asked me to remain near her and her +husband as a horseman in the body of cavalrymen that ordinarily act as +escorts to the Gallic chiefs, and either take down in writing or convey +their military orders. My foster-sister was barely eighteen years of age +when, in a severe battle with the Franks, she lost on the same day both +her father and her husband. A widow with her son, for whom she foresaw a +glorious future, bravely verified by himself since then, Victoria never +left the camp. The soldiers, accustomed ever to see her in their midst, +with her child in her arms, and walking between her father and her +husband, knew that more than once her profoundly wise advice prevailed +in the councils of the chiefs as the advice of our mothers of old often +prevailed in the councils of our forefathers. They came to look as a +good omen upon the presence of this young woman, who was trained in the +mysterious science of the druids. At the death of her father and husband +they begged her not to leave the army, declaring to her with naïve +affection that thenceforth her son Victorin should be "Son of the Camps" +and she the "Mother of the Camps." Touched by so much affection, +Victoria remained with the troops, preserving her influence over the +chiefs, directing them in the government of Gaul, sedulous in imparting +a manly education to her son, and living as modestly as the wife of an +officer. + +Shortly after her husband's death, my foster-sister told me that she +would never marry again, it being her intention to consecrate her life +entirely to Victorin. The last and insane hope that I nursed when I saw +her a widow and free again, was dashed. With time I recovered my senses. +I suppressed my ill-starred love and gave no thought but to the service +of Victoria and her son. A simple horseman in the army, I served my +foster-sister as her secretary. Often she confided important state +secrets to me. At times she even charged me with confidential embassies +to the military chiefs of Gaul. + +I taught Victorin to ride, to handle the lance and the sword. Soon I +came to love him as an own son. A kinder and more generous disposition +than that of the lad could not be imagined. Thus he grew up among the +soldiers, who became attached to him by a thousand bonds of habit and of +affection. At the age of fourteen he made his first campaign against the +franks, who were fast becoming as dangerous enemies to us as the Romans +once were. I accompanied him. Like a true Gallic woman his mother +remained on horseback and surrounded by the officers, on a hill from +which the battle field could be seen on which her son was engaged. He +comported himself bravely and was wounded. Being thus from early youth +habituated to the life of war, the youth developed great military +talents. Intrepid as the bravest of the soldiers, skilful and cautious +as a veteran captain, generous to the full extent that his purse allowed +it, of a joyful disposition, open and kind to all, he gained ever more +the attachment of the army that soon divided with him its adoration for +his mother. + +The day finally arrived when Gaul, already almost independent, demanded +to share with Rome the government of our country. The power was then +divided between a Gallic and a Roman chief. Rome appointed Posthumus, +and our troops unanimously acclaimed Victorin as the Gallic chief and +general of the army. Shortly after, he married a young girl by whom he +was dearly loved. Unfortunately she died within the year, leaving him a +son. Victoria, now a grandmother, devoted herself to her son's child as +she had done before to himself, and surrounded the babe with all the +cares that the tenderest solicitude could inspire. + +My early resolve was never to marry. I was nevertheless gradually +attracted by the modest graces and the virtue of the daughter of one of +the centurions of our army. She was your mother, Ellen, whom I married +five years ago. + +Such has been my life until this day, when I start the narrative that is +to follow. Certain remarks of Victoria decided me to write it both for +your benefit and the benefit of our descendants. If the expectations of +my foster-sister, concerning several incidents in this narrative, are +eventually realized, those of our relatives who in the centuries to come +may happen to read this story will discover that Victoria, the Mother of +the Camps, was gifted, like Hena, the Virgin of the Isle of Sen, and +Velleda, the female druid and companion of Civilis, with the holy gift +of prevision. + +What I am here about to narrate happened a week ago. In order to fix the +date with greater accuracy I certify that it is written in the city of +Mayence, defended by our fortified camp on the borders of the Rhine, on +the fifth day of the month of June, as the Romans reckon, of the seventh +year of the joint principality of Posthumus and Victorin in Gaul, two +hundred and sixty-four years after the death of Jesus of Nazareth, the +friend of the poor, who was crucified in Jerusalem under the eyes of our +ancestress Genevieve. + +The Gallic camp, composed of tents and light but solid barracks, is +massed around Mayence, which dominates it. Victoria lodges in the city; +I occupy a little house not far from the one that she inhabits. + + + + +PART I. + +FOREIGN FOES. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +SCHANVOCH AND SAMPSO. + + +The morning of the day that I am telling of, I quitted my bed with the +dawn, leaving my beloved wife Ellen soundly asleep. I contemplated her +for an instant. Her long loose hair partly covered her bosom; her sweet +and beautiful head rested upon one of her folded arms, while the other +reclined on your cradle, my son, as if to protect you even during her +sleep. I lightly kissed both your foreheads, fearing to awake you. It +required an effort on my part to refrain from tenderly embracing you +both again and again. I was bound upon a venturesome expedition; +perchance, the kiss that I hardly dared to give you was the last you +were ever to receive from me. I left the room where you slept and +repaired to the contiguous one to arm myself, to don my cuirass over my +blouse, and take my casque and sword. I then left the house. At our +threshold I met Sampso, my wife's sister, as gentle and beautiful as +herself. She held her apron filled with flowers of different colors; +they were still wet with the dew. She had just gathered them in our +little garden. Seeing me, she smiled and blushed surprised. + +"Up so early, Sampso?" I said to her. "I thought I was the first one +stirring. But what is the purpose of these flowers?" + +"Is it not to-day a year ago that I came to live with my sister Ellen +and you--you forgetful Schanvoch?" she answered with an affectionate +smile. "I wish to celebrate the day in our old Gallic fashion. I went +out for the flowers in order to garland the house-door, the cradle of +your little Alguen, and his mother's head. But you, where are you bound +to this morning in full armor?" + +At the thought that this holiday might turn into a day of mourning for +my family I suppressed a sigh, and answered my wife's sister with a +smile that was intended to allay suspicion. + +"Victoria and her son charged me yesterday with some military orders for +the chief of a detachment that lies encamped some two leagues from here. +It is the military custom to be armed when one has such orders in +charge." + +"Do you know, Schanvoch, that you must arouse jealousy in many a +breast?" + +"Because my foster-sister employs my soldier's sword during war and my +pen during truces?" + +"You forget to say that that foster-sister is Victoria the Great, and +that Victorin, her son, entertains for you the respect that he would +have for his mother's brother. Hardly a day goes by without Victoria's +calling upon you. These are favors that many should envy." + +"Have I ever sought to profit by these favors, Sampso? Have I not +remained a simple horseman, ever declining to be an officer, and +requesting the only favor of fighting at Victorin's side?" + +"Whose life you have already twice saved when he was at the point of +perishing under the blows of those barbarous Franks!" + +"I did but my duty as a soldier and a Gaul. Should I not sacrifice my +life to that of a man who is so necessary to our country?" + +"Schanvoch, we must not quarrel; you know how much I admire Victoria; +but--" + +"But I know your uncharitableness towards her son," I put in with a +smile, "you austere and severe Sampso!" + +"Is it any fault of mine if disorderly conduct finds no favor in my +eyes--if I even consider it disgraceful?" + +"Certes, you are right. Nevertheless I can not avoid being somewhat +indulgent towards the foibles of Victorin. A widower at twenty, should +he not be excused for yielding at times to the impulses of his age? Dear +but implacable Sampso, I let you read the narrative of my ancestress +Genevieve. You are gentle and good as Jesus of Nazareth, why do you not +imitate his charity towards sinners? He forgave Magdalen because she had +loved much. In the name of the same sentiment pardon Victorin!" + +"There is nothing more worthy of forgiveness than love, when it is +sincere. But debauchery has nothing in common with love. Schanvoch, it +is as if you were to say to me that my sister and I could be compared +with those Bohemian girls who recently arrived in Mayence." + +"In point of looks they might be compared with you or Ellen, seeing that +they are said to be ravishingly beautiful. But the comparison ends +there, Sampso. I trust but little the virtue of those strollers, however +charming, however brilliantly arrayed they may be, who travel from town +to town singing and dancing for public amusement--even if they indulge +not in worse practices." + +"And for all that, I make no doubt that, when you least expect it, you +will see Victorin the general of the army, one of the two Chiefs of +Gaul, accompany on horseback the chariot in which these Bohemian girls +promenade every evening along the borders of the Rhine. And if I should +feel indignant at the sight of the son of Victoria serving as escort to +such creatures, you would surely say to me: 'Forgive the sinner, just as +Jesus forgave Magdalen the sinner.' Go to, Schanvoch, the man who can +delight in unworthy amours is capable of--" + +But Sampso suddenly broke off. + +"Finish your sentence," I said to her, "express yourself in full, I pray +you." + +"No," she answered after reflecting a moment; "the time has not yet come +for that. I would not like to risk a hasty word." + +"See here," I said to her, "I am sure that what you have in mind is one +of those ridiculous stories about Victorin that for some time have been +floating about in the army, without its being possible to trace the +slanders to their source. Can you, Sampso, you, with all your good sense +and good heart, make yourself the echo of such gossip, such unworthy +calumnies?" + +"Adieu, Schanvoch; I told you I was not going to quarrel with you, dear +brother, on the subject of the hero whom you defend against all comers." + +"What would you have me do? It is my foible. I love his mother as an own +sister. I love her son as if he were my own. Are you not as guilty as +myself, Sampso? Is not my little Alguen, your sister's son, as dear to +you as if he were your own child? Take my word for it, when Alguen will +be twenty and you hear him accused of some youthful indiscretion, you +will, I feel quite sure, defend him with even more warmth than I defend +Victorin. But we need not wait so long, have you not begun your role of +pleader for him, already? When the rascal is guilty of some misconduct, +is it not his aunt Sampso whom he fetches to intercede in his behalf? He +knows how you love him!" + +"Is not my sister's son mine?" + +"Is that the reason you do not wish to marry?" + +"Surely, brother," she answered with a blush and a slight embarrassment. +After a moment's silence she resumed: + +"I hope you will be back home at noon to complete our little feast?" + +"The moment my mission is fulfilled I shall return. Adieu, Sampso!" + +"Adieu, Schanvoch!" + +And leaving his wife's sister engaged in her work of garlanding the +house-door, Schanvoch walked rapidly away, revolving in his mind the +topic of the conversation that Sampso had just broached. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +ON THE RHINE. + + +I had often asked myself why Sampso, who was a year older than Ellen, +and as beautiful and virtuous as my wife, had until then rejected +several offers of marriage. At times I suspected that she entertained +some secret love, other times I surmised she might belong to one of the +Christian societies that began to spread over Gaul and in which the +women took the vow of virginity, as did several of our female druids. I +also pondered the reason for Sampso's reticence when I asked her to be +more explicit concerning Victorin. Soon, however, I dropped all these +subjects and turned my mind upon the expedition that I had in charge. + +I wended my way towards the advance posts of the camp and addressed +myself to an officer under whose eyes I placed a scroll with a few lines +written by Victorin. The officer immediately put four picked soldiers at +my disposal. They were chosen from among a number whose special +department was to manoeuvre the craft of the military flotilla that was +used in ascending or descending the Rhine in order, whenever occasion +required, to defend the fortified camp. Upon my recommendation the four +soldiers left their arms behind. I alone was armed. As we passed a clump +of oak trees I cut down a few branches to be placed at the prow of the +bark that was to transport us. We soon arrived at the river bank, where +we found several boats that were reserved for the service of the army, +tied to their stakes. While two of the soldiers fastened on the prow of +the boat the oak branches that I had furnished them with, the other two +examined the oars with expert eyes in order to assure themselves that +they were in fit condition for use. I took the rudder, and we left the +shore. + +The four soldiers rowed in silence for a while. Presently the oldest of +them, a veteran with a grey moustache and white hair, said to me: + +"There is nothing like a Gallic song to make time pass quickly and the +oars strike in rhythm. I should say that some old national refrain, sung +in chorus, renders the sculls lighter and the water more easy to cleave +through. Are we allowed to sing, friend Schanvoch?" + +"You seem to know me, comrade?" + +"Who in the army does not know the foster-brother of the Mother of the +Camps?" + +"Being a simple horseman I thought my name was more obscure than it +seems to be." + +"You have remained a simple horseman despite our Victoria's friendship +for you. That is why, Schanvoch, everybody knows and esteems you." + +"You certainly make me feel happy by saying so. What is your name?" + +"Douarnek." + +"You must be a Breton!" + +"From the neighborhood of Vannes." + +"My family also comes from that neighborhood." + +"I thought as much, your name being a Breton name. Well, friend +Schanvoch, may we sing a song? Our officer gave us orders to obey you +as we would himself. I know not whither you are taking us, but a song is +heard far away, especially when it is struck up in chorus by vigorous +and broad-chested lads. Perhaps we must not draw attention upon our +bark?" + +"Just now you may sing--later not--we shall have to advance without +making any noise." + +"Well, boys, what shall we sing?" said the veteran without either +himself or his companions intermitting the regular strokes of their +oars, and only slightly turning his head towards them, seeing that, +seated as he was on the first bench, he sat opposite to me. "Come, make +your choice!" + +"The song of the mariners, will that suit you?" answered one of the +soldiers. + +"That is rather long," replied Douarnek. + +"The song of the Chief of the Hundred Valleys?" + +"That is very beautiful," again replied Douarnek, "but it is a song of +slaves who await their deliverance; by the bones of our fathers, we are +now free in old Gaul!" + +"Friend Douarnek," said I, "it was to the refrain of that slaves' +song--'Flow, flow, thou blood of the captive! Drop, drop, thou dew of +gore!' that our fathers, arms in hand, reconquered the freedom that we +enjoy to-day." + +"That is true, Schanvoch, but that song is very long, and you warned us +that we were soon to become silent as fishes." + +"Douarnek," one of the soldiers spoke up, "sing to us the song of Hena +the Virgin of the Isle of Sen. It always brings tears to my eyes. She is +my favorite saint, the beautiful and sweet Hena, who lived centuries and +centuries ago." + +"Yes, yes," said the other soldiers, "sing the song of Hena, Douarnek! +That song predicts the victory of Gaul--and Gaul is to-day triumphant!" + +Hearing these words I was greatly moved, I felt happy and, I confess it, +proud at seeing that the name of Hena, dead more than three hundred +years, had remained in Gaul as popular as it was at the time of Sylvest. + +"Very well, the song of Hena it shall be!" replied the veteran. "I also +love the sweet and saintly girl, who offered her blood to Hesus for the +deliverance of Gaul. And you, Schanvoch, do you know the song?" + +"Yes--quite well--I have heard it sung--" + +"You will know it enough to repeat the refrain with us." + +Saying this Douarnek struck up the song in a full and sonorous voice +that reached far over the waters of the Rhine: + + "She was young, she was fair, + And holy was she. + To Hesus her blood gave + That Gaul might be free. + Hena her name! + Hena, the Maid of the Island of Sen! + + "--Blessed be the gods, my sweet daughter,-- + Said her father Joel, + The brenn of the tribe of Karnak. + --Blessed be the gods, my sweet daughter, + Since you are at home this night + To celebrate the day of your birth!-- + + "--Blessed be the gods, my sweet girl,-- + Said Margarid, her mother. + --Blessed be your coming! + But why is your face so sad?-- + + "--My face is sad, my good mother; + My face is sad, my good father, + Because Hena your daughter + Comes to bid you Adieu, + Till we meet again.-- + + "--And where are you going, my sweet daughter? + Will your journey, then, be long? + Whither thus are you going?-- + + "--I go to those worlds + So mysterious, above, + That no one yet knows, + But that all will yet know. + Where living ne'er traveled, + Where all will yet travel, + To live there again + With those we have loved.--" + +And myself and the three other oarsmen replied in chorus: + + "She was young, she was fair, + And holy was she. + To Hesus her blood gave, + That Gaul might be free. + Hena her name! + Hena, the Maid of the Island of Sen!" + +Douarnek then proceeded with the song: + + "Hearing Hena speak these words, + Sadly gazed upon her her father + And her mother, aye, all the family, + Even the little children, + For Hena loved them very dearly. + + "--But why, dear daughter, + Why now quit this world, + And travel away beyond + Without the Angel of Death having called you?-- + + "--Good father, good mother, + Hesus is angry. + The stranger now threatens our Gaul so beloved. + The innocent blood of a virgin + Offered by her to the gods + May their anger well soften. + Adieu, then, till we meet again, + Good father, good mother, + Adieu till we meet again, + All, my dear ones and friends. + These collars preserve, and these rings + As mementoes of me. + Let me kiss for the last time your blonde heads, + Dear little ones. Good bye till we meet. + Remember your Hena, she waits for you yonder, + In the worlds yet unknown.--" + +And the other oarsmen and I replied in chorus to the rythmical sound of +the oars: + + "She was young, she was fair, + And holy was she. + To Hesus her blood gave + That Gaul might be free. + Hena her name. + Hena, the Maid of the Island of Sen!" + +Douarnek proceeded: + + "Bright is the moon, high is the pyre + Which rises near the sacred stones of Karnak; + Vast is the gathering of the tribes + Which presses 'round the funeral pile. + + "Behold her, it is she, it is Hena! + She mounts the pyre, her golden harp in hand, + And singeth thus: + + "--Take my blood, O Hesus, + And deliver my land from the stranger. + Take my blood, O Hesus, + Pity for Gaul! Victory to our arms!-- + And it flowed, the blood of Hena. + + "O, holy Virgin, in vain 'twill not have been, + The shedding of your innocent and generous blood. + Bowed beneath the yoke, Gaul will some day rise erect, + Free and proud, and crying, like thee, + --Victory and Freedom!" + +And Douarnek, along with the three other soldiers, repeated in a low +voice, vibrating with pious admiration, this last refrain: + + "So it was that she offered her blood to Hesus, + To Hesus for the deliverance of Gaul! + She was young, she was fair, + And holy was she, + Hena her name! + Hena, the Maid of the Island of Sen!" + +I alone did not join in the last refrain of the song. I was too deeply +moved! + +Noticing my emotion and my silence, Douarnek said to me surprised: + +"What, Schanvoch, have you lost your voice? You remain silent at the +close of so glorious a song?" + +"Your speech is sooth, Douarnek; it is just because that song is +particularly glorious to me--that you see me so deeply moved." + +"That song is particularly glorious to you? I do not understand you." + +"Hena was the daughter of one of my ancestors." + +"What say you!" + +"Hena was the daughter of Joel, the brenn of the tribe of Karnak, who +died, together with his wife and almost all his family, at the great +battle of Vannes--a battle that was fought on land and water nearly +three centuries ago. From father to son, I descend from Joel." + +"Do you know, Schanvoch," replied Douarnek, "that even kings would be +proud of such an ancestry?" + +"The blood shed for our country and for liberty by all of us Gauls is +our national patent of nobility," I said to him. "It is for that reason +that our old songs are so popular among us." + +"When one considers," put in one of the younger soldiers, "that it is +now more than three hundred years since Hena, the saintly maid, +surrendered her own life for the deliverance of the country, and that +her name still reaches us!" + +"Although it took the young virgin's voice more than two centuries to +rise to the ears of Hesus," replied Douarnek, "her voice did finally +reach him, seeing that to-day we can say--Victory to our arms! Victory +and freedom!" + +We had now arrived at about the middle of the river, where the stream is +very rapid. + +Raising his oar, Douarnek asked me: + +"Shall we enter the strong current? That would be a waste of strength, +unless we are either to ascend or descend the river a distance equal to +that that now separates us from the shore." + +"We are to cross the Rhine in its full breadth, friend Douarnek." + +"Cross it!" cried the veteran with amazement. "Cross the Rhine! And what +for?" + +"To land on the opposite shore." + +"Do you know what that means, Schanvoch? Is not the army of those +Frankish bandits, if one can honor those savage hordes with the name of +army, encamped on the opposite shore?" + +"It is to those very barbarians that I am bound." + +For a few moments all the four oars rested motionless in their oarlocks. +The soldiers looked at one another speechless, as if they could not +believe what they heard me say. + +Douarnek was the first to break the silence. With a soldier's unconcern +he said to me: + +"Is it, then, a sacrifice that we are to offer to Hesus by delivering +our hides to those hide-tanners? If such be the orders, forward! Bend to +your oars, my lads!" + +"Have you forgotten, Douarnek, that we have a truce of eight days with +the Franks?" + +"There is no such thing as a truce to those brigands." + +"As you will notice, I have made the signal of peace by ornamenting the +prow of our bark with green boughs. I shall proceed alone into the +enemy's camp, with an oak branch in my hand." + +"And they will slay you despite all your oak branches, as they have +slain other envoys during previous truces." + +"That may happen, Douarnek; but when the chief commands, the soldier +obeys. Victoria and her son have ordered me to proceed to the Frankish +camp. So thither I go!" + +"It surely was not out of fear that I spoke, Schanvoch, when I said that +those savages would not leave our heads on our shoulders, nor our skins +on our bodies. I only spoke from the old habit of sincerity. Well, then, +my lads, fall to with a will! Bend to your oars! We have the order from +our mother--the Mother of the Camps--and we obey. Forward! even if we +are to be flayed alive by the barbarians, a cruel sport that they often +indulge in at the expense of their prisoners." + +"And it is also said," put in the young soldier with a less unperturbed +voice than Douarnek's, "it is also said that the priestesses of the +nether world who follow the Frankish hordes drop their prisoners into +large brass caldrons, and boil them alive with certain magic herbs." + +"Ha! Ha!" replied Douarnek merrily, "the one of us who may be boiled in +that way will at least enjoy the advantage of being the first to taste +his own soup--that's some consolation. Forward! Ply your oars! We are +obeying orders from the Mother of the Camps." + +"Oh! We would row straight into an abyss, if Victoria so ordered!" + +"She has been well named, the Mother of the Camps and of the soldiers. +It is a treat to see her visiting the wounded after each battle." + +"And addressing them with her kind words, that almost make the whole +ones regret that they have not been wounded, too." + +"And then she is so beautiful. Oh, so beautiful!" + +"Oh! When she rides through the camp, mounted on her white steed, clad +in her long black robe, her bold face looking out from under her casque, +and yet her eyes shining with so much mildness, and her smile so +motherly! It is like a vision!" + +"It is said for certain that our Victoria knows the future as well as +she knows the present." + +"She must have some charm about her. Who would believe, seeing her, that +she is the mother of a son of twenty-two?" + +"Oh! If the son had only fulfilled the promise that his younger years +gave!" + +"Victorin will always be loved as he has been." + +"Yes, but it is a great pity!" remarked Douarnek shaking his head sadly, +after the other soldiers had thus given vent to their thoughts and +feelings. "Yes, it is a great pity! Oh! Victorin is no longer the child +of the camps that we, old soldiers with grey moustaches, knew as a baby, +rode on our knees, and, down to only recently, looked upon with pride +and friendship!" + +The words of these soldiers struck me with deeper apprehension than +Sampso's words did a few hours before. Not only did I often have to +defend Victorin with the severe Sampso, but I had latterly noticed in +the army a silent feeling of resentment towards my foster-sister's son, +who until then, was the idol of the soldiers. + +"What have you to reproach Victorin with?" I asked Douarnek and his +companions. "Is he not brave among the bravest? Have you not watched his +conduct in war?" + +"Oh! If a battle is on, he fights bravely, as bravely as yourself, +Schanvoch, when you are at his side, on your large bay horse, and more +intent upon defending the son of your foster-sister than upon defending +yourself. '_Your scars would declare it, if they could speak through the +mouths of your wounds_,' as our old proverb says!" + +"I fight as a soldier; Victorin fights as a captain. And has not that +young captain of only twenty-two years already won five great battles +against the Germans and the Franks?" + +"His mother, well named Victoria, must have contributed with her counsel +towards his victories. He confers with her upon his plans of campaign. +But, anyhow, it is true, Victorin is a brave soldier and good captain." + +"And is not his purse open to all, so long as there is anything in it? +Do you know of any invalid who ever vainly applied to him?" + +"Victorin is generous--that also is true." + +"Is he not the friend and comrade of the soldiers? Is he ever haughty?" + +"No, he is a good comrade, and always cheerful. Besides, what should he +be proud about? Are not his father, his glorious mother and himself from +the Gallic plebs, like the rest of us?" + +"Do you not know, Douarnek, that often it happens that the proudest +people are the very ones who have risen from the lowest ranks?" + +"Victorin is not proud!" + +"Does he not, during war, sleep unsheltered with his head upon the +saddle of his horse, like the rest of us horsemen?" + +"Brought up by so virile a mother as his, he was bound to grow up a +rough soldier, as he is." + +"Are you not aware that in council he displays a maturity of judgment +that many men of our age do not possess? In short, is it not his +bravery, his kindness, his good judgment, his rare military qualities as +a soldier and captain that caused him to be acclaimed general by the +army, and one of the two Chiefs of Gaul?" + +"Yes, but in electing him, all of us knew that his mother Victoria would +always be near him, guiding him, instructing him, schooling him in the +art of governing men, without neglecting, worthy matron that she is, to +sew her linen near the cradle of her grandson, as is her thrifty habit." + +"No one knows better than I how precious the advices of Victoria to her +son are to our country. But what is it, then, that has changed? Is she +not always there, watching over Victorin and Gaul that she loves with +equal and paternal devotion? Come, now, Douarnek, answer me with a +soldier's frankness. Whence comes the hostility that, I fear, is ever +spreading and deepening against Victorin, our young and brave general?" + +"Listen, Schanvoch. I am, like yourself, a seasoned soldier. Your +moustache, although younger than mine, begins to show grey streaks. Do +you want to know the truth? Here it is: We are all aware that the life +of the camp does not make people chaste and reserved like young girls +who are brought up by our venerated female druids. We also know, +because we have emptied many a cup, that our Gallic wines throw us into +a merry and riotous humor. We know, furthermore, that when he is in a +garrison, the young soldier who proudly carries a cockade on his casque +and caresses his brown or blonde moustache, does not long preserve the +friendship of fathers who have handsome daughters, or of husbands who +have handsome wives. But, for all that, you will have to admit, +Schanvoch, that a soldier who is habitually intoxicated like a brute, +and takes cowardly advantage of women, would deserve to be treated to a +hundred or more stripes laid on well upon his back, and to be +ignominiously driven from camp. Is not that so?" + +"That is all very true, but what connection has it with Victorin?" + +"Listen, friend Schanvoch, and then answer me. If an obscure soldier +deserves such treatment for his shameful conduct, what should be done to +an army chief who disgraces himself in such fashion?" + +"Do you venture to say that Victorin has offered violence to women and +that he is daily drunk?" I cried indignantly. "I say that you lie, or +those who carried such tales to you lied. So, these are the unworthy +rumors that circulate in the camp against Victorin! And can you be +credulous enough to attach faith to them?" + +"Soldiers are not quite so credulous, friend Schanvoch, but they are +aware of the old Gallic proverb--'The lost sheep are charged to the +shepherd.' Now, for instance, you know Captain Marion, the old +blacksmith?" + +"Yes, I know the brave fellow to be one of the best officers in the +army." + +"The famous Captain Marion, who can carry an ox on his shoulders," put +in one of the soldiers, "and who can knock down the same ox with a blow +of his fist--his arm is as heavy as the iron mace of a butcher." + +"And Captain Marion," added another oarsman, "is a good comrade, for all +that, despite his strength and military renown. He took a simple +soldier, a former fellow blacksmith, for his 'friend in war,' or, as +they used to say in olden times, took the 'pledge of brotherhood' with +him." + +"I am aware of the bravery, modesty, good judgment and austerity of +Captain Marion," I answered him, "but why do you now bring in his name?" + +"Have a little patience, friend Schanvoch, I shall satisfy you in a +minute. Did you see the two Bohemian girls enter Mayence a few days ago +in a wagon drawn by mules covered with tinkling bells and led by a Negro +lad?" + +"I did not see the women, but have heard them mentioned. But I must +insist upon it, what has all this got to do with Victorin?" + +"I have reminded you of the proverb--'The lost sheep are charged to the +shepherd.' It would be idle to attribute habits of drunkenness and +incontinence to Captain Marion, would it not? Despite all his +simpleness, the soldier would not believe a word of such slanders; not +so? While, on the other hand, the soldier would be ready to believe any +story of debauchery about the said Bohemian strollers, and he would +trust the narrator of the tale, do you understand?" + +"I understand you, Douarnek, and I shall be frank in turn. Yes, Victorin +loves wine and indulges in it with some of his companions in arms. Yes, +having been left a widower at the age of twenty, only a few months +after his marriage, Victorin has occasionally yielded to the headlong +impulses of youth. Often did his mother, as well as myself, regret that +he was not endowed with greater austerity in morals, a virtue, however, +that is extremely rare at his age. But, by the anger of the gods! I, who +have never been from Victorin's side since his earliest childhood, deny +that drunkenness is habitual with him; above all I deny that he ever was +base enough to do violence to a woman!" + +"Schanvoch, you defend the son of your foster-sister out of the goodness +of your heart, although you know him to be guilty--unless you really are +ignorant of what you deny--" + +"What am I ignorant of?" + +"An adventure that has raised a great scandal, and that everybody in +camp knows." + +"What adventure?" + +"A short time ago Victorin and several officers of the army went to a +tavern on one of the isles near the border of the Rhine to drink and +make merry. In the evening, being by that time drunk as usual, Victorin +violated the tavern-keeper's wife, who, in her despair, threw herself +into the river and was drowned." + +"The soldier who misdemeaned himself in that manner," remarked one of +the oarsmen, "would speedily have his head cut off by a strict chief." + +"And he would have deserved the punishment," added another oarsman. "As +much as the next man, I would find pleasure in bantering with the +tavern-keeper's wife. But to offer her violence, that is an act of +savagery worthy only of those Frankish butchers, whose priestesses, +veritable devil's cooks, boil their prisoners alive in their caldrons." + +I was so stupefied by the accusation made against Victorin that I +remained silent for a moment. But my voice soon came to me and I cried: + +"Calumny! A calumny as infamous as the act would have been. Who is it +dares accuse Victoria's son of such a crime?" + +"A well informed man," Douarnek answered me. + +"His name! Give me the liar's name!" + +"His name is Morix. He was the secretary of one of Victoria's relatives. +He came to the camp about a month ago to confer upon grave matters." + +"The relative is Tetrik, the Governor of Gascony," I said with increased +stupefaction. "The man is the incarnation of kindness and loyalty; he is +one of Victoria's oldest and most faithful friends." + +"All of which renders the man's testimony all the more reliable." + +"What! He, Tetrik! Did Tetrik confirm what you have just said?" + +"He communicated it to his secretary, and confirmed the occurrence, +while deploring the shocking excesses of Victorin's dissoluteness." + +"Calumny! Tetrik has only words of kindness and esteem for Victoria's +son." + +"Schanvoch, I have served in the army for the last twenty-five years. +Ask my officers whether Douarnek is a liar." + +"I believe you to be sincere; only you have been shamefully imposed +upon." + +"Morix, the secretary of Tetrik, narrated the occurrence not to me only +but to other soldiers in the camp for whose wine he was paying. We all +placed confidence in his words, because more than once did I myself and +several others of my companions see Victorin and his friends heated with +wine and indulging in crazy feats of arms." + +"Does not the ardor of courage heat up young heads as much as wine?" + +"Listen, Schanvoch, I have seen--with my own eyes--Victorin drive his +steed into the Rhine saying that he would cross the river on horseback; +and he would certainly have been drowned had not another soldier and I +rushed into a boat and fished him half drunk out of the water, while the +current carried his horse away. And do you know what Victorin then said +to us? 'You should have let me drink; the white wine of Beziers runs in +this stream.' What I am telling you now is no calumny, Schanvoch, I saw +it with my own eyes, heard it with my own ears." + +Despite my attachment to Victorin I could not but reply to the soldier's +testimony, saying: "I knew him to be incapable of an act of cowardice +and infamy; but I also knew him to be capable of certain acts of +extravagance and hotheadedness." + +"As to myself," replied another soldier, "more than once, as I mounted +guard near Victorin's house which is separated from Victoria's by a +little plot of flowers, have I seen veiled women leave his place at +early dawn. They were of all colors and sizes, blondes and brunettes, +tall and short, some robust and stout, others slender and thin. At +least, that was the impression that the women left upon me, unless the +gloaming deceived my sight, and it was always the same woman." + +"I notice that you are too sincere to make any answer to that, friend +Schanvoch," Douarnek said to me; indeed, I could raise no objection +against the latter accusation. "You must, therefore, not feel surprised +at our trust in the words of Tetrik's secretary. You must admit that the +man who in a drunken fit takes the Rhine for a stream of Bezier's wine, +and from whose house a procession of women is seen to issue in the +morning, is quite capable, in a fit of inebriety, of doing violence to a +tavern-keeper's wife." + +"No!" I cried. "A man may be afflicted with the faults of his years in +an aggravated degree, without therefore being an infamous fellow, a +criminal!" + +"See here, Schanvoch, you are the personal friend of our mother +Victoria. You love Victorin as if he were your own son. Say to him--'The +soldiers, even the grossest and most dissolute among them, do not like +to see their own vices reproduced in the chief whom they have chosen. By +your conduct, the army's affection is daily withdrawn more and more from +you and is centering wholly upon Victoria.'" + +"Yes," I answered thoughtfully, "and the process started since Tetrik, +the Governor of Gascony, the relative and friend of Victoria, made his +last visit to our camp. Until then our young chief was generally +beloved, despite his little foibles." + +"That is true. He is so good, so brave, so kind to all! He sat his horse +so well! He had so bold a military bearing! We loved the young captain +as an own child! We knew him as a babe, and rode him on our knees when +still a little fellow, during the watches in the camp! Later we shut our +eyes to his foibles, because parents are ever indulgent! But there can +be no room for indulgence towards baseness!" + +"And of this baseness," I replied, now more and more forcibly struck by +the circumstance, which, recalling certain incidents to my mind, +awakened a vague suspicion in me, "and of these acts of baseness there +is no evidence other than the word of Tetrik's secretary?" + +"The secretary repeated to us his own master's words." + +During this conversation, to which I lent increasing attention, our +bark, ever moving forward under the vigorous strokes of the four +oarsmen, had traversed the Rhine and reached the opposite shore. The +soldier's backs were turned to the bank on which we were about to land. +I was so wholly absorbed in what I had just learned regarding the army's +increasing disaffection towards Victorin, that I never once thought of +casting my eyes upon the shore to which we were drawing near. Suddenly a +sharp whizz struck our ears. I cried out: "Throw yourselves down flat +upon your benches!" + +It was too late. A volley of long arrows flew over our boat. One of the +oarsmen was instantly killed, while Douarnek, whose back was still +turned to the shore received one of the arrows in the back. + +"This is the way the Franks receive parliamentarians during a truce," +remarked the veteran without dropping his oar, and even without turning +around. "This is the first time I have been hit in the back. An arrow in +the back does not become a soldier. Pull it out quick, comrade," he +added, addressing the oarsman who sat behind him. + +But despite his intrepidity, Douarnek managed his oar with less vigor. +Although the wound that he received was not serious, his face betrayed +the pain that he felt; the blood flowed copiously. + +"I told you so, Schanvoch," he proceeded to say. "I told you that your +foliage of peace would prove a poor rampart against the treachery of the +Frankish barbarians. Fall to, my lads! We must now row all the harder, +seeing we are only three left. Our comrade yonder, who is bumping his +nose against his bench, with his limbs stiffened, can no longer count as +an oarsman!" + +Douarnek had not finished his sentence before I dashed forward to the +prow of the bark, and passing over the corpse of the soldier who lay +dead across his bench seized one of the oak branches and waved it over +my head as a signal of peace. + +A second volley of arrows, that came flying from behind an embankment of +the river, was the only answer to my appeal. One of the missiles grazed +my arm, another broke off its point against my iron casque; but none of +the soldiers was hit. We were then only a short distance from the shore. +I threw myself into the water, swam a little distance, and as soon as my +feet struck ground called out to Douarnek: + +"Pull the bark safely beyond the reach of the arrows and drop anchor, +then wait for me. If I am not back after sunset, return to camp and +inform Victoria that I have either been made prisoner or killed by the +Franks. She will take my wife Ellen and my son Alguen under her +protection." + +"I do not at all like the idea of leaving you alone in the hands of +those barbarians, friend Schanvoch," answered Douarnek; "but to stay +where we can be killed would be to deprive you of all possible means of +return to our camp, should you be lucky enough to escape with your life. +Courage, Schanvoch! We shall await the evening!" + +And the bark pulled away, while I clambered up the embankment. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE HORDES OF THE FRANKS. + + +I had hardly reached the shore, always holding the green oak branch +aloft, when I saw a large number of Franks, belonging to the hordes of +their army, rush forward from behind the rocks where they had lain in +ambush. They carried black bucklers and wore casques made of black +calves' skin. Their arms, legs and faces were dyed black in order to +escape detection when they march in the shadow of the forests or +contemplate an attack in the night. Their appearance was rendered all +the more hideous and strange, seeing that their chiefs were tattooed +with a bright red on their foreheads, their cheeks and around their +eyes. My long sojourn along the Rhine enabled me to speak the Frankish +tongue with sufficient fluency. + +The black warriors emitted savage yells, surrounded me from all sides +and threatened me with their long knives, the blades of which also were +blackened in the fire. + +"A truce has been concluded, several days ago," I cried out to them; "I +have come in the name of the chief of the Gallic army with a message to +the chiefs of your hordes. Lead me to them. You surely will not kill an +unarmed man?" + +Saying this I drew my sword and threw it away. The barbarians +immediately precipitated themselves upon me, redoubling their cries for +my blood. Some of them unwound the cords of their bows, and, despite +all my remonstrances, threw me to the ground and bound me fast. + +"Let us flay him," said one. "We shall carry his skin to the chief +Neroweg, the Terrible Eagle. It will serve him as a bandage to wrap his +legs in." + +I was well aware that the Franks often skinned their enemies alive with +great dexterity, and that the chiefs of their hordes decked themselves +triumphantly with such human spoils. The proposition that I be skinned +alive was received with shouts of approval; those who held me down began +to cast about for a convenient place to perform the operation; others +started to sharpen their knives upon the pebbles. + +At this juncture, the warrior in command of the band approached me. The +man was horrible to behold. A bright red tattoo encircled his eyes and +streaked his cheeks. The marks looked like bleeding wounds, standing off +strongly against his blackened face. His hair, raised after the Frankish +style over his forehead and tied in a knot on top of his head, fell back +like the plume of a helmet over his shoulders, and was of a coppery +yellow, due to the lime-water that those barbarians used in order to +impart a warm bright color to their hair and beard.[1] Around his neck +and his wrists he wore a necklace and bracelets of rough wrought tin. +His raiment consisted of a casque of black calfskin; strips of black +calfskin fastened with criss-cross bandelets, covered his thighs and +lower extremities. A sword and a long knife hung from his belt. After +fixedly looking at me for a moment, he raised his hand and letting it +down on my shoulder said: + +"I shall take and keep this Gaul for Elwig. He is my prisoner." + +Muffled growls from several of the other black warriors greeted these +words of their chief, who, raising his voice, proceeded to say: + +"I, Riowag, will take this Gaul to the priestess Elwig. Elwig needs a +prisoner for her auguries." + +The chief's decision was acquiesced in by the majority of the black +warriors; the growls ceased; and a mob of voices repeated in chorus: + +"Yes, yes; the Gaul must be kept for Elwig!" + +"He must be taken to Elwig!" + +"It is many days since she consulted our tutelary deities!" + +"And we," cried one of the black warriors who had bound me, "we object +to having the prisoner delivered to Elwig. We want to flay him and +present his skin in token of homage to the chief Neroweg, the Terrible +Eagle; he will reward us with some present." + +There is small choice between being skinned alive and being boiled in a +brass caldron. I did not feel called upon to manifest my preferences, +and took no part whatever in the debate. Already those who wished to +flay me cast savage glances at those who insisted that I be boiled, and +carried their hands to their knives, when one of the black warriors +proposed a compromise to the chief: + +"Riowag, do you want to deliver the Gaul to the priestess Elwig?" + +"Yes," answered the chief; "yes, I want to, and it shall be done as I +order!" + +"And the rest of you," proceeded the conciliatory black warrior, "you +wish to offer the Gaul's skin to the chief Neroweg?" + +"That is what we propose to do!" + +"Very well, you can be accommodated, both." + +A profound silence fell all around at these conciliatory words. The +black warrior proceeded: + +"First, flay him alive, you will then have his skin; after that Elwig +will boil his body in her caldron." + +The compromise seemed at first to satisfy both parties, but Riowag, the +captain of the band, objected: + +"Do you not know that Elwig needs a living prisoner to render her +auguries certain? You would be giving her only a corpse if you first +flay the Gaul." + +And he added in a terrific voice: + +"Would you expose yourselves to the anger of the gods of the nether +world by depriving them of a victim?" + +At this threat a shudder ran through the surrounding black warriors, and +the party that demanded my skin seemed about to yield to a superstitious +terror. + +The peacemaker, the warrior who had proposed that I be first flayed and +then boiled, now spoke again: + +"Some of you wish to present the Gaul as an offering to the great +Neroweg, others of you wish to present him to the priestess Elwig. Now +do you not see that to give to the one is to give to the other also? Is +not Elwig Neroweg's sister?" + +"And he would be the first to surrender the Gaul to the gods of the +nether world, in order to render them propitious to our arms!" put in +Riowag. + +The captain of the black warriors pointed thereupon at me, and added +imperiously: + +"Take the Gaul on your shoulders and follow me!" + +"We want to have his spoils," said one of the black warriors who were +the first to seize me. "We want his casque, his cuirass, his blouse, his +belt, his shirt. We want everything, down to his shoes!" + +"The booty belongs to you," answered Riowag. "You will have it so soon +as Elwig will have stripped the Gaul preparatorily to throwing him into +her caldron." + +"We shall go with you, Riowag," replied the black warriors who made the +arrest, "otherwise others than ourselves will take possession of the +plunder from the Gaul." + +My perplexity was now at an end. I knew my fate. I was to be boiled +alive. I would have gladly looked a useful or brave death in the face; +but the death that awaited me seemed so barren and absurd, that I +decided to make one more effort to save my life. Addressing the captain +of the black warriors, I said: + +"Your conduct is unjust. Frankish warriors have often come to the Gallic +camp to solicit an exchange of prisoners. Those Franks have always been +respected. A truce is now in force between us, during a truce only spies +who furtively enter the camp are put to death. I have come in open +daylight, with a green bough in my hand, and in the name of Victorin, +the son of Victoria. I am the carrier of a message from them for the +chiefs of the Frankish army. Take care! If you act without orders from +them, they will be sorry for not having heard me, and they may make you +pay dearly for your treachery towards a soldier, who comes unarmed, +during a truce, and in broad daylight, with the bough of peace in his +hand." + +Riowag's answer to my words was a sign to his band. I was immediately +raised up by four black warriors who placed me on their shoulders and +carried me off in the tracks of their captain, who marched with a solemn +air in the direction of the Frankish camp. + +At the moment when the barbarians raised me on their shoulders, I +overheard one of those who wished to flay me alive say to one of his +companions in a mocking tone: + +"Riowag is Elwig's lover; he wishes to make a present of the prisoner to +his mistress." + +These words enabled me to realize that Riowag, the captain of the band +of black warriors, being the lover of the priestess Elwig, gallantly +made her a present of my person, just as in our country bridegrooms +offer a dove or a sheep to the young girl whom they love. + +You will be astonished, my child, to find in this narrative that I have +used words that sound almost droll in describing events that were so +threatening to my life. Do not imagine that this is due to the +circumstance that at the hour when I write these lines, I had escaped +all danger. No. Even when the danger was most imminent--a danger from +which I was almost miraculously delivered--I had full control of my +spirit, and the old Gallic sense of humor, a thing so natural to our +race, however long it lay torpid under the weight of the shame and the +trials of slavery, revived in me as it did with so many others when we +once more tasted the boon of freedom. The observations that you will +encounter, and which I have reproduced as they occurred to me at times +when death seemed inevitable, were sincere, they proceeded from my faith +in that belief of our fathers that man never dies, that when he leaves +this world he enters others in which he proceeds to live. + +Carried upon the shoulders of the four black warriors, I traversed a +section of the Frankish camp. The vast bivouac which was arranged +without order, consisted of huts for the chiefs and tents for the +soldiers. It was a sort of gigantic village of savages. Here and there +lay their innumerable war chariots sheltered under rude sheds made of +the trunks of trees. Their indefatigable small, lean, rough-coated and +shaggy-maned horses, that they managed with a halter of cord for only +bridle, were, as is the custom with these barbarians, tied to the wheels +of the chariots or to the trunks of trees, the bark of which they gnawed +at. The Franks themselves, barely clad in skins of animals, their hair +and beard greasy with suet, presented an aspect that was repulsive, +stupid and ferocious. Some of them were stretched out at full length in +the warm rays of that sun that they started in search of from the depths +of their dark northern forests. Others found amusement in the hunt for +vermin over their hairy bodies; these barbarians lived in such filth +that, although they were in the open air, their encampment exhaled a +fetid odor. + +At the sight of these undisciplined hordes, ill armed but innumerable, +and whose forces were incessantly recruited by fresh migrations that +poured down in mass from the glacial regions of the north to swoop upon +the fertile and laughing fields of our Gaul as upon a prey, certain +words of sinister omen that escaped the lips of Victoria came to my +mind. Nevertheless supreme contempt speedily filled me for those +barbarians, who, three or four times superior to our own armies in point +of numbers, never had been able, despite many a bloody battle delivered +for a number of years, to invade our soil, but found themselves every +time driven back to the other side of the Rhine, our natural frontier. + +While crossing a section of the encampment on the shoulders of the four +black warriors who carried me, I was pursued by insults, threats and +cries for my blood from the Franks who saw me pass. Several times was +the escort that accompanied me obliged, upon orders from Riowag, to use +their arms in order to prevent my being slain on the spot. + +Thus we arrived at last near a thick wood. I observed in passing a large +and more carefully constructed hut than the others, before which a +yellow and red banner was planted. A large number of horsemen clad in +bearskins, some in the saddle, others on foot near their mounts and +leaning on their long lances, were posted around the habitation, thereby +indicating clearly enough that it was occupied by one of the leading +chiefs of their hordes. Again I sought to persuade Riowag, who now +marched beside me, but still grave, silent and solemn, to conduct me +first to that one of the chiefs whose banner I saw, after which, I said +to him, they might kill me if they so pleased. My requests were vain. We +entered the thick wood, and arrived at a large clearing, to the center +of which I was taken. At a little distance I noticed a natural grotto, +formed of large blocks of grey rock, from between which saplings and +stately chestnut trees shot upwards. A stream of living water that +trickled over the ledges of rock fell into a sort of natural basin. Not +far from the cavern stood a brass pan, rather narrow and of about the +length of a man. The opening or mouth of the infernal caldron was +furnished with a net of iron chains. The latter was undoubtedly meant to +keep the victim, who was thrown in to be boiled alive, from jumping out. +Four large boulders supported the pan, under which a bundle of large +logs of kindling wood lay ready. Human bones, bleached and strewn +hither and thither over the ground, imparted to the spot the appearance +of a charnel house. Finally, in the center of the clearing, rose a +colossal statue; it was surmounted with three heads rudely carved with +axes and adjusted to the enormous tree-trunk that, though shapeless, was +intended to represent a gigantic body. The aspect of the statue was +grotesque and repulsive. + +Riowag made a sign to the four black warriors who carried me to stop and +deposit me at the foot of the statue. He thereupon entered the grotto +alone while the warriors of the escort called out aloud: + +"Elwig! Elwig!" + +"Elwig! Priestess of the underground gods!" + +"Rejoice, Elwig, we bring you a prisoner for your caldron!" + +"You will now be able to prophesy to us!" + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE PRIESTESS ELWIG. + + +I expected to see some hideous old hag; I was mistaken. Elwig was young, +tall and endowed with savage beauty. Her grey eyes, shielded under a +pair of naturally reddish eyebrows of the same color as her hair, +glistened like the steel of the long knife that she was armed with. Her +eagle-beaked nose and high forehead imparted to her an aspect at once +savage and imposing. She was clad in a long tunic of a somber hue. Her +bare neck and arms were heavily laden with copper necklaces and +bracelets, that clinked upon one another as she walked, and upon which +she cast coquettish glances as she approached me. On her thick reddish +hair, that fell upon and parted on both sides of her shoulders, she wore +a scarlet coif that was a ridiculous imitation of the charming headgear +used by the women of Gaul. In short, I thought I noticed in the strange +creature the evidence of that mixture of puerile pride and vanity so +peculiar to barbarous peoples. + +Standing a few paces from her, Riowag seemed to contemplate the +priestess with profound admiration. Despite his black dye and the red +tattoo under which his face disappeared, his features seemed to me to +betoken a violent love, and his eyes sparkled with joy when, twice in +succession, pointing at me, Elwig turned her face to her lover with a +smile upon her lips, in token, no doubt, of thankfulness for the +offering that he brought her. I also noticed on the bare arms of the +infernal priestess two tattoo marks that brought back to my mind some +reminiscences of the war we had been waging with the Franks. + +One of the two marks represented two talons of a bird of prey; the +other, a red serpent. + +With her knife in her hand, Elwig again turned towards me and fastened +her large grey eyes upon me with ferocious satisfaction, while the black +warriors contemplated her with looks of fear and superstition. + +"Woman," I said to the priestess, "I came here unarmed, an oak branch in +my hand, and bearing a message of peace to the grand chiefs of your +hordes.--I was fallen upon and bound fast.--I am in your power--you can +kill me--if such be your pleasure--but before you do, have me presented +to one of your chiefs.--The interview that I request is of as much +importance to the Franks as to the Gauls. It is Victorin himself and his +mother Victoria the Great who have sent me hither." + +"You are sent by Victoria?" cried the priestess with a singular air. +"Victoria, who is said to be so very beautiful?" + +"Yes, I am sent by her who is called the Mother of the Camps." + +Elwig reflected, and after a long silence she raised her hands over her +head, brandished her knife, and pronounced some mysterious words in a +voice that sounded at once threatening and inspired. Thereupon she +motioned to the black warriors to retire. + +They all obeyed, walking slowly back towards the thicket that surrounded +the clearing. + +Only Riowag remained a few steps from the priestess. Turning towards him +she pointed with an imperious gesture towards the wood in which the +other black warriors had disappeared. Seeing that the captain did not +obey her summons, she raised her voice, and again pointed to the wood. + +Riowag then obeyed and left in turn. + +I remained alone with the priestess. I was left bound, lying at the foot +of the statue of the under gods. Elwig squatted down upon her haunches +near me and asked: + +"You were sent by Victoria to speak with the Frankish chiefs?" + +"I said so before." + +"You are one of Victoria's officers?" + +"I am one of her soldiers." + +"Does she cherish you?" + +"She is my foster-sister, I am as a brother to her." + +These words seemed to cause Elwig to reflect anew. She remained silent +for a while, and then resumed: + +"Would Victoria weep over your death?" + +"As one would weep over the death of a faithful servant." + +"She surely would give much to save your life?" + +"Is it ransom you want?" + +Elwig again relapsed into silence, and resumed with a mixture of +embarrassment and cunning that struck me forcibly: + +"Let Victoria come and ask my brother for your life. He will grant it to +her.--But listen, Victoria has a great reputation for beauty; handsome +women love to deck themselves with the Gallic jewelry that is so +celebrated.--Victoria must have superb ornaments, seeing she is the +mother of the chief of your country.--Tell her to cover herself with her +richest jewelry; it will please my brother's eyes.--He will be all the +more gracious, and will grant your life to her." + +I immediately surmised the snare that the priestess of hell was laying +for me with the clumsy cunning natural to barbarians. Wishing to make +certain, I observed without referring to her last words: + +"It seems that your brother is a powerful chief." + +"He is more than a chief," Elwig answered proudly; "he is a king." + +"We also, in the days of our barbarism, had kings. What is your +brother's name?" + +"Neroweg, surnamed the Terrible Eagle." + +"You carry on your arms two figures, one representing a red serpent, the +other the talons of a bird of prey. What do those emblems mean?" + +"The fathers of our fathers in our royal family have always worn these +signs of valor and subtlety. The eagle's talons denote valor; the +serpent subtlety. But let us drop my brother," added Elwig with somber +impatience. My digression seemed to displease her. "Will you induce +Victoria to come here?" + +"One word more on your royal brother.--Does he not carry on his forehead +the identical symbols that you carry on your arms?" + +"Yes," she replied with increasing impatience. "Yes, my brother carries +an eagle's talon over each eye-brow, and the red serpent on a head-band +over his forehead. Kings wear a head-band. But we have spoken enough of +Neroweg--quite enough--" + +I thought I noticed on Elwig's features an ill dissembled sentiment of +hatred when she pronounced his name. She proceeded: + +"If you do not wish to die, write to Victoria to come to our camp +ornamented with her most precious jewels. She shall repair alone to a +place that I shall designate to you--a secluded spot that I know--I +shall come for her and shall lead her to my brother to solicit your life +from him--" + +"Victoria to come alone to this camp?--I have come hither, relying upon +the sacredness of the truce;--I carried the bough of peace in my hand, +and yet one of my companions was killed, another was wounded, and to cap +the climax of treachery, I am delivered to you bound hand and foot to be +put to death--" + +"Victoria may bring a small escort with her." + +"Which would be unquestionably massacred by your men!--The scheme is too +transparent!" + +"You, then, wish to die!" cried the priestess gnashing her teeth in +actual or simulated rage, and threatening me with her knife. "The fire +will be shortly kindled under the caldron.--I shall have you plunged +alive into the magic water, and you shall boil in it until you are +dead.--Once more, and for the last time, make your choice.--Either you +shall die in tortures, or you will write to Victoria to repair to our +camp decked in her richest ornaments!--Choose!" she added with redoubled +fury and again threatening me with her knife. "Choose--or you die!" + +I knew there was no more thievish, covetous or vainglorious race than +this breed of Franks. I noticed that Elwig's large grey eyes glistened +with cupidity every time she mentioned the magnificent ornaments, that, +as she imagined, the Mother of the Camps surely possessed. The +ridiculous accoutrement of the priestess; the profusion of valueless +gewgaws that she wore with a savage woman's coquetry, in order, no +doubt, to appear pleasing to the eye of Riowag, the captain of the black +warriors; above all, her persistence in demanding of me that Victoria +come to the Frankish camp covered with rich jewels;--everything +justified the conclusion that Elwig aimed at drawing my foster-sister +into an ambush in order to slay her and rob her of her jewels. The +clumsy scheme did not do credit to the ingenuity of the priestess of the +nether regions. Nevertheless, her cupidity might be turned to my +service. I answered her in a tone of indifference: + +"Woman, you mean to kill me if I do not induce Victoria to come here? +You are free to kill me--boil my flesh and bones--you will thereby lose +more than you think for, seeing that you are the sister of Neroweg, the +Terrible Eagle, one of the greatest kings of all your hordes!" + +"What would I lose?--" + +"Magnificent Gallic ornaments!" + +"Ornaments!--What ornaments?" cried Elwig doubtfully, although her eyes +snapped with greed. + +"Do you imagine that, in sending her foster-brother to convey a message +to the kings of the Franks, Victoria the Great did not prepare, as a +pledge of truce, rich presents for the wives and sisters who accompany +them, and for those whom they left behind in Germany?" + +Elwig leaped to her feet with one bound, hurled her knife away, clapped +her hands, and emitted loud peals of laughter that sounded like a crazy +woman's transports. Thereupon she crouched down again beside me, and +said in a voice broken with childish breathlessness: + +"Presents? You bring presents with you?--Where are they?" + +"Yes, I bring with me presents fit to dazzle an empress--gold necklaces +studded with carbuncles, ear pendants of pearls and rubies, gold +bracelets, belts and crowns that are so loaded with precious stones +that they glitter in all the colors of the rainbow.--All these +masterpieces of our most skilled Gallic goldsmiths I have brought with +me for presents.--And seeing that your brother Neroweg, the Terrible +Eagle, is the most powerful king of all your hordes, the bulk of all +those riches--those bracelets, those necklaces and other jewels--would +have fallen to you." + +Elwig listened to me open-mouthed, her hands clasped together, without +endeavoring to hide either the admiration or unbridled greed that the +enumeration of such treasures kindled in her breast. Suddenly, however, +her features assumed an expression of mingled doubt and anger. She rose, +ran to her knife, and returning with it in her hands, raised it over me +crying: + +"You either lie, or you are mocking me!--Where are those treasures?" + +"In a safe place.--I foresaw that I might be killed and plundered before +I was able to fulfil the orders of Victoria and her son." + +"Where did you put that treasure in safety?" + +"It remained in the bark that brought me to this side of the river.--My +companions rowed back from the shore and cast anchor beyond the reach of +the arrows of your hordes." + +"We also have barks moored at the other end of the camp. I shall order +your companions to be pursued--I shall have the treasures!" + +"You deceive yourself!--As soon as my companions see the enemy's barks +approach from a distance, they will suspect foul play. Seeing that they +have a long lead, they will be able to regain the opposite shore of the +Rhine without any danger whatever.--Such will be the only fruit of the +treachery practiced by your people upon me.--Come, woman! Have me +boiled for your infernal auguries! Perhaps my bones, bleached in your +caldron, may be transformed into magnificent ornaments!" + +"I want the treasures!" replied Elwig struggling against her lingering +suspicions. "Since you did not carry the jewels about you, when would +you have given them to the kings of our hordes?" + +"When I left the jewels in the bark I expected I would be received as an +envoy of peace, and that as such I would be escorted back to the river +bank. My companions would then have returned to the shore to receive me, +and I would have taken the presents out of the bark and distributed them +among the kings in the name of Victoria and her son." + +The priestess looked upon me for a while with darkling eyes. She seemed +to yield alternately to mistrust and to the promptings of cupidity. +Finally, however, the latter sentiment evidently prevailed. She took a +few steps away, and with a strong voice pronounced the bizarre name of a +person who was not until then upon the scene. + +Almost instantly a hideous old hag with grey hair and clad in a +blood-bespattered robe issued from the cavern. She was, no doubt, the +active priestess at the inhuman sacrifices. She exchanged a few words in +a low voice with Elwig and forthwith vanished in the surrounding wood, +in the direction that the black warriors had followed. + +Again dropping on her haunches beside me, the priestess said in a low +and muffled voice: + +"Since you wish to speak with my brother, King Neroweg, I have sent for +him.--He will soon be here--but you shall not mention a word to him +concerning the jewels." + +"Why keep him in the dark concerning them?" + +"Because he would keep them to himself." + +"What!--He!--Your own brother!--Would he not share the jewels with you, +his sister?" + +A bitter smile contracted Elwig's lips. She resumed: + +"My brother came near cutting off my arm with a blow of his axe a few +weeks ago, simply because I merely wished to touch part of his booty." + +"Is that the way brothers and sisters behave towards one another among +the Franks?" + +"Among the Franks," Elwig answered with a face of deepening rancor, "the +mother, sister and wives of a warrior are his first slaves." + +"His wives!--Has he, then, several?" + +"As many as he can capture and feed--the same as he has as many horses +as he can buy." + +"What! Does not a sacred and eternal union join the husband to the +mother of his children, as with us Gauls?--What! Sisters, wives and +mothers--all are slaves? Blessed of the gods is Gaul, my own country, +where our mothers and wives, venerated by all, proudly take their seat +in the nation's councils and where their advice, often wiser than that +of their husbands and sons, not infrequently prevails." + +Palpitating with cupidity, Elwig made no answer to me, and resumed the +thread of her dominant thoughts. + +"You will, accordingly, not mention the jewels to Neroweg. He would keep +them all for himself. You will wait until it is dark to leave the camp. +I shall accompany you. You will give me the jewels, all the presents--to +me alone!" + +And again bursting into almost insane peals of laughter, she added: + +"Gold bracelets! Necklaces of pearls! Ear pendants studded with rubies! +Diadems full of precious stones! I shall look grand as an empress! Oh, +how beautiful I shall be in the eye of Riowag!" + +Elwig thereupon cast disdainful glances at the copper bracelets that she +rattled as she shook her arms, and repeated: + +"I shall look very beautiful to Riowag!" + +"Woman," I said to her, "your advice is prudent. We shall have to wait +until it is night for us to leave the camp together and regain the river +bank." + +And, to the end of still further enlisting Elwig's confidence in me by +seeming to take an interest in her vainglorious greed, I added: + +"But if your brother sees you decked with such magnificent ornaments, +will he not take them away from you?" + +"No," she promptly answered with a strange and sinister look. "No, he +will not take them!" + +"If Neroweg the Terrible Eagle is of as violent a temperament as you +claim, if he came near cutting off your arm for having wished merely to +touch part of his booty," I suggested, surprised at her answer, and +anxious to fathom her thoughts, "what will prevent your brother from +seizing the jewels?" + +Elwig held up to me her large knife with an expression of calm ferocity +that made me shiver, as she answered: + +"When I shall have the treasure--to-night, I shall enter my brother's +hut--I shall share his bed, as usual--and when he is asleep I shall kill +him--" + +"Your own brother!" I cried with a shudder and hardly believing what I +heard, although the insight that the priestess gave into the shocking +immorality prevalent among the Franks was nothing new to me. "How! You +share your own brother's bed?" + +The priestess seemed no wise disconcerted by my question, and answered +with a somber mien: + +"I have shared my brother's bed since the day that he violated me. It is +the fate of almost all the sisters of the Frankish kings who follow them +in war. Did I not tell you that their wives, their sisters and their +mothers are the first slaves of the warriors? What female slave is there +who, willingly or unwillingly, does not share her master's bed?" + +"Hold your tongue, woman!" I cried interrupting her. "Hold your tongue! +Your monstrous words might draw a thunderbolt upon our heads!" + +And without being able to add another word I contemplated the creature +with horror. Such a mixture of debauchery, greed, barbarism and, withal, +stupid frankness, seeing that Elwig unbosomed herself to me, a man whom +she then saw for the first time in her life, upon her fratricidal +intentions--that fratricide, preceded by incest, which this priestess of +a sanguinary cult was subjected to and who shared her brother's bed +while she at the same time surrendered herself to another man--all that +filled me with horror, notwithstanding I had often heard accounts of the +abominable morals of the barbarians beyond the Rhine. + +Elwig seemed not to concern herself about the cause of my silence nor of +the evident disgust that she filled me with. She mumbled some +unintelligible words, and counted the copper bracelets that her arms +were loaded with. She presently said to me pensively: + +"Do you think I shall have nine fine bracelets studded with precious +stones to replace these? Could they all go into a little bag that I +shall keep concealed under my robe when I return to the hut of the king, +my brother? Why do you not answer my questions?" + +The cold, I should almost say naïve, ferocity of the woman redoubled the +disgust that the monster inspired in me. Again I remained silent, and +she cried aloud: + +"Why do you not answer me? You promised me the jewels!" + +But seeming to be suddenly struck by a new thought she added with +terror: + +"I told him all! Suppose he tells it all again to Neroweg! My brother +would kill us both, me and Riowag! The thought of the treasure bereft me +of my senses!" + +And again she started to call, turning her face towards the cavern. + +A second old hag, no less hideous than the first, hobbled out holding in +her hand the bone of an ox from which hung a partly boiled shred of meat +at which she gnawed with her toothless gums. + +"Come quick to me," the priestess said to her, "and leave your bone +there." + +The old hag obeyed unwillingly, grumbling like a dog whose meat is taken +away from him. She laid the bone on one of the projecting rocks at the +entrance of the grotto, and drew near, wiping her lips. + +"Gather some dry, good branches and roots of trees and kindle a fire +with them under the brass caldron," the priestess said to the old woman. + +The latter returned into the cavern, and brought out all the things that +she was ordered. Soon a bright fire burned under the caldron. + +"Now," Elwig said to the old woman, pointing her finger at me as I lay +stretched out upon the earth at the feet of the statue of the +subterranean deity, with my hands pinioned behind my back and my feet +bound fast, "kneel down upon him." + +I could make not the slightest motion. The old hag planted herself on +her knees upon my breast-plate, and said to the priestess: + +"What must I do next?" + +"Make him put out his tongue." + +I then understood that, carried away at first by her savage greed into +making dangerous confidences to me, Elwig now reproached herself for +having heedlessly mentioned her amours and her fratricidal intentions, +and could think of no better way to compel my silence on these subjects +towards her brother than to cut off my tongue. The project was more +easily conceived than it could be executed. I clenched my teeth with all +my might. + +"Tighten your fingers on his throat!" Elwig commanded the hag. "He will +then open his mouth and stick his tongue out. I shall then cut it off." + +With her knees firmly planted upon my cuirass, the hag leaned forward so +close to me that her hideous face almost touched mine. I shut my eyes +with disgust. Presently I felt the crooked yet nervous fingers of the +priestess' assistant tighten at my throat. For a while I struggled +against suffocation and did not unlock my teeth; but, as Elwig had +foreseen, I soon felt almost smothered and unconsciously opened my +mouth. Elwig immediately thrust in her fingers in order to seize my +tongue. I bit her so savagely that she withdrew her hand screaming with +pain. At that moment I saw the black warriors and Riowag reissue from +the wood whither they had withdrawn at the priestess' orders. Riowag +approached on a run, but he stopped undecided what to do at the sight of +a troop of Franks who arrived from the opposite side and stepped into +the clearing. One of these called out in a hoarse and imperious voice: + +"Elwig! Elwig!" + +"The king, my brother!" gasped the priestess, who was on her knees +beside me. + +It seemed to me that she looked for the knife that she had dropped +during her struggle with me. + +"Fear not! I shall be dumb. You shall have the treasure all for +yourself," I whispered to Elwig, fearing lest, in her terror, the woman +plunge the knife into my throat. I sought to secure her support at all +hazard, and to contrive a means of escape by inciting her cupidity. + +Whether Elwig trusted my word, or whether her brother's presence stayed +her hand, she cast a significant glance at me, and remained on her knees +at my side, with her head drooping upon her chest as if absorbed in +revery. The old hag having risen to her feet, my breast-plate was +relieved of her weight; I could again breathe freely; and I saw the +Terrible Eagle standing before me, escorted by several other Frankish +kings, as the chiefs of those marauding hordes styled themselves. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +NEROWEG THE TERRIBLE EAGLE. + + +The Frankish chief who stood before me was a man of colossal stature. +Due to the use of lime-water, his beard as well as his greasy hair, that +rose in a knot over his forehead, had turned coppery red. His hair, tied +with a leather thong on the top of his head, fell behind his shoulders +like the flowing crest of a casque. Above each of his bushy red eyebrows +I saw an eagle's talon tattooed in blue, while another scarlet tattoo +mark, representing the undulations of a serpent, spanned his forehead. +His left cheek was also ornamented with a red and blue tattoo that +consisted of transverse rays. On his right cheek, however, the savage +ornament disappeared almost wholly in the cavity of a deep scar that +began below the eye and was finally lost under his shaggy beard. Heavy +and coarsely-wrought gold medals, that hung from and distended his ears, +dropped upon his shoulders. A heavy silver chain, wound three times +around his neck, reached down to his semi-bare breast. Above his cloth +tunic he wore a jacket of some animal's hide. His hose, of the same +quality and as soiled as his tunic, were fastened by a leather belt from +which, on one side, hung a long sword, on the other an axe of sharp +stone. Wide strips of tanned skin criss-crossed upward over his hose, +from the ankle to the knees. He leaned upon a short pike that ended in a +sharp point. The other kings who accompanied Neroweg were tattooed, +clad and armed more or less after the same fashion. The features of all +bore the stamp of savage gravity. + +Elwig, who remained on her knees at my side, sought to conceal her face +from Neroweg. He rudely touched his sister's shoulder with the point of +his pike, and addressed her harshly: + +"Why did you send for me before boiling the Gallic dog for your +auguries? My flayers have promised me his skin." + +"The hour is not favorable," answered the priestess abruptly with a +mysterious air. "The hour of night--of dark night is preferable to +sacrifice to the gods of the nether world. The Gaul, moreover, says, oh +mighty king, that he has a message from Victoria and her son." + +Neroweg drew nearer and looked at me. At first his mien was one of +disdainful indifference; presently, however, as he examined me more +attentively, his features assumed an expression of hatred and of +triumphant rage; at last he cried as if he could not believe his own +eyes: + +"It is he! He is the horseman of the bay steed! It is himself!" + +"Do you know him?" Elwig asked her brother. "Do you know this prisoner?" + +"Off with you!" was Neroweg's brusque answer. "Get you gone!" + +He then proceeded to contemplate me with renewed interest and repeated: + +"Yes, it is he; the horseman of the bay steed!" + +"Did you ever meet him in battle?" again asked Elwig. "Answer me. Do +answer me!" + +"Will you be gone!" repeated Neroweg now raising his pike over the head +of the priestess. "I told you before, be gone!" + +My eyes at that moment caught sight of the group of black warriors. I +saw that their captain Riowag could hardly be restrained by his men from +drawing his sword, and revenging the insult offered to Elwig by Neroweg. + +But so far from obeying her brother, and no doubt fearing that in her +absence I might reveal to the Terrible Eagle both her own fratricidal +projects and the secret of Victoria's presents which she coveted, Elwig +cried: + +"No! No! I remain here! The prisoner belongs to me for my auguries. I +shall not go away. I shall keep him--" + +The only answer that Neroweg vouchsafed his sister were several blows +with the handle of his pike, delivered over her back. He thereupon made +a sign, and several of the warriors who accompanied him violently drove +the priestess, together with the haggish old assistant, back into the +cavern at the mouth of which they posted themselves on guard, sword in +hand. + +The black warriors who surrounded Riowag were put to their mettle in +order to prevent their captain from precipitating himself with drawn +sword upon the Terrible Eagle. The latter, thinking only of me, failed +to notice the fury of his rival, and addressed me in a voice trembling +with rage, while he kicked me with his feet: + +"Do you recognize me, dog?" + +"I recognize you, rapacious wolf." + +"This wound," resumed Neroweg carrying his finger to the deep scar that +furrowed his cheek, "do you know who made this wound?" + +"Yes, it is my handiwork. I fought you as a soldier." + +"You lie! You fought me like a coward! You were two against one!" + +"You were making a furious onset on the son of Victoria the Great. He +was wounded--his hand could hardly hold his sword--I dashed to his +help--and struck in Gallic fashion." + +"You marked my face with your Gallic sword--dog!" + +Saying this Neroweg struck me repeatedly with the handle of his pike, to +the great amusement of the other kings. + +I remembered my ancestor Guilhern, chained like a slave and supporting +with dignity the cruel treatment of the Romans after the battle of +Vannes. I emulated his example. I merely said to Neroweg: + +"You are striking an unarmed soldier who is bound fast and who, relying +upon the truce, came to you on an errand of peace--that is a coward's +act. You would not dare to raise your stick at me if I stood on my feet +and sword in hand." + +The Frankish chief laughed, struck me again and said: + +"He is a fool who, able to kill his enemy disarmed, does not exterminate +him. I would like to kill you twice over. You are doubly my enemy. I +hate you because you are a Gaul, I hate you because your race holds +Gaul, the country of sunshine, of good wine and beautiful women; then +also I hate you because you marked my face with a wound that is my +eternal shame. I shall therefore make you suffer so much that your pain +will be equal to two deaths, a thousand deaths, if I only could--you +Gallic dog!" + +"The Gallic dog is a noble animal for war and for the hunt," I replied +to him; "the Frankish wolf, however, is an animal of rapine and carnage. +But it will not be long before the brave Gallic dogs will have chased +from their frontiers this pack of voracious wolves that have come +prowling from the northern forests. Be careful! If you refuse to listen +to the message that I have for you from Victoria and her valiant son--be +careful! Our army is numerous. It will be a war to the death that will +be waged between the Gallic dog and the Frankish wolf--a war of +extermination--and the Frankish wolf will be devoured by the Gallic +dog." + +Grinding his teeth with rage, Neroweg seized the axe that hung from his +belt, and raising it in both hands was about to let it come crashing +down upon my head. I believed my last hour had come, but two of the +other kings held the arm of Elwig's brother, into whose ears they +whispered a few words that seemed to calm him. He held a short +conference with his companions and returned to me: + +"What is the message that you bring from Victoria for the Frankish +kings?" + +"The messenger of Victorin and Victoria can only speak on his feet, +unfettered, his head high--not stretched down on the ground, and bound +fast like the ox that expects the butcher's knife. Order my bonds to be +removed, and I shall speak--if not, not. You have heard me, brute that +you are!" + +"Speak on the spot--unconditionally, you Gallic dog!--or tremble before +my anger!" + +"No; I shall not speak!" + +"I shall know how to make you speak!" + +"Try it! You will find me unshakeable!" + +Neroweg ordered one of the other kings to fetch a firebrand from under +the brass caldron. I was held down by the shoulders and feet, so as to +prevent me from making the slightest motion, while the Terrible Eagle +placed the firebrand upon my iron cuirass and heaped up others about it. +The brasier that he thus built upon my body seemed to amuse him greatly. +He laughed out aloud and said to me: + +"You shall speak, or be broiled like a tortoise in its shell." + +The iron of my cuirass soon began to heat under the coals which two of +the Frankish kings kept alive by blowing upon them. I suffered greatly +and cried: + +"Oh! Neroweg! Neroweg! Cowardly assassin! I would gladly endure these +tortures, if I only could see myself once more sword in hand before you, +and put my mark upon your other cheek. Oh! You have said it--there is +room only for hatred and death between our two races!" + +"What is Victoria's message?" the Terrible Eagle asked again. + +I remained silent, despite the intense pain that I suffered. The iron of +my cuirass was growing hot all around. + +"Will you speak?" the Frankish chief cried anew, evidently astonished at +my resistance. + +"Victoria's messenger speaks erect and free," I answered. "If not, not!" + +Whether the Frankish chief considered it desirable to know the message +that I brought, or whether he only yielded to the suggestions of his +companions, who were less ferocious than himself, one of them unbuckled +my casque, raised it off my head, took it to the stream that rippled +down the rocks at the mouth of the cavern, filled it and poured the cold +water upon my heated cuirass. By degrees it cooled off. + +"Free him of his bonds," said Neroweg, "but surround him; and let him +instantly fall under your blows should he try to escape." + +I slowly regained my strength while I was being unbound; the torture I +had just undergone almost caused me to faint. I drank some of the water +that remained in my casque, and stood up in the midst of the kings, who +surrounded me so as to cut off my retreat. + +"Give us now your message," said Neroweg. + +"A truce has been concluded between our two armies," I proceeded. +"Victoria and her son send to tell you: Since you issued from your +northern forests you have taken possession of the whole territory of +Germany on the right bank of the Rhine. That soil is as fertile as +Gaul's. Before your invasion it produced an abundance of everything. +Your acts of violence and cruelty have driven almost all its inhabitants +to flight. The soil, nevertheless, remains, ready and willing for the +husbandman. Why do you not cultivate it, instead of waging incessant war +against us and living on rapine? Is it the love for war that sways you? +We Gauls, better than anyone else, understand and appreciate the love +for martial display. We appreciate it, and make this proposition to you. +At each new moon, send one or two thousand of your picked warriors to +one of the large islands in the Rhine, which is our joint frontier. We +shall expedite thither an equal number of our warriors. The two sets +will be free to fight it out at their heart's content. But then, at +least, you Franks, on one side of the river, and we Gauls on the other +shall be able to cultivate our respective fields in peace, we shall be +able to work, to manufacture and to enrich our countries, without being +forever compelled to keep an eye upon the frontier, and a sword hanging +from the plow handle. If you refuse our proposition we shall then wage a +war of extermination against you, drive you from our frontiers, and +chase you back into your forests. When two nations are separated only by +a river they should be friends, or one of the two must destroy the +other. Choose! I await your answer." + +Neroweg consulted with several of the kings who stood near him, and +presently answered me with marked insolence: + +"The Frank is not one of those races, like the Gallic, who work by +cultivating the soil. The Frank loves war; but above all he loves the +warmth of the sun, good wine, fine weapons, brilliant clothes, gold and +silver goblets, rich necklaces, large and well built cities, superb +palaces after the fashion of the Romans, the beautiful Gallic women, +industrious slaves who mind the whip and work for their masters while +these drink, sing, sleep and make love or war. In their gloomy country +of the north, however, the Franks find neither sunshine nor good wine, +nor fine weapons, nor brilliant clothes, nor gold and silver goblets, +nor large and well built cities, nor superb palaces, nor beautiful +Gallic women--all these things are to be found among you, Gallic dogs! +We purpose and mean to take all that from you--we purpose and mean to +establish ourselves in your fertile country, and enjoy all the good +things that it contains, while the males of you will work for us under +the whip and the sharp sword that we shall hold over you, and the +females--your wives, sisters and daughters--will lie in our beds, will +weave our shirts and will wash our clothes. Do you understand, Gallic +dog?" + +The other kings applauded Neroweg and accentuated their approval with +loud laughter and clatter of arms, joined to cries of: + +"Yes--that is what we want--do you understand, Gallic dog?" + +"I understand," I replied, unable to refrain from indulging in raillery +against such savage insolence. "I understand that you wish to conquer +and subjugate us as did the Romans for a time, after our own race +dominated and conquered the whole world for centuries in succession. But +you who so much love the sunshine, the goods, the country and the women +of other peoples, you seem to forget that, despite the universal power +that they acquired and despite their innumerable armies, even the Romans +were compelled to return to us one by one the rights that we enjoyed, so +that, at this hour, the Romans are no longer our conquerors, but our +allies. Now, then, seeing that you so much love the sunshine, the +country, the goods and wives of others, listen to my words: We, the +Gauls, alone and unaided by the Romans, will chase you from our +frontiers, or we shall exterminate you to the last man if you persist in +being bad neighbors and in proposing to plunder us of our old Gaul." + +"Yes, we are plunderers!" cried Neroweg. "And, by the snows of Germany +we shall plunder you of your old Gaul! Our army is four times as large +as yours; you have your palaces, your cities, your wealth, your women, +your sun, your fertile earth to defend--we have nothing to defend and +everything to gain. We camp in our huts and sleep on the backs of our +horses; our only wealth is our sword; we have nothing to lose, +everything to gain. And we will gain everything, and we will subjugate +your race, you Gallic dog! It will be the end of Gaul!" + +"Go and ask the Romans, whose army was even larger than yours, how many +foreign cohorts the sod of old Gaul has devoured! Even the greatest +battles that they, the conquerors of the world delivered, did not cost +them one-quarter the number of soldiers that our fathers, as insurgent +slaves, exterminated with their scythes and forks. Take care! Strong and +sharp is the sword of the Gallic soldier; trenchant is the scythe, heavy +the fork of the Gallic husbandman in the defense of hearth, family and +freedom! Take care! If you persist in remaining bad neighbors, the +Gallic scythe and fork will be enough to drive you back into your +snow-bound wilderness, ye people of sloth, of rapine and of carnage, who +desire to enjoy the fruits of the labors of others, who covet their +soil, their wives and their sunshine, and strive after these by means of +theft and massacre!" + +"Dare you, Gallic dog, hold such language to us!" cried Neroweg grinding +his teeth. "You, a prisoner! You, under the points of our swords! under +the edge of the Frankish battle axe!" + +"The moment seems to me opportune to say the truth to the enemies of +Gaul!" + +"And I think the moment is opportune to put you through a thousand +deaths!" cried the Frankish king in a passion as towering as that of his +fellows. "Yes, you shall undergo a thousand deaths--and after that, my +sole answer to the audacious message of your Victoria will be to return +your head to her with the announcement in the name of Neroweg the +Terrible Eagle, that, before the sun shall have risen six times, I shall +capture herself in the midst of her own camp, shall take her to my bed, +and shall then pass her over to my men, that they may, in turn, enjoy +Victoria, the proud Gallic woman!" + +I lost all control over myself at the ribald and ferocious insolence +flung at the woman whom I venerated above all others. I was unarmed, but +I picked up one of the now extinguished firebrands that lay at my feet +and which the Franks had used to torture me with; I seized the heavy +log, and swift as lightning struck Neroweg so sound a blow with it over +his head that he reeled back, stumbled and fell to the ground +unconscious. + +Ten swords struck me almost simultaneously. But my casque and cuirass +protected me. In their blind rage the Frankish chiefs struck at random, +and cried: + +"Death! Death to the dog of a Gaul!" + +Only Riowag, the captain of the black warriors, did not join in the +attempt to avenge upon my person the blow I dealt to his rival, Neroweg. +On the contrary, he profited by the tumult to enter the cavern into +which Elwig had been driven back, the entrance of which was now left +free, seeing that the two kings, who, sword in hand, mounted guard +before it, rushed to the assistance of the Terrible Eagle, who lay +prostrate at a distance from them. + +Immediately after Riowag entered the grotto, the priestess and her two +assistant hags rushed out. With streaming hair, haggard looks, and hands +raised heavenward they cried: + +"The hour has come--the sun is setting--night approaches--death, death +to the Gaul! He struck the Terrible Eagle--death, death to the Gaul! +Bind him fast. We shall consult the subterranean gods in the magic water +in which he is to boil!" + +"Yes--death!" cried the Franks rushing upon me and binding me fast +again. "He shall die under a prolonged agony! Death to the dog of a +Gaul!" + +"We are the priestesses of the sacrifice!" Elwig and the two hags +protested in chorus, while they redoubled their bizarre contortions that +by degrees imposed the Frankish warriors with terror. + +"Oh! you who struck my brother, the blood of my blood," Elwig screamed, +writhing her arms, and howling furiously she threw herself upon me in a +real or feigned transport of rage; "the gods of the nether world have +delivered you into my hands! Come--come--let us drag him into the +cavern," she added addressing the old hags, "we must season him for his +death with the proper tortures. Vengeance! Let our vengeance be +merciless!" + +The confusion into which the Franks were thrown by the blow that I dealt +Neroweg kept them from interfering with Elwig and her two female +assistants. Several of the kings even joined her in dragging me into the +cavern, while the others were hurrying hither and thither or gathered +anxiously around the Terrible Eagle who lay prone upon the ground, pale, +motionless and his head bleeding. + +"Our grand chief is not dead," said some; "his hands are warm and his +heart beats." + +"Let us transport him to his hut." + +"If he die we shall draw lots for his five black horses, his fine Gallic +sword with the gold handle, and also for his necklace and silver +bracelets." + +"The horses and arms of Neroweg belong to the oldest chief!" cried one +of those who were holding up the head of the Terrible Eagle. "I am the +oldest. To me belong both horses and arms! To me also his tent and +chariots! To me his gold necklaces and silver bracelets!" + +"You lie!" came from one of the chiefs at the feet of Neroweg. "His +horses, his tent and his arms belong to me as his war companion." + +"No!" cried the others. "No! Everything that belongs to Neroweg must be +drawn lots for." + +From the threshold of the cavern where I then was, I could see and hear +the dispute wax hot and the swords glisten, while Neroweg, who still +remained unconscious, was almost trampled under the feet of the enraged +disputants, as they leaped over his body to get at closer quarters with +one another. The conflict threatened to take a bloody turn when, leaving +me where I was, Elwig threw herself between the combatants, whom she +sought to separate, and shouted aloud: + +"Shame and ill luck to those who contend over the spoils of a king who +is neither dead nor revenged! Shame and ill luck to those who contend +over the spoils of a brother before the very eyes of his sister! Shame +and ill luck to the impious men who disturb the quiet of a place that is +consecrated to the gods of the nether world!" + +And with an inspired and dreadful mien, the priestess drew herself to +her full length, and throwing up her clenched fists above her head, +cried: + +"My two hands are full of fearful misfortunes. Tremble!" + +At these threats, the frightened barbarians involuntarily lowered their +heads, as if afraid of being struck with the mysterious ills that the +priestess held in her closed hands. They put their swords back into +their scabbards. Profound silence ensued. + +"Carry the Terrible Eagle to his hut!" Elwig thereupon commanded. "The +sister will accompany her wounded brother. The Gallic prisoner will be +watched by Map and Mob who assist me at the sacrifices. Two of you will +remain at the mouth of the cavern, with your swords in your hands. Night +is drawing near. Elwig will presently return with Neroweg. The execution +of the prisoner will then begin, and I shall consult the auguries in the +magic waters in which he is to boil until death supervenes!" + +My last hope was dashed. In contemplating to return with her brother, +Elwig must have doubtlessly renounced the project that her greed had +caused her to hatch. I had pinned my safety on that project. I was +bound firmly, hands and feet. My arms were pinioned behind my back; a +belt was strapped around my legs. I could hardly move a step. I slowly +followed the two hags into the grotto, at the entrance of which several +of the kings posted themselves, sword in hand. The deeper I penetrated +the cave, all the darker it grew. After having proceeded a little way, +one of the two hags said to me: + +"You may lie down on the ground if you wish; the sun has gone down. +While waiting for Elwig's return, my companion and I shall keep the fire +alive under the caldron." + +Saying this both the hags left me. I remained alone. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE FLIGHT. + + +From the solitude and darkness in which I was left at the departure of +Elwig's sacrificial assistants, I could see the mouth of the cavern at +some distance. The opening grew darker and darker as dusk yielded to +night. Presently the gloom became complete, relieved only, from time to +time, by the flickering light that the flames of the fire, kept alive +under the huge brass caldron by the two hags, occasionally cast upon the +grotto's mouth. + +I tried to snap my bonds. With my hands and feet free, I would have +endeavored to disarm one of the Franks who guarded the issue, and, sword +in hand, and protected by the darkness of the night, I would have +reached the river bank guided by the sound of the rushing waves. Perhaps +and notwithstanding the orders I gave him, Douarnek might not yet have +rowed back to camp. But all my efforts proved futile against the +bow-strings and the belt that held me fast. A muffled but increasing +rumbling of feet and voices began to announce to me the arrival and +assembling of a large number of people in the neighborhood of the cave. +They must he doubtlessly gathering to witness my execution and listen to +the auguries of the priestess. + +I believed there was nothing left to me but to resign myself to my fate. +I turned my last thoughts to my wife and child. + +Suddenly, from the thickest of the surrounding darkness I heard the +voice of Elwig two steps behind me. I started with surprise. I was +certain she did not enter by the mouth of the cavern. + +"Follow me," she said. + +At the same moment her feverish hand seized mine and held it firmly. + +"How came you here?" I asked her stupefied, with hope re-rising in my +breast, and endeavoring to walk. + +"The cavern has two issues," Elwig answered. "One of them is secret and +known to me only. It is by that entrance that I came in, while the kings +are waiting for me at the other entrance near the caldron. Come! Come! +Take me to the bark where the treasure lies, where you left the +necklaces, bracelets, diadems and other jewels!" + +"My legs are tied," I said. "I can hardly put one foot before the +other." + +Elwig did not answer, but I could feel that she was cutting with her +knife the leather strap and the bow-strings that bound my arms and legs. +I was free! + +"And your brother," I inquired, following close upon her footsteps, "has +he regained consciousness?" + +"Neroweg is still dazed, like a bull whom the butcher did not kill +outright. He awaits in his hut the hour of your execution. I am to +notify him in time. He wishes to see you suffer and die. Come, come!" + +"The darkness is so intense that I can not see before me." + +"Give me your hand." + +"Should your brother tire of waiting," I observed as she almost dragged +me along through the windings of the secret issue, "and should he enter +the sacred wood with the other chieftains and not find either you or me +in the cavern, what will happen? Will they not immediately start in +pursuit of us?" + +"Only I know this secret issue. When they miss both you and me from the +cave, my brother and the chiefs will believe that I made you descend to +the gods of the nether world. They will be all the more afraid of me. +Come! Come quick!" + +While Elwig thus spoke I was following her through so narrow a passage +that I felt myself grazing the rocks on either side. The passage seemed +at first to dip down towards the bowels of the earth, but presently its +ascent became so steep and difficult for my legs, still numb from their +recent ligatures, that it was with difficulty I kept step with the +hurrying priestess. We had been for some time in the maze of the +underground cave when at last I felt the fresh air strike my face. I +imagined we were about to step into the open. + +"To-night, after I shall have killed my brother in revenge for his +outrages upon me," Elwig explained to me in abrupt words, "I shall flee +with a king whom I love. He is waiting for us outside. He is strong, +brave and well armed. He will accompany us to your bark. If you deceived +me, Riowag will kill you--do you hear me, Gaul? You will fall under his +axe." + +I was little affected by the threat--my hands were free--my only +uneasiness was whether Douarnek and the bark still waited for me. + +A moment later we issued out of the cavern. The stars shone so brilliant +in the sky that once out of the wood in which we still were, I was +certain I would be able to see my way before me. + +The priestess stopped for a moment and called: + +"Riowag!" + +"Riowag is here," answered a voice so close to me that I realized the +chief of the black warriors was near enough to be able to touch me. +Nevertheless, it was in vain that I sought to distinguish his black +shape in the dark. It became clearer to me than ever before how, by +rendering themselves undistinguishable in the dark, these men could not +choose but be dangerous foes in a night assault or ambuscade. + +"Is it far from here to the river bank?" I asked Riowag. "You must know +the spot where I landed; you were the chief of the band that greeted me +with a volley of arrows." + +"No, we have not far to go," Riowag answered. + +"Shall we have to cross the camp?" I inquired, perceiving the lights of +the Frankish encampment at a little distance. + +Neither of my two guides made any answer. They exchanged a few words in +a low voice, each took me by an arm, and they struck into a path that +led away from the camp. Soon the roar of the rushing waters of the Rhine +reached our ears. We drew rapidly near the shore. Finally from the +height of the embankment on which we stood, I could distinguish a bluish +sheet of water across the darkness--it was the river! + +"We shall now ascend the beach about two hundred feet," said Riowag; "we +shall then be at the spot where you reached land under our arrows. Your +bark must be only a little distance from there. If you deceived us your +blood will redden the beach, and the waters of the Rhine will wash away +your corpse." + +"Can we call out from the bank without being heard by the outposts of +the camp?" I asked the Frank. + +"The wind blows off shore," Riowag answered with the sagacity of a +savage. "You can freely raise your voice and call; you will not be heard +at the camp, and your voice will surely travel to the middle of the +stream." + +Riowag walked a few steps further and then stopped. + +"It is here," he said, "where you reached land; your bark must be +anchored near by. I am a professional night warrior, and am able to see +through the dark, but I can not distinguish your bark." + +"Oh! You deceived us! You deceived us!" murmured Elwig in a subdued +voice. "You will die for it!" + +"It may be," I observed, "that, after having waited for me in vain, the +bark may have just left its anchorage. The wind will carry my voice far; +I shall call." + +Saying this I raised our battle cry of rally, well known to Douarnek. + +Only the sound of the waves made answer. + +Doubtlessly Douarnek had followed my orders and rowed back to camp at +sunset. + +I uttered our war cry a second time and louder than the first. + +Again the only response was the rushing of the waves. + +Meaning to gain time and prepare myself for defense, I said to Elwig: +"The wind blows off shore; it carries my voice to the river; but it +blows back the voices that may have answered my signal. Let us listen!" + +While I spoke I strained my eyes to peer through the dark and discover +the weapons that Riowag was armed with. In his belt he carried a dagger; +in his hand his short, broad sword. Although he and his beloved were +close to me, one on each side, I could elude them with a bound, plunge +into the river, and escape by swimming. I was watching for my +opportunity when suddenly the distant and rhythmic sound of oars reached +my ears. My call was heard by Douarnek. + +In the measure that the decisive instant approached, the suspense and +uneasiness of Elwig and her companion increased. To kill me would be to +renounce the possession of the treasure, which, I had clearly told them, +my soldiers would deliver only at my orders. But again, to allow the +latter to disembark would be to furnish me with auxiliaries and render +mine the stronger side. Elwig no doubt began to realize that her greed +had carried her too far. Seeing the bark draw nearer she said to me in +great excitement: + +"The sacredness of the Gallic word is proverbial. You owe your life to +me. I hope you did not deceive me with a false promise." + +That priestess of the nether world, the incestuous and blood-thirsty +monster, who had meant to cut out my tongue in order to make sure of my +silence, and who calmly contemplated adding fratricide to her other +crimes, had saved my life moved thereto only by base greed. +Nevertheless, I could not remain insensible to her appeal to Gallic +faith. I almost regretted the lie I had uttered, however excusable it +might be in view of the treachery that the Frankish warriors had +practiced towards me. At that critical moment I was, however, bound to +consider my own safety only. I jumped at Riowag, and after a violent +struggle in which Elwig did not venture to take a hand, out of fear that +she might wound her lover while seeking to strike me, I succeeded in +disarming the warrior. Soon as that was done I threw myself into a +posture of defense with the sword in my hand and cried: + +"No, I have no treasure for you, Elwig, but if you fear to return to +your brother, follow me. Victoria will treat you kindly; you will not be +a prisoner; I give you my word; you may rely upon the faith of a Gaul." + +Both the priestess and Riowag refused to listen; breaking out into wild +imprecations they made a furious rush at me. In the tussle that ensued I +killed the black warrior at the moment when he sought to stab me with +his dagger, and I was wounded in the hand in the attempt to wrench the +knife from Elwig's grasp. I had just succeeded and thrown the weapon +into the water when, attracted by the noise of the struggle, Douarnek +and one of the soldiers leaped upon the shore to hasten to my help. + +"Schanvoch," Douarnek said quickly to me, "we did not follow your orders +and row back at sunset. We remained at our anchorage, resolved to wait +for you until morning. But thinking that you might issue at some other +spot than where you landed, we rowed up and down along the shore. When +we saw you this morning surrounded by those black devils, our first +impulse was to row straight to the bank and suffer death beside you. But +I recalled your orders, and we considered that for us to be killed was +to cut off your retreat. But here you are, hale and sound. Now take my +advice and let us return quickly to camp. These skinners of human bodies +are ill neighbors to dwell among." + +While Douarnek was speaking to me, Elwig threw herself upon the corpse +of Riowag and rent the air with roars of rage interspersed with sobs. +However detestable the creature was, her paroxysm of grief touched my +heart. I was about to address her when Douarnek cried: + +"Schanvoch, look at the torches approaching yonder!" + +Saying this Douarnek pointed in the direction of the Frankish camp. +Luminous streaks were seen rapidly approaching through the dark. + +"Your flight has been discovered, Elwig," I said to her, and sought to +tear her from her lover's corpse, which she held clasped in a close +embrace and over which she moaned piteously. "Your brother has started +in your pursuit--you have not a minute to lose--come!--come!--or you are +lost!" + +"Schanvoch," Douarnek said to me as I vainly sought to drag away Elwig, +who seemed not to hear me and sobbed aloud, "the torches are carried by +armed horsemen! Listen to the clanging of their weapons! Listen to the +tramp of their horses! They cannot be further than six bow shots! I +beached the bark in order to reach you all the quicker! We shall have +barely time to put it afloat! Would you have us all killed? If that is +your purpose, say so, and we shall die like brave men; but if you mean +to flee, it is high time that you move!" + +"It is your brother! It is death that is approaching!" I once more cried +to Elwig, whom I could not bring myself to abandon without one more +effort to save her. After all, she did save my life. A minute later and +she would be lost. + +Seeing, however, that the priestess did not answer me, I cried to +Douarnek: + +"Give me a hand--let us take her away by force!" + +It was impossible to tear Elwig from the corpse of Riowag; she held it +in a convulsive embrace; the only alternative left was to carry off +both bodies. We tried it, but soon gave up the attempt. + +In the meantime the Frankish horsemen were approaching so rapidly that +the light of their resinous torches projected itself as far as the +beach. It was too late to save Elwig. Our bark was with difficulty +pushed off; I took the rudder; Douarnek and the two remaining soldiers +bent vigorously to their oars. + +We were still within easy bowshot from the shore when, by the light of +the torches that the troops carried, we saw the first hurrying Frankish +horsemen ride up. At their head I recognized Neroweg, the Terrible +Eagle, distinguishable by his colossal stature. He was closely followed +by several other horsemen, all shouting with concentrated rage. Neroweg +drove his horse up to the animal's neck into the river. His companions +did the same, while they brandished their long lances with one hand and +with the other their torches, whose ruddy reflections lighted far the +waters of the river and fell upon our swiftly speeding bark. + +Seated near the rudder, my back was turned to the bank and I remarked +sadly to Douarnek: + +"The miserable creature is killed by this time." + +And propelled by the three vigorous oarsmen, our bark shot through the +water. + +"Is that a man, a woman, or a demon that is following us?" cried +Douarnek a moment later, dropping his oar and rising on his feet in +order to look at the track that our bark left behind, and that was +lighted by the glimmer of the distant torches that the Frankish horsemen +continued to brandish even after they gave up the pursuit. + +I also rose to my feet and looked in the same direction. A second later +I cried: + +"Stop! Do not row! It is she! It is Elwig! Douarnek, hand me an oar! I +shall reach it to her! She seems to be exhausted!" + +So said, so done. Fleeing from her brother and certain death, the +priestess had thrown herself into the water and must have swam after us +with extraordinary vigor. She seized the extremity of the oar with a +convulsive grasp; two strokes of the oars backed the bark to her; and +aided by one of the soldiers I was able to draw Elwig on board. + +"Blessed be the gods!" I cried. "I would always have reproached myself +for your death." + +The priestess made no answer; she let herself down on the bench of one +of the oarsmen, and shrinking into a heap with her face between her +knees, remained ominously silent. The oarsmen rowed vigorously on, and +from time to time I looked back at the receding river bank. The torches +of the Frankish horsemen glimmered fitfully, luminous spots through the +haze of the night and the vapors that rose from the river. The end of +our passage drew near; we began to distinguish the lights of our own +encampment on the opposite bank. Several times I addressed Elwig, but +received no answer. I threw over her shoulders and her clothes, wet with +the chilly waters of the Rhine, the thick night cloak of one of the +soldiers. In doing this I touched one of her arms; it was feverishly +warm. A stranger to all that happened in the bark, the woman did not +emerge from her savage silence. As I jumped ashore I said to Neroweg's +sister: + +"I shall take you to-morrow to Victoria. Until then I tender you the +hospitality of my house. My wife and her sister will treat you like a +friend." + +She made me a sign to lead the way, and she followed. Douarnek then +approached me and said in a low voice: + +"If you take my advice, Schanvoch, after the she-devil, who I know not +for what reason swam after you, has dried and warmed herself at your +hearth, you will lock her up safely until morning. She might otherwise +strangle your wife and child during the night. There is nothing more +wily and ferocious than these Frankish women." + +"It will be a wise precaution to take," I answered Douarnek. + +And accompanied by Elwig, who, somber and silent, followed me like a +specter, I proceeded homeward. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +SHADOWS ACROSS THE PATH. + + +The night was far advanced. I had reached within a few steps from my +house when I saw through the dark a man crouching on the sill of one of +the windows. He seemed to be peeping through the shutters. I gave a +start. It was the window of my wife's room. + +I seized Elwig's arm and said to her in a low voice: + +"Do not budge--wait--" + +She stopped and stood motionless. Controlling my emotion I advanced +cautiously, seeking to avoid making the sand crunch under my feet. I +failed. My steps were heard; the man jumped down from the window sill +and fled. I rushed after him. Thinking that I meant to leave her in the +lurch, Elwig ran after me, overtook me and seized me by the arm, crying +with terror: + +"If I am found alone in the Gallic camp I shall be killed!" + +Despite all I could do, I could not disengage myself of Elwig's hold +until after the man had vanished from sight. He had too long a lead and +the night was too dark for me to endeavor to catch him. Surprised and +uneasy at the incident, I retraced my steps, and knocked at the door of +my house. + +I could hear from within the voices of my wife and her sister, who +seemed uneasy at my prolonged absence. Although they knew not that I +had gone to the Frankish camp, they had not yet retired. + +"It is I!" I cried to them. "It is I, Schanvoch!" + +The door was no sooner opened than my wife, seeing me by the light that +Sampso held in her hand, threw herself into my arms, saying in a tone of +sweet and tender reproach: + +"At last you are back! We began to feel alarmed about you, seeing you +were gone since early morning." + +"And we, who counted upon you for our little feast," put in Sampso; "but +I suppose you met with old comrades in arms, and time passed quickly in +their company." + +"Yes, I suppose the conversation was strung out over battles," added +Ellen still hanging on my neck, "and my dear Schanvoch forgot his wife, +just a little--" + +Ellen was interrupted by a cry from Sampso. She did not at first notice +Elwig, who had remained in shadow near the door. At the sight, however, +of the savage creature--pale, sinister and motionless--my wife's sister +could not repress her surprise and involuntary fear. Ellen quickly +stepped back, noticed the presence of the priestess, and gazing at me as +much surprised as her sister, said: + +"Schanvoch, who is that woman?" + +"Why, sister," cried Sampso forgetting the presence of Elwig and looking +at me more closely, "look, the sleeves of Schanvoch's blouse are red +with blood--he is wounded!" + +My wife grew pale, stepped quickly back to me and anxiously scanned my +face. + +"Calm yourself," I answered; "my wounds are slight. I concealed from you +both the mission on which I was bound. I went to the camp of the Franks, +our savage foes. I carried a message from Victoria." + +"To the camp of the Franks!" Ellen and Sampso cried terrified. "That +meant death!" + +"And this is the being who saved my life," I said to my wife, pointing +at Elwig, who stood motionless at the door. "I must bespeak the +attention of you both in her behalf until to-morrow." + +When they learned that I owed my life to the Frankish woman my wife and +her sister hastened toward Elwig, moved by a simultaneous impulse of +gratitude; but they almost immediately stopped short, intimidated and +even frightened by the sinister and impassive countenance of Elwig, the +priestess, who seemed not to see them, and whose mind probably hovered +over scenes far away. + +"Give her some dry clothes, those that she has on are wet," I said to my +wife and her sister. "She does not understand Gallic; your thanks will +be lost upon her." + +"Had she not saved your life," Ellen said to me, "I would think the +woman's face looks somber and threatening." + +"She is a savage like the rest of her people. Get her some dry clothes, +and I shall take her to the little side room, where I shall lock her up +as a matter of precaution." + +Sampso went into a contiguous room to fetch a tunic and mantle for +Elwig, while I said to my wife: + +"Did you hear any noise at the window of your room to-night, shortly +before I came in?" + +"None whatever--neither did Sampso; she did not leave me since evening; +we both felt uneasy at your absence. But why do you ask?" + +I did not then answer my wife, seeing that Sampso at that moment +returned with the clothes that she had gone after. I took them, passed +them over to Elwig and said to her: + +"My wife and her sister offer you these clothes. Yours are wet. Is there +anything else that you wish? Are you hungry, or thirsty? What would you +have?" + +"I want solitude," was Elwig's answer, rejecting the proffered clothes +with a gesture; "I want the black night. Only that will suit me at +present." + +"Very well--follow me," I said to her. + +Leading the way, I opened the door of a little chamber, and raising the +lamp in order to light its interior, I said to the priestess: + +"You see yonder couch--rest yourself, and may the gods render peaceful +to you the night that you are to pass under my roof." + +Elwig made no answer; she threw herself upon the couch and covered her +face with her hands. + +"And now," I said to my wife as I closed and locked the door, "these +duties of hospitality being attended to, I burn with the desire to +embrace my little Alguen." + +I found you, my child, sleeping peacefully in your cradle. I covered you +with kisses, that were all the sweeter to me seeing I had that very day +feared never to see you again. Your mother and her sister examined and +bandaged my wounds. They were slight. + +While Ellen and Sampso were attending to me, I spoke to them of the man +whom I had caught sight of on the window sill, and who seemed to be +peeping through the shutters. They were greatly astonished at my words; +they had heard no sound; they had been together since evening. While +talking over the matter, Ellen said to me: + +"Did you hear the news?" + +"No." + +"Tetrik, the Governor of Gascony and relative of Victoria, arrived this +evening. The Mother of the Camps rode out on horseback to meet him. We +saw him go by." + +"And did Victorin accompany his mother?" + +"He rode beside her. That must be the reason that we did not see him +during the day." + +The arrival of Tetrik gave me food for reflection. + +Sampso left me alone with Ellen. It was late. Early the next morning I +was to report to Victoria and her son the result of my mission to the +camp of the Franks. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +CAPTAIN MARION. + + +Early in the morning I repaired to Victoria's residence. The humble +house of the Mother of the Camps was reached through a long narrow path, +skirted on either side by high ramparts that constituted the outer +fortifications of one of the gates of Mayence. I was about twenty paces +from the house when I heard behind me the following cries uttered in +terror: + +"Save yourself! Save yourself!" + +Looking back, I saw with no little fright a two-wheeled cart dashing +rapidly towards me. The cart was drawn by two horses whose driver had +lost control over them. + +I could jump off neither to the right nor the left of the narrow path to +let the cart pass; its wheels almost grazed the opposite walls; I was +still too far from Victoria's residence to hope for escape in that +direction; however swiftly I might run, I would be overtaken by the +horses and trampled under their hoofs long before I could have reached +the door. There was nothing left for me to do but to face the runaways, +and, however hopeless the prospect, to seize them by the bit and attempt +to stop them. Accordingly, I rushed forward upon the animals with my +hands raised. Oh! A prodigy! Hardly did I touch the horses' reins when +they suddenly reared upon their haunches. It was almost as if my mere +gesture had sufficed to check their impetuous course. Happy at having +escaped what seemed certain death, but aware that I was not a magician, +endowed with the power to arrest a runaway team with a mere motion of my +hand, I asked myself while leaping back what the cause might be of the +extraordinary spectacle. I noticed that the horses still made violent +efforts to proceed on their career; they reared, tugged forward and +stretched out their necks, but were unable to advance, as if the cart's +wheels were locked, or some superior power restrained them. + +My curiosity stirred to a high pitch, I drew near, and gliding between +the horses and the wall, succeeded in climbing over the dashboard of the +cart whose driver I found crouching under the seat, looking more dead +than alive. As the mystery seemed to deepen, my curiosity was pricked +still more. I ran to the rear of the vehicle and noticed with no slight +amazement that a large sized man, robust as a Hercules, was clinging to +two ornamental pieces that projected from the rear of the cart. It was +thanks to his weight, and to the superhuman resistance that his great +strength enabled him to offer, that the team was held back. + +"Captain Marion!" I cried. "I should have known as much! There is none +other in the whole Gallic army able to hold back a cart going at full +speed." + +"Tell that fool of a driver to pull in the reins. My wrists begin to +tire." + +I was transmitting the orders to the driver who was beginning to recover +his senses, when I saw several soldiers, on guard at Victoria's +dwelling, pour out of the house attracted by the noise. They opened the +yard gate and thus offered a safe exit to the cart. + +"There is no longer any danger," I said to the driver; "lead your horses +on. But whom does this conveyance belong to?" + +"To Tetrik, the Governor of Gascony, who arrived yesterday at Mayence. +He stops at Victoria's house," answered the driver, while calming down +his horses. + +While the cart proceeded into the yard of Victoria's residence, I walked +back towards the captain to thank him for his timely aid. + +Marion had left his blacksmith's anvil for the army many years previous. +He was well known and generally beloved among the soldiers, as much for +his heroic courage and extraordinary strength, as for his exceptional +good judgment, his sound reasoning powers, the austerity of his morals, +and his extreme good fellowship. He now stood on the road, and with his +casque in his hand wiped the sweat off his brow. He wore a cuirass of +steel scales over his Gallic blouse, and a long sword at his side. His +dusty boots told of a recent and long ride on horseback. His large +sunburnt face, partly covered by a thick beard that began to be streaked +with grey, was open and pleasing. + +"Captain Marion," I said to him, "I must thank you for having saved me +from being ground under the wheels of that cart." + +"I did not know it was you who ran the risk of being trampled under the +hoofs of those horses like a dog! A stupid sort of a death for a brave +soldier like you, Schanvoch! But when I heard that devil of a driver +crying: 'Save yourself!' I surmised he was about to kill somebody and I +tried to hold the cart back. Fortunately my mother endowed me with a +good pair of wrists. But where is my dear friend Eustace?" added the +captain looking around. + +"Whom do you refer to?" + +"To a brave fellow, the old companion of my blacksmith days. Like me, he +left the hammer for the lance. The fortune of war served me better than +it did him. Despite his bravery, my friend Eustace has remained a simple +horseman, while I have been promoted to captain. But there he is, +yonder, with his arms crossed, and motionless as a signpost. Ho! +Eustace! Eustace!" + +At the call, the companion of Captain Marion approached slowly, with his +arms crossed over his breast. He was a man of middle size and vigorous +frame. His pale blonde hair and beard, his bilious complexion, his harsh +and sullen physiognomy offered a striking contrast to the pleasant +exterior of the captain. I asked myself what singular affinity could +draw two men of such different appearance, and doubtless also such +dissimilar characters, into close and constant friendship. + +"How is that, friend Eustace," the captain jokingly remarked to him, +"you remain yonder looking at me with crossed arms, while I am engaged +in holding back a runaway team?" + +"You are strong," Eustace answered; "what aid can the flesh-worm bring +to the bull?" + +"That man is certainly consumed with jealousy and hatred," I thought to +myself at hearing the answer and observing the sullen looks of the +captain's friend. + +"There is no flesh-worm nor bull in the case, my friend Eustace," +answered the captain with his habitual joviality and looking rather +flattered by the comparison; "but when the flesh-worm and the bull are +comrades, then, however strong the latter may be, or small the former, +the one does not forsake the other--union makes strength, says the +proverb." + +"Captain," answered the soldier with a bitter smile, "did I ever forsake +you in the hour of danger? Have I not always fought at your side, since +we left the forge together?" + +"I bear witness to the truth of that," cried Marion cordially, taking +Eustace by the hand. "As true as the sword you carry is the last weapon +I forged in order to give you a token of friendship, as it is engraved +on the blade, you have ever in battle 'marched in my shadow,' as the +saying goes in my country." + +"What is there strange about that?" replied the soldier. "Beside you, so +brave and robust, I was what the shadow is to the body." + +"By the devil! Look at the shadow! My friend Eustace!" the captain +exclaimed and laughed, and addressing me he added pointing at his +companion Eustace: + +"Let me have two or three thousand shadows like that, and the first +battle that we fight on the other side of the Rhine, I shall bring back +a herd of Frankish prisoners." + +"You are a captain of renown! I, like so many other poor waifs, are good +only to obey, to fight and to be killed. We are only meat for battles," +replied the old blacksmith with an envious look and his lips slightly +losing their color. + +"Captain," I said to Marion, "I presume you wish to see Victorin and his +mother?" + +"Yes, I have a report to render to Victorin of a journey that my friend +and I have just made." + +"I followed you as a soldier," Eustace said; "the name of an obscure +horseman must not be remembered before Victoria the Great." + +The captain shrugged his shoulders with impatience and jokingly shook +his enormous fist at his friend. + +"Captain," I insisted, addressing Marion, "let us hasten to Victoria. I +should have been with her since dawn. I am late." + +"Friend Eustace," Marion said, starting to walk with me toward +Victoria's residence, "will you stay here, or wait for me at our +lodging?" + +"I shall wait here at the door--that is a subaltern's place." + +"Would you believe it, Schanvoch," Marion replied laughing, "would you +believe that it is nearly twenty years that lad and I live together and +quarrel like two brothers? He will not forget that I am a captain, and +will not treat me as a simple anvil-beater, as he formerly used to." + +"I am not the only one, Marion, to realize the difference there is +between us," Eustace answered. "You are one of the most renowned +captains in the army--I am only one of the least of its soldiers." + +Saying this Eustace sat down on a stone near the door, and bit his +nails. + +"He is incorrigible," the captain remarked to me; and we two entered the +house of Victoria. + +"Captain Marion must be strangely blinded by friendship," I thought to +myself, "to fail to perceive that his companion is consumed with +malevolent jealousy." + +The residence of the Mother of the Camps was extremely simple. Captain +Marion having asked one of the soldiers on guard whether Victorin could +receive him, the soldier answered that he could give him no information +on that head, seeing that the young general had not spent the night in +the house. + +Despite the camp life, Marion preserved great austerity of morals. He +seemed shocked to learn that Victorin had not yet returned home, and he +cast a dissatisfied look at me. I wished to excuse Victoria's son, and +said to him: + +"Let us not be hasty in believing evil. Tetrik, the Governor of Gascony, +arrived yesterday at the camp. It may be that Victorin spent the night +in conference with him." + +"So much the better. I would like to see that young man, who to-day is +chief of the Gauls, free himself from the claws of that pest of +profligacy that drives so many of us to evil deeds. As to myself, the +moment I see a woman's bonnet or a short skirt, I turn my head away as +if I saw the devil in person." + +"Victorin improves, and he will improve still more with ripening years," +I replied to the captain. "But what can we do--he is young--he loves +pleasure--and pretty girls." + +"I also love pleasure, and furiously, too!" exclaimed the good captain. +"There is nothing that I delight more in, when my duties are done, than +to enter my lodging and empty a pot of cool beer with my friend Eustace, +while we chat over our old trade, or entertain ourselves furbishing our +weapons and good armor. Those are real pleasures! And notwithstanding +all the excitement that one finds in them, they are absolutely +honorable. Let us hope, Schanvoch, that Victorin may some day prefer +them to his immodest and diabolical orgies with the pretty girls, that +scandalize us." + +"I am of your opinion, captain; hope is better than despair. But in the +absence of Victorin you may confer with his mother. I shall notify her +of your arrival." + +Saying this I left Marion alone, and passing into a neighboring +apartment, encountered a serving-girl who led me to Victoria, the Mother +of the Camps, my foster-sister. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +VICTORIA THE GREAT. + + +I wish, my son, for your benefit and the benefit of our descendants, to +trace here the portrait of that illustrious Gallic woman, one of the +purest glories of our country. + +I found Victoria seated beside the cradle of her grandson Victorinin, a +handsome boy of two who lay profoundly asleep. Victoria had some +needlework in her hands, and was busy sewing, agreeable to her custom as +a good housekeeper. She was then, like myself, thirty-eight years of +age, but she would have been hardly taken for thirty. In her youth she +was appropriately compared to Diana, the huntress. In her mature years +she was no less appropriately compared to the antique Minerva. Tall, +well built, and virile, without thereby forfeiting the chaste graces of +womanhood, she was magnificently shaped. Her beautiful face, instinct +with a grave yet gentle expression, bore the impress of majesty under +the crown of black hair which she wore in two braids coiled over her +august forehead. Sent when still a little girl to a college of our +venerated female druids, and having taken at the age of fifteen the +mysterious vows that bound her indissolubly to the sacred religion of +our fathers, she ever since, and although married, preserved the black +garb of the female druids, which was also the habitual garb of the +matrons of old Gaul. Her long wide sleeves, open up to the elbows, +exposed a pair of arms as white and as strong as those of the valiant +Gallic women, who, as you will see in our family narratives, my son, +heroically fought the Romans at the battle of Vannes under the eyes of +our grandmother Margarid, and preferred death to the disgraces of +slavery. + +In the middle of the chamber, and not far from the seat occupied by the +Mother of the Camps near her grandson's cradle, several rolls of +parchment, together with all that was necessary for writing, lay upon a +table. From the wall hung the two casques and swords of Victoria's +father and husband, both killed in the same battle. One of the two +casques was surmounted by the Gallic cock of gilt bronze, with his wings +partly spread, and holding under his feet a lark that he menaced with +his beak. The emblem was adopted by Victoria's father as a military +ornament after a heroic combat in which, at the head of only a handful +of men, he exterminated a Roman legion that bore a lark on its ensign. +Under the weapons stood a little brass vase in which seven twigs of +mistletoe were arranged. Gaul, you must remember, my son, reconquered +her religious liberty in recovering her independence. Close to the brass +vase and the twigs of mistletoe, a druid symbol, was a wooden cross, in +commemoration of the death of Jesus of Nazareth, for whom the Mother of +the Camps, without being a Christian, professed profound admiration. She +looked upon him as one of the sages who shed luster upon humanity. + +Such, my son, was Victoria the Great, the illustrious Gallic woman whose +name our descendants will ever pronounce with pride. + +When the Mother of the Camps saw me come in, she rose quickly and +approached me with gladness, saying in her sonorous and sweet voice: + +"Welcome, brother! The mission was a dangerous one. Not seeing you back +before sunset, I did not wish to send any message to your house, lest I +alarm your wife by showing uneasiness at your prolonged absence. But +here you are; I feel happy to see you back again." + +Saying this Victoria pressed my hand tenderly in hers. + +The words that we spoke must have disturbed the slumber of Victoria's +grandson; he moved in his cradle and made a slight sound. Victoria +stepped quickly to him, and kissed the child on the forehead. She then +sat down, and placing the tip of her foot on a treadle below the cradle, +rocked it gently, while she continued her conversation with me. + +"And the message?" she asked, "how did the barbarians receive it? Are +they ready for peace? Do they want war? Did they accept our +proposition?" + +I was just about to begin giving my foster-sister a complete account of +my mission, when she interrupted me with a gesture, and, reflecting a +second, proceeded to say: + +"Do you know that my dear relative Tetrik has been here since +yesterday?" + +"I know it, sister." + +"He is due here any moment. I prefer that you make the report to me +before him only." + +"I shall do so. Can you receive Captain Marion? He came for a conference +with Victorin." + +"Schanvoch, my son again spent the night out of the house!" remarked +Victoria plying her needle more quickly, an action that, with her, +always denoted deep annoyance. + +"Having heard of your relative's arrival, I surmised that, possibly, +grave questions kept Victorin closeted with Tetrik during the night. +That is the theory I threw out to Captain Marion, and told him that +perhaps you would be ready to hear the report he has for your son." + +Victoria remained silent for a moment; she then dropped her needlework +on her lap, raised her head and resumed in a tone of suppressed grief: + +"Victorin has vices--his vices are smothering his good parts. Moths +destroy the best of grain." + +"Have confidence and hope--age will mature him." + +"During the last two years his vices grow upon him, his good parts +decline." + +"His bravery, his generosity, his frankness have not degenerated." + +"His bravery no longer is the calm and provident bravery that becomes a +general--it is becoming blind--headless. His generosity no longer +distinguishes between the worthy and the unworthy. His reasoning powers +decline--wine and debauchery are killing him. By Hesus! A drunkard and a +debauché! He, my son! One of the chiefs of Gaul, free to-day and, +perhaps, to-morrow, matchless among nations. Schanvoch, I am an +unfortunate mother!" + +"Victorin loves me--I shall reprove him severely." + +"Do you imagine that your remonstrances will accomplish what the prayers +of his own mother have failed to do? Of the mother who never left his +side all his life, following him with the army, often even into battle? +Schanvoch, Hesus punishes me--I have been too proud of my son!" + +"And what mother would not have been proud of him the day when a whole +valiant army, of its own free choice, acclaimed as its chief the +general of twenty years of age, behind whom they saw--you, his mother!" + +"What does it matter, if he dishonors me! And yet, my only ambition was +to make of my son a citizen, a man worthy of our fathers! Did I not, +when nourishing him with my milk, also nourish him with an ardent and +holy love for our Gaul that was coming to life again--and to freedom! +What was it that I asked; what was it that I always desired? To live an +obscure life and ignored, but devote my night-watches and my days, my +intelligence, my knowledge of the past, which enables me to understand +the present, and at times to peer into the future--in short, to devote +all the energies of my soul and of my mind to rendering my son brave, +wise, enlightened, worthy at all points of guiding the free men who +chose him their chief. And then, Hesus is my witness, proud as a Gallic +woman, happy as a mother of having given birth to such a man, I would +have enjoyed his glory and my country's prosperity in the seclusion of +my humble home. But to have a drunkard and debauché for a son! Oh, wrath +of heaven! Does not the giddy-headed boy understand that every excess +that he indulges in is a slap that he gives his mother in the face? If +he does not understand it, our soldiers do. Yesterday, as I crossed the +camp, three old horsemen rode towards me. Do you know what they said to +me? 'Mother, we pity you!'--and they rode off dejectedly. Schanvoch, I +tell you, I am an unhappy mother!" + +"Listen to me. For some time since, our soldiers have been growing +dissatisfied with Victorin. I admit it, I understand it. The warrior +whom free men have chosen for their chief must be above excesses, and +must even be able to control the impulses of his age. That is true, +sister; and have I not often chided your son in your presence?" + +"You have." + +"Well, at this moment I take up his defense. These soldiers, whom we see +to-day so full of scruples on the score of slips that are frequent with +young chiefs, act, not so much in obedience to their own scruples, as in +obedience to perfidious incitements that emanate from some secret +enemy." + +"What do you mean?" + +"There are people who envy your son; they envy his influence over the +troops. In order to undo him, his defects are being exploited so as to +furnish a foundation for infamous calumnies." + +"Who is jealous of Victorin? Who would have an interest in spreading +such calumnies?" + +"It is especially during the last month, not so, that this hostility to +your son has manifested itself and has been on the increase?" + +"Yes, yes; but whom do you suspect of inciting it?" + +"Sister, what I am about to tell you is serious. It is a month ago that +one of your relatives, the Governor of Gascony, came to Mayence--" + +"Tetrik!" + +"Yes; he departed after a stay of a few days! Almost immediately after +Tetrik's departure the silent hostility towards your son began, and has +since steadily grown!" + +Victoria looked at me in silence, as if she did not quite grasp the +bearing of my words. But a sudden thought seeming to flash through her +mind, she cried in a tone of reproach: + +"What! You suspect Tetrik! My own relative and best friend, the wisest +of men, one of the most enlightened citizens of our age, a man who seeks +his delight in letters and displays no mean poetic talents! One of the +most useful men in the defense of Gaul, although he is not a man of war! +Tetrik, who in his government of Gascony repairs by dint of wisdom the +evils that civil war inflicted upon the province! Oh, brother, I +expected better things from your loyal heart and your good sense!" + +"I suspect that man!" + +"Oh, you iron-headed, inflexible nature! Why should you suspect Tetrik? +By what right? What has he done? By Hesus! If you were not my +brother--if I did not know your heart--I would think you are jealous of +my esteem for my relative!" + +Victoria had barely uttered these last words, when she seemed to regret +having allowed them to escape her. She said: + +"Forget these words!" + +"They would greatly grieve me, sister, if the unjust doubt that they +express could blind you to the truth." + +At this moment the servant entered and asked whether Tetrik could be +admitted. + +"Let him in," answered Victoria, "let him in immediately." + +Tetrik stepped into the room. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +TETRIK. + + +The personage who now entered the apartment was an undersized man of +middle age. His face was refined and gentle; an affable smile played +permanently around his lips. In short, his exterior bespoke so fully the +man of honor that, seeing him enter, Victoria could not refrain from +casting at me a look that still seemed to reproach me for my suspicions. + +Tetrik walked straight to Victoria, kissed her on the forehead with +paternal familiarity and said: + +"Greeting to you, Victoria!" + +And approaching the cradle in which the grandson of the Mother of the +Camps still slept, the Governor of Gascony contemplated the child with +tenderness, and added, in a low voice, as if afraid to awaken him: + +"Sleep, poor little one! You are smiling in your infantine dreams, and +you know not that, perhaps, the future of our beloved Gaul may rest upon +your head. Sleep, little fellow, predestined, no doubt, to carry out the +task that your glorious father has undertaken! A noble task that will +engage his efforts for many long years under the inspiration of your +august grandmother! Sleep, poor little one," Tetrik added, with eyes +dimmed with tears of tenderness, "the gods that are propitious to Gaul +will watch over you--you will grow up for the welfare of your country!" + +While her relative wiped his moist eyes, Victoria again interrogated me +with her looks, as if asking me whether such was the language and the +physiognomy of a traitor, of a cowardly hypocrite, of a man who was a +perfidious enemy of the child's father. + +Turning then to me, Tetrik said affectionately: + +"Greeting to the best, the most faithful friend of the woman whom I most +love and venerate in the world; greeting to Victoria's foster-brother." + +"Your speech is true. I am the obscurest but also the most devoted +friend of Victoria," I answered looking fixedly at Tetrik, "and it is +the duty of a friend to unmask scamps and traitors." + +"I am of your opinion, friend Schanvoch," Tetrik answered with +simplicity. "A friend's first duty is to unmask scamps and traitors. I +fear the roaring lion with its jaws wide open less than the serpent that +creeps in the dark." + +"Now, then, I, Schanvoch, have this to say to you, Tetrik. You are one +of the dangerous reptile that you have just mentioned. I consider you a +traitor! And I purpose to unmask your treason!" + +"Schanvoch!" cried Victoria interrupting me in a reproachful tone. + +"I perceive that the old Gallic love for raillery, one of our +franchises, has returned with our gods and our freedom," replied the +governor smiling. + +And turning to Victoria he added: + +"Our friend Schanvoch possesses the art of dry humor--the most amusing +of all--" + +"My brother speaks seriously and out of an honorable impulse," the +Mother of the Camps broke in saying. "And I grieve thereat, since I +know that he is mistaken; but he is sincere in his error--" + +Tetrik let his eyes wander alternately from Victoria to me with no +little amazement; for a moment he was silent; thereupon he said in a +serious and penetrating voice: + +"All faithful friends are quick to suspect. Good Schanvoch, your +distrust is inexplicable to me; but it must have its reason. The attack +was frank, frank shall be the answer. Let us settle the question. What +is your charge against me?" + +"About a month ago you came to Mayence. A man of your retinue, your +secretary, Morix by name and well supplied with money, gave the soldiers +to drink and at the same time endeavored to irritate them against +Victorin, saying to them that it was disgraceful that their general, one +of the two chiefs of regenerated Gaul, should be a drunkard and a +profligate. Did your secretary hold such language, yes or no? I wait for +your answer." + +"Proceed, friend Schanvoch, proceed--" + +"Your secretary told a story that, being subsequently spread through the +camp, has greatly irritated the soldiers against Victorin. This was the +story: A few months ago, Victorin and several officers went to a tavern +on one of the isles in the Rhine; after having drunk copiously, +Victorin, excited by the wine, violated the innkeeper's wife, and she +thereupon killed herself in despair--" + +"Calumny!" cried Victoria. "I know and condemn my son's faults--but he +is incapable of such an infamous act!" + +The governor listened to me without betraying the slightest emotion. +Presently he said with a smile and his habitual placidity of +countenance: + +"So, then, good Schanvoch, it is your opinion that, obedient to orders +received from me, my secretary spread unworthy calumnies in the camp?" + +"Yes. It is all done with your knowledge and consent." + +"And what could be my motive?" + +"You are ambitious--" + +"And in what manner could such calumnies subserve my ambition?" + +"If the dissatisfaction of the soldiers with Victorin, whom they +elected, continues, you would then use your influence with Victoria to +the end of inducing her to propose you to the soldiers as Victorin's +successor in the government of Gaul." + +"A mother! Did you stop to consider that, good Schanvoch?" Tetrik +answered looking at Victoria. "A mother sacrifice a son to a friend!" + +"In the greatness of her love for her country, Victoria would certainly +sacrifice her son to your elevation if the measure became necessary to +the welfare of Gaul. Am I mistaken, sister?" + +"No," Victoria answered me evidently grieved at my accusations against +her relative; "in that you say the truth, but as to the inferences that +you draw therefrom, I reject them." + +"And that heroic sacrifice, good Schanvoch," resumed the governor, +"Victoria is expected to make knowing that it was through my underground +calumnies that her son's reputation was blasted with the soldiers?" + +"My sister would not have been aware of your intrigues had I not +unmasked them. Besides, more than once did I hear her say, and justly +say, that in case peace was established, it would be better for the +country if its chief, instead of being ever prone to battle, gave +serious thought to the healing of the wounds inflicted by the past +wars. She often mentioned you as one of the men who wisely prefer peace +to war." + +"It is true, I hold that the sword, good to destroy, is impotent to +reconstruct," remarked Victoria; "and the freedom of Gaul once firmly +established, I would prefer to see my son give more thought to peace +than to war. It was, therefore, Schanvoch, that I commissioned you with +one last attempt with the Franks, looking to the restoration of peace." + +"Allow that I interrupt you, Victoria," put in Tetrik, "and that I ask +our friend Schanvoch whether he has any other charges against me." + +"I charge you with being either the secret agent of the Roman Emperor +Galien, or the agent of the chief of the new creed, Roman Catholicism." + +"I!" cried the governor. "I the agent of the Christians!" + +"I said the agent of the chief of the new creed. I refer to the Bishop +of Rome, who entitles himself 'Sovereign Pontiff.'" + +"I the agent of Etienne, the Bishop of Rome, and fourteenth Pope of the +new church?--of that Pope, of whom Firmilien, the Bishop of Caesarea, +wrote to Cyprian, the presiding officer of the Spanish council, composed +of twenty-eight bishops: 'Would one believe that that man (Pope Etienne) +had a soul in his body? Evidently his body is but ill conducted, and his +soul is in a disordered condition. Etienne does not stick at calling his +brother Cyprian a false Christ, a false apostle, a fraudulent artisan; +in order to forestall having these things said of himself, he has the +audacity to make the accusation against others.' And can I be the agent +of that ambitious pontiff! Of that simoniacal bishop, who is given over +to all manner of vices!" + +"Yes--unless that, deceiving at once both the Roman Emperor and the Pope +of Rome, you are serving both, ready to sacrifice the one or the other, +according as your ambition may require." + +"That I serve the Romans is a thing that I am ready to admit," Tetrik +answered with his unalterable placidity. "However unjust your suspicion +towards me, it may be understood, as an instance of extreme patriotism. +We are well aware that, although we have succeeded, by force of arms, to +reconquer during nearly three centuries, inch by inch the full freedom +once enjoyed by old Gaul, the Roman Emperors have seen with sorrow our +country slip from their dominion. Accordingly, I can understand, +Schanvoch, how you might accuse me of desiring to arrive at power in +Gaul, with the end in view of sooner or later restoring the country to +the Romans, although in doing so I would be betraying it most +infamously. But is it imaginable that I act in the interest of the Pope +of the Christians, of those unhappy people who are everywhere persecuted +and martyrized? It is not a sane thought! What could I do for them? What +could they do for me?" + +Schanvoch was about to answer. Victoria interrupted him with a gesture +and said to Tetrik while she pointed to the cross of black wood, the +emblem of the death of Jesus, that was placed near the brass vase with +the seven twigs of mistletoe, a druid symbol much in use among the +Gauls: + +"Look at that cross, Tetrik, it tells you that, without infidelity to +our own gods, I nevertheless venerate him who said that no man has the +right to oppress his fellows; that the guilty merit pity and +consolation, not contempt and severity; and that the irons of the slave +should be stricken off. Blessed be these maxims, Tetrik; the wisest of +our druids have accepted them as holy; accordingly, you may judge how +dearly I love the gentle and pure morality of that young man of +Nazareth. But listen, Tetrik," Victoria added pensively, "there is +something unexplainable, strange and mysterious that makes me shudder. +Yes, many a time and oft, during my long watches beside the cradle of my +grandson, and when I pondered the present and the past, tormenting +thoughts crowded upon my mind concerning the future of our well-beloved +Gaul." + +"And whence does your terror proceed?" Tetrik asked. "What is its +cause?" + +"That for three successive centuries Rome was the implacable foe of +Gaul," Victoria answered; "that for so many centuries Rome was the +merciless scourge of the world!" + +"Rome?" replied the governor. "Pagan Rome?" + +"Yes. The tyranny that weighed down upon the world had its seat in +Rome," rejoined Victoria. "Now, then, I ask myself, by what strange +fatality have the bishops, the Popes of the new creed, who aspire to +reign over the universe by ruling the sovereigns of the world, been led +to establish the seat of their empire in Rome? Jesus of Nazareth branded +the high priests as liars and hypocrites. He preached above all, +humility, forgiveness, equality, fraternity among men, and lo! in his +apotheosized name, we now see a new hierarchy of high priests arising, +pretending to be the rulers of the world, and already, as Pope Etienne, +meriting the charges of ambition, deception and intolerance, even from +their fellow Christian bishops!" + +"Is it you, Victoria, who hold such language?" Tetrik interrupted her +saying: "You so wise, so enlightened--can you fear the future of Gaul +to be endangered by those unhappy people who bear witness to their faith +by their martyrdom?" + +"Oh!" cried the Mother of the Camps with exaltation. "I love, I admire +those poor Christians who die in torture while proclaiming the equality +of man before God, the liberation of the slaves, the community of goods, +love and forgiveness for the guilty! I love, I admire those poor +Christians who die on the scaffold and proclaim in the name of Jesus: +'Those are monsters of iniquity who hold their brothers in bondage, who +leave them to suffer in cold and hunger, instead of sharing with them +their bread and their cloak.' Oh! pity and veneration for those heroic +martyrs! But I stand in dread of those people who call themselves the +chiefs, the Popes of the Christians. Yes, I stand in dread of those high +priests who have fixed upon Rome as the seat of their mysterious +empire!--in that city, the center of the most frightful tyranny that has +ever crushed down the human race! I fear for the future of Gaul from +that quarter." + +"Victoria," again Tetrik interrupted, saying: "You exaggerate the power +of those Christian pontiffs. Have not large numbers of them, persecuted +by the Roman Emperors, undergone martyrdom, like any other neophytes?" + +"Every battle has its dead, and the Popes struggle with the Emperors in +order to wrench from these the dominion over the world! Among those +bishops there have been many who have spoken and died like Jesus. But if +there are some worthy pontiffs among them, and they are few, the +domination of the priests is not, for that, any the less dread a +visitation upon the people. Has not the government of our own priests +been despotic and merciless? Did not the druids leave the people for +over ten centuries steeped in crassest ignorance, governing them with +the instruments of barbarism--superstition and terror? Did not those +days of oppression and debasement last until the glorious and prosperous +epoch when, merged in the body of the nation as citizens, fathers and +soldiers, our druids took part in the common life of the people, in the +joys of the family, and in the national wars against the foreigner? What +I apprehend for the future of the nations is that some day there may be +established in Rome a murky alliance between the Pope and the most +powerful Emperors and Kings of the world! Unhappy will that day be for +the peoples! From such an alliance a frightful political and religious +tyranny will be born, and it will be watered with the blood of fresh +martyrs! Woe, then, to the peoples! They will once more be made to bend +under a pitiless theocratic yoke!" + +As she uttered these words, Victoria seemed inspired by the prophetic +genius of the female druids of olden times. Tetrik listened to her in +silence, but instead of answering, he resumed with a smile: + +"See how far we have wandered from the charges that our friend Schanvoch +has preferred against me--and yet, Victoria, your words, regarding the +apprehension that the Christian high priests, as you style them, fill +you with for the future, in a manner bring us back to the charges. So, +then, Schanvoch, the purpose of the perfidies that you charge me with is +to arrive at power in Gaul, to the end of betraying the country to pagan +or to Catholic Rome?" + +"Yes, that is my opinion." + +"Schanvoch, I shall not need many words for my defense. One of my +secretaries did seek to arouse the hostility of our soldiers against +Victorin. Your revelation comes rather late--" + +"I learned the facts only yesterday." + +"That is of no consequence," he replied, "that secretary was dismissed +by me just because I learned that, irritated at Victorin for having +railed at him several times, he sought to revenge himself by spreading +against the general calumnies that were even more ridiculous and odious. +But let us drop these petty matters. I am ambitious, you say, friend +Schanvoch! I aim at the government of Gaul, even if, in order to +accomplish my purpose, I should have to resort to unworthy intrigues! +Now, ask Victoria what errand brings me back to Mayence." + +"Tetrik believes that the peace and prosperity of Gaul require that the +soldiers be induced to proclaim my son's son the heir of his father's +office. Tetrik believes he can count upon the consent of Emperor +Galien." + +"Tetrik must, then, anticipate the speedy death of Victorin," I answered +looking fixedly at the governor. + +He, however, whose eyes were rarely met, seeing he kept them habitually +lowered, answered: + +"The Franks are on the other side of the Rhine--and Victorin is of +temerarious bravery. My ardent wish is that he may live many more years; +but death has no respect even for the most valuable life. It is my +opinion that Gaul would find a pledge of security for the future if it +knew that after Victorin the power would remain with the son of him whom +the army acclaimed its chief, especially seeing that the child would +have for his instructress Victoria, the Mother of the Camps." + +"But in case Victoria were to die, who tells me, Tetrik, that you would +not have yourself appointed the child's tutor, exercise the power in his +name, and in that manner arrive at the government of Gaul?" + +"Are you speaking seriously, Schanvoch?" Tetrik replied. "Ask Victoria +whether she needs my help in order to render her grandson worthy of her +and of the country? Do you imagine she is one of those weak women who +feel forced to share a glorious task with others? Is not the idolatry +that the soldiers entertain for her a sufficient guarantee that, in the +event of Victorin's premature death, she could preserve alone the +wardship of her grandson and govern in his name?" + +Victoria shook her head thoughtfully and sadly, and said: + +"I do not like your project of transmitting the office by inheritance, +Tetrik. What! Shall a child, still in his cradle, be designated to the +soldiers for their choice! Who knows what may become of this child?" + +"Has he not you for his teacher?" asked Tetrik. + +"Have I not been the teacher and instructress of Victorin also?" the +Mother of the Camps answered sadly. "And yet, despite all my vigilant +cares, my son has defects that serve as the basis for frightful +calumnies. But of these, I sincerely assure you, Tetrik, I hold you +guiltless; and I now hope that my brother Schanvoch will join me in +doing justice to your loyalty." + +"I said so before, I repeat it now--I suspect this man!" I answered +Victoria. + +She replied with impatience: "And I said so before and repeat it +now--you are a head of iron, a genuine Breton head, rebellious to all +reason, the moment a notion takes root in your brain." + +Instinctively convinced of Tetrik's perfidy, but having no more proofs +against him, I said nothing more. + +But Tetrik resumed with a smile, and without betraying the slightest +perturbation: + +"Neither you nor I, Victoria, could convince our good Schanvoch of his +error. Let us leave that to an irresistible seductress--Truth. It will +with time furnish the evidence of my loyalty. We shall return later, +Victoria, to your repugnance in the matter of causing the army to +acclaim your grandson the heir of his father's office. I still expect to +overcome your scruples. But as I came in I saw one of your officers who +seemed to await his turn for an audience. Do you not think it well to +let him come in? It is Captain Marion, the old blacksmith, whom you +introduced to me at my first trip to the camp as one of the bravest men +in the army." + +"His valor matches his disposition and good judgment," replied the +Mother of the Camps. "The man has a noble heart and is a faithful +friend. Despite his promotion, he has continued to love as a brother one +of the old companions of his trade, who remained a simple soldier." + +"Even at the risk of being again taken for an iron head, I am of the +opinion that in the matter of this affection the good heart of Captain +Marion misleads his judgment. I can only hope, Victoria, that your +blindness may not be as complete as Captain Marion's." + +"Do you mean that the faithful companion of Captain Marion is his +enemy?" queried Victoria. "You are singularly mistrustful to-day, +brother!" + +When I alluded to Captain Marion and his friend I again sought to catch +the eyes of the Governor of Gascony, but in vain. Nevertheless it was +with no slight surprise that I noticed him slightly start with joy when +I asserted that Captain Marion had a secret foe in his camp companion. +Ever master over himself, Tetrik doubtlessly feared that slight as was +his manifestation of joy it might not have escaped me. He said: + +"Envy is so revolting a feeling that I can never hear it mentioned +without it makes a painful impression upon me. I feel positively grieved +at what Schanvoch, who in this respect also, I hope, may be mistaken, +tells us of the comrade of Captain Marion. But, should my presence +prevent you from receiving the captain, Victoria, I shall withdraw." + +"On the contrary, I wish you to be present at the interview that I am to +have with Marion and my brother Schanvoch. They were given important +commissions by my son, and yet," she added with a sigh, "the morning is +passing, and my son is not yet home!" + +At that very moment the door of the room was thrown open, and Victorin +entered accompanied by Captain Marion. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +VICTORIN. + + +The son of Victoria the Great was then in his twenty-third year. I told +you, my son, that several medals were struck on which he figured in the +guise of the god Mars beside his mother, who wore on her head a casque +resembling that of the antique Minerva. Indeed, Victorin could have +served as a model for a statue of the god of war. Tall, supple, robust, +with a shape at once elegant and martial, he pleased all eyes. His +features, imprinted with the rare beauty of his mother's, differed from +them by an expression of mirthfulness and daring. The openness and +generosity of his character was clearly visible on his face. On seeing +him, one forgot, despite himself, the defects that marred that manly +being, too vivacious and too fiery to curb the impulses of his age. +Victorin doubtlessly came from a night of pleasure; yet his face looked +as fresh as if he had just left his bed. A felt coif, ornamented with a +little brooch, half covered his black hair, that fell in luxuriant +ringlets around his virile and browned face. His Gallic blouse, made of +silken fabric striped white and purple, was held around his waist by a +silver-embroidered leather belt, from which hung his curiously chiseled +gold hilted sword--a veritable masterpiece of Autun goldsmithing. Upon +entering his mother's room followed by Captain Marion, Victorin +proceeded straight to her with a mixture of tenderness and respect. He +dropped upon one knee, took and kissed one of her hands, removed his +head-cover, and, reaching up his forehead for her to kiss, said: + +"Greeting to my mother!" + +There was so touching a charm in the young general's features and +posture, there on his knee before his mother, that I noticed her +hesitate for a second between the desire to embrace the son whom she +adored and the inclination to express her dissatisfaction with him. She +gently pushed Victorin's head back with her hand, and said in a grave +voice while pointing at the cradle that stood near: + +"Embrace your son--you have not seen him since yesterday." + +The young general understood the indirect reproach; he rose sadly, +approached the cradle, took up the child in his arms, and embraced him +effusively while his eyes wandered over to his mother, as if to tell her +that he was indemnifying himself for her maternal severity. + +Captain Marion had drawn close to me and said in a low voice: + +"After all, Victorin has a good heart. How he does love his mother! How +he cherishes his child! He surely is as much attached to them as I am to +my friend Eustace, who constitutes my whole family. What a pity that +that pest of profligacy" (the good captain hardly ever spoke without +throwing in those words) "so frequently has the young man fast in its +claws!" + +"It is a misfortune! But do you believe Victorin capable of the infamous +act that he is charged with in camp?" I inquired from the captain loud +enough to be heard by Tetrik, who, speaking with Victoria in a low +voice, seemed to be reproaching her for her severity towards her son. + +"No, by the devil!" was Marion's quick answer. "I do not believe +Victorin capable of such indignities--least way when I see him there +between his mother and child." + +After carefully placing his child back into the cradle and kissing its +outstretched hands, the young general said affectionately to the +Governor of Gascony: + +"Greeting to Tetrik! I always love to see among us my mother's wise and +faithful friend." + +And turning towards me: + +"I knew that you had returned, Schanvoch. When I heard the news my heart +filled with joy--with as much joy as I felt apprehension during your +absence. These Frankish bandits have often shown us how little they +respect truces and parliamentarians." + +But doubtlessly noticing the sadness that still marked the visage of +Victoria, her son approached her and said with as much frankness as +tender deference: + +"Listen, mother--before you broach the matter of Captain Marion's and +Schanvoch's messages, let me tell you what I have upon my heart; it +might unwrinkle your brow, and I might no longer read on it the +displeasure that afflicts me. Tetrik is a kind relative, Captain Marion +is our friend, Schanvoch your brother--I can here speak freely. Admit +it, mother, you are annoyed that I spent the night out of the house, are +you not?" + +"Your disorderly conduct grieves me, Victorin--and it grieves me still +more to see that my voice is no longer heard by you." + +"Mother, I shall make a full confession to you; but I swear that I have +upbraided myself more severely for my weakness than you could have done +yourself. Last evening, faithful to my promise of discussing fully with +you the grave matters that we have in hand, I went home betimes; I had +declined--Oh! heroically declined an invitation to take supper with +three of the captains of the legions that recently arrived at Mayence +from Beziers. Vain were all their praises of the kegs of fine old wines, +of that country of wine _par excellence_, that they brought with them +carefully stowed away in their war chariots to celebrate their safe +arrival. I remained unmoved. They then tried to win me over by speaking +of two strolling Bohemian songstresses, Kidda and Flora--pardon me, +mother, for pronouncing the names of such women before you, but +truthfulness compels me to do so. These Bohemian girls, my tempters said +to me, had recently arrived in Mayence; they described them as +wondrously beautiful, frisky as demons, magnificent dancers, and singers +like nightingales! Certes, there was enough to tempt me in such a +description." + +"Ah! I see it--I see it clearly approaching, that pest of profligacy--I +see it creeping towards him on its velvet feet, like a wily and hungry +tigress!" Marion cried. "How I would like to make those brazen Bohemian +she-devils dance on sheets of red-hot iron! It is only then they would +sing tunes to suit my ears--" + +"I was even wiser than you, brave Marion," Victorin proceeded to say; "I +did not wish to see and hear them dance and sing in any way; I ran +precipitately away from my tempters to come here--" + +"It is easy to say that; run away?--that pest of profligacy has legs as +long as its arms and teeth!" the captain said. "It surely overtook you, +Victorin!" + +"Deign to listen to me, mother," Victorin resumed, seeing my +foster-sister make a gesture of disgust and impatience. "I was only two +hundred paces from the house--the night was dark--a woman wrapped in a +hooded cloak accosted me." + +"Now they are three!" cried the good captain clasping his hands. "We now +have the two Bohemian girls reinforced by a hooded woman. Oh, +unfortunate Victorin! You have no idea what diabolical snares lie hidden +under those hoods--my friend Eustace would surely succumb and wind up by +being hooded himself--but I would flee!" + +"'My father is an old soldier,' the woman said to me," proceeded +Victorin with his narrative. "'One of his old wounds opened, he is +dying; he knew you as a child, Victorin; he does not wish to die without +once more pressing the hand of his young general; you will not refuse +such a favor to my dying father, will you?' Such was the tale of the +unknown woman; she spoke in accents that went straight to my heart. What +would you have done, mother?" + +"Despite my dread of women's hoods, I would have gone and seen the poor +old soldier," answered the captain. "Certes, I would have gone, seeing +that my presence would render death sweeter to him." + +"Well, I did what you would have done, Marion. I followed the unknown +woman; we arrived at a rickety house; it was dark; the door opened; my +female guide seized my hand; led by her, I took a few steps in the +darkness. Suddenly the glare of lights fell upon my eyes and dazed me. +The three captains of the Beziers legions and other officers surrounded +me. The veiled woman dropped her wraps, and I recognized--" + +"One of the cursed Bohemian girls!" cried the captain. "Ha! I told you +so, Victorin! Women's hoods hide frightful things!" + +"Frightful? Alas, no, Marion! I had not the courage to shut my eyes. I +was immediately surrounded from all sides; the other Bohemian girl ran +out of a room and joined my captors. The doors were locked. I was +dragged to a seat of honor at a banquet table. Kidda placed herself at +my right, Flora at my left; and before me, upon a table loaded with +eatables, rose one of the kegs of old and divine nectar, as the accursed +fellows informed me; and--" + +"And day surprised you in that fresh orgy," said Victoria interrupting +her son. "You thus forgot amidst the pleasures of the table and +debauchery the hour that summoned you to me! Is that an excuse?" + +"No, dear mother, it is a confession--I was weak--but as truly as Gaul +is free, I would have come dutifully home to you, but for the ruse by +which I was misled and kept away. Will you not be indulgent towards me, +mother, this once? I pray you!" saying which Victorin again knelt down +before my foster-sister. "Be not so severe! I know my faults! Age will +cure me! I am still too young, and my blood is still too warm. The ardor +of pleasure often carries me away, despite myself--and yet, you know, +mother, I would give my life for you--" + +"I believe you--but yet you will not sacrifice to me your insensate and +evil passions--" + +"When one sees Victorin so respectful and repentant at his mother's +feet," I whispered to Marion, "would one think he is the celebrated +general, so dreaded by the enemies of Gaul--the general, who, at the age +of twenty-two already has won five great battles?" + +"Victoria," said Tetrik in his kind and insinuating voice, "I also am a +father and inclined to indulgence. Besides, in my hours of recreation, I +am a poet, and I wrote an ode to Youth. How could I be severe? I love +Victorin's brilliant qualities so much, that I find it hard to censure +him! Could you be insensible to the tender words of your son? His only +crime is his youth. As he said, years will cure that--and his affection +for you, his deference to your wishes will hasten the cure--" + +As the Governor of Gascony was saying these words, a great noise was +heard outside of the house, and the cry was soon heard: + +"To arms! To arms!" + +Victoria, who was seated, quickly rose to her feet, together with +Victorin. + +"They cry to arms!" repeated Captain Marion anxiously, and listened. + +"The Franks must have broken the truce!" I cried in turn. "Yesterday one +of their chiefs threatened me with a speedy attack upon our camp; I did +not believe they would put their threat so quickly into action." + +"A truce is never broken before its expiration, without notice is given +in advance," observed Tetrik. + +"The Franks are barbarians; they are capable of any act of treachery," +cried Victoria rushing to the door. + +It opened before an officer covered with dust, and so breathless that he +could not at first utter a word. + +"Do you not belong to the post of the camp's vanguard, four leagues +from here?" the young general asked the officer; he knew personally all +the officers of the army. "What has happened?" + +"A large number of rafts, loaded with troops and towed by barks, hove in +sight towards the middle of the Rhine, when, upon orders of the +commander of the post, I rode hither at full speed to bring the news to +you, Victorin. By this hour the Frankish hordes must have disembarked. +The post that I left is too weak to resist a whole army, and must have +fallen back upon the camp. While crossing the camp I cried to arms! The +legions and cohorts are forming in all haste." + +"It is the barbarians' answer to the message that Schanvoch took to +them," said the Mother of the Camps to Victorin. + +"What answer did the Franks give you?" the young general asked me. + +"Neroweg, one of the principal kings of their army, rejected all idea of +peace," I said to Victorin. "The barbarians are set upon invading Gaul +and subjugating us. I threatened their chief with a war of +extermination. He answered me insolently that the sun would not rise six +times before he would fall upon our camp, set fire to our tents, pillage +our baggage and carry off Victoria the Great--" + +"If they are on the march upon us, we have not a minute to spare!" cried +Tetrik in a fright addressing the young general, who, calm and +collected, with his arms crossed over his chest, was reflecting in +silence. "We must act, and act quickly!" + +"Before acting," answered Victorin, "we must reflect." + +"But," replied the governor, "suppose the Franks move with forced +marches upon the camp?" + +"So much the better!" Victorin said impatiently. "So much the better! We +shall let them draw near to us!" + +Victorin's answer astonished Tetrik, and I must admit, I would myself +have been astonished and even alarmed at hearing the young general speak +of temporizing in the presence of an imminent attack, had I not had +innumerable proofs of his unerring judgment. His mother made a sign to +the governor not to disturb her son in his meditation upon the plan of +battle, which, undoubtedly, he was revolving in his mind, and said to +Marion: + +"You arrived this morning from your trip to the inhabitants on the other +side of the Rhine, who are so often pillaged by these barbarians. What +is the plan of those tribes?" + +"Too weak to act single-handed, they are ready to join us at the first +call. Fires, that we are to light either by day or night on the hill of +Berak, will give them the signal. There will be men on the watch for +them. The moment the signal is given they will start on the march. One +of our best captains shall head a troop of picked soldiers across the +river and effect a junction with them, while the bulk of our army shall +simultaneously operate upon this side." + +"The plan is excellent, Captain Marion," observed Victoria approvingly. +"Especially at this juncture, such an alliance is of great service to +us. Your eyes have, as usual, seen rightly." + +"If one has good eyes, he must seek to put them to the best use +possible," the captain answered with his wonted affability. "That is +what I said to my friend Eustace." + +"What friend is that?" asked Victoria. "Whom do you refer to?" + +"I refer to a soldier--my old companion at the anvil. I took him with +me on the journey that I am now back from. Thus, instead of ruminating +over my little projects all to myself, I uttered them aloud to my friend +Eustace. He is discreet; by no means a fool; true enough, he is as +peevish as the devil, and he often grumbles at me, whereat I profit not +a little." + +"I am aware of your friendship for that soldier," replied Victoria. +"Your affection does you honor." + +"To love an old friend is a simple and natural matter. I said to him: +'Do you see, Eustace, one day or other those Frankish skinners will +undertake a decisive attack upon us. In order to protect their retreat, +they will leave a body of reserve to protect their camp and wagons. That +reserve will not be too large a morsel for our allied tribes to swallow, +especially if they are reinforced by a picked legion in command of one +of our own captains. So that if those skinners are beaten on this side +of the Rhine, their retreat will be cut off on the other side of the +river.' What I then foresaw is coming about to-day. The Franks are +attacking us; I think we should forthwith send word to the allied +tribes, and follow that with some picked troops, commanded by a captain +of energy, prudence and skill--" + +"That captain will be yourself, Marion," Victoria quickly put in +interrupting the captain. + +"I? Very well! I know the country. My plan is quite simple. While the +Franks are marching upon us, I shall cross the Rhine, and there burn +their wagons and cut the reserve to pieces. Let Victorin deliver battle +on our side of the river; the Franks will then try to re-cross the +Rhine; there they will find me and my friend Eustace ready to meet them +with something else than a glad hand to help them disembark. And their +hopes will be dashed when they learn that camp, reserves and wagons have +all gone up in flames." + +"Marion," replied my foster-sister after having carefully listened to +the captain, "victory is certain if you carry out the plan with your +customary bravery and coolness." + +"I have great good hopes. My friend Eustace said to me in a more than +usually querulous voice: 'Your plan is not so very stupid; it is not so +very stupid.' I know from experience that the approval of Eustace has +always brought me good luck." + +"Victoria," Tetrik approached saying in a low voice and no longer able +to control his uneasiness, "I am not a man of war. I repose complete +confidence in the military genius of your son. But an enemy twice as +strong as ourselves is drawing nearer by the minute--and Victorin, still +absorbed in his meditations, decides nothing, orders nothing!" + +"He told you rightly that before acting, one must think," answered +Victoria. "The power of calm reflection, at the moment of danger, is the +sign of a wise and prudent captain. Would it not be folly to run blindly +ahead of danger?" + +Suddenly Victorin clapped his hands, leaped to his mother's neck, +embraced her and cried: + +"Mother--Hesus inspires me. Not one of the barbarians who crossed the +river will escape, and the peace of Gaul will be assured for many years. +Your project is excellent, Captain Marion; it fits in with my own plan +of battle, as if we had jointly conceived it!" + +"What! Did you hear me?" asked the astonished captain. "I thought you +were wrapped up in your own thoughts!" + +"However absorbed a lover may seem to be, he always overhears what is +said of his sweetheart, my brave Marion," was Victorin's mirthful +answer. "My sovereign mistress is war!" + +"Again that pest of profligacy!" Captain Marion whispered to me. "Alack! +It pursues him even in his thoughts of battle!" + +"Marion," remarked Victorin, "we have on this side of the Rhine two +hundred and ten barks of war propelled by six oars--have we?" + +"About that number, and well equipped!" + +"Fifty of them will suffice for you to transport the reinforcement of +picked troops that you are to take to our allies. The remaining hundred +and sixty, manned by ten soldier oarsmen provided with axes, besides +twenty picked archers, will hold themselves ready to descend the Rhine +as far as the promontory of Herfel, where they will wait for further +instructions. Issue this order to the captain of the flotilla before you +embark." + +"It shall be done--rely upon me!" + +"Carry out your plan, brave Marion, from point to point. Cut the +Frankish reserve to pieces, burn their camp and wagons. Ours is the day +if I succeed in forcing the barbarians to retreat," said Victorin. + +"And you will, Victorin! I shall run for my friend, Eustace, and carry +out your orders." + +Before leaving the room Captain Marion drew his sword, presented the +hilt to the Mother of the Camps and making the military salute, said: + +"Touch this sword with your hand if you please, Victoria--it will be a +good augury for the day." + +"Go, brave and good Marion," answered the Mother of the Camps returning +the weapon after she had clasped the hilt with a virile hand; "go, Hesus +is with Gaul!" + +"Our battle cry shall be, 'Victoria!' and it will resound from one bank +of the river to the other," Marion exclaimed with exaltation; and +leaving precipitately he added: "I shall run for my friend Eustace, and +then to our barks! to our barks!" + +As Marion was rushing out of the room, several chiefs of legions and +cohorts, having learned of the landing of the Franks from the officer +who brought the tidings to the camp--tidings that rapidly spread among +the soldiers--hastened to Victorin in order to receive the orders of +their general. + +"Place yourselves at the head of your detachments," he said to them, +"and march to the parade ground. I shall join you there and assign you +your posts in battle. I wish first to confer with my mother." + +"We well know your valor and military genius," answered the oldest of +the chiefs of the cohorts, a robust old man with a white beard. "Your +mother, the angel of Gaul, watches by your side; we shall await your +orders confident of victory." + +"Mother," said the young general in touching accents, "your pardon, here +before all, and a kiss from you will give me the needed courage for this +day of bloody battle!" + +"The excesses of my son have often saddened my heart, as they have the +hearts of you all who have known him since his earliest days," said +Victoria to the chiefs of the cohorts; "I hope you will forgive him as I +do." + +Saying this she clasped her son passionately to her heart. + +"Infamous calumnies against Victorin have floated about the camp," the +old captain proceeded to say. "We gave them no credence; but, less +enlightened than ourselves, the soldier is ever hasty in censure as he +is in praise. Follow the instructions of your august mother, Victorin, +and no longer offer a handle to calumny. We shall wait for your orders +on the parade ground; rely upon us, as we do upon you." + +"You speak to me like a father," answered Victorin deeply moved by the +simple and dignified words of the old captain. "I shall hearken to your +words as a son; your old experience guided me on the field of battle +when I was still a child; your example made me the soldier that I am; +to-day and always I shall strive to approve myself worthy of you and of +my mother--worthy of Gaul--" + +"It is your duty, seeing that we glory in you and her," rejoined the old +captain; and addressing Victoria: "Will the army not see you before we +march to battle? To the soldiers and to us your presence always is a +good omen--and your good words fire our courage." + +"I shall accompany my son as far as the parade ground--let the battle +and triumph follow! Once the Roman eagles circled over our enslaved +nation! The Gallic cock drove them away! And it will again drive away +this cloud of birds of prey that seek to swoop down upon our Gaul!" +cried the Mother of the Camps in so proud and superb a transport that, +at the moment, I believed I saw before me the goddess of our land and of +liberty. "By Hesus, shall the barbarous Franks conquer us? Before that +happens neither a lance, nor a sword, nor a scythe, nor a club, nor a +stone can have been left in Gaul! By Hesus! We shall triumph over the +barbarian Franks!" + +At these brave words, the chiefs of the legions, sharing the enthusiasm +of Victoria, spontaneously drew their swords, struck them against one +another, and cried in chorus the war cry that they had more than once +intoned: + +"By the iron of our swords, Victoria, we swear to you that Gaul shall +remain free!--or you will never see us again!" + +"Yes, by your beloved and august name, Victoria, we shall fight to the +last drop of our blood." + +And all left the room crying: + +"To arms, our legions!" + +"To arms, our cohorts!" + +During the whole scene, in which the military genius of Victorin, his +tender deference for his mother, the controlling influence that both she +and he exercised over the chiefs of the army were displayed, I more than +once cast a covert look at the Governor of Gascony, who had withdrawn +into a corner of the room. Was it fear at the approach of the Franks? +Was it secret rage at witnessing how idle were his calumnies against +Victorin?--because, despite the blandness and skilfulness of his +defense, my suspicions were not lulled to sleep--I know not; but his +livid and disturbed face grew by degrees more horrid to behold. +Doubtlessly, evil thoughts and impulses, that he meant to keep +concealed, came to the surface in that moment. Immediately after the +departure of the chiefs, and as the Mother of the Camps turned to speak +with the governor, the latter strove to resume his customary mask of +mildness. Making an effort to smile he said to Victoria: + +"You and your son are endowed with a sort of magic power. According to +my feeble understanding nothing can be more alarming than this march of +the Frankish army upon our camp, while neither of you seem to be +particularly concerned, and you deliberate as calmly as if the battle +was to be to-morrow. And yet, I must confess, the tranquility that you +display under such circumstances inspires me with blind confidence." + +"There is nothing more natural than our tranquility," replied Victorin. +"I have calculated the time that it will take the Franks to cross the +Rhine and disembark their troops, form their columns and arrive at a +place that they are forced to cross. To hasten my movements would be a +mistake, a grave strategic error. Delay serves my purposes well." + +Victorin thereupon turned to me: + +"Schanvoch, go and put on your armor; I shall have orders for you after +I shall have conferred with my mother." + +"You will join me here, before proceeding to the parade ground," +Victoria said to me. "I also have some recommendations to make to you." + +"I almost forgot to notify you of an important thing," said I. "The +sister of one of the Frankish kings feared that her brother would put +her to death, and fled the camp of the barbarians. She accompanied me to +ours." + +"The woman can serve as a hostage," remarked Tetrik. "It is a valuable +capture. She should be kept a prisoner." + +"No," I answered the governor. "I promised the woman that she would be +free in the Gallic camp, and I assured her of Victoria's protection." + +"I shall keep the promise that you made," replied my foster-sister. +"Where is the woman?" + +"At my house." + +"Have her sent to me after the departure of our troops. I wish to see +her." + +I left the room together with the Governor of Gascony. As I stepped out +several bards and druids, who, adhering to our ancient custom, always +marched at the head of the armies in order to encourage the troops with +their songs, stepped in to confer with Victoria and Victorin. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +TO BATTLE! + + +Upon leaving Victoria's house I hastened home to arm myself and take my +horse. From all parts of the camp trumpets and clarions were heard +blowing signals. When I entered my house I found Sampso and my wife, +whom the tidings of the landing of the Franks had speedily reached, +busily engaged getting my arms ready. Ellen was vigorously furbishing my +steel cuirass, the polish of which was soiled by the fire that was +kindled upon it the day before by order of Neroweg, the Terrible Eagle +and powerful king of the Franks. + +"You are truly a soldier's wife," I said smiling to Ellen, seeing her +provoked at not being able to restore the tarnished spot to the +brilliancy of the rest of the cuirass. "The brilliancy of your husband's +armor is your own greatest ornament." + +"If we were not so much pressed for time," Ellen answered, "we would +have succeeded in furbishing off this black spot. Sampso and I have for +the last hour been wondering how you managed to blacken and tarnish your +armor in this manner." + +"They look like traces of fire," said Sampso, who was actively engaged +polishing my casque with a piece of smooth skin. "Only fire can tarnish +the polish of steel in that way." + +"You have guessed right, Sampso," I answered her laughing and taking up +my sword, my battle axe and my dagger; "there was a big fire in the camp +of the Franks; those hospitable folks insisted that I draw near to the +brasier; the evening was cool, and I hugged the fire a little too +closely." + +"I perceive that the announcement of battle throws you into a mirthful +mood, my Schanvoch," put in my wife. "That is like you, I have long +noticed it." + +"And the announcement of battle does not sadden you, my Ellen, because +you have a stout heart." + +"I draw my strength from the faith of our fathers, my Schanvoch. It +teaches me that we proceed to live in other worlds in the company of +those whom we have loved in this," Ellen sweetly answered me while she +and Sampso helped to buckle on my cuirass. "That is why I put into +practice our mothers' maxim that the Gallic woman never grows pale when +her brave husband departs for battle, and that she reddens with joy at +his return. And if he does not return, she is proud at the knowledge +that he died as a brave man, and every evening she says to herself: 'One +more day has passed, one more step is taken towards those unknown +worlds, where we shall meet our dear ones again.'" + +"Let us not talk of absence but of return," said Sampso, offering me my +casque, which she had so carefully polished with her own hands that she +could have seen her sweet face in the burnished steel. "You have always +been so lucky in war, Schanvoch, that I feel sure you will return to +us." + +"I rely on your faith, dear Sampso. I depart happy in the knowledge of +your sisterly affection, and of Ellen's love. I shall return happy, +above all if I shall have been able to leave a fresh mark on the face of +a certain king of those Frankish skinners of human bodies, as a token +of acknowledgment for the loyalty of the hospitality that he yesterday +bestowed upon me. But here I am armed. A kiss to my little Alguen, and +then to horse!" + +As I was about to proceed to my wife's room, Sampso held me back, +saying: + +"Brother--what of the strange woman?" + +"You are right, Sampso; I forgot all about her." + +As a matter of precaution I had locked Elwig's room. I knocked at the +door and called out to her: + +"Shall I come in?" + +I received no answer. Alarmed at the silence I opened the door. Elwig +sat on the edge of the couch with her head in her hands, in the +identical posture that I saw her last. + +"Did sleep bring you rest?" + +"There is no more sleep for me!" she answered brusquely. "Riowag is +dead! I weep for my lover!" + +"My wife and sister will take you at noon to Victoria the Great. She +will treat you as a friend. I announced to her your arrival in our +camp." + +The sister of Neroweg, the Terrible Eagle, shrugged her shoulders with +indifference. + +"Do you need anything?" I asked her. "Would you eat or drink?" + +"I want water--I am thirsty--" + +Despite the priestess' refusal to eat, Sampso went for some +provisions--a pitcher of water, some bread and fruits--and placed them +near Elwig, who remained motionless and mute. I again locked the door +and gave the key to my wife, saying: + +"You and Sampso will take the poor woman to Victoria at noon. But be +careful that she is not left alone with our child--" + +"Do you fear anything?" + +"Everything is to be feared from those barbarian women; they are as wily +as they are ferocious. I killed her lover in defending myself against +him; she is quite capable of strangling my child out of vengeance." + +You came running in at that moment, my child. Hearing my voice from your +mother's room, you left your bed and came half naked to me with your +little arms outstretched, smiling with pleasure at the sight of my +armor, the brilliancy of which pleased your eyes. Time pressed; I +embraced you, your mother and aunt tenderly. I then proceeded to saddle +my horse, my good and strong Tom-Bras,[2] whom I named in remembrance of +our ancestor Joel, who also gave the name of Tom-Bras to the spirited +stallion that he rode at the battle of Vannes. Sampso and your mother, +the latter of whom took you in her arms, accompanied me to the stable. +Your aunt helped me to put on the bridle, and, caressing his sinewy +neck, said to the war steed: + +"Tom-Bras, do not leave your master in danger; save him with your +swiftness, if need be; defend him like the brave Tom-Bras of old who, as +he bore the brenn of the tribe of Karnak, attacked the Romans with his +hoofs and teeth." + +"Dear Sampso," I answered smiling as I leaped into the saddle, "do not +give Tom-Bras bad advice by urging him to save me with his swiftness. A +good war horse is rapid in pursuit, slow in flight. As to plying his +teeth and hoofs, he does that to perfection; the Frankish horse that I +captured, and that he almost tore to shreds in the stable, can testify +to that. Tom-Bras is like his master; he abhors the Franks. Adieu, dear +Sampso! Adieu, my beloved Ellen! Adieu, my little Alguen!" + +Casting one more look at your mother who held you in her arms, I +departed at a gallop to the parade ground, where the army was +assembling. + +The distant sound of the clarions, and the neighing of the horses, to +which he responded, enlivened Tom-Bras. He bounded with vigor. I calmed +him with my voice, I patted his neck so as to control his buoyant +spirits and reserve his energy for the hard day's work ahead. When I was +near the parade ground I perceived Victoria about a hundred paces ahead +of me. She rode with an escort of several mounted officers. I quickly +joined them. Mounted on a palfrey, Tetrik rode to the left of the Mother +of the Camps; at her right rode a druid bard named Rolla, whom she +greatly esteemed for his bravery, his noble character and his poetic +talents. Several other druids were scattered among the various army +corps, and were to march beside the chiefs at the head of their several +detachments. + +Coifed in the light brass helmet of the antique Minerva, which was +surmounted with the Gallic cock in gilt bronze holding an expiring lark +under his spurs, Victoria sat with proud ease her beautiful steed, whose +satin coat shimmered like silver. The housings of the prancing animal +were, like its bridle, of scarlet color, they almost reached the ground +and were partially covered by the long black robe of the Mother of the +Camps, who seemed to inspire her mount with her own self-restraint and +confidence. Her beautiful and virile visage seemed animated with martial +ardor. A light flush suffused her cheeks; her bosom heaved; her large +blue eyes shone with matchless brilliancy, under their long black +lashes. Without being noticed by her, I joined the riders of her escort. +With their banners to the breeze and their platoons of trumpeters at +their head, the cohorts passed by us one after the other on their way to +the parade ground. The officers saluted Victoria with their swords, the +banners dipped before her, and soldiers, captains and chiefs, in short, +the whole armed force cried in enthusiastic chorus: + +"Greeting to Victoria the Great!" + +"Greeting to the Mother of the Camps!" + +Among the first soldiers of one of the cohorts that passed us, I +recognized Douarnek, one of the four oarsmen of the day before who was +wounded in the back by an arrow. Despite his recent wound, the brave +Breton marched in his place. I pricked my horse, drew near him and said: + +"Douarnek, the gods send a propitious opportunity to Victorin to prove +to the army that, unworthy calumnies to the contrary notwithstanding, he +is still worthy of his post." + +"You are right, Schanvoch," the Breton answered. "Let Victorin win this +battle, as he won the others, and in the joy of their triumph the +soldiers will acclaim their general and forget many a disagreeable +thing. We shall meet again, Schanvoch!" + +Some Roman legions, our then allies, shared the enthusiasm of our own +troops. As they passed under the eyes of Victoria their acclamations +also greeted her. The whole army, the cavalry on the two wings, the +infantry in the center, was soon gathered on the parade ground, a vast +field that lay without the camp. It was bounded by the Rhine on one +side, on the other by the slopes of a high hill. A wide road was seen at +a distance. It wound its way and disappeared behind some woody slopes. +The casques, the arms, the banners, all of which were surmounted by the +Gallic cock wrought in gilt copper, glistened in the rays of the sun, +and presented the bright and cheerful sight that does so much to raise +the soldier's spirits. From the moment that she entered the parade +ground Victoria put her horse to a gallop in order to join her son, who, +surrounded by a group of chiefs to whom he was issuing orders, was +conspicuous in the very center of the field. No sooner had the Mother of +the Camps, whose brass helmet, black robe and white steed pointed her +out to all eyes, appeared before the front ranks of the army, than one +loud, vast, ringing cry from fifty thousand soldiers' breasts saluted +Victoria the Great! + +"May that cry be heard of Hesus," my foster-sister said to the druid +bard with deep emotion. "May the gods grant Gaul a new victory! Justice +and right are on our side! We are not after conquest; we only defend our +own soil, our hearths, our families, and our freedom!" + +"Our cause is holy among holy causes!" answered Rolla, the druid bard. +"Hesus will render our arms invincible!" + +We rode up to Victorin. It seems to me I never saw him handsomer, or of +a more martial bearing than on that morning, clad in his brilliant steel +armor and with his casque, ornamented, like his mother's, by the Gallic +cock and the expiring lark. Victoria herself, as she approached her son, +could not keep from turning towards me and betraying her maternal pride +with a look that, perhaps, only I understood. Several officers, the +bearers of the young general's orders to the different army corps, left +at a gallop in different directions. I drew near my foster-sister and +said to her in a low voice: + +"You reproach your son with no longer displaying that cool bravery that +must distinguish the general of an army. And yet, watch and see how cool +and collected he is. Do you not read in his masculine face the wise and +cautious cast of mind of the general who will not rashly risk his +soldiers' lives, or the fate of his country?" + +"Your speech is sooth, Schanvoch; I saw him just as cool and collected +at the great battle of Offenbach--one of his finest, one of his most +fruitful victories. It was that victory that restored to us the Rhine +for our frontier. It drove the accursed Franks to the other bank of the +river." + +"And to-day's battle will supplement the victory won at Offenbach, if, +as I expect we shall, we drive off the barbarians for all time from our +frontier." + +"Brother," replied my foster-sister, "as always, you will not leave +Victorin's side?" + +"I promise you." + +"He is now calm. But once the action is engaged, I fear the ardor of his +blood, and his passion for battle. You know, Schanvoch, I do not fear +peril for Victorin, I am the daughter, wife and mother of soldiers; all +I fear is that, carried away by the heat of action, and anxious, even at +the risk of his life, to achieve great deeds, he put the success of this +day in jeopardy, and by his death endanger the safety of Gaul, that may +otherwise be firmly established by to-day's action." + +"I shall use my full powers to convince Victorin that a general must +preserve himself for his army." + +"Schanvoch," my foster-sister remarked with a tremulous voice, "you +always are the best of brothers!" + +And looking towards her son, evidently anxious that none but myself be +made aware of the anxious thoughts that struggled in her maternal +breast, and her doubts concerning the firmness of his character, she +added again, in a low voice: + +"You will watch over him?" + +"As over my own son." + +After the young general issued his last orders, he alighted from his +horse the moment he saw his mother, walked over to where she was, and +said: + +"The hour has come, mother. I have taken with the other captains the +last dispositions on the plan of battle that I submitted to you and +which you approved. I have reserved ten thousand men under the command +of Robert, one of the most experienced chiefs, for the protection of the +camp. He is to receive orders from you. May the gods look down favorably +upon our arms. Adieu, mother. I shall do my best--" + +Saying this he bent his knee. + +"Adieu, my son. Come not back, unless you come back victorious over the +barbarians!" + +As she said these words, the Mother of the Camps stooped down from her +horse and reached her hand to Victorin, who kissed it and rose. + +"Be brave, my young Caesar!" the Governor of Gascony called out to my +foster-sister's son. "The fate of Gaul is in your hands--and, thanks to +the gods, your hands are powerful. Furnish me the opportunity to write +an ode on this fresh victory." + +Victorin remounted his horse. A moment later our army set itself upon +the march, with the scouts on horseback riding ahead of the vanguard. +Victorin placed himself at the head of the army. We had the bank of the +Rhine on our right. A few light bodies of mounted archers rode forward +as scouts, to the end of guarding our left wing against a surprise. +Victorin called me to his side; I drove my horse abreast his own, and as +he hastened the step of his mount we were soon beyond the escort that +accompanied him. + +"Schanvoch," he said to me, "you are an old and experienced soldier. I +wish to explain my plans to you. I confided the plan to the chief who is +to take my place in the event of my being killed. I wish you also to be +posted on it. You will be all the better able to help in its execution." + +"I listen. Speak, Victorin." + +"It is now nearly three hours since the rafts of the Franks were seen by +our scouts at about the middle of the river. Those rafts, towed by barks +and loaded with troops navigate slowly. It must have taken them fully an +hour to reach the bank and disembark on this side of the Rhine--" + +"Your calculation is correct. But why did you not hasten the march of +the army in order to arrive at the spot before the Franks disembarked? +Landing forces are always in disorder. Their disorder would have favored +our attack." + +"Two reasons kept me from doing so. I shall tell them to you. How long, +do you calculate, did it take the officer, who notified us of the +enemy's approach, to ride in all haste from our advanced posts to +Mayence?" + +"About an hour and a half. It is nearly five leagues from there to +Mayence." + +"And how long will it take an army to cover the same distance, even at +forced marches, but not rapid enough to be tired out and breathless when +it reaches the spot and offers battle?" + +"It would take about three hours and a half." + +"Accordingly, you will perceive, Schanvoch, that it would have been +impossible for us to have arrived in time to attack the Franks at the +moment of their landing. Those barbarians' lack of discipline is +surprising. They must have consumed considerable time in forming their +ranks. This will enable us to arrive before and wait for them at the +defile of Armstadt--the only military route open to them in order to +attack our camp, unless they throw themselves across the marsh and the +forests, where their cavalry, their principal arm, could not deploy." + +"That is true." + +"I temporized in order to give the Franks time to approach the defile." + +"If they undertake the passage, they are lost." + +"I hope so. With our swords in their loins we shall drive them back +towards the river bank. Our hundred and sixty well armed barks, that +left port under my orders and at the same time that we started on the +march, will scatter the barbarians' rafts and cut off their retreat. +Besides that, Captain Marion crossed the river with a picked body of +men; he will effect a juncture with the friendly tribes on the other +bank, and will march straight upon the Frankish camp, where the enemy +must have left a strong reserve force together with all their wagons. +These will all be destroyed!" + +Victorin was thus engaged in unfolding to me his ably conceived plan of +battle, when we saw several of the scouts, who were sent forward, +running back to us at full gallop. One of these reined in his foaming +steed and cried out to Victorin: + +"The army of the Franks is advancing. It can be seen at a distance from +the top of the hills. Their scouts approached the defile; they were all +shot down by the arrows of our archers who were ambushed behind the +shrubs. Not one of the Frankish scouts escaped with his life." + +"Well done," replied Victorin. "Those scouts would have ridden back and +warned the Frankish army of our approach. It might not then have entered +the defile. But I shall ride forward and judge the enemy's position +myself. Follow me, Schanvoch!" + +Victorin put his horse to a gallop; I did likewise. The escort followed +us; we quickly overtook and passed our vanguard, to whom Victorin gave +the order to halt. We arrived at a place that dominated the defile of +Armstadt. The rather broad road lay at our feet, hemmed in by two steep +escarpments. The one to the right seemed cut with the pick, it rose so +perpendicular over the road and formed a sort of promontory on the side +of the Rhine. The escarpment to the left consisted of a rocky series of +shelves, and served, so to speak, as the basis to the vast plateau +through the heart of which the deep and wide gully was cut. The gully or +road dipped gently till it ran out into a vast plain, bordered to the +east and north by the curve of the river, to the west by woods and +marshes, and behind us by the elevated plateau where our troops were +ordered to halt. We presently distinguished at a great distance from +where we stood and down in the direction of the plain, a large and +confused black mass. It was the army of the Franks. + +Victorin remained silent for a few seconds; he attentively examined the +disposition of the enemy's forces and the field at our feet. + +"My calculation and expectation did not deceive me," he observed. "The +Frankish army is twice as large as ours. If their tactics were less +savage, instead of entering the defile, as they will surely do, they +would, despite the difficulty that accompanies that sort of assault, +climb the plateau at several places simultaneously, and thereby compel +me to divide my much inferior forces in order to attack them at a large +number of places. Nevertheless, for greater certainty, and so as to lure +the enemy into the defile, I shall resort to a ruse of war. Let us +return to our vanguard; Schanvoch, the hour of battle has sounded!" + +"And such an hour," I answered, "is always solemn!" + +"Yes," he replied melancholically, "such an hour is always solemn, +especially for the general, who, at this bloody game of war, plays with +the lives of his soldiers and has his country's fate for stake. Come, +let us ride back, Schanvoch--and may my mother's star protect me!" + +I rode back with Victorin to our troops, asking myself due to what +singular contradiction that young man, always so firm and so calculating +at the great crises of his life, showed himself below mediocrity in the +power to combat his foibles. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +THE BATTLE OF THE RHINE. + + +The young general was not long in rejoining the vanguard. After a +hurried conference with the officers, the troops took their posts of +battle. Three cohorts of infantry, each one thousand strong, received +orders to march through the defile into the open plain, engage the +vanguard of the Franks, and draw the bulk of the enemy's army into the +dangerous passage. Victorin, several officers and myself stood grouped +upon one of the highest bluffs that dominated the field on which the +scrimmage was to take place. From where we stood we had a complete view +of the immense Frankish army. Massed in a compact body, the bulk of +their forces was still far away. A swarm of horsemen rode in advance and +extended beyond the two wings. Our three cohorts had barely emerged from +the pass into the plain when the Frankish horsemen rushed like a swarm +of hornets towards them from all sides and sought to envelop them. +Intent only upon taking the lead of one another, these horsemen gave the +rein to their mounts, and tumultuously, without any order whatever, +galloped towards our troops. When the former had drawn near enough, the +latter formed themselves into a wedge in order to sustain the first +shock of the cavalry; they were thereupon to feign a retreat back into +the defile. The Frankish horsemen emitted such loud yells that, despite +the considerable distance that separated us from the plain and the +elevation of the plateau, their savage cries reached us like a muffled +roar pierced from time to time by the distant notes of their wind +instruments. As ordered, our soldiers did not yield to the first +impetuous attack. In an instant we could see through the thick cloud of +dust, raised by the Frankish horse, only a confused mass, in the midst +of which our soldiers could be distinguished by their brilliant armor. +Presently our troops began to operate their retreat towards the defile, +yielding the ground before them foot by foot to the swarm of Frankish +assailants, who received every moment fresh accessions from the cavalry +of their vanguard, while their main body began to move at a quickened +step. + +"By heaven!" cried Victorin, his fiery eyes fixed upon the field, "our +brave Firmian who commands those three cohorts seems to have forgotten +in his ardor for the fray that he was steadily to fall back into the +defile so as to draw the enemy in after him. Firmian is no longer +retreating; he has stopped and does not budge back an inch--he will +cause his troops to be uselessly sacrificed--" + +And addressing one of the officers: + +"Ride quick to Ruper, and order him to proceed with his three veteran +cohorts to the support of Firmian's retreat. Ruper is to order the +retreat to be made rapidly. The bulk of the Frankish army is now only a +hundred bow-shots from the entrance of the defile." + +The officer departed at a gallop. Obedient to the orders that he +carried, the three veteran cohorts speedily emerged from the defile at +the double quick; they hastened to join and sustain Firmian's troops; a +little later the feigned retreat was effected in good order. Seeing the +Gauls yield, the Franks set up a shout of savage joy, and charged +impetuously upon our cohorts. The Frankish vanguard was soon close to +the mouth of the defile. Suddenly Victorin grew pale. Anxiety was +depicted on his face as he cried: + +"By my father's sword! Can I have been mistaken as to the barbarians' +plans? Do you perceive their movement?" + +"Yes," I said, "instead of following their vanguard into the defile, the +Frankish army has halted; it is forming into numerous separate columns +of attack, and these are marching towards the plateau! Malediction! They +are resorting to the skilful manoeuvre that you feared. Oh, we have +taught the barbarians the art of war!" + +Victorin did not reply. He seemed to be counting the enemy's columns of +attack. Thereupon he galloped back to our main army and cried: + +"My boys! It is not now in the defile that we are to await these +barbarians--we shall have to fight them in the open field. Fall upon +them from the height of the plateau that they are seeking to +climb--drive their hordes into the Rhine! They are three to our one--so +much the better! This evening, when we shall be back in camp, our +mother, Victoria, will say to us: 'Children, you were brave!'" + +At these words, Rolla, the druid bard, improvised the following war +song, which he struck up with a powerful, resonant voice: + + "This morning we say:-- + 'How many are there of these barbarous hordes, + Who thievishly aspire to rob us of land. + Of homes, of wives, and of sunshine? + Yes, how many are there of these Franks?' + + "This evening we'll say:-- + 'Make answer, thou sod, red drenched + In the blood of the stranger; + Make answer, ye deep-rolling waves of the Rhine; + Make answer, ye crows that flutter for carrion, + Make answer--make answer! + How many were they, + These robbers of land, of homes, of wives and of sunshine? + Aye, how many were there, + Of these blood-thirsty, ravenous Franks?'" + +And the several detachments of our troops ran up the plateau at the +double quick to the refrain of the chant that flew from mouth to mouth +until it reached the rearmost ranks. + +Our army was promptly deployed on the crest of the plateau that +dominated the vast plain whose edge was bordered by the curve of the +Rhine in the distant horizon. Instead of awaiting the attack from that +advantageous position, Victorin wished, by sheer audacity, to terrify +the enemy. Despite our numerical inferiority, he issued the orders to +pounce down upon the Franks from the crest of our elevated position. At +the same moment, the enemy's column, which, deceived by the feigned +retreat of our cohorts, had allowed itself to be lured into the defile, +was being hurled back into the plain by the Gallic troops which +confronted them. Our whole army thereupon reassumed the offensive, and +not unlike an avalanche our full forces poured down from the summit of +the plateau. The battle began; it was engaged all along the line. + +I promised Victoria not to leave the side of her son. Nevertheless, such +was the impetuosity with which, from the very start of the action, he +dashed upon the enemy at the head of a legion of cavalry, that the flux +and reflux of the melee at first separated me from him. We were at the +time engaged hand to hand with a picked, well mounted and well armed +body of Franks. Their soldiers wore neither casque nor cuirass; but +their double jackets of hides covered with long hair and their +iron-lined fur caps, were the equivalent of our own armor. These Franks +fought with fury, often with stupid ferocity. I saw several allow +themselves to be killed like animals while, at the hottest of the +battle, they madly sought to hack off the head of some fallen Gaul with +their axes in order to make to themselves a trophy of the gory spoils. I +was defending myself against two of these horsemen, and my hands were +full; a third barbarian, a warrior who had been unhorsed and disarmed, +clinched my leg and sought to pull me off the saddle, and as he found +his efforts vain bit me with such rage in the ankle that his teeth cut +through the leather of my gaiter and penetrated to the very bone. +Without neglecting my two mounted adversaries, I found time to deal a +blow with my mace upon this third Frank's skull. Freed from him, I was +vainly endeavoring to discover and join Victorin, when I descried +Neroweg, the Terrible Eagle, only a few paces from me, in the melee +which his gigantic stature overtowered. At the sight of that man, there +thronged to my mind the recollection of the outrageous insults heaped +upon me only the day before, which I had only partly avenged by smiting +him over the head with a firebrand; my blood, already warm with the +ardor of the fray, now seethed. Over and above the anger that Neroweg +inspired in me by reason of his cowardly insults of the previous day, I +experienced for the man an unexplainable, mysterious, profound hatred. +It was as if I saw in him the incarnation of that thievish and ferocious +race that sought to subjugate us. It was to me, strange and +unaccountable as it may seem, as if I abhorred Neroweg by reason of the +future as much as of the present; as if that hatred was to perpetuate +itself not only between our two races of Franks and Gauls, but also +between our families, individually. What shall I say to you, my child! I +even forgot the promise I made to my foster-sister of watching over her +son. Instead of any longer striving to find and join Victorin, I now +only strove to draw close to Neroweg. I was bent upon having that +Frank's life--he alone, among so many other enemies, incited in me +personally the thirst for blood. I happened at the time to find myself +surrounded by several horsemen of the legion at the head of which +Victorin had just charged the Frankish army with such impetuosity. Our +troops were steadily pushing forward at that point, the enemy was being +crowded towards the Rhine. Two of the soldiers in front of me fell under +the heavy francisque of the Terrible Eagle. I now saw him across that +human breach. + +Clad in a Gallic armor, the spoils of one of our captains who was killed +at one of the previous battles, Neroweg wore a casque of gilded bronze, +the visor of which partly covered his face, tattooed in blue and +scarlet. His long copper colored beard reached down to the iron corselet +that he had donned over his jacket of hides. Thick fleeces of sheep, +held fast by criss-crossing strips of cloth, covered his legs from the +thighs down to the feet. He rode a savage stallion from the forests of +Germany, whose pale yellow coat was spotted with black. The tufts of the +animal's thick mane fell below his square chest; his long tail, that +streamed in the wind, lashed his sinewy haunches when he reared +impatient under the restraint of his bit and silver-wrought reins, also +the proceeds of some Gallic spoils. A wooden buckler ribbed with iron +and roughly painted in yellow and red stripes, the colors of Neroweg's +banner, covered the left arm of the Terrible Eagle. In his right hand he +wielded his heavy francisque that now dripped blood. From his belt hung +a sort of large butcher's knife with a wooden handle, together with a +magnificent Roman sword with a hilt of chased gold, doubtlessly the +fruit of some raid. Neroweg emitted a roar of rage as he recognized me. +Rising in his stirrups he cried out: + +"The man of the bay horse!" + +Thereupon, striking the flank of his courser with the flat of his axe, +he caused the animal to clear with an enormous leap both the bodies and +mounts of the fallen horsemen who lay between us. The leap was so +violent that when his horse touched ground again, the animal's head and +chest struck the head and chest of my own mount. At the heavy shock the +two animals were thrown upon their haunches and both fell over. Dazed at +first by my fall, I quickly disengaged myself, took my stand firmly upon +my feet and drew my sword, my mace having slipped from my hands with my +fall. On his part, having had to disentangle himself from under his +horse, as I was forced to do, Neroweg also rose to his feet and +precipitated himself upon me. The chin-band of his casque had snapped +with his fall, his head was bare, his thick red hair, tied over his +head, floated behind him like the mane of a horse. + +"Ha! This time, you Gallic dog," he cried out as he ground his teeth and +aimed at me with his axe a furious blow that I parried, "this time I +shall have your life and your skin!" + +"And I, Frankish wolf, I shall once more put my mark on your face, +whether dead or alive, so that the devil will recognize you!" + +For a long time we fought with maddening fury, all the while exchanging +insults that redoubled our rage. + +"Dog!" cried Neroweg. "You carried off my sister!" + +"I took her from your infamous love! In the bestiality of your unclean +race it couples like animals--brother with sister!" + +"Dare you insult my race, you bastard dog! Half Roman, half Gallic! My +race will subjugate yours, vile revolted slaves! We shall clap the yoke +back upon your necks--and we shall take possession of your goods, your +lands, and your wives!" + +"Just look yonder at your routed army, Oh, great king! Just take a look +at your packs of Frankish wolves, as cowardly as they are +ferocious--just look at them, fleeing from the fangs of the Gallic +dogs!" + +It was in the midst of such torrents of invectives that we fought with +heightening rage without either being able to wound the other. Many a +furiously aimed blow had glided harmlessly down our cuirasses; we seemed +to manage our swords with equal dexterity. Suddenly and despite all the +maddened rage of our duel, a strange spectacle drew away our attention +for an instant. After our horses had rolled to the ground under the +shock that they both received, they also rose to their feet. +Immediately, as is usually the case with stallions, they rushed at each +other neighing wildly, and with flashing eyes sought to tear each other +to pieces. My brave Tom-Bras had raised himself on his haunches, and, +holding the other steed by the neck between his teeth, was frantically +battering his belly with his hoofs. Nettled at seeing his horse at the +mercy of mine, Neroweg cried out without either he or I intermitting our +battle: + +"Folg! Will you allow that Gallic swine to vanquish you? Defend yourself +with your hoofs and teeth! Tear him to pieces!" + +"Steady, Tom-Bras!" I cried out in turn. "Disfigure and kill that horse, +as I shall disfigure and kill his master." + +I had hardly uttered these words when the Frank's sword penetrated my +thigh between skin and flesh, and it did so at the very moment when I +dealt him a blow over the head that would have been mortal but for the +backward move that Neroweg made in withdrawing his sword from my thigh. +My weapon thus missed its full aim, but struck him over the eye, and, by +a singular accident, plowed his face on the side opposite the one which +already bore my mark. + +"I told you so! Dead or living the other side of your face would be also +marked by me!" I cried at the moment when Neroweg, whose eye was put out +by my blow and whose face was bathed in blood, precipitated himself upon +me, roaring with pain and rage like an infuriated lion. Having calmly +made up my mind to kill the man, I did not allow myself to be carried +away with elation, but met his wrathful onset by throwing myself on the +defensive, and watched for the opportunity to deal him a certain and +mortal wound. + +We were thus engaged when Neroweg's stallion rolled to the ground under +the feet of Tom-Bras, whose rage seemed to increase with his success. +The animal almost fell upon us. Half a foot nearer, and we would both +have been thrown off our feet. + +At the same instant, a legion of our reserve cavalry, the muffled sound +of whose approaching tramp had struck my oars shortly before, hove in +sight. In the impetuosity of its headlong dash, the heavily armed +cavalry legion rode rough-shod and trampled over everything that lay in +its path. The legion was three ranks deep, and approached with the +swiftness of a gale. Both Neroweg and myself were doomed to be crushed +to dust; the legion's line of battle was two hundred paces long; even if +I had time to leap upon my horse, it would have been next to impossible +to get in time out of the way of that long line of cavalry by +endeavoring to ride, however swiftly, beyond the reach of either of its +wings. Escape seemed impossible from the threatened shock. Nevertheless, +I undertook it, despite my chagrin at not having been allowed time to +despatch the Frankish king--so inveterate was my hatred of him! I took +quick advantage of the accident, that, due to the fall of Neroweg's +horse, interrupted our battle a second before, and I leaped upon the +back of Tom-Bras that was near me. It required a rude handling of the +reins and of the flat of my sword before I could cause my courser to +desist from his infuriated assault upon the other stallion that he held +under and kicked and bit unmercifully. Finally I succeeded. The long +line of cavalry reaching far to my right and left was now only a few +paces from me. I rushed ahead of it, adding with my voice and my spurs +to the speed of Tom-Bras's rapid gallop; I rode on, keeping well in the +lead of the legion, and from time to time casting a look behind to see +the Frankish king, and what became of him. With his visage streaming +blood he sought distractedly to run after me and wildly brandished his +sword. Suddenly I saw him vanish in the cloud of dust raised by the +rapid gallop of the legion of cavalry. + +"Hesus hearkened to my prayer!" I cried out. "Neroweg must be dead. The +legion has trampled over his body." + +Thanks to Tom-Bras's exceptional swiftness, I was soon far enough in +advance of the cavalry line that followed me to think of imparting to my +course a direction that enabled me to take my place to the right of the +legion's line. I immediately addressed one of the officers, inquiring +after Victorin and the turn of the battle. He answered: + +"Victorin is fighting like a hero. A rider who brought to our reserve +the orders to advance said to us that never before did the general +reveal such consummate skill in his manoeuvres. Being more than twice +our numbers, and above all displaying unwonted military skill, the +Franks fought stubbornly. All the indications are that the day is ours, +but it shall have been paid for dearly. Thousands of Gauls will have +bitten the dust." + +The officer's report was correct. Victorin again fought with a soldier's +intrepidity and the consummate skill of an experienced general. I found +him, his heart overflowing with joy, in the midst of the melee. +Miraculously enough, he had received only a slight wound. His reserve +forces, skilfully managed by him, decided the fate of the battle. The +routed Franks, rolled back three leagues with our triumphant forces +pressing close upon their heels, were being crowded towards the Rhine +despite the stubbornness of their retreat. After enormous losses a +portion of their hordes were hurled headlong into the river, others +succeeded in regaining their rafts in disorder, and in towing them with +their barks from the shore. But at that moment the flotilla of a hundred +and sixty large vessels fell upon the fleeing Franks on the river. Upon +orders from Victorin, the flotilla had sped forward, doubled a tongue +of land behind which it had kept itself concealed until then, and came +into action. After a number of volleys of arrows that threw the Franks +on the rafts into utter demoralization, our barks boarded the rafts from +all sides. The episode that took place on the floating battlefield was +the last, but not the least bloody of that day. The barks that towed the +Frankish rafts were sunk under the blows of battle axes; the small +number of Franks who survived this supreme struggle gave themselves over +to the mercy of the river; clinging to some of the planks that were +loosened from their rafts, they were carried helplessly down stream. + +Although cruelly decimated, still our army thrilled with the ardor of +the fray as, massed along the bluffs of the river, it witnessed the +enemy's disastrous rout, upon which the rays of the westering sun shed +their parting light. At that sublime moment, the soldiers struck up in +chorus the heroic chant of the bard to the words and melody of which +they had stepped to battle in the morning: + + "This morning we say:-- + 'How many are there of these barbarous hordes, + Who thievishly aspire to rob us of land, + Of homes, of wives, and of sunshine? + Yea, how many are there of these Franks?' + + "This evening we'll say:-- + 'Make answer, thou sod, red drenched + In the blood of the stranger; + Make answer, ye deep-rolling waves of the Rhine; + Make answer, ye crows that flutter for carrion, + Make answer--make answer! + How many were they, + These robbers of land, of homes, of wives and of sunshine? + Aye, how many were there, + Of these blood-thirsty, ravenous Franks?'" + +The last strophes of the refrain were falling from the lips of our +soldiers when, from the other side of the river--which was so wide at +that place that the opposite bank could hardly be distinguished, veiled +moreover, as it was by the rising evening haze--I noticed a gleam that, +rapidly gaining in brightness and extent, soon spanned the horizon like +the reflection of a gigantic conflagration. + +Victorin immediately cried: + +"Our brave Marion has carried out his plans at the head of his picked +men and the allied tribes on the other side of the Rhine. He marched +with them upon the camp of the Franks. The last reserve force of the +barbarians must have been cut to pieces, and their huts and wagons given +over to the flames! By Hesus! Rid at last of the neighborhood of those +savage marauders, Gaul will now enjoy the sweets of a friendly peace! +Oh, my mother! Your prayers have been heard!" + +Victorin had just uttered these words with a face beaming with bliss, +when I saw a considerable body of our soldiers belonging to different +cavalry and infantry corps of the army marching slowly towards him. All +of these soldiers were old men. Douarnek marched at their head. When the +body had drawn near, Douarnek advanced alone a few steps and said in a +grave and firm voice: + +"Listen, Victorin! Each legion of cavalry, each cohort of infantry, +chose its oldest soldier. They are the comrades who accompany me yonder. +Like myself, they have known you from the day of your birth; like myself +they have seen you as a baby in the arms of Victoria, the Mother of the +Camps, the august mother of the soldiers. We long have loved you out of +love both for her and yourself. We acclaimed you our general and one of +the two Chiefs of Gaul. We, veterans in war, have loved you as our son +while we obeyed you as our father. And then came the day when, ever +obeying you as our general and a Chief of Gaul, our love for you was +less--" + +"And why did your love for me decline?" Victorin interrupted, struck by +the solemn tone of the old soldier. "Why, pray, did your love for me +decline?" + +"Because we respected you less. But if you have faults, we also have +ours; to-day's battle proves it to us. We have come to make the +admission to you." + +"Let us hear it," replied Victorin affectionately; "let us hear what are +my faults and which are yours!" + +"Your faults, Victorin, are these--you love too much, much more than is +meet, both wine and pretty girls!" + +"By all the sweethearts that you have had, my old Douarnek, by all the +cups that you have emptied and that you will still empty, why such words +on the evening of a battle that we have won?" merrily answered Victorin, +who was slowly returning to his natural weakness, now no longer held +under by concern for the battle. "In truth! There was no need for you +and your comrades to put yourselves to the trouble of reproaching me +with my peccadillos. Speak up frankly, are these reproaches that are +usual from soldier to soldier?" + +"From soldier to soldier, no, Victorin!" resumed Douarnek with severity, +"but from soldier to general, yes! We freely chose you our chief; we +must speak freely to you! The more we have loved you, you, young man, +the more we have honored you, all the more are we entitled to say to +you: Keep yourself at the height of your mission!" + +"I endeavor to, brave Douarnek, by fighting at my best, by leading our +legions in the hottest of the fray." + +"All is not said when one has done his duty in battle. You are not a +captain only, you are also a Chief of Gaul!" + +"Be it so! But why, in the name of all the devils, do you imagine, my +brave Douarnek, that as a general and a Chief of Gaul I should be less +sensitive than a soldier to the splendor of two beautiful black or blue +eyes, or to the bouquet of good old white or red wine?" + +"The man chosen by free men should, even in matters that appertain to +his private life, observe wise moderation if he wishes to be beloved, +obeyed and respected. Have you observed such moderation? No! And +accordingly, having seen you swallow a pea, we have believed you capable +of gulping down an ox. It is in that that we did wrong!" + +"What! My boys!" the young general replied smiling. "Did you really +think I had such a maw as to be able to swallow a whole ox?" + +"We often saw you in your cups--we knew you to be a runner after girls. +We were told that on one occasion, being intoxicated, you violated a +woman, a tavern-keeper's wife on one of the isles of the Rhine, who +thereupon killed herself in despair. We believed the story. Were we +perhaps mistaken in that?" + +"Malediction!" cried Victorin indignantly and with grief depicted on his +face. "And you believed such a thing of my mother's son!" + +"Yes," answered the veteran, "yes--in that lay the wrong that we did. So +that we each did wrong--you and we. We have come to notify you that we +are ready to forget the past, and that our hearts remain loyal to you. +We wish you, in turn, to forgive us, so that we may love you and you us +as in the past. Is it agreed, Victorin?" + +"Yes," answered Victorin, deeply moved by the veteran's loyal and +touching words; "it is agreed." + +"Your hand!" replied Douarnek, "in the name of our comrades." + +"Here it is," said the young general, stooping down over his horse's +neck in order cordially to clasp the veteran's hand. "I thank you for +your frankness, my children. I shall be to you as you are to me for the +glory and peace of Gaul. Without you I can do nothing; although it is +the general who carries the triumphal chaplet, it is the soldier's +bravery that weaves it, and imparts to it the purple of his own blood!" + +"It is, then, agreed, Victorin," Douarnek replied with moistening eyes. +"Our blood belongs to you, to the last drop--and to our beloved Gaul--to +your glory!" + +"And to my mother who made me what I am," interrupted Victorin with +increasing emotion; "and to my mother our respect, our love, our +devotion, my children!" + +"Long live the Mother of the Camps!" cried Douarnek in a resonant voice. +"Long live Victorin, her glorious son!" + +Douarnek's companions, the rest of the soldiers and officers, in short, +all of us present at this scene joined in the cheers of Douarnek: + +"Long live the Mother of the Camps! Long live Victorin, her glorious +son!" + +The whole army thereupon set itself in march back to the camp while, +under the protection of a legion that was ordered to watch our +prisoners, the medical druids and their aides remained on the field of +battle to gather the dead, and tend the wounded, both Frank and Gallic. + +It was a superb summer's night, that in which the army struck the road +to Mayence. As it marched, the banks of the Rhine re-echoed to the chant +of the bard: + + "This morning we say:-- + 'How many are there of these barbarous hordes, + Who thievishly aspire to rob us of land, + Of homes, of wires and of sunshine? + Yes, how many are there of these Franks?' + + "This evening we'll say:-- + 'Make answer, thou sod, red drenched + In the blood of the stranger; + Make answer, ye deep-rolling waves of the Rhine; + Make answer, ye crows that flutter for carrion, + Make answer--make answer! + How many were they, + These robbers of land, of homes, of wives and of sunshine? + Aye, how many were there, + Of these blood-thirsty, ravenous Franks?'" + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +THE HOMEWARD RIDE. + + +In his haste to inform his mother of our splendid victory, Victorin +passed the command of the troops to one of the oldest chiefs. We changed +our tired horses for two fresh ones which were always led by the reins +ready for Victorin's use, and he and I rode rapidly towards Mayence. + +The night was serene; the moon shone superbly among myriads of +stars--those unknown worlds where we shall proceed to live when we leave +this world. Strange! In the very midst of the ineffable bliss that I +experienced at the triumph of our army, a triumph that insured the peace +and prosperity of Gaul; in the very midst of the pleasurable thoughts of +soon again seeing your mother and you, my son, after a hard day's +fighting; in the very midst of all these pleasing emotions a sudden fit +of profound melancholy came over me, a painful presentiment saddened my +heart. + +In the fulness of my gratitude to the gods, I had raised my eyes to +heaven in order to thank them for our success. The moon shed its +brilliant light upon our path. I know not for what reason, but that +moment my thoughts traveled back to our ancestors, and I recalled with +sad piety all the glorious, the touching and the terrible deeds that +they had done, and upon which also the sacred luminary of Gaul shed its +never-ceasing light generations and generations ago. The sacrifice of +Hena; the journey of Albinik the mariner and his wife Meroë to Caesar's +camp, across a region that was heroically given up to the flames by our +fathers during their war with the Romans; the nocturnal expeditions of +Sylvest the slave to the secret meetings of the Sons of the Mistletoe +and to the palace of Faustina, his escape and flight from the circus of +Orange where he came near being devoured by ferocious beasts; and +finally the bold insurrections, the formidable revolts, the signal for +which was ever given by the courses of the moon, as prearranged by our +venerable druids; all these events that lay in the distant past rose at +that moment before my mind like pale phantoms of the past. + +The merry voice of Victorin drew me from my meditations: + +"What are you dreaming about? How can you, one of the vanquishers in +this fair day's battle, be as mute as one of the vanquished?" + +"Victorin, I was thinking of days that are no more--of events that took +place during the centuries that have rolled by--" + +"A curious thought!" replied the young general; and giving a loose to +his exuberant feelings he proceeded to say: "Let us leave the past to +the empty cups and the departed sweethearts! As for me, I am thinking +first of all of my mother's joy when she will learn of our victory; +next, my thoughts run, and they run strongly, upon the burning black +eyes of Kidda the Bohemian girl, who is waiting for me. When I left her +this morning, at the close of the protracted banquet to which she drew +me by a ruse, she made an appointment with me for this evening. This +will be a well rounded day, Schanvoch! A battle in the morning, and, in +the evening, a festive supper with a charming sweetheart on my knees! +Ah! It is pleasurable to be a soldier and twenty years of age!" + +"Listen, Victorin. So long as the cares of battle lay upon your mind, I +saw you wise, thoughtful and grave, as becomes a Chief of Gaul, and at +all points worthy of your mother and yourself--" + +"And by the beautiful eyes of Kidda, am I not still worthy of myself +when my thoughts turn to her after battle?" + +"Do you know, Victorin, that Douarnek's mission to you in the name of +the whole army is an evidence of the proud independence that animates +our soldiers, whose free will alone made you a general? Do you realize +that such words, pronounced by such men, are not, and will not be +vain--and that it will be fatal to forget them?" + +"Why, Schanvoch! It was a whim of veterans who grieve over their lost +youth--old men's words, censuring pleasures that their age can no longer +taste." + +"Victorin, you affect an indifference that your heart does not share. I +saw you touched, deeply affected by the language of that old +soldier--and also by the attitude of his comrades." + +"One feels so happy on the evening of a battle won, that everything +pleases. Besides, although his words were peevish enough, did they not +betoken the army's affection for me?" + +"Do not deceive yourself, Victorin! The army's affection for you +ebbed--it returned at floodtide with to-day's great victory. But, be +careful! Fresh acts of imprudence will furnish the basis for fresh +calumnies, started by those who would wish to undo you--" + +"And who wishes to undo me?" + +"A chief always has rivals who envy him secretly; and you will not have +every day a triumph on the battle field to confound those envious souls +with. Thanks to the gods, the utter annihilation of these barbarous +hordes insures the peace of our beloved Gaul for many a year to come!" + +"All the better, Schanvoch! All the better! Becoming again one of Gaul's +most obscure citizens, and hanging my sword, that will have become +useless, beside that of my father, I shall then be free to empty +innumerable cups without restraint, and to make love to all the Bohemian +girls of the universe!" + +"Victorin! Be careful, I repeat! Remember the words of the old soldier!" + +"The devil take the old soldier and his foolish harangue! At this hour I +think only of Kidda! Ah! Schanvoch, if you only saw her dance with her +short skirt and her silvery corsage!" + +"Be careful! Both the camp and the town have their eyes upon those +Bohemian dancers! Your friendly relations with them will make a scandal! +Take my advice! Be reserved in your conduct; at any rate, veil your +amours in secrecy and obscurity!" + +"Obscurity? Secrecy? No hypocrisy! I love to display to the eyes of all, +the sweethearts that I am proud of! And I am even prouder of Kidda than +of to-day's victory!" + +"Victorin! Victorin! Be careful, or that woman will be fatal to you!" + +"Oh! Schanvoch! If you heard Kidda sing and dance, accompanying herself +with a tambourine--Oh! If you heard and saw her you would become as +crazily in love with her as I am! But," added the young general breaking +off the thread of his delighted description, and pointing ahead of him, +"look at yonder torches! Heaven be praised! It is my mother! In her +anxiety to know the issue of the day she must have ridden out towards +the battle field! Oh, Schanvoch! I am young, impetuous, ardent after +pleasures, that never leave me. I enjoy them with the delight of +intoxication--and yet, I swear to you by my father's sword, I would +exchange all my future pleasures for the happiness that I am about to +experience when my mother will press me to her heart!" + +Saying this, the young general gave the reins to his horse and without +waiting for me rode forward to meet Victoria, who was, indeed, +approaching. When I reached the group, they had both alighted. Victoria +held Victorin in a close embrace, and was saying to him in accents +impossible to describe: + +"My son, I am a happy mother!" + +It was only then that I perceived by the light of the torches of +Victoria's escort that her right hand was bandaged. Victorin inquired +with anxiety: + +"Are you wounded, mother?" + +"Only slightly," answered Victoria. And addressing me she extended her +hand affectionately, saying: + +"Brother, you are with us! My heart overflows with joy!" + +"But who gave you the wound?" + +"The Frankish woman whom Ellen and Sampso brought to my house after your +departure--" + +"Elwig!" I cried horrified. "Oh! The accursed creature! She has approved +herself worthy of her race!" + +"Schanvoch," Victoria said to me gravely, "we must not curse the dead. +She whom you call Elwig lives no more--" + +"Mother!" cried Victorin with increased anxiety. "Dear mother! Are you +certain the wound is slight?" + +"Here, my son; I shall let you see it!" + +And in order to reassure Victorin, she unwound the bandage in which her +right hand was wrapped. + +"You can see for yourself," she added. "I cut myself only in two places +in the palm of my hand as I sought to disarm the woman." + +Indeed, the wounds that my foster-sister exhibited were two long but by +no means deep cuts. They were in no respect serious. + +"And Elwig was armed?" I inquired, seeking to recollect the events of +the previous evening. "Where could she have found a weapon? Unless last +evening, before starting to swim after us, she picked up her knife from +the beach and hid it under her clothes." + +"And how and when did the woman try to stab you, mother? Were you alone +with her?" + +"I asked Schanvoch to have Elwig brought to me at noon; I wanted to see +her and give her my help. Ellen and Sampso brought her to me. I happened +to be speaking with Robert, the chief of our reserves; we were +considering measures for the defense of the camp and town in the event +of our army's defeat. Elwig was taken to a contiguous apartment, and +Schanvoch's wife and sister-in-law left the stranger alone while I sent +for an interpreter to help us understand each other. At the close of my +conversation with Robert on military matters, he asked me for some help +for the widow of an old soldier. That took me to the chamber where Elwig +was waiting for me. I went in for some silver pieces which I kept in a +little casket in which were also several Gallic jewels, necklaces and +bracelets that I inherited from my mother--" + +"If the casket was open," I cried, the savage cupidity of Neroweg's +sister flashing through my mind, "Elwig, like the true daughter of a +race of thieves, must have wished to seize some of the precious +articles." + +"And that was how it happened, Schanvoch. When I entered, the young +Frankish woman was holding in her hand a gold necklace of exquisite +workmanship. She was contemplating it greedily. The moment she saw me +she dropped the necklace at her feet, and crossing her arms over her +breast she looked at me for a moment in silence and with a savage +expression. Her pale face became red with shame and rage. She then gave +me a somber look, and pronounced my name. I supposed she asked whether I +was Victoria. I nodded my head affirmatively and said: 'Yes, I am +Victoria.' I had hardly uttered the words when Elwig threw herself at my +feet. Her forehead almost touched the floor, as if she humbly implored +my protection. The woman must doubtlessly have profited by the movement +to draw her knife from under her clothes without my perceiving it. I +stooped down to raise her, when she suddenly leaped up, and with eyes +that shot fire sought to stab me, while saying 'Victoria!' 'Victoria!' +in a tone of rooted hatred." + +Although the danger was over, Victorin shuddered at the report that his +mother was making; he approached her, gently took the wounded hand +between his own, and kissed it tenderly and lovingly. + +"When I saw Elwig's knife raised over me," added Victoria, "my first and +involuntary movement was to parry the blow and try to seize the knife, +while I cried aloud to Robert for help. Robert rushed in and saw me +struggling with Elwig. I was cut in the hand and my blood flowed. Robert +believed me dangerously wounded, drew his sword, seized Elwig by the +throat, and despatched her before I had time to stay his hand. I deplore +the death of the Frankish woman--she came voluntarily to my house." + +"You pity her, mother!" cried Victorin. "That creature thievish and +savage like the rest of her kith! You pity her! I feel certain that she +followed Schanvoch only in order to find an opportunity to introduce +herself into your house, cut your throat and then rob you!" + +"I pity her for being born of such a stock," answered Victoria sadly. "I +pity her for having harbored murder in her heart." + +"Believe me," I said to my foster-sister. "That woman's death is a just +punishment; besides it puts an end to a life that was soiled with crimes +at which nature shudders. May it have pleased the gods that, like Elwig, +her brother Neroweg lost his life to-day, and that his stock may be +extinguished in him. I will otherwise regret all my life that I did not +finish the man when I had a chance. I have a presentiment that his +descendants will be fatal to mine." + +Victoria gave me a look of astonishment at hearing me utter these words, +the sense of which she could not comprehend. + +But Victorin turned her thoughts and mine into other channels, +exclaiming: + +"Hesus be blessed, mother! This was a happy day for Gaul! You escaped a +grave danger, and our arms are victorious! The Franks are driven from +our frontier!--" + +Victorin broke off; he seemed to listen to a sound in the distance; with +flashing eyes he resumed: + +"Do you hear, mother? Do you hear the song that the wind carries to our +ears?" + +We all remained silent; and repeated in chorus by thousands of voices +tremulous with the joy of triumph, the following refrain reached us +across the stillness of the night: + + "This morning we said:-- + 'How many are there of these barbarians?' + This evening we say:-- + 'How many were there of these blood-thirsty Franks!'" + + + + +PART II. + +DOMESTIC TRAITORS. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +GATHERING SHADOWS. + + +Several years have elapsed since I wrote for you, my child, the account +that closed with the great battle of the Rhine. + +The utter annihilation of the Frankish hordes and the simultaneous +destruction of their establishment on the other side of the river, freed +Gaul of the perpetual fear that she stood in, of a threatened invasion +of barbarians. Perhaps from their retreat in the woods of northern +Germany the Franks are now only awaiting a favorable opportunity to +swoop down again upon Gaul. But for all the joy of this deliverance, I +now resume my narrative after having experienced years of bitter sorrow. +Great misfortunes have befallen me across this interval. I have seen a +frightful intrigue of hypocrisy and malice unfold before my eyes. Since +then an incurable sadness has taken possession of my soul. I left the +borders of the Rhine for Brittany; here I established myself with your +second mother and you, my son, at the identical place that long ago was +the cradle of our family--near the sacred stones of Karnak, the +witnesses of the heroic sacrifice of our ancestress Hena. + +Only yesterday, as I was returning from the fields with you--from a +soldier I have become a field laborer like our fathers in the days of +their independence--only yesterday I pointed out to you, on the border +of the stream, two hollow willow trees; they were old. Their age must +now be more than three hundred years. They are so very, very old that +they no longer put forth but a few straggling leaves. You asked me to +tie a rope between the two trees for you to swing yourself. You noticed +with surprise that I grew sad at your request, and that I suddenly +became pensive. + +It occurred to me how, nearly three hundred years ago, by a strange +coincidence it occurred to Sylvest and his sister Syomara to tie a rope +between those identical trees in order to disport themselves. Nor were, +alas! those recollections the only ones that those two centenarian +trunks brought back to my mind. I said to you: + +"Look at those two trees with sadness and veneration, my son. One of our +ancestors, Guilhern, the son of Joel, the brenn of the tribe of Karnak, +died an atrocious death bound to one of them; Guilhern's son, a lad a +little older than yourself and named Sylvest, was tied to the other +willow to die the same death as his father. An unexpected accident +snatched him from the frightful fate."[3] + +"And what was their crime?" you asked me. + +"The crime of the father and of his son was to have tried to escape from +bondage, so as not to be forced to cultivate under a master's whip, with +the slave's collar on their necks and chains to their feet, the fields +that were their own patrimony. They wished to escape cultivating those +fields for the benefit of the Romans who had robbed them of them." + +My answer astonished you still more, my child--you who always lived +happy and free, who until now have known no other grief than that of the +loss of your dear mother, of whom you have preserved only a vague +memory. You were barely four years and two months old a short time after +the victory that Gaul won over the Franks on the border of the Rhine. + +You will remember that I broke off our conversation, and that I relapsed +into one of those fits of melancholy that I find it impossible to +overcome every time I recall the terrible domestic catastrophes that +befell us on the Rhine. But I always regain courage when I remember the +duty imposed upon me by our ancestor Joel, who lived nearly three +hundred years ago in the same place where we are now again established +after our family's having experienced innumerable vicissitudes. + +When you will be old enough to read these pages, my son, you will +understand the cause of these mortal fits of sadness in which you have +often seen me steeped, despite your second mother's tenderness, whom I +could not cherish too dearly. Yes, when you will have read the last and +solemn words of Victoria, the Mother of the Camps, dreadful words, you +will then understand that, however painful may be to me the past that +will throw a shadow over my path until death, the future that is perhaps +in store for Gaul by the mysterious will of Hesus, must fill me with +still greater anguish--and you will share my anguish, my son, when you +reflect over the wise and profound observation of our ancestor Sylvest: + +"Alas, every time the nation is wounded the family bleeds." + +Aye, if Victoria was endowed with the science of foreseeing the future, +as so many of our venerable female druids have been before her; if ever +her redoubtable prophecies are verified--then, woe is Gaul! Woe is our +race! Woe is our family! A longer period of even more cruel sufferings +will lie before our country under the yoke of the Rome of the Bishops +than it experienced under the yoke of the Rome of the Caesars and the +Emperors! + +As I said before, I now resume the thread of my narrative where I +dropped it several years ago. + +After an extensive conversation on the events of the day, Victorin and +his mother returned to Mayence, where they arrived late in the evening. +Pretending great fatigue and some pain from the light wound that he +received, the young general retired. The moment he reached his house he +threw off his armor, and wrapping himself in his cloak repaired to the +Bohemian girls. + +"That woman will be fatal to you," were my words to the young general on +our way from the battle field. Alas! My foresight was destined to prove +true. By the way of these creatures, keep in mind, my son, a +circumstance with which I later became acquainted; you will presently +appreciate its importance--those Bohemian girls came to Mayence two days +after the arrival of Tetrik in the same town, and they arrived from +Gascony, the department that he governed. + +This discovery, together with many others, imparted to me such accurate +information on certain facts that I am enabled to describe them the same +as if I had been present. + +As I said, Victorin left his house at night to keep his assignation with +Kidda, the Bohemian girl. He had met her only the previous evening for +the first time. She made a deep impression upon him. He was young, +handsome, bright and generous. That very day he had won a glorious +battle. He was well aware of the easy morals of those strolling singers, +who, in effect, were nothing but courtesans. He felt certain that he +would possess the object of this latest whim. How great must his +surprise have been when Kidda said to him with well simulated firmness, +sadness and repressed passion: + +"Victorin, I shall not speak to you of my virtue; you will laugh at the +virtue of a strolling Bohemian singer. But you may believe me when I say +that long before I saw you, your glorious name had reached me. Your +renown for valor and goodness made my heart beat, unworthy of you as +that heart is, seeing that I am a poor, degraded creature. Believe me, +Victorin," she added with tears in her eyes, "if I were pure, you would +have my love and my life; but I am soiled; I do not deserve your +attention. I love you too passionately, I honor you too much ever to +offer to you the remains of an existence debased by men, who are not +worthy of being compared with you." + +So far from cooling, the hypocritical language fired the ardor of +Victorin; it exalted him beyond measure. His sensual whim for the woman +was speedily transformed into a consuming and mad passion. Despite his +protestations of devotion, despite his entreaties, despite his tears--he +actually wept at the feet of the execrable woman--the Bohemian remained +inexorable. Victorin's nature underwent thereupon a marked change. From +mirthful, pleasant and open, it became retired and morose. He grew +somber and taciturn. Both his mother and I were ignorant at the time of +the cause of the change. To our pressing questions the young general +would answer that, being struck by the manifestations of displeasure +that the army had shown towards him, he did not wish to expose himself +to a recurrence of their anger; thenceforth his life was to be austere +and retired. With the exception of a few hours that he consecrated every +day to his mother, Victorin now rarely left his house, and he avoided +the company of his former boon companions. Struck, on their part, by his +sudden change of deportment, the soldiers saw in it only the salutary +effect of the remonstrances made to their young general in their name by +Douarnek. They cherished him more than ever before. I later learned +that, in his self-imposed solitude, the unhappy man habitually drank +himself into utter stupor in order to forget his fatal passion, and that +every evening he repaired to the Bohemian dancer's, only, however, to +find her pitiless as ever. + +About a month passed in this manner. Tetrik remained in Mayence in order +to overcome Victoria's repugnance to the idea of having her grandson +acclaimed the heir of his father's office. But Victoria ever answered +the Governor of Gascony, saying: + +"Ritha-Gaur, who made himself a blouse of the beard of the kings whom he +shaved, overthrew royalty in Gaul about ten centuries ago. He held that, +under royalty, it is the people and their descendants who are +transmitted by hereditary right, to kings, and that these are rarely +good, and generally bad. More and more enlightened by our venerable +druids, the Gauls have wisely preferred to elect the chief whom they +consider worthiest to govern them. They thus constituted themselves into +a Republic. My grandson is still a child in his cradle; no one can know +whether he will later have the qualities that are necessary for the +government of a great people like ours. To acknowledge this child to-day +as the heir of his father's office is tantamount to restoring the +royalty that we have wisely overthrown. I hate royalty as much as did +Ritha-Gaur." + +Still hoping to overcome the resolution of the Mother of the Camps by +his persistence, Tetrik prolonged his stay in Mayence--at least I was +long under the impression that such was the only reason for his +postponing his departure. Nor did Tetrik seem to be less surprised at +the unaccountable change that came over Victorin. The latter, although +plunged in brooding sadness, still preserved his affection for me. I +even thought that more than once he was on the point of opening his +heart to me and of confiding to me what he there kept hidden. Later, +however, he ceased calling at my house as he formerly used to, and +seemed even to avoid meeting me. His features, once so handsome and +open, were no longer the same. Pale with suffering, worn by excessive +and solitary indulgence in wine, their expression gradually assumed a +sinister aspect. At times a sort of dementia seemed to speak out of his +alternately fixed and wandering gaze. + +About five weeks after the great battle of the Rhine, Victorin resumed +his visits to my house. The turn was marked, both in point of suddenness +and assiduity. Noticeable was the circumstance that the hours which he +chose for his visits were those during which Sampso and my wife were +home alone, I being at Victoria's writing the letters which she +dictated. Ellen received the son of my foster-sister with her wonted +affability. At first I imagined that, sorry at having kept himself away +from me without cause and by a mere whim, he sought to bring about a +reconciliation by means of my wife. I believed this all the more seeing +that, despite his persistence in seeking to avoid me, he never spoke of +me to Ellen except in terms of deep affection. Sampso was usually +present at the conversations between her sister and Victorin. Only once +did she leave them alone, and then, when she returned she was struck by +the painful expression on my wife's face and the visible embarrassment +shown by Victorin, who speedily took his departure. + +"What is the matter, Ellen?" asked Sampso. + +"Sister, I conjure you, never again leave me alone with Victoria's son. +May it please the gods that I am mistaken! But to judge from some broken +words that Victorin let drop, to judge by the expression of his face, I +imagine that he is moved by a guilty love for me--and yet he is aware of +my devotion to Schanvoch!" + +"Sister!" exclaimed Sampso, "Victorin's excesses have ever shocked me, +but latterly he seems to have changed. The sacrifice of his unregulated +pleasures doubtlessly costs him much; notwithstanding the young +general's changed conduct is praised by everyone, they all comment on +his profound sadness. I can not believe him capable of thinking of +dishonoring your husband, who loves Victorin as if he were his own +child, and who even saved his life in battle. You must be mistaken, +Ellen! No! Such baseness is not possible!" + +"I only hope you are right, Sampso; nevertheless, I must conjure you not +to leave me alone with Victorin if he comes again. At any rate, I mean +to tell all to Schanvoch." + +"Be careful, Ellen. If, as I believe, you are mistaken, you would but +raise a frightful and unjustified suspicion in your husband's breast. +You know how attached he is to Victoria and her son. Only imagine +Schanvoch's despair at such a revelation! Ellen, follow my advice, +receive Victorin once more alone. Should your suspicions grow into +certainty, then, hesitate no longer--reveal Victorin's treachery to +Schanvoch. It would otherwise be imprudent on your part to awaken in him +suspicions that may be wholly baseless. An infamous hypocrite, however, +should be unmasked, when there is no longer any doubt as to his +purpose." + +Ellen promised her sister to follow her advice. But Victorin never +returned. I learned all these details only later. This happened in the +course of the fifth or sixth week after the great battle of the Rhine, +and exactly eight days before the catastrophe that it is my duty, my +son, to relate to you. + +On that fateful day I spent the early part of the evening near Victoria +conferring with her upon an urgent mission on which I was to depart on +that very evening, and which might keep me several days from home. +Although Victorin promised his mother to be present at the conference, +the purpose of which was known to him, he remained away. I did not +wonder at his absence. For some time, and without it being possible for +me to fathom his whimsical conduct, he had avoided all opportunity of +encountering me. Victoria said to me pathetically when I left her at the +usual hour: + +"Private feelings must be hushed before interests of state. I have +spoken to you fully on the subject of the mission that I have charged +you with, Schanvoch. And now the mother will unbosom her private grief. +I had this morning a sad conversation with my son. I vainly implored him +to confide to me the cause of the secret sorrow that is consuming him. +He answered me with a distressful smile: + +"'Mother, one time you reproached me with my levity and my too strong +taste for pleasures--those days are now far behind--I now live in +solitude and meditation. My lodging, where formerly the joyful din of +song and revelry by torch light used to keep the night astir, is now +lonely, silent and somber--like myself. Our scrupulous soldiers feel +edified at my conversion, and now no longer reproach me with too much +love for joy, wine and women! What more do you want, mother?' + +"'I want much more,' I replied to him, unable to restrain my tears. 'I +want to see you happy as in the past. You suffer, my son; you suffer a +pain that you conceal from me. The consciousness of a wise and +thoughtful life, as becomes the chief of a great people, imparts to his +face a grave yet serene expression. Your face, however, is haggard, +sinister, pale, like that of a man distracted and in despair--'" + +"And what did Victorin say to that?" + +"Nothing. He relapsed into the gloomy brooding in which I find him so +often plunged, and from which he emerges only to cast wandering looks +about. I then showed him his child, whom I held in my arms. He took it, +kissed it several times with great tenderness, put it back into its +cradle, and left abruptly without saying a word. I believe he wished to +hide his tears from me. I saw that he wept. Oh! Schanvoch, my heart +breaks when I think of the future that seemed to me so rosy for Gaul, +for my son and for me!" + +I sought to console Victoria by joining her in conjecturing the cause of +her son's mysterious grief. The hour grew late. I was to travel all that +night in order to fulfil my mission as promptly as possible. I left my +foster-sister's and proceeded home in order to embrace your mother and +you, my son, before starting on my journey. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE CATASTROPHE. + + +When I reached home, my son, I found your mother Ellen and her sister +Sampso seated near your cradle. The moment Sampso saw me she cried: + +"You arrive in time, Schanvoch, to help me convince Ellen that her fears +are groundless--she is weeping--" + +"What ails you, Ellen? What afflicts you?" + +She dropped her head, made no answer, and continued weeping. + +"She does not dare to admit to you the cause of her affliction, +Schanvoch; my sister weeps because you are about to depart." + +"What?" I asked Ellen in a tone of tender reproach, "you who are always +so brave even when I leave for battle, are now timorous and tearful when +I am only going on a peaceful journey that will not keep me away more +than a few days--a journey into Gaul, where peace reigns! Ellen, your +apprehensions are groundless." + +"That is exactly what I have been repeating to my sister. Your journey +does not expose you to any danger; and if you depart to-night it is +because the matter is urgent." + +"Yes, indeed! Why, it must be a positive pleasure to journey in the +manner that I am about to do--on a mild summer's night, across the +smiling fields of our own beautiful country that is to-day so calm and +peaceful!" + +"I know all that," said Ellen in a tremulous voice. "My alarm is +senseless; and yet this journey fills me with dread." + +And stretching her arms towards me imploringly: + +"Schanvoch, my beloved husband, do not depart; I conjure you--do not +depart--" + +"Ellen," I replied sadly, "for the first time in my life I am compelled +to answer you with a refusal--" + +"I beg you, stay near me!" + +"I would sacrifice everything to you, my duty excepted. The mission with +which I am charged by Victoria is important--I promised to fulfil it. I +must keep my word." + +"Well, then, go," answered my wife amid a paroxysm of sobs, "and let my +fate come upon me; it is your will!" + +"Sampso, what fate does she mean?" + +"Alas! Since this morning my sister has been a prey to gloomy +presentiments. She admitted them to be as unaccountable as I considered +them myself, and yet she is unable to overcome them. She says she feels +certain that she will never see you again--or that some grave peril +threatens you during your journey." + +"Ellen, my beloved wife," I said, clasping her to my heart, "need I tell +you that, short as our separation may be, it is always hard for me to be +away from you? Would you add to that sorrow, the even greater one of +having to leave you in such a desolate state?" + +"Pardon me," answered Ellen making a strong effort over herself. "You +are right; such weakness is unworthy of the wife of a soldier. See; I +have stopped weeping. I am calm; your words have reassured me; I am +ashamed of my timorous terrors; but in the name of our child who is now +asleep in his cradle, do not go away annoyed at me. Let your good-bye +caresses be tender as ever; I shall need that; yes, I shall need that in +order to recover the courage that I am deficient in to-day." + +Despite her apparent resignation, my wife seemed to suffer so much under +the restraint that she imposed upon herself, that for a moment I thought +of requesting Victoria to transfer the commission to Captain Marion, to +the end that I might remain at home. One consideration held me back from +putting the thought into execution; the time was too short. Seeing that +the journey had to be undertaken that same night, Captain Marion could +not possibly start on the spot. It would take hours in order to post the +captain upon a matter of which he knew absolutely nothing, and which +demanded promptness for success. Yielding to my duty, and, I must also +say, convinced of the idleness of Ellen's fears, I decided to depart. I +clasped her in my arms, and recommending her to the tender care of +Sampso, I mounted my horse and rode off. + +It was ten o'clock at night. A rider was to serve as my escort and +messenger in case I had occasion to write to Victoria on the road. The +rider was chosen for me by Captain Marion, to whom I applied for a +reliable man; I found him ready, waiting for me at one of the gates of +Mayence, and we trotted forth together. Although the moon was not to +rise until late, the night was luminous by the light of the stars. I +noticed, although without attaching at the time any importance to the +circumstance, that, despite the mildness of the season, my traveling +companion had on a heavy coat the hood of which fell down deep over his +casque, so that even in full daylight it would have been difficult for +me to see the man's face. Although a simple soldier like myself, instead +of riding beside me, he allowed me to ride ahead of him without +exchanging a word. On any other occasion, and being like all Gauls of a +chatty disposition, I would not have accepted this mark of exaggerated +deference; it would have deprived me of the conversation of a companion +during a long ride. But I was saddened by the condition in which I had +left my wife, and as despite myself, my mind insisted upon turning upon +the sad forebodings that alarmed her, the sense of sadness grew upon me +in the measure that the distance separating us increased; consequently I +did not regret being left to my reflections during a part of the night. +Thus, the rider following me, we traveled away from the town. + +We had ridden about two hours without exchanging a word; the moon due in +the sky towards midnight began to show her disk behind a hill that +bounded the horizon. We had arrived at a crossing where four highways, +built by the Romans, met. I slackened Tom-Bras's pace in order to +ascertain the road I was to take, when suddenly my traveling companion +raised his voice behind me and cried: + +"Schanvoch, ride back home at full tilt--a horrible crime is being +committed at this hour in your house!" + +At these words I quickly turned in my saddle. By the glamour of the +rising moon I could see the rider give a stupendous bound with his +horse, clear the hedge that lined the road, and vanish in the shadow of +the forest that we had been skirting for some time. Struck dumb with +terror, I remained motionless for a moment; when, yielding to an impulse +of curiosity and anguish, I thought of dashing after the rider and +compelling an explanation of his words, it was too late. The moon was +not yet far up enough to justify my pursuing the fugitive through the +wood, which, moreover, was unknown to me. Besides, the rider had too +much the lead of me. I listened intently for a moment, and I could hear +in the profound stillness of the night the rapid gallop of the man's +horse. He was far away. It seemed to me that he resumed the road to +Mayence through the forest, consequently by a shorter route. For a +moment I hesitated what to do. But recalling my wife's unaccountable +forebodings and comparing them with the rider's words, I turned my +horse's head and dashed back to the city. + +"If," I thought to myself, "by some unconceivable accident the +announcement to which I hearkened was as ill founded as Ellen's +forebodings, with which, however, it strangely coincided; if my alarm +turns out to be vain, I shall take a fresh horse at the camp and +immediately resume my journey, which will have been delayed by three +hours." + +With voice and heels I urged on the rapid course of my horse Tom-Bras, +and I rode headlong towards Mayence. In the measure that I approached +the place where I left my wife and child, the gloomiest thoughts crowded +upon me. What crime could it be that was being committed in my house? +Was it to a friend, or was it to an enemy that I owed the revelation? At +times I imagined the rider's voice was not unknown to me, yet I could +not remember where I had heard it before. That which, above all, added +fuel to my anxiety was the mysterious accord between the announcement +just made to me and the presentiments that alarmed Ellen. The rising +moon aided the swiftness of my course as it lighted the road. Trees, +fields, houses vanished behind me with giddy swiftness. I consumed less +than an hour in covering the same route that I had just spent two hours +over. At last I reached the gates of Mayence. I felt Tom-Bras trembling +under me, not for want of ardor or courage, but because his strength was +spent. Seeing a soldier mounting guard, I said: + +"Did you see a rider enter town this night?" + +"About a quarter of an hour ago," the soldier answered, "a rider wrapped +in a hooded mantle went by at a gallop. He rode towards the camp." + +"It is he," I said to myself, and resumed my course at the risk of +seeing Tom-Bras expire under me. There could be no doubt; my traveling +companion made a short cut through the forest, but why did he proceed to +the camp, instead of entering the town? A few moments later I arrived +before my house. I leaped down from my horse that neighed gladly as he +recognized the place. I ran to the door and knocked hard. No one opened +to me, but I heard muffled cries within. Again I knocked with the handle +of my sword, but in vain. The cries grew louder; I thought I heard +Sampso's voice--I tried to break down the door--impossible. Suddenly the +window of my wife's room was thrown open. I ran thither sword in hand. +At the instant when I arrived at the casement, the shutters were pulled +open from within. I rushed through the passage and found myself face to +face with a man. The darkness prevented me from recognizing him. He was +in the act of fleeing from Ellen's room, whose heartrending cries then +reached my ears. To seize the man by the throat at the moment when he +put his foot upon the window sill in order to escape, to throw him back +into the pitch dark room, and to strike him several times with my sword +while I cried: 'Ellen, here I am!'--all this happened with the +swiftness of thought. I drew my sword from the body that lay at my feet +and was about to plunge it again into the carcass--my rage was +uncontrollable--when I felt two arms clasp me convulsively. I thought +myself attacked by a second adversary and forthwith ran the other body +through. The arms that had been thrown around my neck immediately +loosened their hold, and at the same time I heard these words pronounced +by an expiring voice: + +"Schanvoch--you have killed me--thanks, my friend--it is sweet to me to +die at your hands--I would not have been able to survive my shame--" + +It was Ellen's voice. + +My wife had run, dumb with terror, to place herself under my protection. +It was her arms that had clasped me. I heard her fall upon the floor. I +remained thunder-struck. My sword dropped from my hand; for several +seconds the silence of death reigned in the room that was perfectly dark +except for a beam of pale light that fell from the moon through the +lattice of one of the shutters that the wind had blown to. The shutter +was suddenly thrown open again from without, and by the light of the +moon I saw a tall and slender woman, clad in a short red skirt and a +silvery corsage, resting with her knee upon the outer window sill and +leaning her head into the room say: + +"Victorin, handsome Tarquin of a new Lucretia, quit the house; the night +is far advanced. I saw you enter the door at midnight, the hour agreed +upon, the husband being away. You shall now leave your charmer's house +by the window, the passage of lovers. You kept your promise--now I am +yours. Come, my cart awaits us. Venus will protect us!" + +"Victorin!" I cried horrified, believing myself the sport of a frightful +nightmare. "It was he--I killed him!" + +"The husband!" exclaimed Kidda, the Bohemian, leaping back. "It must be +the devil that brought him back!" + +And she vanished. + +Immediately afterwards I heard the sound of a cart's wheels and the +clinking of the bell of the mule that drew it rapidly away, while from +another direction, from the quarter of the camp, I heard a distant roar +that drew steadily nearer and resembled the hubbub of a tumultuous mob. +My stupor was followed by a distressful agony lighted by a faint ray of +hope--perhaps Ellen was not dead. I ran to the inside chamber; it was +closed from within. I knocked and called Sampso at the top of my voice. +She answered me from another room, in which she had been locked up. I +set her free, crying aloud: + +"I struck Ellen with my sword in the dark--the wound may not be +mortal;--run for the druid Omer--" + +"I shall run to him on the spot," answered Sampso without asking me any +questions. + +She rushed to the house door which was bolted from within. As she opened +it I saw a mob of soldiers advancing over the square where my house was +situated and which was close to the entrance of the camp. Several +soldiers carried torches; all uttered loud and threatening cries in +which the name of Victorin constantly recurred. + +I recognized the veteran Douarnek at the head of the mob. He was +brandishing his sword. + +"Schanvoch," he cried the moment he recognized me, "the rumor has just +run over the camp that a shocking crime was committed in your house!" + +"And the criminal is Victorin!" cried several voices drowning mine. +"Death to the infamous fellow!" + +"Death to the infamous fellow, who violated the wife of his friend!" + +"Just as he violated the wife of the tavern-keeper on the Rhine, who +killed herself in despair." + +"The cowardly hypocrite pretended to have mended his ways!" + +"To dishonor a soldier's wife! The wife of Schanvoch, who loved the +debauché as if he were his own son!" + +"And who, moreover, saved his life in battle!" + +"Death! Death to the wretch!" + +I found it impossible to dominate the furious cries with my voice; +Sampso vainly sought to cross the crowd. + +"For pity's sake, let me pass!" Sampso implored them. "I wish to fetch a +physician druid. Ellen still breathes; her wound may not be mortal! Let +me bring her help!" + +Her words only served to redouble the indignation and fury of the +soldiers. Instead of opening a passage for my wife's sister, they drove +her back as they crowded towards the door. A compact and enraged mass +stood there brandishing their swords, shaking their fists and +vociferating: + +"Death! Death to Victorin!" + +"He slew Schanvoch's wife after doing violence to her!" + +"She has died as the tavern-keeper's wife on the Rhine!" + +"Victorin!" thundered Douarnek. "You will not this time escape +punishment for your crimes!" + +"We shall be your executioners!" + +"Death! Death to Victorin!" + +"It is impossible to break through the crowd and fetch a physician for +my sister--she is lost!" Sampso cried out to me wringing her hands, +while I vainly strove to make myself heard by the delirious crowd. + +"I shall try to get out by the window," said Sampso. + +Saying this the distracted girl rushed into the mortuary chamber, and I, +making superhuman efforts to prevent the infuriated soldiers from +invading my house in search of the general, for whose blood they +thirsted, cried out to them: + +"Withdraw! Leave me alone in this house of mourning! Justice has been +done! Withdraw, comrades, withdraw!" + +An ever heightening tumult drowned my words. I saw Sampso issuing from +your mother's room carrying you, my son, in her arms. She was sobbing +aloud and said: + +"Brother, there is no hope! Ellen is rigid--her heart has stopped +beating--she is dead!" + +"Dead! Oh, dead! Hesus, have pity upon me!" I moaned and leaned against +the wall of the vestibule; I felt my strength leaving me. Suddenly, +however, a thrill ran through my frame. From mouth to mouth these words +began to circulate among the soldiers: + +"Here is Victoria! Here comes our mother!" + +As the words were uttered the crowd swayed back from the entrance of my +house to make room for my foster-sister. Such was the respect that the +august woman inspired in the army, that silence speedily succeeded the +tumultuous clamors of the soldiers. They realized the terrible position +of that mother, who, attracted by the cries for justice and vengeance +uttered against her own son, accused of an infamous crime, approached +the scene in all the majesty of her maternal grief. + +As to me, my heart felt like breaking. Victoria, my foster-sister, the +woman in whose behalf my life had been but one continuous day of +devotion--Victoria was about to find in my house the corpse of her son, +slain by me--by me who knew him since his birth, and who loved him like +my own! The thought of fleeing flashed through my mind--I lacked the +physical strength. I remained where I was, supporting myself against the +wall--distracted--vaguely looking before me, unable to stir. + +The crowd of soldiers parted; they formed a long passage; and by the +light of the moon and the torches I saw Victoria, clad in her long black +robe and her little grandson in her arms, advancing slowly. She +doubtlessly hoped to soothe the exasperation of the soldiers by +presenting the innocent creature to their sight. Tetrik, Captain Marion +and several other officers, who had notified Victoria of the tumult and +its cause, followed behind her. They seemed to succeed in calming the +seething fury of the troops. The silence grew solemn. The Mother of the +Camps was only a few steps from my house when Douarnek approached her, +and bending his knee said: + +"Mother, your son has committed a great crime--we pity you from the +bottom of our hearts. But you will see to it that justice is rendered +us--we demand justice--" + +"Yes, yes, justice!" cried the soldiers, whose irritation, after being +checked for a moment, now broke out with renewed violence. The cry broke +forth from all parts: "Justice! Or we will do justice ourselves!" + +"Death to the infamous wretch!" + +"Death to the man who dishonored his friend's wife!" + +"Cursed be the name of Victorin!" + +"Yes, cursed--cursed!" repeated a thousand threatening voices. "Cursed +be his name forever!" + +Pale, calm and imposing, Victoria stopped for a moment before Douarnek, +who bent his knee as he addressed her. But when the cries of: "Death to +Victorin!" "Cursed be his name!" exploded anew, my foster-sister, whose +virile and beautiful countenance betrayed mortal anguish, stretched out +her arms with the little child in them, as if the innocent creature +implored mercy for its father. + +It was then that the cries broke forth with fiercest violence: + +"Death to Victorin! Cursed be his name!" + +And immediately I perceived my recent traveling companion, recognizable +by his cloak and hood, in which he still kept himself closely wrapped, +push himself with a menacing air toward Victoria, and shaking his fist +at her, cry: + +"Yes, cursed be the name of Victorin! Let his stock be uprooted!" + +Saying this the man violently tore the child from Victoria's arms, took +it by the two feet, and dashed it with such fury upon the cobble-stones +that its head was instantly shattered. The deed of ferocity was done +with such brutality and swiftness that, although it aroused instant +indignation, neither Douarnek nor any of the soldiers who precipitated +themselves upon the hooded man to save the child were in time. The +innocent child lay dead and bleeding upon the ground. I heard a +heartrending cry escape Victoria, but immediately lost sight of her; +fearing that some sort of danger threatened her life, the soldiers +speedily surrounded and built with their breasts a wall around their +mother. The rumor also reached my ears that, thanks to the tumult which +ensued, the perpetrator of the horrible murder had succeeded in making +his escape. Presently the ranks of the soldiers opened anew amid +mournful silence, and again I perceived Victoria, her face bathed in +tears, holding in her arms the now lifeless and bleeding body of +Victorin's son. At the sight, I cried out from the threshold of my +house to the crowd that was now dumb and in consternation: + +"You demand justice? Justice has been done. I, Schanvoch, I have killed +Victorin myself. He is innocent of my wife's death. Now, withdraw. Allow +the Mother of the Camps to enter my house that she may weep over the +bodies of her son and grandson." + +Victoria thereupon said to me in a firm voice as she stood at the +threshold of my house: + +"You killed my son; you were right to avenge the outrage done to you." + +"Yes," I answered her in a hollow voice, "yes, and in the dark I also +killed my wife." + +"Come, Schanvoch, join me in closing the eyelids of Ellen and +Victorin." + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE MORTUARY CHAMBER. + + +Victoria entered the house amidst the religious silence of the soldiers +who stood grouped without. Captain Marion and Tetrik followed her in. +She motioned to them to remain outside of the death room, where she +wished to be left alone with me and Sampso. + +At the sight of my wife, lying dead upon the floor, I fell upon my knees +sobbing beside her. I raised her beautiful head, now pale and cold; +closed her eyes; and taking the beloved body in my arms I laid it on my +bed. Again I knelt down, and with my head resting upon the pillow on +which hers reclined, I could no longer restrain my grief. I sobbed and +moaned. I remained there long weeping and disconsolate; I could hear the +suppressed sobs of Victoria. + +Finally her voice recalled me to myself; I thought of what she must be +suffering; I looked around. She was seated on the floor near the corpse +of Victorin, whose head rested on her maternal knees. + +"Schanvoch," said my foster-sister as she gently brushed back with her +hands the hair that fell over Victorin's forehead, "my son is no more; I +may weep over him, despite his crime. Here he lies dead--dead--dead and +not yet twenty-three years old!" + +"Dead--and killed by me--who loved him as my son!" + +"Brother, you avenged your honor--you have my pardon and pity--" + +"Alas! I struck Victorin in the dark--I struck him in a fit of blind +rage--I struck him without knowing that it was he! Hesus is my witness! +Had I recognized your son, Oh, sister! I would have cursed him, but my +sword would have dropped at my feet--" + +Victoria gazed at me in silence. My words seemed to lift a heavy weight +from her heart. She looked relieved at learning that I had killed her +son without knowing him. She reached out her hand to me feelingly, and I +carried it respectfully to my lips. For several minutes we remained +silent. She then said to Ellen's sister: + +"Sampso, were you here this fatal night? Speak, I pray you. What +happened?" + +"It was midnight," Sampso answered in a voice broken with sobs. +"Schanvoch had left the house two hours before on his journey. I was +lying here beside my sister--I heard a rap at the house door--I threw a +cloak over my shoulders and went to the door to ask who it was. A +woman's voice with a foreign accent answered--" + +"A woman's voice?" I asked in a tone of surprise shared by Victoria. +"Are you sure it was a woman's voice that answered you, Sampso?" + +"Yes; that was the snare. The voice said to me: 'I come from Victoria +with a very important message for Ellen, the wife of Schanvoch, who left +on a journey two hours ago.'" + +At these words of Sampso's, Victoria and I exchanged looks of increasing +astonishment. Sampso proceeded: + +"As I could in no way suspect a messenger from Victoria, I opened the +door. Immediately, instead of a woman, a man rushed at me; he violently +pushed me back--and immediately bolted the street door. By the light of +the lamp, which I had placed on the floor, I recognized Victorin. He was +pale--frightful to behold--he seemed to be intoxicated, and could hardly +stand on his feet--" + +"Oh! The unhappy boy! The unhappy boy!" I cried. "He was not in his +senses! Only so! Oh, only so! He never could otherwise have attempted +such a crime!" + +"Proceed, Sampso," said Victoria with a profound sigh; "proceed with +your account--" + +"Without saying a word to me, Victorin pointed to the door of my own +room, the room I always occupied when I did not share my sister's room +during the absence of Schanvoch. In my terror I guessed all. I cried to +Ellen: 'Sister, lock your door!' and I began to call for help as loud as +I could. My cries exasperated Victorin. He seized and threw me into my +room. Just as he was about to lock me in I saw Ellen hurrying out of her +room. She looked pale and frightened; she was almost naked. I afterwards +heard the distressing cries of my sister calling for help--I heard them +struggle--I fainted away. I know not how long I remained in that state. +I regained consciousness when someone knocked at my door and called me +by name. It was Schanvoch. I answered him. He must have opened it for +me--I saw him--" + +"And you," Victoria said, turning to me. "How was it that you returned +so suddenly?" + +"At about four leagues from Mayence, I was notified that a crime was +being committed in my house." + +"And who could have notified you?" + +"A soldier; my escort." + +"And who was that soldier?" asked Victoria with heightening intensity. +"How did he know of the crime?" + +"I know not--he vanished across the forest the instant that he gave me +the sinister information. That soldier got back to town before me--he +was the same man who tore your grandchild from your arms and killed it +at your feet--" + +"Schanvoch," resumed Victoria with a shudder and carrying both her hands +to her forehead, "my son is dead--I shall neither accuse nor excuse +him--but a horrible mystery underlies this crime--" + +"Listen," I replied, as several circumstances that had slipped my memory +at the first pangs of my grief now came back to my mind. "When I arrived +before the door of my house, I knocked; only the distant sound of +Sampso's cries answered me. A moment later the lower window of my wife's +room was opened. I ran thither. The shutters were being pushed aside to +give passage to a man, while Ellen cried for help. I pushed the man back +into the room, which was dark as a tomb--in the darkness I struck and +killed your son. Almost immediately after I felt two arms thrown around +my neck--I imagined myself attacked by a new assailant--I made another +thrust in the dark--it was Ellen, my beloved wife, whom I killed--" + +And my sobs choked me. + +"Brother--brother," said Victoria to me, "this has been a fatal night to +us all--" + +"Listen further--above all to this," I said to my foster-sister, +controlling my emotion: "At the very moment when I recognized the voice +of my expiring wife, I saw by the light of the moon a woman perched on +the casement of the window--" + +"A woman!" cried Victoria. + +"It is she probably whose voice deceived me," observed Sampso, "by +announcing to me a message from Victoria." + +"I think so too," I replied; "and that woman, doubtlessly the accomplice +of Victorin's crime, called to him, saying it was time to flee, and that +she now was his, seeing he had kept the promise that he made to her." + +"A promise?" Again Victoria pondered. "What promise could he have made +to her?" + +"To dishonor Ellen--" + +My foster-sister shuddered and said: + +"I repeat it, Schanvoch, this crime is wrapped in some horrible mystery. +But who may that woman have been?" + +"One of the two Bohemian dancers who recently arrived at Mayence. +Listen. Seeing that she received no answer from Victorin, and hearing +the distant but approaching clamors of the soldiers who were angrily +hastening to my house, she leaped down and vanished. A second after the +rumbling of her cart informed me of her flight. In my despair it never +occurred to me to pursue her. I knew I had just killed Ellen near the +cradle of our son--Ellen, my dearly beloved wife!" + +I could not continue. Tears and sobs deprived me of speech. Sampso and +Victoria remained silent. + +"This is a veritable abyss!" resumed the Mother of the Camps. "An abyss +that my mind can not fathom. My son's crime is great--his intoxication, +so far from excusing, only serves to render the deed all the more +shameful. And yet, Schanvoch, you know not what love this poor child had +for you--" + +"Say not so, Victoria," I murmured, hiding my face in my hands. "Say not +so--my despair becomes only more distressing!" + +"It is not a reproach that I make, brother," replied Victoria. "Had I +been a witness of my son's crime, I would have killed him with my own +hands, to the end that he cease to dishonor his mother, and Gaul, that +chose him chief. I refer to Victorin's love for you because I believe +that, without his being in a state of inebriety and without some dark +machination, he never would have committed such a misdeed--" + +"As for me, sister, I believe I see through this infernal plot--" + +"You do? Speak!" + +"Before the great battle of the Rhine an infamous calumny was spread +over the camp against Victorin. The army's affection for him was being +withdrawn. Your son's victory regained for him the soldiers' affection. +See how that old calumny becomes to-day a frightful reality. Victorin's +crime cost him his life--and also his son's. His stock is extinct. A new +chief must now be chosen for Gaul. Is this not so?" + +"Yes, brother, all that is true." + +"Did not that unknown soldier, my traveling companion, know when he +revealed to me that a crime was being committed in my house--did he not +know that unless I arrived in time to kill Victorin myself in the first +access of my rage, your son would certainly be slaughtered by the troops +who would undoubtedly rise in revolt at the first tidings of the +felony?" + +"But how," put in Sampso, "was the army apprised so soon of the felony, +seeing that no one left the house?" + +Struck by Sampso's observation the Mother of the Camps started and +looked at me. I proceeded: + +"Who is the man, Victoria, who tore your grandson from your arms and +dashed his life against the ground? The same unknown soldier! Did he +yield to an impulse of blind rage against the child? Not at all! +Accordingly, he was but the instrument of some ambition that is as +concealed as it is ferocious. Only one man had an interest in the double +murder that has just extinguished your stock--because, once your stock +is extinguished Gaul must choose a new chief--and the man whom I +suspect, the man whom I accuse has long wished to govern Gaul!" + +"His name!" cried Victoria, fixing upon me a look of intense agony. "The +name of the man whom you suspect--" + +"His name is Tetrik, your relative, the Governor of Gascony." + +For the first time since I first expressed my suspicions of her +relative, did Victoria seem to share them. She cast her eyes upon the +corpse of her son with an expression of pitiful sorrow, kissed his icy +forehead several times, and after a moment of profound reflection she +seemed to take a supreme resolution. She rose and said to me in a firm +voice: + +"Where is Tetrik?" + +"He awaits your orders in the next room, I presume, with Captain Marion. +What are your orders?" + +"I wish them both to come in, immediately." + +"In this chamber of death?" + +"Yes, in this chamber of death. Yes, here, Schanvoch, before the +inanimate remains of your wife, my son and his child. If it was that man +who wove this dark and horrible plot, then, even if he were a demon of +hypocrisy and bloodthirstiness, he can not choose but betray himself at +the sight of his victims--at the sight of a mother between the corpses +of her son and grandson; at the sight of a husband beside the corpse of +his wife. Go, brother. Order them in! Order them in! Then also, we must +at all cost find that unknown soldier, your traveling companion!" + +"I have thought of that--" and struck with a sudden thought, I added: +"It was Captain Marion who chose the rider that was to escort me." + +"We shall question the captain. Go, brother. Order them in! Order them +in!" + +I obeyed Victoria and called in Tetrik and Marion. Both hastened to +answer to the summons. + +Despite the grief that rent my heart I had the fortitude to watch +attentively the face of the Governor of Gascony. The moment he stepped +into the room, the first object he seemed to notice was the corpse of +Victorin. Tetrik's features immediately assumed the appearance of +unspeakable anguish; tears flowed copiously down his cheeks; clasping +his hands he dropped on his knees near the body and cried in a voice +that seemed rent with grief: + +"Dead at the prime of his age--dead--he, so brave--so generous! The +hope, the strong sword of Gaul. Ah! I forget the foibles of this unhappy +youth before the frightful misfortune that has befallen my country!" + +Tetrik could not proceed. Sobs smothered his voice. On his knees and +cowering in a heap, his face hidden in his hands and dropping scalding +tears he remained as if crushed with pain near Victorin's body. + +Standing motionless at the door, Captain Marion was the prey of profound +internal sorrow. He indulged in no outbursts of moans; he shed no tears; +but he ceased not to contemplate the corpse of Victoria's grandson with +a pathetic expression, as the little body lay in my son's cradle; and +presently I heard him say in a low voice looking from Victoria to the +innocent victim: + +"What a calamity! Ah! poor child! Poor mother!" + +Captain Marion then took a few steps forward and said in short and +broken words: + +"Victoria--you are to be pitied--I pity you. Victorin loved you--he was +a worthy son--I also loved him. My beard has turned grey, and yet I +found a delight in serving under that young man. He was the first +captain of our age. None of us can replace him. He had but two +vices--the taste for wine and, above all, the pest of profligacy. I +often quarreled with him on that. I was right, you see it! Well, we must +not quarrel with him now. He had a brave heart. I can say no more to +you, Victoria. And what would it boot? A mother can not be consoled. Do +not think me unfeeling because I do not weep. One weeps only when he +can; but I assure you that you have my sympathy from the bottom of my +heart. I could not be sadder or more cast down had I lost my friend +Eustace--" + +And taking a few steps, Marion again looked from Victoria to her little +grandson, repeating as his eyes wandered from the one to the other: + +"Oh! the poor child! Oh! the poor mother!" + +Still upon his knees beside Victorin, Tetrik did not cease sobbing and +moaning. While his grief was as demonstrative as Captain Marion's was +reserved, it seemed sincere. Nevertheless, my suspicions still resisted +the test, and I saw that my foster-sister shared my doubts. Again she +made a violent effort over herself and said: + +"Tetrik, listen to me!" + +The Governor of Gascony did not seem to hear the voice of his relative. + +"Tetrik," Victoria repeated, leaning over to touch the man's shoulder, +"I am speaking to you; answer me." + +"Who speaks?" cried the governor as if his mind wandered. "What do they +want? Where am I?" + +A moment later he raised his eyes to my foster-sister and cried +surprised: + +"You here--here, Victoria? Oh, yes! I was with you shortly ago--I had +forgotten. Excuse me. My head swims. Alas! I am a father--I have a son +almost of the age of this unfortunate boy. More than anyone else, I pity +you!" + +"Time presses and the occasion is grave," replied my foster-sister +solemnly while she fastened a penetrating look upon Tetrik in order to +fathom the man's most hidden thoughts. "Private sorrow is hushed before +the public interest. I have my whole life left to weep my son and +grandson; but we have only a few hours to consider the succession of the +Chief of Gaul and of the general of the army--" + +"What!" exclaimed Tetrik. "At such a moment as this--" + +"I wish that before daylight breaks upon us, I, Captain Marion and you, +Tetrik, my relative, one of my most faithful friends, you, who are so +devoted to Gaul, you, who grieve so bitterly over Victorin--I wish that +we three revolve in our wisdom what man we shall to-morrow propose to +the army as my son's successor." + +"Victoria, you are a heroic woman!" cried Tetrik clasping his hands in +admiration. "You match with your courage and patriotism the most august +women who have honored the world!" + +"What is your opinion, Tetrik, as to the successor of Victorin? Captain +Marion and myself will speak after you," the Mother of the Camps +proceeded to say without noticing the praises of the Governor of +Gascony. "Yes, whom do you think capable of replacing my son--to the +glory and advantage of Gaul?" + +"How can I give you my opinion?" Tetrik replied dejectedly. "How can I +give you advice upon a matter of such gravity, when my heart is racked +with pain--it is impossible!" + +"It is possible, since you see me here--between the corpses of my son +and my grandson--ready to give my opinion--" + +"If you insist, Victoria, I shall speak, provided I can collect my +thoughts. I am of the opinion that Gaul needs for her chief a wise, firm +and enlightened man, a man who inclines to peace rather than to +war--especially now when we no longer have the neighborhood of the +Franks to fear, thanks to the sword of this young hero, whom I loved and +will eternally mourn--" + +At this moment the governor interrupted himself to give renewed vent to +his grief. + +"We shall weep later," said Victoria. "Life is long enough, but the +night is short. It will soon be morning." + +Tetrik wiped his eyes and proceeded: + +"As I was saying, the successor of our Victorin should, above all, be a +man of good judgment, and of long and approved devotion in the service +of our beloved Gaul. Now, then, if I am not mistaken, the only one whom +I can think of who unites these virtues, is Captain Marion, whom we see +here." + +"I!" cried the captain raising his two enormous hands heavenward. "I, +the Chief of Gaul! Grief makes you talk like a fool! I, Chief of Gaul!" + +"Captain Marion," Tetrik resumed in a dismal accent, "I know that the +shocking death of Victorin and his innocent child has thrown my mind +into disorder and desolation. And yet I believe that at this moment I +speak not like a fool but like a sage--and Victoria will herself be of +my opinion. Although you do not enjoy the brilliant military reputation +of our Victorin, whom we shall never be able to mourn sufficiently, you +have deserved, Captain Marion, the confidence and affection of our +troops by your good and numerous services. Once a blacksmith, you +exchanged the hammer for the sword; the soldiers will see in you one of +their own rank rise to the dignity of chief through his valor and their +own free choice. They will esteem you all the more knowing, above all, +that, although you reached distinction, you never lost your friendship +for your old comrade of the anvil." + +"Forget my friend Eustace!" said Marion. "Oh! Never!" + +"The austerity of your morals is known," Tetrik proceeded to say; "your +excellent judgment, your straightforwardness, your calmness, are, +according to my poor judgment, a guarantee for the future. You have put +into practice Victoria's wise thought that now the days of barren war +are ended, and the hour has come to think of fruitful peace. The task is +arduous, I admit; it can not choose but startle your modesty. But this +heroic woman, who, even at this terrible moment, forgets her maternal +despair in order to turn her thoughts upon our beloved country, +Victoria, I feel certain, in presenting you to the soldiers as her son's +successor, will pledge herself to assist you with her precious counsel. +And now, Captain Marion, if you will hearken to my feeble voice, I +implore you, I beg you in the name of Gaul to accept the reins of +office. Victoria joins me in demanding of you this fresh proof of +self-sacrificing devotion to our common country!" + +"Tetrik," answered Marion in a grave voice, "you have ably described the +man who is needed to govern Gaul. There is only one thing to change in +the picture that you have drawn, and that is its name. In the place of +my name, insert your own--it will then be complete--" + +"I!" cried Tetrik. "I, Chief of Gaul! I, who in all my life never have +held a sword in my hand!" + +"Victoria said it," replied Marion. "The season for war is over, the +season for peace has come. In times of war we need warriors--in times of +peace we need men of peace. You belong to the latter category, Tetrik; +it is your place to govern--do you not think so, Victoria?" + +"By the manner in which he has governed Gascony, Tetrik has shown how he +would govern Gaul," answered my foster-sister; "I join you, captain, in +requesting--my relative--to replace my son--" + +"What did I tell you?" broke in Captain Marion, addressing Tetrik. +"Would you still refuse?" + +"Listen to me, Victoria; listen to me, Captain Marion; listen to me, +Schanvoch," replied the governor turning towards me. "Yes, you also, +Schanvoch, listen to me, you who are as stricken as Victoria. You, who, +in your nervous friendship for this august woman, suspected my +sincerity; I wish you all to believe me. I have received an incurable +wound here, in my heart, by the occurrences of this fatal night; they +have bereft us at once, in the person of our unfortunate Victorin and in +that of his innocent son, of the present and the future support of Gaul. +It was for the purpose of securing and rendering the future certain that +I sought to induce Victoria to propose her grandson to the army as the +heir of Victorin, and that I have made this journey to Mayence. My hopes +are dashed--an eternal sorrow takes their place--" + +After stopping for a moment in order to allow his inexhaustible tears to +flow, the governor proceeded: + +"My resolution is formed. Not only do I decline the power that is +offered me, but I shall also give up the government of Gascony. The few +years of life left to me shall henceforth be spent with my son in +seclusion and sorrow. At another time I might have been able to render +some service to our country, but that is now past with me. I shall carry +into my retirement a grief that will be rendered less unbearable by the +knowledge that my country's future is in such worthy hands as yours, +Captain Marion, and that Victoria, the divine genius of Gaul, will +continue to watch over our land. And now, Schanvoch," added the Governor +of Gascony turning once more towards me, "have I put an end to your +suspicions? Do you still think me ambitious? Is my language, are my +actions those of a perfidious or treacherous man? Alas! Alas! I never +thought that the frightful misfortunes of this night would so soon +afford me the opportunity to justify myself--" + +"Tetrik," said Victoria extending her hand to her relative, "if ever I +could have doubted the loyalty of your heart, I would at this hour +perceive my error--" + +"And I admit it freely, my suspicions were groundless," I added in turn. +After all that I had seen and heard, I was, as Victoria, convinced of +her relative's innocence. And still, as my mind ever returned to the +mysterious circumstances that surrounded the events of that night, I +said to Marion, who, silent and pensive, seemed overwhelmed with the +tender that was made to him: + +"Captain, yesterday I asked you for a discreet and safe man to serve me +as escort." + +"You did." + +"Do you know the name of the soldier whom you picked out for me?" + +"It was not I who chose him--I do not know his name." + +"And who chose him?" asked Victoria. + +"My friend Eustace is better acquainted with the soldiers than I am. I +commissioned him to find me a safe man, and to order him to repair after +dark to the town gate, where he was to wait for the rider whom he was to +accompany on the journey." + +"And after that," I asked the captain, "did you see your friend Eustace +again?" + +"No; he has been mounting guard at the outposts of the camp since last +evening, and he was not to be relieved until this morning." + +"But at any rate we could learn from him the name of the rider who +escorted Schanvoch," observed Victoria. "I shall let you know later, +Tetrik, the importance that I attach to that information, and you will +be able to counsel me." + +"You must excuse me, Victoria, if I do not acceed to your wishes," the +governor replied with a sigh. "Within an hour, at earliest dawn, I shall +leave Mayence--the sight of this place is too harrowing to me. I have a +humble retreat in Gascony; I shall bury my life there in the company of +my son; he is to-day the only consolation left to me." + +"My friend," said Victoria reproachfully, "do you leave me at such a +moment as this? The sight of this place is harrowing to you, you +say--and what about myself? Does not this place recall at every turn +memories that must distress me? And yet I shall leave Mayence only when +Captain Marion will no longer stand in need of whatever counsel he may +think that he may be in need of from me at the start of his government." + +"Victoria," put in Captain Marion in a resolute tone, "I have said +nothing during this conversation in which you and Tetrik have disposed +of me. I am not fluent in words, moreover, my heart is too heavy +to-night. I have said little, but I have reflected a good deal. These +are my thoughts: I love the profession of arms; I know how to execute a +general's orders, and I am not altogether unskilful in the management of +troops confided to me. At a pinch I can plan an attack like the one +which completed Victorin's great victory by the destruction of the camp +and reserve forces of the Franks. This is to say, Victoria, that I do +not consider myself more of a fool than others--wherefore I have sense +enough to understand that I am not fit for the government of Gaul--" + +"Nevertheless, Captain Marion," Tetrik broke in, "Victoria will agree +with me that the task is not beyond your strength." + +"Oh! As to my strength, that is well known," replied Captain Marion +soberly. "Fetch me an ox, and I'll carry him on my back, or fell him +with a blow of my fist. But square shoulders are not all that is wanted +for the chief of a great people. No--no. I am robust--granted. But the +burden of state is too heavy. Therefore, Victoria, do not put such a +weight upon me. I would break down under it--and Gaul will, in turn, +break down under the weight of my weakness. And, moreover, it might as +well be said, I love, after service hours, to go home and empty a pot +of beer in the company of my friend Eustace, and chat with him over our +old blacksmith's trade, or entertain ourselves with furbishing our arms +like skilful armorers. Such am I, Victoria--such have I ever been--and +such I wish to remain." + +"And these call themselves men! Oh, Hesus!" cried the Mother of the +Camps indignantly. "I, a woman--I, a mother--I saw my son and grandson +die this very night--and yet I have the necessary fortitude to repress +my grief--and this soldier, to whom the most glorious post that can shed +luster upon a man is offered, dares to answer with a refusal, giving his +love for beer and the polishing of armor as an excuse! Oh! Woe is Gaul, +if the very ones whom she regards as her bravest sons thus cowardly +forsake her!" + +The reproach of the Mother of the Camps impressed Captain Marion. He +dropped his head in confusion, remained silent for a moment, and then +spoke: + +"Victoria, there is but one strong soul here--it is yours. You make me +ashamed of myself. Well, then," he added with a sigh, "be it as you +will--I accept. But the gods are my witnesses--I accept as a duty and +under protest. If I should commit any asininities as Chief of Gaul, none +will have a right to reproach me. Very well, I accept, Victoria, but +under two imperative conditions." + +"What are they?" asked Tetrik. + +"This is the first," replied Marion: "The Mother of the Camps shall +remain in Mayence to help me with her advice. I am as new a hand at my +new work as a blacksmith's apprentice who for the first time dips the +iron into the brasier." + +"I promised you that I would, Marion," answered my foster-sister. "I +shall remain here as long as you may need my services." + +"Victoria, if your spirit should withdraw from me, I would be like a +body without a soul--accordingly, I thank you from the bottom of my +heart. I know that that promise must cost you a good deal, poor woman. +And yet," added the captain with his habitual good nature, "do not run +away with the idea that I am so foolishly vainglorious as to imagine +that it is to the strong bull of a warrior, named Marion, that Victoria +the Great makes the sacrifice of burying her grief in order to guide +him. No--no. It is to our old Gaul that she renders the sacrifice. As a +good son of my country, I am as thankful for the kind act done to my +mother, as if it were done to myself." + +"Nobly thought and nobly said, Marion," replied Victoria deeply touched +by these words of the captain. "Nevertheless, your straightforwardness +and sound judgment will soon enable you to dispense with my advice; +then," added she with an expression of profound pain that she strove to +repress, "I shall be able, like you, Tetrik, to retire and bury myself +in some secluded spot with my sorrows." + +"Alas," replied the governor, "to weep in peace is the only consolation +for irreparable losses." "But," he proceeded, addressing the captain, +"you referred to two conditions. Victoria has accepted the first; which +is the second?" + +"Oh! As to the second, it is as important to me as the first," and the +captain shook his head. "Aye, it is as important as the first--" + +"And what is it?" asked my foster-sister. "Explain yourself, Marion." + +"I know not," replied the good captain with a naïve and embarrassed +mien, "I know not whether I ever spoke to you of my friend Eustace." + +"Yes, and more than once," replied Tetrik. "But what has your friend +Eustace to do with your new functions?" + +"What!" cried Captain Marion, "you ask me what my friend Eustace has to +do with me--you might as well ask what has the sheath of the sword to do +with the blade, the hammer with the handle, the bellows with the forge." + +"You are, in short, bound together by an old and close friendship; we +know it," said Victoria. "Would you desire, captain, to accord some +favor to your friend?" + +"I shall never consent to be separated from him. True enough, he is not +of a gay disposition; he is habitually sullen, often peevish. Still, he +loves me as I do him, and we can not do without each other. Now, then, +it may be considered surprising that the Chief of Gaul should have a +common soldier, a former blacksmith, for his intimate friend and chum. +But as I said to you, Victoria, if I must be separated from my friend +Eustace, the plan falls through--I decline. Only his friendship can +render the burden supportable to me." + +"Is not Schanvoch, my foster-brother, who remained a simple horseman in +the army, a close friend of mine?" observed Victoria. "No one is +astonished at a friendship that does honor to us both. It will be so, +Captain Marion, with you and your old blacksmith friend." + +"And your elevation, Captain Marion, will redouble your mutual +affection," put in Tetrik. "In his tender affection your friend will +rejoice over your elevation perhaps more than yourself." + +"I doubt whether my friend Eustace will greatly rejoice over my +elevation," replied Marion. "Eustace is not ambitious after glory. Far +from it. He loves me, his old companion at the anvil, and not the +captain. But, Victoria, always keep this in mind: The same as to-day you +say to me: 'Marion, you are needed,' never be backward in saying: +'Marion, be gone; you are of no further use; someone else will fill the +place better than you.' I shall understand the slightest hint, and shall +gladly return arm in arm with my friend Eustace to our pot of beer and +our armor. So long, however, as you will say to me: 'Marion, you are +needed,' I shall remain Chief of Gaul"--and smothering a last sigh, +"seeing that you insist that I fill the place." + +"And chief you will long remain to the glory of Gaul," put in Tetrik. +"Believe me, captain, you do not know yourself; your modesty blinds you. +But a few hours hence, when Victoria will propose you to the soldiers as +their general, the acclamation of the whole army will inform you of the +high opinion that is entertained for your merits." + +"The one who will be most astonished at my merits will be myself," +replied the good captain naïvely. "Well, I have made the promise; it is +promised; count with me, Victoria, you have my word. I shall withdraw--I +shall go to my lodging and wait for my good friend Eustace. It is now +dawn; he is due from the advanced posts, where he has been on guard +since yesterday. He will be uneasy if he does not find me in." + +"Forget not, captain," I said to him, "to ask your friend for the name +of the soldier whom he chose to escort me." + +"I shall remember." + +"And now, adieu," said the Governor of Gascony with a smothered voice to +Victoria. "Adieu; the sun will soon be up. Every minute that I spend +here is torture to me--" + +"Would you not stay in Mayence at least until the ashes of my two +children are returned to the earth?" Victoria asked the governor. "Will +you not accord that religious homage to the memory of those who have +just preceded us to those unknown worlds, where we shall one day meet +them again? Oh! May it please Hesus that that day be soon!" + +"Oh! Our druid faith will always be the consolation of strong souls and +the support of the weak!" answered Tetrik. "Alas! But for the certainty +of meeting again the beings whom we have loved in this world, how much +more dreadful would not their departure in death be to us! Believe me, +Victoria, I shall see long before you, these dear beings whom to-day we +weep. Agreeable to your wishes, I shall render to them to-day, before my +departure, the last homage that is due to them." + +Tetrik and Captain Marion withdrew, leaving Victoria, Sampso and myself +alone. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +FUNERAL PYRES. + + +Left all alone to ourselves, we no longer repressed our tears. In silent +and pious meditation we clad Ellen in her wedding gown, while you, my +child, still slept peacefully. + +In order to attend to the supreme interests of Gaul, Victoria had +heroically curbed her grief. After the departure of Tetrik and Marion +she gave way to the overpowering sorrow that heaved her bosom. She +wished to wash the wounds of her son and grandson with her own hands; +with her maternal hands she wrapped them in the same winding cloth. Two +funeral pyres were raised on the border of the Rhine, one destined for +Victorin and his son, the other for my wife Ellen. + +Towards noon, two war chariots covered with green and accompanied by +several of our venerated female druids proceeded to my house. The body +of my wife Ellen was deposited on one of the two chariots, on the other +the remains of Victorin and his son. + +"Schanvoch," said Victoria to me, "I shall follow on foot the chariot on +which your beloved wife lies. Be merciful, brother, follow on foot the +chariot on which lie the remains of my son and grandson. Before the eyes +of all, you, the outraged husband, will thus be giving a token of pardon +to the memory of Victorin. And I also, will, before the eyes of all, +give token, as a mother, of pardon for the death that, alas! my son but +too fully merited!" + +I understood the touching appeal that lay in that thought of mutual +mercy and pardon. It was so done. A deputation of the cohorts and +legions preceded the funeral procession. I followed the hearses +accompanied by Victoria, Sampso, Tetrik and Marion. The chief officers +of the camp joined us. We marched amidst lugubrious silence. The first +outburst of rage against Victorin having spent itself, the army now only +remembered his bravery, his kindness, his openheartedness. The crowds +saw me, the victim of an outrage that cost Ellen's life, give public +token of pardon to Victorin by my following the hearse that carried his +remains; they also saw his mother following the hearse on which Ellen +reposed, and none had any but words of forgiveness and pity for the +memory of the young general. + +The funeral convoy was approaching the river bank where the two pyres +were raised, when Douarnek, who marched at the head of one of the +deputations of cohorts, profited by a halt in the procession to approach +me. He said with pronounced sadness: + +"Schanvoch, you have my sympathy. Assure Victoria, your sister, that we, +the soldiers, remember only the valor of her glorious son. He has so +long been our beloved son as well. Why did he disregard the frank and +wise words that I carried to him in the name of our whole army, on the +evening after our great battle of the Rhine! Had Victorin taken our +advice and mended his ways, had he reformed, none of these misfortunes +would have happened--" + +"Your words, comrade, will be a consolation to Victoria in her grief," I +answered Douarnek. "But do you know whatever became of the hooded +soldier who committed the barbarity of killing Victorin's child?" + +"Neither I, nor any of those near me at the time when the abominable +crime was committed, was able to catch the felon. He slipped from us in +the tumult and darkness. He fled towards the outposts of the camp, but +there, thanks to the gods, he met with condign punishment." + +"He is dead?" + +"Perhaps you know Eustace, the old blacksmith and friend of our brave +Captain Marion? He was mounting guard last night at the outposts. It +seems that Eustace has a sweetheart in town. Excuse me, Schanvoch, if I +mention to you such matters on so sad an occasion, but you asked me, and +I am answering--" + +"Proceed, friend Douarnek." + +"Well, instead of remaining at his post, and despite the watchword, +Eustace spent a part of the night in Mayence. He was returning at about +an hour before dawn, hoping, as he said to me, that his absence would +have passed unnoticed, when he saw a hooded man running breathlessly +near the posts on the river bank. 'Whither are you running so fast?' he +cried out. 'Those brutes are pursuing me!' was the answer, 'because I +broke the head of Victoria's grandson by dashing it against the +cobble-stones; they want to kill me.' 'And they are right! You deserve +death!' replied Eustace indignantly. Saying this he overtook the +infamous murderer and ran his sword through him. The corpse was found +this morning on the beach with his cloak and hood." + +The soldier's death destroyed my last hope of unraveling the mystery +that hung over that fatal night. + +The remains of Ellen, Victorin and his son were placed upon the pyres, +amidst the chants of the bards and druids. A sheet of flame rose +skyward. When the chants ceased only two heaps of ashes remained. + +The ashes of the pyre of Victorin and his son were piously gathered by +Victoria into a bronze urn, that she placed under a mural tablet bearing +the simple and touching inscription: + + HERE REST THE TWO + +That same evening the two Bohemian girls left Mayence. Tetrick also took +his departure after having exchanged the most touching adieus with +Victoria. Captain Marion was presented to the troops by the Mother of +the Camps and was acclaimed Chief of Gaul and general of the army. The +choice evoked no surprise; moreover, being presented by Victoria, whose +influence had in a manner increased with the death of her son and +grandson, there was no question of his being accepted. The bravery, the +good judgment, the wisdom of Captain Marion were long known and +appreciated by the soldiers. After his acclamation, the new general +pronounced the following words, which I later found reproduced by a +contemporary historian: + +"Comrades, I know that the trade of my youth may be objected to in me. +Let him blame me who wills. Yes, people may twit me all they please with +having been a blacksmith, provided the enemy admits that I have forged +their ruin. But, as to you, my good comrades, never forget that the +chief whom you have just chosen never knew and never will know how to +hold anything but the sword." + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +ASSASSINATION OF MARION. + + +Endowed with rare sagacity, a straightforward and firm nature, and ever +solicitous of the advice of Victoria, Marion's government was marked +with wisdom. The army grew ever more attached to him, and gave him +signal proof of its loyalty and admiration up to the day, exactly two +months after his acclamation, when he, in turn, fell the victim of +another horrible crime. I must narrate to you, my son, the circumstances +of this second crime. It is intimately connected, as you will discover, +with the bloody plot that drew in its vortex all whom I loved and +venerated, leaving you motherless, me a widower, and Victoria desolate. + +Two months had elapsed since the fatal night when my wife Ellen, +Victorin and his son lost their lives. The sight of my house became +insupportable to me; too many were the cruel recollections that +clustered around it. Victoria induced me to move to her house with +Sampso, who took your mother's place with you. + +"Here I am, all alone in the world, separated from my son and grandson +to the end of my days," said my foster-sister to me. "You know, +Schanvoch, all the affection of my life was centered upon those two +beings, so dear to my heart. Do not leave me alone. Come, you, your son +and Sampso, come and stay with me. You will aid me thereby to bear the +burden of my grief." + +At first I hesitated to accept Victoria's offer. Due to a shocking +fatality, I was the slayer of her son. True enough, she knew that, +despite the enormity of Victorin's outrage, I would have spared his +life, had I recognized him. She was aware of and saw the grief that the +involuntary and yet legitimate homicide caused me. Nevertheless, and +horrid was the recollection thereof to her, I had killed her son. I +feared--despite all her protestations, and despite her warmly expressed +desire that I move to her house--that my presence, however much wished +for during the first loneliness of her bereavement, might become cruel +and burdensome to her. Finally I yielded. Often did Sampso, in later +years, say to me: + +"Alas, Schanvoch, it was only after I saw how tenderly you always spoke +of Victorin to his mother, who, in turn, spoke to you of my poor sister +Ellen in the touching terms that she did, that I, together with all +those who knew us, understood and admired what at first seemed +impossible--the intimacy of you and Victoria, the two survivors of those +victims of a cruel fatality!" + +Whenever Victoria sufficiently surmounted her grief to consider the +interests of the country, she applauded herself on having succeeded in +deciding Captain Marion to accept the eminent post of which he daily +proved himself more worthy. She wrote several times to Tetrik in that +sense. He had left the government of Gascony in order to retire with his +son, then about twenty years of age, to a house that he owned near +Bordeaux, and where, as he said, he sought in poetry whatever solace he +could find for the death of Victorin and his son. He composed several +odes on those cruel events. Nothing, indeed, could be more touching than +an ode written by Tetrik on the subject of "The Two Victorins," and sent +by him to Victoria. Accordingly, the letters that he addressed to her +during the two months of Marion's administration were marked with +profound sadness. They expressed in a manner at once so simple, so +delicate and so tender the affection he entertained for her family, and +the sorrow that her bereavement caused him, that my foster-sister's +attachment for her relative increased by the day. Even I shared the +blind confidence that she reposed in him, and forgot the suspicions that +were twice awakened in my mind against the man. Moreover, my suspicions +vanished before the answer made to me by Eustace, when I questioned him +regarding the soldier, my mysterious traveling companion and perpetrator +of the assassination of Victoria's grandson. + +"Commissioned by Captain Marion to provide him with a reliable man for +your escort," Eustace answered me, "I picked out a horseman named +Bertal. He was ordered to wait for you at the city gate. After nightfall +I left the advanced post of the camp contrary to orders and went +secretly into the city. I was on my way thither when I met the soldier +on horseback. He was riding along the bank of the river, and was on the +way to meet you. I told him to say nothing of having met me, should he +run across any of our comrades on the road. He promised secrecy, and I +went my way. Early the next morning, as I was returning along the river +bank from Mayence, where I spent part of the night, I saw Bertal running +towards me. He was on foot; he was fleeing distractedly before the just +rage of our comrades. When I learned from his own mouth the horrible +crime that he even dared to glory in, I killed him on the spot. That is +all I know of the wretch." + +So far from the information clearing up, it obscured still more the +mystery that brooded over that fatal night. The Bohemian girls had +disappeared; and all inquiries set on foot regarding Bertal, my +traveling companion and subsequent perpetrator of such a horrible deed +as the murder of a child, agreed in representing the man as a brave and +honest soldier, incapable of the monstrous deed imputed to him, and +explainable only on the theory of drunkenness or insane fury. + +Accordingly, my son, Marion governed Gaul for two months to the +satisfaction of all. One evening, shortly before sunset, seeking some +diversion from the grief that oppressed me, I took a walk into the woods +near Mayence. I had been walking ahead mechanically a long time, seeking +only silence and seclusion and thus penetrating deeper and deeper into +the wood, when my feet struck an object that I had not noticed. I +tripped and was thus drawn from my sad revery. At my feet lay a casque +the visor and gorget of which were turned up. I recognized on the spot +Marion's casque by those features peculiar to the casque that he wore. I +examined the ground more attentively by the last rays of the sun which +penetrated the foliage with difficulty. I detected traces of blood on +the grass; I followed them; they led to a thicket; I entered it. + +There, stretched upon some tree branches that were bent and broken with +his fall, I saw Marion, bareheaded and bathed in his own blood. I +thought he was dead, or at least unconscious. I was mistaken. As I +stooped to raise him and to give him some aid, my eyes caught his; they +were fixed but still clear, despite approaching dissolution. + +"Go away, Schanvoch!" Marion said in a voice that though fainting +indicated anger. "I dragged myself to this spot in order to die in +peace--I threw myself into this thicket to escape detection. Go away, +Schanvoch! Leave me alone!" + +"Leave you!" I cried, looking at him in stupor and observing that his +blouse was red with blood just above the heart. "Leave you when your +blood is flowing over your clothes, and when your wound is perhaps +mortal!" + +"Oh, perhaps!" replied Marion with a sarcastic smile. "It is certainly +mortal, thanks to the gods!" + +"I shall run to town!" I cried without stopping to consider the distance +that I had just walked, absorbed as I was in my own sorrow. "I shall go +for help!" + +"Ha! Ha! Ha!--to run to the city--and we are two leagues away!" replied +Marion with a lugubrious peal of laughter. "I am not afraid of any help +that you may bring, Schanvoch. I shall be dead in less than a quarter of +an hour. But, in the name of heaven, go away!" + +"Are you resolved to die--did you smite yourself with your sword?" + +"You have said it." + +"No! You are trying to deceive me. Your sword is in its sheath." + +"What is that to you? Go away--" + +"You were struck by an assassin!" I exclaimed as I ran forward and +picked up a sword still bloody, that my eyes just fell upon and that lay +at a little distance. "This is the weapon that was used." + +"I fought in loyal combat--leave me--Schanvoch--" + +"You did not fight, and you did not wound yourself. Your sword lies +beside you in its sheath. No, no! You fell under the blows of some +cowardly assassin. Marion, let me examine your wound. Every soldier is +something of a surgeon--if the flow of blood is staunched it may be +enough to save your life--" + +"Stop the flow of blood!" cried Marion casting at me an angry look. +"Just you try to stop the flow of the blood from my wound, and you will +see how I will receive you--" + +"I shall endeavor to save you," I answered, "despite yourself." + +As I spoke I approached Marion who lay flat upon his back. Just as I +stooped over him he bent both his knees over his stomach and immediately +struck out violently with his feet. The kick took me in the chest and +threw me over upon the grass--so powerful was the expiring Hercules. + +"Will you still bring me help despite myself?" asked Marion as I rose +up, not angry but desolate over his brutality. If I should be overcome +in this sad struggle, it was clear that I would be compelled to give up +the hope of bringing help to the wounded man. + +"Very well! Die!" I said to him, "since such is your wish. Die, since +you forget that Gaul needs your services. But be sure of one thing--your +death will be avenged--we shall discover the name of your assassin--" + +"There has been no assassin--I gave myself the wound--" + +"This sword belongs to someone," I said picking up the weapon. As I +examined it I thought I could see through the blood that covered it that +its blade bore an inscription. To ascertain the fact, I wiped it with +some leaves. While I was engaged at this Marion cried in agony: + +"Will you leave that sword alone! Quit rubbing upon the blade! Oh! My +strength fails me, or I would rise and snatch the weapon from your +hands. A curse upon you, who have come to disturb my last moments! Oh! +It must be the devil who sent you!" + +"It is the gods who sent me!" I cried struck almost dumb with horror. +"It is Hesus who sent me for the punishment of the most horrible of +crimes! A friend slay his friend!" + +"You lie! You lie!" + +"It is Eustace who dealt you the wound!" + +"You lie! Oh! Why am I sinking so fast--I would smother those words in +your cursed throat!" + +"You were struck by this sword, the gift of your friendship to an +infamous murderer--" + +"It is false!" + +"'_Marion forged this sword for his dear friend Eustace_'--that is the +sentence engraved upon this blade," I replied to him pointing with my +finger at the inscription graven in the steel. "This is the sword that +you forged yourself." + +"The inscription proves nothing," observed Marion in great anguish. "The +man who struck me stole the sword from my friend Eustace--that's all." + +"You still seek to screen that man! Oh! There will be no punishment too +severe for the cowardly murderer!" + +"Listen, Schanvoch," replied Marion in a sinking and suppliant voice: "I +am about to die--nothing is denied to an expiring man--" + +"Oh! Speak! Speak, good and brave soldier. Seeing that, to the +misfortune of Gaul, fatality prevents me from saving you, speak! I shall +execute your last will--" + +"Schanvoch, the oath that soldiers give each other at the moment of +death--is sacred, is it not?" + +"Yes, my brave Marion." + +"Swear to me--that you will reveal to no one that you found here the +sword of my friend Eustace." + +"You, his victim--and you wish to save him!" + +"Promise me, Schanvoch, that you will do as I ask you--" + +"Save the monster from condign punishment! Never! No, a thousand times +no!" + +"Schanvoch, I implore you--" + +"Your murder shall be avenged--" + +"Be, then, yourself accursed! You who say 'No!' to the prayer of an +expiring man--to the prayer of an old soldier--who weeps--you see it. Is +it agony?--is it weakness?--I know not, but I weep--" + +And large drops of tears rolled down his face that gradually grew more +livid. + +"Good Marion, your kindheartedness distresses me! You, imploring mercy +for your murderer!" + +"Who else would take an interest in the unhappy fellow--if I did not?" +he answered with an expression of ineffable mercifulness. + +"Oh! Marion, those words are worthy of the young man of Nazareth, whom +my ancestress Genevieve saw put to death in Jerusalem!" + +"Friend Schanvoch--mercy--you will say nothing--I rely upon your +promise--" + +"No! No! Your celestial mercifulness only renders the crime more +atrocious. No pity for the monster who slew his friend!" + +"Go away from me!" feebly murmured Marion, sobbing. + +"It is you who harrow my last moments! Eustace only slew my body--but +you, pitiless before my agony, you torture my very soul!" + +"Your despair distresses me--and yet listen, Marion. It is not merely +the friend, the old friend that the assassin struck at--" + +"For twenty-three years we never left each other's side, Eustace and I," +Marion mumbled moaning. + +"No, it is not the friend only that the monster struck in striking you, +it was also, and perhaps especially, the Chief of Gaul and general of +the army that he aimed at. The mysterious cause of this crime may be of +deep interest to the country's future. The mystery must be fathomed, +uncovered--" + +"Schanvoch, you do not know Eustace. He cared little, I know, whether or +not I was Chief of Gaul or general of the army. Moreover, what does that +concern me--now, when I am about to live in yonder new worlds? All I ask +of you is that you grant me this last request--do not denounce my friend +Eustace. I implore you with clasped hands--" + +"Granted! I shall keep the secret, but under one condition, that you +inform me how the crime was committed." + +"How can you have the heart to drive such a bargain--the peace of +mind--a dying man--" + +"The welfare of Gaul may be at stake, I tell you! Everything points to +an infernal plot in this dark affair, the first victims of which were +Victorin and his son. That is why I insist upon learning from you the +details of this atrocious murder." + +"Schanvoch--a minute ago I could still distinguish your face--the color +of your clothes--now I see before me only a vague shape. Make haste, +make haste!" + +"Answer--how was the crime committed? By Hesus, tell me, and I swear to +you I shall keep the secret--not otherwise." + +"Schanvoch--my good friend--" + +"Was Eustace acquainted with Tetrik?" + +"Eustace never as much as spoke to him--" + +"Are you certain?" + +"Eustace told me so--he ever felt--without knowing why--an aversion for +the governor--I was not surprised at that. Eustace loved only me--" + +"And he killed you! Speak, and I swear to you, by Hesus, that I shall +keep the secret--otherwise, not!" + +"I shall speak--but your silence on the matter will not suffice me. A +score of times I proposed to my friend Eustace to share my purse--he met +my tender with insults. Oh! his is not a venal soul--not his--he has no +money--he must surely be without any resources whatever--how will he be +able to flee?" + +"I shall help him to flee--I shall furnish him the money that he may +need--I shall be only too glad to rid the camp of such a monster with +all possible speed!" + +"A monster!" murmured Marion reproachfully. "You are very severe towards +Eustace." + +"How did he manage to inflict a mortal wound upon you, and what was his +reason? Answer my question." + +"Since I was acclaimed Chief of Gaul and general, my friend Eustace +became more peevish than ever before, and more sullen--than he usually +was--he feared, poor soul, that my elevation would make me proud--" + +Marion choked in his speech. Throwing his arms about at random, he +called out: + +"Schanvoch, where are you?" + +"Here I am, close to you--" + +"I see you no longer," he said in a sinking voice. "Lean my back against +a tree--I am--smothering--" + +With no little difficulty I did what Marion desired; his Herculean body +was heavy. Finally, however, I succeeded in drawing him up with his back +against the nearest tree. Reclined against it, Marion continued in a +voice that steadily grew feebler: + +"In the measure that--the ill temper of my friend Eustace increased--I +sought to show myself even more friendly than usual towards him. I could +understand his apprehensions. Already, when I was only a captain, he +could not bring himself to treat me as his former companion at the +anvil. When I became general and Chief of Gaul he took me for a +potentate. As to myself, certain that I esteemed him none the less--I +always laughed in his face at his rudeness--I laughed--I did wrong--the +poor fellow was suffering. To make it short--to-day he said to me: +'Marion, it is a long time since we took a walk together, shall we take +a stroll in the woods, near the city?' I had a conference with Victoria. +But fearing to displease my friend Eustace, I wrote to the Mother of the +Camps, excusing myself--and he and I started on our walk arm in arm. I +was reminded of the days of our apprenticeship in the forest of +Chartres--where we used to go to trap magpies. I felt buoyant--and +despite my grey beard--knowing that nobody saw us--I indulged in all +manner of boyish tricks in order to amuse Eustace. I mimicked, as in the +days of our boyhood, the cry of--the magpies--by blowing upon a leaf +held close to my lips. I did other monkey tricks of the same nature--It +was singular--I never felt in better spirits than to-day--Eustace, on +the contrary did not move--a muscle of his face--not--a smile could be +extracted from him. We were a few steps from here, he behind me--he +called me--I turned around--and you will see, Schanvoch, that there +could not have been any wicked purpose on his part--only insanity--pure +insanity. The moment that I turned around he threw himself upon me sword +in hand--and--as he plunged the weapon into my side he cried: 'Do you +recognize this sword, you who forged it yourself?' I admit--I was not a +little surprised--I fell under the blow--I called out to my friend +Eustace: 'What ails you? Explain yourself at least. Have I offended you +in aught without knowing?' But I was only speaking--to the trees--the +poor crazy man had vanished--leaving his sword beside me--another +evidence of insanity--the weapon--you will notice--Schanvoch--the +weapon--bore on the blade the inscription: 'Marion forged this sword for +his dear friend Eustace.'" + +These were the last intelligible words of the good and brave soldier. He +expired a few minutes later uttering incoherent words, among which these +recurred with greatest frequency: + +"Eustace," "flee," "save yourself." + +After Marion had given up the ghost, I hastened back to Mayence in order +to notify Victoria of the occurrence, nor did I conceal from her that my +suspicions again pointed to Tetrik as having a hand in the plot. The +man, I explained, left again vacant the government of Gaul by the +removal of Marion, after Victorin and his son were gotten out of the +way. Although desolate by the death of Marion, my foster-sister +combated my suspicions with regard to Tetrik. She reminded me that I +myself, more than two months before the murder of Marion, was so struck +by the expression of hatred and envy betrayed by the face and words of +the captain's old companion, that I said to her before Tetrik that +Marion must be very much blinded by his affection to fail to perceive +that his friend was devoured by implacable jealousy. Victoria shared the +opinion of the good Marion, that the crime to which he had fallen a +victim had no other cause than the envious hatred of Eustace, who was +driven to the point of insanity by the more recent elevation of his +friend. Besides, a singular coincidence, on that same day my +foster-sister received from Tetrik, then on his way to Italy, a letter +in which he informed her that seeing his health was daily declining, the +physicians saw but one chance of safety for him--a trip to some southern +country. For that reason he was on the way to Rome with his son. + +These facts, Tetrik's conduct since the death of Victorin, the touching +letters that he wrote, together with what seemed to be the irrefutable +arguments advanced by Victoria, once more overthrew my mistrust toward +the Governor of Gascony. I also arrived at the conclusion, which was +certainly justified on the face of the events, that, in view of the +previous behavior of Eustace, the atrocious murder committed by him had +no other motive than a savage jealousy, that was driven to the point of +insanity by the recent distinction that fell to the lot of his friend. + +I kept the promise that I made to the good and brave Marion at the hour +of his death. His assassination was attributed to some unknown murderer, +but not to Eustace. I took the man's sword with me to Victoria; no +suspicion was drawn to the actual felon, who was never more seen either +at Mayence, or in the camp. Marion's remains, wept over by the whole +army, received the pompous military honors due to a general and a Chief +of Gaul. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE TRAITOR UNMASKED. + + +The direst day of my life since that on which I accompanied the remains +of Victorin, his son and my beloved wife Ellen to the funeral pyre that +was to consume them, was the day on which the following events took +place. They happened, my son, two hundred and sixty years after our +ancestress Genevieve saw the young man of Nazareth die upon the cross, +and five years after the assassination of Marion, the successor of +Victorin in the government of Gaul. + +Victoria no longer lived in Mayence, but in Treves, a large and +magnificent Gallic city situated on this side of the Rhine. I continued +to live with my foster-sister. Sampso, who served you as a mother since +the death of my never-to-be-forgotten Ellen, Sampso became my second +wife. On the evening of our marriage she admitted to me a fact of which +I never had any doubt--that having always felt a secret inclination for +me, she had decided never to marry, and to share her life with Ellen, +you, my child, and myself. + +My wife's death; the affection and profound esteem that Sampso inspired +in me; her virtues; the kindnesses that she heaped upon you; the love +with which you reciprocated her tenderness towards you--you loved her as +a mother, whose place she worthily filled; the requirements of your +education; finally also the urgent requests of Victoria, who valuing +the qualities of Sampso, warmly urged the union;--all these +circumstances combined to induce me to propose marriage to your aunt. +She accepted. But for the distressing recollections of the death of +Victorin and Ellen, of whom not a day passed but we spoke with tears in +our eyes; but for the incurable grief of Victoria, whose mind ever +turned upon her son and grandson;--but for these circumstances I would, +after so many misfortunes, have re-embraced happiness when I embraced +Sampso as my wife. + +Accordingly, I shared Victoria's house in the city of Treves. The sun +had just risen; I was engaged with some writing for the Mother of the +Camps, seeing that I continued my offices near her. Her confidential +servant, called Mora, stepped into the room. The girl claimed to have +been born in Mauritania, whence her name of Mora. Like the inhabitants +of that region, her complexion was bronzed, almost black, like a +Negro's. Nevertheless, despite the somber hue of her face, she was +handsome and young. Since the four years (remember the date, my son), +since the four years that Mora served my foster-sister, she gained her +mistress's affection by her zeal, her reserve and her devotion that +seemed proof against all temptation to change her quarters. +Occasionally, seeking some diversion from her sorrows, Victoria would +ask Mora to sing, because the girl's voice was of remarkable sweetness +and sadness. One of the officers of the army who had been as far as the +Danube, said to us one day as he heard Mora sing, that he had heard +those peculiar songs in the mountains of Bohemia. Mora seemed startled, +and said that she learned the songs she was singing as a little child in +the country of Mauritania. + +"Schanvoch," said Mora to me, "my mistress wishes to speak to you." + +"I shall follow you, Mora." + +"But before you go, one word, I beg you." + +"Speak--what is it?" + +"You are the friend, the foster-brother of my mistress--what affects her +affects you--" + +"Undoubtedly--what are you driving at?" + +"You left my mistress last night after having spent the evening with +her, your wife and son--" + +"Yes--and Victoria withdrew to her room, as usual." + +"Now listen--a short time after your departure, I took to her room a man +wrapped in a cloak. After a conversation with the unknown man, that +lasted deep into the night, instead of going to bed, my mistress was so +agitated that she walked up and down the room until morning." + +"Who can that man be?" I asked myself aloud, yielding to my +astonishment. Victoria was not in the habit of keeping any secrets from +me. "What mystery is this?" + +Mora believed that I questioned her, an act of indiscretion on my part +that I would have carefully guarded against, out of respect for +Victoria. The girl answered: + +"After your departure, Schanvoch, my mistress said to me: 'Go out by the +garden gate. Wait at the little door. You will soon hear a rap. A man in +a cloak will present himself--bring him to me--and not a word upon this +to anyone whatever--'" + +"You should, then, have abstained from making the confidence to me." + +"Perhaps I am wrong in not keeping the secret, even from you, Schanvoch, +the devoted friend and brother of my mistress. But she seemed to me so +agitated after the departure of the mysterious personage, that I thought +it my duty to tell you all. There is another reason why I decided to +speak to you. I led the man back to the garden gate--I walked a few +steps ahead of him--he seemed to be in a towering rage, and he dropped +terrible threats against my mistress. It was this that determined me to +reveal to you the secret of the interview." + +"Did you notify Victoria of the threats made against her?" + +"No--I was hardly back to her when she brusquely--she who is otherwise +so gentle towards me--ordered me to leave the room. I withdrew to a +contiguous apartment, and from there I could hear my mistress walk the +room all night in great agitation until dawn when she finally threw +herself upon her couch. A minute ago she called me in and ordered me to +bring you to her. Oh! If you had seen her! She looked so pale and +somber! I thought it best to reveal to you all that had happened--" + +I hastened to Victoria in a state of great alarm. The sight of her +struck me painfully. Mora had not exaggerated. + +Before proceeding with the thread of this narrative, and to the end of +helping you to understand it, my son, I must give you some details upon +the special arrangement of Victoria's chamber. In the rear of the +spacious apartment was a species of niche covered with heavy curtains. +In that niche, whither my foster-sister frequently retired in order to +think of those whom she had loved so much, hung the casques and swords +of her father, her husband and her son Victorin, over the symbols of our +druid faith. In the niche also stood--a dear and precious relic--the +cradle of the grandson of this woman, whom misfortune had so sorely +tried. + +Victoria stepped towards me, reached out her hand, and said in a +faltering voice: + +"Brother, for the first time in my life I have kept a secret from you; +brother, for the first time in my life I am about to resort to ruse and +dissimulation." + +She then took me by the hand, led me to the niche, drew back the heavy +curtain that closed it from sight, and added: + +"Every minute is precious; step into that niche; remain there silent, +motionless, and lose not a word of all that you shall hear. I hide you +in time in order to remove suspicion." + +The curtains of the niche closed upon me; I remained in the dark; for a +while I heard only Victoria's steps over the floor as she walked the +room in evident agitation. I was in my hiding place for over half an +hour when I heard the door of Victoria's room open and close. Someone +stepped in and said: + +"Greeting to Victoria the Great!" + +It was Tetrik's voice, the same mellifluous and insinuating voice. The +following conversation took place between him and Victoria. As she +recommended to me, I engraved every word in my memory, and that same day +I transcribed them, realizing the gravity of the dialogue. Another +circumstance which I shall presently inform you of dictated the +precaution to me. + +"Greeting to Victoria the Great," said the former Governor of Gascony. + +"Greeting to you, Tetrik." + +"Did the night bring counsel, Victoria?" + +"Tetrik," answered Victoria in a perfectly calm voice that was in strong +contrast with the agitation under which I had just seen her laboring, +"Tetrik, you are a poet?" + +"It is true--I sometimes seek in the cultivation of letters a little +recreation from the cares of state--especially from my undying sorrow +over the untimely departure of our glorious Victorin, whom, contrary to +my expectations, I have survived. I must repeat it to you, Victoria, let +us not speak of that young hero, whom I loved with the deep love of a +father. I had two sons; I have only one left to me.--I am a poet, say +you? Alas! Fain would I be one of those geniuses who render immortal the +heroes of their songs--Victorin would then live in all posterity as he +lives in the hearts of those who knew and mourn for him! But why do you +broach the subject of verses? Have they any connection with the subject +that brings me back to you this morning?" + +"Like all poets--you surely read your verses many times over in order to +correct them--and then you forget them, if the term can be used, to the +end that when you read them over anew, you may be struck all the more +forcibly by anything that may hurt your eyes or ears." + +"Certes, after having written some ode under the inspiration of the +moment, it has sometimes happened to me that, as the saying is, I let my +verses sleep for several months, and then, reading them over again, was +shocked at things that had at first escaped me. But poetry is not the +question before us." + +"There is, indeed, a great advantage in first letting thoughts sleep and +then taking them up again," answered my foster-sister with a phlegma +that surprised me more and more. "Yes, the method is a good one. That +which, under the heat of inspiration may not have at first wounded +us--sometimes shocks our senses when the inspiration has cooled down. If +the test is useful in the instance of frivolous matters like verses, +should it not be all the more useful when grave matters affecting our +lives are concerned?" + +"Victoria, I do not grasp your meaning!" + +"I yesterday received from you a letter that ran thus: 'This evening I +shall be in Treves unknown to anybody. I conjure you, in the name of the +most vital interests of our beloved country, to receive me in secrecy, +and not to mention the matter to anyone, not even to your friend +Schanvoch. Towards midnight I shall await your answer. I shall be found +wrapped in my cloak near your garden gate.'" + +"And you granted me the interview, Victoria. Unfortunately for me it led +to no decisive results, and so, instead of my returning to Mayence, as I +should have done, I find myself compelled to remain at Treves, seeing +you demanded time until this morning to arrive at a conclusion." + +"I shall be unable to arrive at any conclusion before submitting your +proposition to the test that we just spoke of. Tetrik, I let your offers +sleep, or rather I slept with them. Repeat to me, now, what you said to +me last night. Mayhap what wounded me then may no longer seem so +objectionable--" + +"Victoria, can you joke at such a moment?" + +"She who, even before having had to weep over her father and her +husband, over her son and her grandson, rarely laughed--such a woman +will assuredly not choose the hour of eternal mourning to indulge in +jokes. Believe me, Tetrik, I repeat it, your last night's propositions +seemed so extraordinary to me, they have thrown my mind into such +perplexity, they have raised such strange thoughts, that instead of +uttering myself under the shock of my first impressions, I prefer to +forget all that we said, and to listen to you once more, as if you +broached those matters for the first time." + +"Victoria, your eminent intellect, your powerful mind that has always +been prompt and unerring in taking a decision, did not, I must confess, +prepare me for such caution and hesitation." + +"Simply because never before in my life, now a long one, have I been +called upon to utter myself upon questions of such moment." + +"Pray, remember that yesterday--" + +"I wish to remember nothing. To me our last night's interview is as if +it had not been. Consider that it is now midnight, Mora has just let you +in by the garden gate, and has brought you to me. Speak--I listen." + +"Victoria--what is it that you have in mind?" + +"Be careful--if you refuse to broach the matter in full, I might give +you the answer that my first impressions dictated--and you know, Tetrik, +that when I once utter myself, I do so irrevocably." + +"Your first impression is, accordingly, unfavorable," cried Tetrik in an +accent of anguish. "Oh! It would be a misfortune, a great misfortune!" + +"Speak, then, if it is your desire to avert the misfortune." + +"Be it as you desire, Victoria, although such singular conduct on your +part disturbs me. You desire it? I shall satisfy you--our last night's +interview did not take place--I see you now for the first time after a +rather long absence, although a frequent exchange of correspondence kept +us in close touch with each other, and I say to you: It is now five +years ago since, struck at my very heart by the death of Victorin--a +fatal event, that carried away the hopes I entertained for the glory of +Gaul--I lay almost dying in Italy, at Rome, whither my son accompanied +me. According to the opinion of the physicians, the trip was to restore +my health. They erred. My ailments increased. It pleased God that a +Christian priest, whom a recently converted friend secretly introduced +into my house, succeeded in reaching my bedside. The faith enlightened +me--and, while enlightening me, performed a miracle--it saved me from +death. I returned, so to speak, to a new life with a new religion. My +son abjured, as I did, only in secret, the false gods that we had until +then adored. At that stage I received a letter from you, Victoria. You +informed me of the assassination of Marion. Guided by you, and as I had +expected, he had governed Gaul wisely. I remained overwhelmed by such +tidings; they were as distressing as they were unexpected. You conjured +me in the name of the most sacred interests of our country to return to +Gaul. None, you said to me, was capable of replacing Marion except +myself. You even went further. I alone, in the new and peaceful era that +opened to our country, could promote her prosperity by taking the reins +of government. You made a vehement appeal to my old friendship for you, +to my devotion for our country. I left Rome with my son. A month later I +was near you at Mayence. You pledged me your far-reaching influence with +the army--you were what you still are, the Mother of the Camps. +Presented by you to the army I was acclaimed by it. Yes, thanks to you +alone, I, a civil governor, who in my life had never touched a sword, I +was acclaimed the sole Chief of Gaul, and you boldly and proudly +declared on that day to the Emperor that Gaul, strong and feared, and +henceforth independent, would render obedience only to a Gallic chief, +freely elected. Engaged at the time in his disastrous war in the Orient +against Queen Zenobia, your heroic peer, the Emperor yielded. I alone +governed our country. Ruper, an old and tried general in the wars of the +Rhine, was placed in command of the troops. In its undying idolatry for +you, the army wished to keep you in its midst. I was engaged in +developing in Gaul the blessings of peace. Always faithful to the +Christian faith, I did not consider it politic to make a public +confession of my belief, and I concealed from even you, Victoria, my +conversion to a religion whose Pope is in Rome. Since the last five +years Gaul has been prospering at home, and is respected abroad. I +established the seat of my government and of the senate at Bordeaux, +while you remained with the army, which covers our frontier, and is ever +ready to repel either new invasions attempted by the Franks, or any +attack undertaken by the Romans, should the latter attempt to curtail +the complete independence that we enjoy and conquered so dearly. As you +know, Victoria, I always sought inspiration from your eminent wisdom, +either by visiting you in Treves, after you left Mayence, or through +correspondence with you upon the affairs of the country. But I indulge +in no delusions, Victoria; I am proud to admit the truth; it was only +your powerful hand that raised me to headship; it is only your hand that +keeps me there. Yes, from the seclusion of her modest retreat in Treves, +the Mother of the Camps is in fact the Empress of Gaul--despite the +power that I enjoy, I am only your first subject. That rapid glance over +the past was necessary in order to clearly formulate the present--" + +"Proceed, Tetrik, I am listening attentively." + +"The deplorable death of Victorin and his son, the assassination of +Marion, all these catastrophes tell you upon how slender a thread +elective sovereignty hangs. Gaul is at peace; her brave army is more +devoted to you than it has ever been to any of its generals; it overawes +our enemies; all that our beautiful country now stands in need of, in +order to reach the highest pinnacle of prosperity, is stability. The +country needs an authority that will not be dependent upon the caprice +of an election, which, however intelligent to-day, may be stupid +to-morrow. We need a government that is not personified in a man, ever +at the mercy of those who elected him, or of the dagger of an assassin. +The monarchic institution, based as it is, not upon a man, but upon a +principle, existed in Gaul centuries ago. It alone could to-day impart +to the nation the vigor and prosperity that it lacks. Victoria, you +dispose of the army, I govern the country. Let us join our strength for +a common aim--the insurance of our glorious country's future; let us +join, not our bodies--I am old, while you are still handsome and young, +Victoria--but our souls before a priest of the new religion. Embrace +Christianity, become my wife before God--and proclaim us, yourself +Empress, me Emperor of the Gauls. The army will have but one voice in +favor of elevating you upon a throne--you will reign alone and without +sharing your power with anyone. As to me, you know it, I have no +ambition to subserve. Despite my idle title of Emperor, I shall continue +to be your first vassal. As to my son, we shall adopt him for our +successor to the throne. He is of marriageable age; we shall choose for +him some sovereign alliance--and the monarchy of Gaul will be +established for all time. That, Victoria, was the proposal that I made +to you last night--I repeat it to-day. I have again laid my projects +bare before you and in the interest of our country. Adopt the plan; it +is the fruit of long years of meditation--and Gaul will march at the +head of the nations of the world." + +A long silence on the part of my foster-sister followed these words of +her relative. She then replied with the calmness that marked her words +since the entrance of Tetrik into the room: + +"It was a wise inspiration that caused me to wish to hear you a second +time, Tetrik. You abjured in favor of the new religion the ancient +religion of our fathers; but almost all Gaul is still loyal to the druid +faith." + +"Hence it is that I considered it politic to keep my abjuration a +secret, and in this I have acted in accord with the views of the Pope of +Rome. But if you should accept my offer, and should yourself abjure your +idolatry at our marriage, I shall then loudly proclaim my new belief, +and, according to the opinion of the bishops, our conversion will draw +in its wake the conversion of our people. Moreover I have the promise of +the bishops that they will glorify you as a saint with all the +magnificent pomp of the new Church. And, believe me, Victoria, a power +that is consecrated in the name of God by the Gallic prelates and by the +Pope of Rome, will be clothed in the eyes of the people with almost +divine authority." + +"Tell me, Tetrik; you abjured the belief of our fathers in favor of the +new, in favor of the gospel preached by the young man of Nazareth who +was crucified two centuries ago. I have read that gospel. An ancestress +of Schanvoch's witnessed the last days of Jesus, the friend of the slave +and the afflicted. Now, then, nowhere have I found in the gentle and +divine words of the young master of Nazareth aught but exhortations to +renounce wealth, to meekness, to equality among men--and here are you, +a fervent and recent convert, dreaming of royalty! The young man of +Nazareth, so sweet, so tender of the sufferers, the sinners and the +oppressed as he was, nevertheless broke out at times into terrible +threats against the rich, the powerful, the worldly happy--above all and +always he thundered against the princes of the church whom he branded as +infamous hypocrites--and, here are you, a fervent and recent convert, +seeking to place the royalty that you are striving after under the +consecration of just such princes of the church, the bishops! The young +man of Nazareth said to his disciples: 'When you pray, enter into your +closet, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father which is +in secret, and your Father which sees in secret will reward you +openly'--and here are you, a fervent and recent convert, proposing to me +to render our abjuration and prayers in public, pompously and solemnly, +seeing that the bishops are to glorify my conversion in the face of the +world. Truly, my feeble intellect, still closed to the light of the new +faith, is unable to reconcile such shocking contradictions." + +"Nothing more simple. The gospel of our Lord--" + +"Of what 'Lord' do you speak, Tetrik?" + +"Of our Lord Jesus Christ, the son of God, or rather the incarnate God." + +"How the times have changed! During his life the young man of Nazareth +did not call himself 'Lord'--far from it; he called himself the son of +God, in the sense that our druid faith teaches us that we are all +children of the same God. And in line with the teachings of our druids +he declared that our spirit, emancipated of its terrestrial bonds, +proceeds to unknown worlds where it animates rejuvenated bodies." + +"The times have changed--you are right, Victoria. Taken in an absolute +sense, the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ would be but a weapon of +eternal rebellion in the hands of the poor against the rich, the servant +against his lord, the people against their chiefs--it would be the +negation of all authority. Creeds on the contrary have the mission to +strengthen authority." + +"I am aware of that. In the days of their primitive barbarism, and +before they became the sublimest of men, our druids rendered themselves +redoubtable to the ignorant, struck them with terror, and crushed them +under their yoke. But the young man of Nazareth smote the atrocious +knavery when he indignantly denounced the princes of the church saying: +'They bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's +shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their +fingers.' All the more, if he is God, should his words be held sacred. +You speak, Tetrik, very much after the fashion of the Pharisees of old, +who caused the young man of Nazareth to be crucified." + +"Those are only sentimental views. Cultured minds, like yours, will +understand the true meaning of those bitter criticisms, and the violent +attacks of our Lord against the rich, the powerful and the priests of +his days. His sermons in favor of community of property, his exaggerated +mercifulness towards women of ill fame, the debauched, the prodigals, +the vagabonds--in short, his preference for the dregs of the population +with which he surrounded himself are not the means of government and +authority. The priests and bishops of the new faith alone are able, by +means of their sermons, skilfully to turn off the dangerous current of +the thought of equality among men, of hatred against the mighty, of +dispossessment against the rich, of liberty, of fraternity, of +community of goods, of tolerance for the guilty--a fatal current that +takes its source in certain passages of the gospel, which vulgar minds +wrongfully interpret." + +"And yet it is in the name of those generous thoughts that so many +martyrs have died in the past, and are still sacrificing their lives!" + +"Alas, yes! Jesus our Lord has remained for them the carpenter of +Nazareth, who was put to death for having defended the poor, the slaves, +the oppressed, the sinners, against those who then enjoyed power; he +promised the former the goods of the latter saying that the day would +come when 'the first would be the last.' It is for that reason that +these martyrs preach with unconquerable heroism the doctrines of Jesus, +the friend of the poor, the enemy of the mighty. The interests of both +the present and the future, accordingly, dictate to you that you accept +my offer. I resume: Take me for your husband; embrace the new faith, as +I did; have yourself and me proclaimed Emperor and Empress; adopt my son +and his posterity. All Gaul will follow our example and become +Christians; we shall heap privileges and wealth upon the bishops, and +they will consecrate in us the most sovereign and absolute authority +ever vested in any emperor or empress!" + +At this point, Victoria's voice, that until then was calm and collected, +broke out indignant and threatening: + +"Tetrik! The compact that you are proposing to me is +sacrilegious--infamous! Yesterday I thought you were demented--to-day, +when you repeat your proposition and expose to my gaze, even clearer +than you did before, the abysmal depths of your infernal soul, I see in +you a monster of ambition and of felony! At this hour the past lights +up the present before me, and the present lights the future! Blessed be +you, Hesus! I was not alone when this plot was unrolled to my ears! You +inspired me, Oh, Hesus! I wished to have a witness, who, in case of +need, could verify the reality of this monstrous proposal--Victoria +herself would not be believed upon her unsupported testimony when she +uncovers such dark designs! Come, brother--come, Schanvoch!" + +At Victoria's call I presented myself, crying: + +"Sister, I no longer say as I once did: 'I suspect this man!' To-day I +accuse the criminal!" + +"Schanvoch!" answered Tetrik disdainfully, "your accusations are stale. +This is not the first time that such silly words have dropped before my +contempt--" + +"I formerly only suspected you, Tetrik," I said determinedly, "of having +by your machinations brought on the death of Victorin and his son, who +was still in his cradle. To-day I accuse you of that horrible plot. I +prefer against you the charge of murder!" + +"Take care!" Tetrik answered pale, somber and with a threatening +gesture. "Take care! My power is great--I can annihilate you--" + +"Brother," Victoria said to me, "your thought is mine--speak without +fear--I also have power." + +"Tetrik," I proceeded, "I once only suspected you of being at the bottom +of Marion's assassination--to-day I accuse you of that crime also!" + +"Crazy wretch! Where are the proofs of the charges that you have the +audacity to hurl at me?" + +"Oh! You are prudent and skilful as well as patient. You break your +tools in the dark after having used them--" + +"Those are idle words," answered Tetrik with icy coolness. "Your proofs, +where are they! I laugh at your impotent threats." + +"The proofs!" cried Victoria. "They are embodied in your sacrilegious +propositions. You conceived the project of being the hereditary emperor +of Gaul long before Victorin's death; your proposition of having my +grandson acclaimed the heir of his father's office was a lure meant at +once to lead me off the scent of your designs and to furnish the first +step of the ladder that you meant to climb." + +"Victoria, anger is blinding you! What a bungler would I have been--if, +indeed, the ambitious object that I pursued was a hereditary throne for +myself--to advise you to vest the power in your own stock--" + +"Aye! For one thing, the principle would have been accepted by the army. +For another, once hereditary power was established for the future, you +would have rid yourself of my son and grandson, in the manner that you +did--by assassination. It is all now clear before me. That cursed +Bohemian girl was your instrument; she was sent to Mayence in order to +seduce my son, in order to drive him with her refusals to the infamous +act that the creature demanded as the price of her favors. The crime +once committed, my son would either be killed by Schanvoch, who was +hastily called back to Mayence that very night, or he would be slain by +the army, which received timely notice and was lashed to fury by your +emissaries--" + +"Proofs--proofs--Victoria! Proofs!" + +"I have none, yet I state the facts! You managed to have my grandson +killed the same night--torn from my arms. My stock is extinguished. Your +first step towards empire was marked in blood. You thereupon declined +power, and proposed the elevation of Marion. Oh! I admit it! Before that +prodigy of infernal cunning, my suspicions, which were for a moment +aroused, melted away. Two months after his acclamation as Chief of Gaul, +Marion fell under the sword of an execrable assassin, your instrument +again--" + +"Proofs!" broke in Tetrik impassibly. "Furnish the proofs!" + +"I have none, yet I state the facts. You remained the only available +candidate for the office--Victorin, his son and Marion were killed. +Thereupon, I unwittingly became your accomplice. I urged you to accept +the government of the country. You triumphed, but only in part; you +governed; but, you said it, you were but the first subject of the Mother +of the Camps. Oh! I perceive it clearly! The hour has come when my power +stands in your way. The army, Gaul, accepted Tetrik for their chief upon +my request. It was not they who chose you. With one word I can break +you, the same as I raised you to the place that you now are in. Blinded +by ambition you judged my heart after your own; you thought me capable +of wishing to exchange my influence over the army for the crown of an +empress, and of enthroning my stock. You have entered into a dark +compact with the Pope and bishops, looking to the eventual brutification +and enslavement of this proud Gallic people which freely chooses its +chiefs, and remains faithful to the religion of our fathers. Why, +centuries ago this people broke the yoke of kingship through the sacred +hands of Ritha-Gaur, and yet you now scheme to impose upon it a hated +domination by allying your self with the new Church! Very well, I, +Victoria, the Mother of the Camps, accuse you before the people in arms +of intriguing for the subjugation of Gaul! I accuse you of having +denied the faith of our fathers! I accuse you of entering into a secret +alliance with the bishops! I accuse you of wishing to usurp the imperial +crown and to render it hereditary in your family! I shall bring these +charges against you before the people in arms, and shall pronounce you a +traitor, a renegade, a murderer, a usurper! I shall demand on the spot +that you be tried by the senate, and punished with death for your +crimes!" + +The vehemence of the accusations of my foster-sister notwithstanding, +Tetrik maintained his habitual composure. For a moment he had dropped +the mask and flown at me with threats. Now he was himself again. Raising +his hands heavenward, he answered with the most unctuous voice that he +could summon: + +"Victoria, I considered the project that I submitted to you advantageous +to Gaul--let us drop it. You accuse me; I am ready to answer for my acts +before the senate and the army. Should my death, decreed at your +instigation, be of any service to my country, I shall not refuse to you +the few days of life that are still left to me. I shall await the +decision of the senate. Adieu, Victoria. The future will tell which of +us two, you or I, understood the country's interests better, and loved +Gaul with the wiser love." + +Saying this he took a step toward the door. I dashed forward ahead of +him, barred his passage and said: + +"You shall not go out! You mean to flee from the punishment that is due +to your crimes--" + +Tetrik looked me from head to feet with icy haughtiness, and half +turning towards Victoria, said: + +"What! In your house, violence is attempted upon an old man! Upon a +relative who comes to you unsuspecting--" + +"I shall respect that which is considered sacred in all +countries--hospitality," answered the Mother of the Camps. "You came to +me freely, you shall go out freely." + +"Sister!" I cried. "Be careful! Your confidence has proved fatal once +before--" + +Victoria interrupted me with a gesture, and said bitterly: + +"You are right--my confidence has been fatal to the country; it weighs +upon my heart with remorse--but fear not this time." + +Saying this she rang the bell. Mora entered almost immediately. Her +mistress whispered a few words in her ear and the servant quickly went +out again. + +"Tetrik," Victoria proceeded, "I have sent for Captain Paul and several +officers. They will come here for you. They will accompany you to your +lodging--you shall not leave the place but to appear before your +judges." + +"My judges! Who are to be my judges?" + +"The army will appoint a tribunal--that tribunal will judge you." + +"I can be tried only by the senate." + +"If the military tribunal finds you guilty, you will then be sent before +the senate; if the military tribunal acquits you, you will be free. Only +divine vengeance will then be able to reach you." + +Mora re-entered the room to inform her mistress that her orders were +issued to Captain Paul. Afterwards I remembered, but, alas! too late, +that Mora exchanged a few words in a low voice with Tetrik who sat near +the door. + +"Schanvoch," Victoria said to me, "did you hear well the conversation +that I had with Tetrik?" + +"Perfectly. I lost not one word." + +"Transcribe it faithfully." + +And turning to the Chief of Gaul she said: + +"That will be the indictment that I shall bring against you. It shall be +read before the military tribunal that is to sit in judgment upon you." + +"Victoria," Tetrik replied calmly, "listen to the advice of an old man, +who once was and still is your best friend. It is an easy thing to +accuse a man, but to prove his crime is a more difficult affair--" + +"Hold your tongue, detestable hypocrite!" cried Victoria angrily. "Drive +me not to extremes--" + +And clasping her hands: + +"Hesus! Give me the strength to be equitable towards this man. Calm down +in me, Oh, Hesus! the ebullitions of anger that might unsettle my +judgment!" + +Having heard steps behind the door, Mora opened it, and returned to her +mistress, saying: + +"Captain Paul has arrived." + +Victoria made a sign to Tetrik to leave the room. He stepped out heaving +a profound sigh and saying in penetrating accents: + +"Lord! Lord! Dissipate the blindness of my enemies! Pardon them, as I +pardon them!" + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE VISION OF VICTORIA. + + +When the room was cleared of the presence of Tetrik the Mother of the +Camps said to her servant, just as the latter was about to leave close +upon the heels of Tetrik: + +"Mora, my breast is afire. Bring me a cup of water with some honey, to +cool me and slake my thirst." + +The servant hurriedly nodded her head and vanished with Tetrik, who +lingered for a moment at the threshold. + +"Oh, my brother!" murmured Victoria despondently when we were again +alone. "My long struggle with that man has exhausted me--the sight of +evil lames my energies--I feel broken--" + +"Want of sleep, excitement, the horror that the sight of Tetrik inspired +you with--all this has rendered you feverish. Take a little rest, +sister; I shall instantly transcribe your conversation with the man. +This very evening justice will be done." + +"You are right; I think that if I could sleep a while I should feel +relieved. Go, brother, but do not leave the house." + +"Would you like Sampso to keep you company?" + +"No, I prefer to be alone." + +Mora re-entered. She carried a cup filled with the beverage that her +mistress had ordered. The latter took the cup and drained its contents +with avidity. Leaving my foster-sister to the care of her servant, I +went back to my room in order to reproduce the words of Tetrik +accurately. I was just about finishing the task, which took me nearly +two hours, when Mora dashed in pale and frightened. + +"Schanvoch!" she cried panting for breath. "Come! Come quick! Drop your +writing! Hasten to my mistress!" + +"What is the matter! What has happened?" + +"My mistress. Oh! Woe! Woe! Come quick!" + +"Victoria! Does any danger threaten her?" I cried, hurrying to the +apartment of my foster-sister, while Mora followed me, saying: + +"She sent me out of the room--she wanted to be alone. A minute ago I +went in--and, woe is me! I saw my poor mistress--" + +"Finish speaking--you saw Victoria--" + +"I saw her lying on her bed--her eyes open--but they were fixed--she +seemed dead--" + +I shall never forget the frightful sight that struck my eyes as I +stepped into Victoria's chamber. As Mora said, she lay stretched upon +her bed motionless, livid, like a corpse. Her fixed, yet sparkling eyes, +seemed to have sunk into their orbits; her features, painfully +contracted, were of the cold whiteness of marble. A sinister thought +flashed through my mind like lightning--Victoria was dying of poison! + +"Mora!" I cried throwing myself upon my knees beside the couch of the +Mother of the Camps. "Send immediately for the druid physician, and run +and tell Sampso to come here!" + +The servant rushed out. I took one of Victoria's hands. It was limp and +icy. + +"Sister! It is I!" I cried--"Schanvoch!" + +"Brother," she murmured. + +As I heard her muffled, feeble voice, methought the answer proceeded +from the bottom of a tomb. A moment later, her eyes, that until then +were fixed, turned slowly towards me. The divine intelligence that +formerly illumined the beautiful, august and sweet look of my +foster-sister seemed extinguished. Nevertheless, by degrees, she +recovered consciousness, and said: + +"Is it you--brother? I am dying--" + +Tossing her head painfully from one side to the other as if seeking +something, she made an effort to raise her arm; it dropped immediately +beside her; she then proceeded to say: + +"See yonder large trunk--open it--you will find in it--a bronze +casket--bring it to me--" + +I did as I was bid, and deposited a rather heavy bronze casket near her +on the couch. At that moment Sampso, whom Mora notified of Victoria's +condition, came in. + +"Sampso," said Victoria, "take this casket--take it away with you--keep +it carefully locked--open it in three days--the key is tied to the lid." + +And addressing me: + +"Did you transcribe Tetrik's conversation with me?" + +"I was just finishing it when Mora ran in to me." + +"Sampso, take that casket away to your room immediately, and bring me +the parchment on which Schanvoch has just been writing. Go, we have not +a minute to spare!" + +Sampso obeyed and left the room distracted. I remained alone with +Victoria. + +"Brother," she said to me, "every minute is precious. Listen to what I +have to say to you without interrupting me. I feel that I am dying; I +think I know the hand that smote me, without her being herself aware of +what she was doing. This crime caps a long series of dark and felonious +deeds. My death is at this moment a grave danger to Gaul. We must avert +the danger. You are known in the army--my confidence in you is +known--call the officers and soldiers together--inform them of Tetrik's +schemes. The conversation that you transcribed will be signed by me, in +order to verify your words. My life is ebbing fast. Oh! If I but had the +time to gather here around my death-bed the officers of the army who +this very evening will surround my funeral pyre. Upon that pyre I wish +you to lay the arms of my father, my husband and Victorin, also the +cradle of my little grandson!" + +"Schanvoch!" cried Sampso precipitately entering the room, "The +parchments that you left upon the table--have disappeared. But I saw +them lying on your desk when Mora came in to call me. They must have +been taken away since." + +"The parchments were taken away! Oh! What a misfortune to Gaul!" +murmured Victoria. "What mysterious hand is it that can thus penetrate +my house? Woe, woe is Gaul! Hesus! Omnipotent god! You call me to the +unknown worlds, where, perhaps, we may hover over this world that we +leave for yonder ones. Hesus! Am I to leave this earth without the +assurance of the welfare of the country I love so much? The future +terrifies me! Oh, Omnipotent! Allow your spirit to enlighten me at this +supreme moment! Hesus, have you heard me?" added Victoria in a louder +voice, half rising on her couch; and with inspired eyes she proceeded: +"What do I see? Is this the future that unveils itself before my eyes? +Who is that woman--so pale, lying prostrate? Her robe is +blood-bespattered. Also her chaplet of oaken leaves has drops of blood; +the sword, that her virile hand once held, lies broken at her side. One +of those savage Franks, his head ornamented with a crown, holds the +noble woman under his knees; he looks with mild and timid mien at a man +splendidly arrayed as a pontiff. Hesus! The bleeding woman--is Gaul! The +barbarian who kneels down upon her--is a Frankish king! The pontiff--is +the Bishop of Rome! Blood flows! a stream of blood! it carries in its +course, to the light of the flames of conflagrations, a mass of ruins, +thousands of corpses! Oh! the woman--Gaul, I see her again wan, worn, +clad in rags, the iron collar of servitude on her neck; she drags +herself on her knees; bending under a heavy burden! The Frankish king +and the Roman bishop quicken the march of enslaved Gaul with their +whips! Another torrent of blood; still the glamour of conflagration. Oh, +Hesus! Enough! Enough ruins and massacre! Heaven be praised!" cried +Victoria, whose face seemed for a moment to beam with divine splendor. +"The noble woman has risen to her feet! Behold her--more beautiful, +prouder than ever before! Her head is wreathed in a crown of fresh +oak-leaves! In one hand she holds a sheaf of grain, grapes and flowers; +in the other a red flag,[4] surmounted by the Gallic cock. Superbly she +tramples under foot the fragments of her collar of slavery, the crown of +the Frankish kings and that of the Roman pontiffs! Yes, that woman, free +at last, stately, glorious and fruitful--she is Gaul! Hesus! Hesus! Be +kind to her! Enable her to break the yoke of Kings and Pontiffs! Lead +her to freedom, glorious and fruitful without being compelled to reach +the goal by wading from century to century through those seas of tears, +those seas of blood that affright me!" + +These last words wholly exhausted Victoria's strength. Still she made +one more effort in her divine exaltation. She raised her eyes to heaven, +crossed her arms over her breast, heaved a long sigh, and fell back upon +her couch. + +The Mother of the Camps, Victoria the Great, was dead! + +While she spoke I made superhuman efforts to control my despair. When, +however, I saw her expire, I became dizzy, my knees sank under me, my +strength, my thoughts fled. I lost consciousness, but I still recollect +the sound of many voices and a great tumult in the contiguous apartment +whence I heard distinctly the words: + +"Tetrik, the Chief of Gaul, is in his death agony--he is dying of +poison--" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +CRIME TRIUMPHANT. + + +For several days I lay at death's door, constantly attended, my son, by +your second mother. About two weeks passed after the death of Victoria, +before I was able to collect and co-ordinate my recollections, and speak +with Sampso of our irreparable loss. The last words that struck my ears +when, broken with grief, I wholly lost consciousness beside the +death-bed of my foster-sister were these: + +"Tetrik, the Chief of Gaul, is in his death agony--he is dying of +poison." + +Indeed Tetrik was, or rather seemed to have been, poisoned at the same +time as Victoria. He had hardly stepped into the house of the general of +the army, when he seemed seized with severe pangs. When two weeks later +I myself returned to life, the life of Tetrik was still despaired of. + +I must admit I was stupefied at the strange information; my reason +refused to believe the man guilty of a crime of which he was himself a +victim. + +Victoria's death threw the city of Treves, the army, and later the whole +nation into consternation. The funeral of the august Mother of the Camps +seemed to be the funeral of Gaul herself. In her sudden taking-off +people saw the presage of new evils to the country. The Gallic senate +decreed the apotheosis of Victoria. It was celebrated at Treves in the +midst of universal sorrow and tears. The pompous solemnity of the druid +cult, the chant of the bards, imparted imposing splendor to the +ceremony. Embalmed and lying on an ivory couch covered with cloth of +gold, Victoria lay in state to the veneration of the citizens who +crowded in mass to the house of mourning. The place was constantly +invaded by that army of the Rhine of which Victoria was truly the +mother. Finally her remains were placed upon the pyre, agreeable to the +custom of our fathers. Incense rose along the streets of Treves, crossed +by the funeral procession, which was headed by the bards singing on +their golden harps the praises of the illustrious woman. The pyre was +then set on fire and disappeared in a sheet of flame. + +A medal, struck on the very day of the funeral ceremony, represents, on +its obverse, the head of the Gallic heroine, casqued as Minerva, and on +its reverse, an eagle with outstretched wings flying into space with its +eyes fixed upon the sun, the symbol of the druid faith--the soul leaving +this world and flying towards the unknown world where it is to be clad +in a new body. Under the symbol the ordinary formula was engraved: +"Consecration," followed below by these words: + + + VICTORIA, EMPEROR. + +By that virile appellation Gaul immortalized in her enthusiasm the +glorious Mother of the Camps, and wreathed her memory in a title that +she had steadily declined during life--a life that was at once modest +and sublime, and wholly consecrated to her father, her husband, her son +and to the glory and welfare of her country. + +My perplexity was profound. The poisoning of Tetrik, who, as it was +claimed, still struggled with death, the disappearance of the +parchments that contained the traitor's conversation with Victoria, and +which she was thereby prevented from signing before dying--all these +circumstances rendered the prosecution of the traitor difficult, if not +impossible. An accusation lodged by me, an obscure soldier, against +Tetrik, who survived as the supreme Chief of Gaul, and whose power was +now all the greater, seeing it was no longer counterbalanced by the vast +influence of the Mother of the Camps, could not lead to favorable +results. Before deciding upon a final course in the matter, I waited for +my shattered frame and mind to recover their former vigor. + +Three days after Victoria's death, and obedient to the last wishes of +the Mother of the Camps, Sampso opened the casket that Victoria gave +her. In it my wife found a last touching proof of the thoughtfulness of +my foster-sister. There was a parchment with these words inscribed in +her own hand: + + "We shall never part until death," did we, my good brother + Schanvoch, often say to each other; it is your wish, it is mine; + but if I am called away before you to live in the unknown worlds, + where we shall one day meet again, I shall feel happy on the day + when we shall meet again elsewhere than here, at the thought that + you have gone back to Brittany, the cradle of your family. + + The Roman conquest plundered your family of its ancestral fields. + Free once more, Gaul should, in the name of right or by force, have + revanquished the heritage of your children from the descendants of + the Romans. I know not what will be our country's condition, at the + time of our separation. But, hap what hap may, there are three + means by which you will be able to revindicate your just + heritage--right, money or force. You have the right, you have the + force, you have the money--you will find in this casket the + sufficient sum with which to buy back, if need be, the fields that + belonged to your family, and thenceforth live happy and free near + the sacred stones of Karnak, the witnesses of the heroic death of + your ancestress Hena, the Virgin of the Isle of Sen. + + You have often shown to me the pious relics of your family--I wish + to join to them a souvenir of my own. You will find in this casket + a bronze lark. I wore that ornament on my casque the day of the + battle of Riffenel, at which I saw my son Victorin flash his virgin + sword. I wish that you and your family may continue to keep this + memento of our fraternal friendship. It is left to you by your + foster-sister Victoria; she is of your family--did she not drink + the milk of your brave mother? + + When you read these lines, my good brother Schanvoch, I shall have + been re-born beyond, near those whom I have loved. + + Persevere in your fidelity to Gaul and the faith of our fathers. + You have approved yourself worthy of your family. May your + descendants approve themselves worthy of you, and write, without + having to blush, the history of their lives, as Joel, the brenn of + the tribe of Karnak, has desired them to do. + + VICTORIA. + + + +Need I tell you, my son, how deeply I was moved by such solicitude on +her part? I was at the time steeped in gloom and absorbed by the fear of +the grave events that might follow in the wake of Victoria's death. I +remained almost insensible to the hope of speedily returning to +Brittany, in order to end my days there, on the spot where my ancestors +lived. When my health was completely restored, I repaired to the general +who commanded the army of the Rhine. An old soldier himself, he was +certain to appreciate better than anyone else the serious dangers that +Gaul remained exposed to with Victoria's death. I frankly told him the +schemes that Tetrik was hatching; I also expressed to him my suspicions +regarding the poisoning of my foster-sister. The general made me the +following answer: + +"The crimes and plots that you accuse Tetrik of are so monstrous, they +would bespeak so infernal a soul, that I would hardly believe them, even +if they were attested by Victoria herself, our august mother, whom we +can never forget. Schanvoch, you are a brave and honest soldier, but +your deposition will not suffice to bring the Chief of Gaul to the bar +of the senate and the army. Besides, Tetrik is himself about to die; +even his own poisoning proves to a certainty that he is innocent of +Victoria's death. You would be the only witness against the Chief of +Gaul, who has been loved and venerated up to now, seeing that he has +always conducted himself as the first subject of Victoria, the real +empress of the nation. Take my advice, Schanvoch, invigorate your +spirit, that the sudden death of this august woman has so severely +shaken. It may be that, shocked by the disaster, your judgment is led +astray, and mistakes vague apprehensions for facts. Until now, Tetrik +has governed Gaul wisely, thanks to the inspiration of our august +Mother. If he dies, he will be regretted by us; if he survives the +mysterious crime which he has himself narrowly escaped, we shall +continue to honor the man who was pointed out to us by Victoria herself +as the fit object of our choice." + +The general's answer proved to me that I would never succeed in causing +the senate and the army to share my suspicions and convictions, both +being so thoroughly prejudiced in favor of the Chief of Gaul. + +Tetrik did not die. Hearing of his father's predicament, his son hurried +to Treves, and took his father in charge. When he became convalescent, +Tetrik held lengthy interviews with the senators and the chiefs of the +army. He manifested on the subject of Victoria's death so profound and, +to all appearance, sincere a grief; he honored her memory in so pious a +manner by a funeral ceremony at which he glorified the illustrious +woman, whose omnipotent hand, he said, had so long supported him, and to +whom he felt proud of owing his elevation; in short, he seemed so +heart-stricken when, pale, worn with his illness, frequently breaking +out into tears, and leaning on the arm of his son, he dragged himself +with unsteady step to the sad solemnity, that he conquered the affection +of the people and the army more completely than ever by the last homage +that he rendered to the memory of Victoria. + +I then realized how utterly futile it would be to press my accusations +against Tetrik. With my heart rent at seeing the fate of Gaul in the +hands of a man whom I knew for a traitor, I decided to leave Treves with +you, my son, and Sampso, your second mother, and repair to Brittany, the +country of our family's nativity, there to seek some consolation for my +sorrows. + +Nevertheless I felt bound to fulfil what I considered a sacred duty. By +dint of constantly interrogating my memory on the subject of the +conversation between Tetrik and Victoria, I succeeded in transcribing it +a second time, word for word. Of this I made a second copy, and on the +eve of my departure took the first draft to the general of the army. + +"You are of the opinion," I said to him, "that my reason wanders--keep +this narrative--I hope the future may not prove to you the truth of my +accusation." + +The general took the parchment, and dismissed me with the compassionate +mien that is bestowed upon people whose mind is deranged. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +KIDDA, THE BOHEMIAN GIRL. + + +On leaving the general of the army I walked home disconsolate. Crime was +triumphant. I returned home, to the house of my foster-sister, where I +remained until my departure for Brittany. I was engaged with Sampso +packing up the last articles needed on our journey, when the following +unlooked-for events happened on that night. + +Mora, the servant, had also remained in the house. The woman's grief at +her mistress's death touched my heart. On the night that I am writing +about, my son, while engaged with your second mother in the preparations +for our journey, we found that we needed another trunk. I went +downstairs in search of one into a room that was separated from Mora's +chamber by a rough wooden partition. It was past midnight. Upon entering +the room where the trunk was, I noticed, to my no slight astonishment, +that a bright light shone from the servant's room through the clefts of +the partition. Fearing that the woman's bed might have taken fire while +she slept, I hastened to peep through the clefts in the boards. I +bounded back with astonishment, but quickly returned to my place of +observation. + +Mora was contemplating herself in a little silver mirror by the light of +two lamps, the gleam of which had first attracted my attention. But it +was no longer Mora the Mauritanian; at least, her bronze complexion had +disappeared! I now saw her a pale brunette, coiffed in a rich gold band +ornamented with precious stones. The woman smiled at herself in the +glass. She put a long pearl earring to one of her ears, and--strangest +of all--she wore a corsage of some silvery material and a scarlet skirt. + +I recognized Kidda, the Bohemian girl. + +Alas! I had seen the creature only once, and then only by the light of +the moon, on that fateful night, when, suddenly recalled to Mayence by +the mysterious notification given me by my traveling companion, I slew +Victorin in my house, together with my beloved wife Ellen. + +Rage followed close upon the heels of my stupor--a horrible suspicion +flashed through my mind. I bolted from the inside the room in which I +was; with a violent thrust of my shoulder--rage multiplied my strength a +hundredfold--I broke down one of the boards of the partition, and +suddenly I stood before the eyes of the startled Bohemian. With one hand +I seized her and threw her upon her knees, with the other I took one of +the two heavy iron lamps, and raising it over the woman's head I cried: + +"I shall shatter your skull if you do not immediately confess your +crimes!" + +Kidda believed she read the decree of her death in my face. She grew +livid and murmured: + +"Kill me not! I shall speak!" + +"You are Kidda, the Bohemian girl?" + +"Yes--I am Kidda." + +"You were formerly at Mayence--and, as the price of your favors, you +exacted of Victorin that he dishonor my wife Ellen?" + +"Yes--that is so!" + +"You were acting under orders of Tetrik?" + +"No, I never spoke to him." + +"Whose orders were you, then, following?" + +"Of Tetrik's equerry." + +"The man is cautious," I thought to myself. "And the soldier who on that +fateful night announced to me that a heinous crime was being perpetrated +in my house--do you know who he was?" + +"It was Captain Marion's companion in arms, he was a former blacksmith, +like Marion." + +"Did Tetrik also know that soldier?" + +"No, it was Tetrik's equerry who had secret conferences with him at +Mayence." + +"And where is that soldier now?" + +"He died." + +"After Tetrik employed him to assassinate Captain Marion?" + +The girl looked puzzled. + +"Did Tetrik cause him to be put to death? Answer!" + +"I think so!" + +"And it is that same equerry who sent you to this house under the guise +of Mora, the Mauritanian? Was it in order to disguise yourself that you +painted your face?" + +"Yes--that is all so." + +"You were to spy upon your mistress, were you not?--and then poison her? +Speak! If you believe in a God--if your infernal soul dares at this +supreme moment to implore his help--you have but a minute to +live--Speak!" + +"Have pity upon me!" + +"Confess your crime--you committed it under orders of Tetrik? Speak!" + +"Yes, I was ordered by Tetrik." + +"When--how did he give you the order to execute that crime?" + +"When I entered the room the second time--after I was sent to bring +Captain Paul, who was to arrest Tetrik." + +"And the poison--you poured it into the drink that you were to present +to your mistress?" + +"Yes--it happened that way." + +"And on that same day," I added, my recollections now thronging to my +mind, "when I sent you to my wife, you purloined a parchment that lay on +my table and that I had written upon?" + +"Yes, Tetrik ordered me to--he heard Victoria refer to the parchment." + +"Why, after the crime was committed, did you stay in this house down to +to-day?" + +"So as to awaken no suspicions." + +"What induced you to poison your mistress?" + +"The gift of these jewels that I was entertaining myself with putting on +when you broke in upon me. I thought I was alone!" + +"Tetrik came himself near dying of the poison--do you believe his +equerry is guilty of that crime?" + +"Every poison has its counter-poison," answered the Bohemian with a +sinister smile. "He who poisons others, removes suspicion from himself +by drinking from the same cup, and he is safe through the +counter-poison." + +The woman's answer was a flash-light to me. By an infernal ruse, and +doubtlessly guaranteed against death, thanks to an antidote, Tetrik had +swallowed enough poison to produce in him the identical symptoms that +marked Victoria's agony and thus seem to share her fate. + +To seize a scarf that lay upon the bed, and, despite the resistance that +she offered, to tie her hands firmly together and to lock her up in one +of the lower rooms, was the affair of but an instant. I ran back to the +general of the army. After finally succeeding in being admitted to his +presence--a difficult thing owing to the hour of the night--I repeated +to him the confession that Kidda had just made to me. He shrugged his +shoulders impatiently and said: + +"Ever this same, rooted, thought--your mind must be wholly deranged. The +idea of having me waked up to hear such crazy man's stories. Moreover, +you have chosen ill the hour to prefer such charges against the +venerable Tetrik. He left Treves last evening for Bordeaux." + +The departure of Tetrik was a heavy blow to my last hopes. Nevertheless, +I pressed the general with such insistence, I spoke to him with such +earnestness and coherence, that he consented to order one of his +officers to accompany me back to the house, and take the Bohemian girl's +confession in writing. He and I returned hurriedly to the house. I +opened the door of the chamber in which I had left Kidda with her hands +tied. She was gone! She must have gnawed at the scarf with her teeth, +and fled by one of the windows that now stood open and that looked into +the garden. In my hurry and the seething confusion of my brain I had +omitted to guard against the chances of the woman's escape by that +issue. + +"Poor Schanvoch!" said the officer to me with deep pity. "Your grief +makes you see visions--be careful, or you will go crazy, altogether!" + +And without caring to listen to me any longer he left. + +The will of God be done! I now renounced all hope of uncovering the +crimes of Tetrik. The next day I left the city of Treves with you and +Sampso, and took the road for Brittany. + + * * * * * + +You will read, alas! with no little grief and apprehension, my son, the +few lines with which I shall close this narrative. You will see how our +old Gaul, after having fully reacquired her freedom by dint of three +centuries of continuous struggle, after having become great and powerful +under the influence of Victoria, was again to fall, not, it is true, +completely under the yoke, but at least enfeoffed to the Roman Emperors +through the infamous treachery of Tetrik. + +Finding his projects of marriage and usurpation thwarted by the Mother +of the Camps, the monster had her poisoned. She alone, had she consented +to abjure her faith and contract a union with him, could have cleared +the path for him to reach the hereditary throne of Gaul. With Victoria +dead, he realized the futility of persevering along that route. +Moreover, he soon felt that, being no longer sustained by the wisdom and +sovereign influence of that august woman, the people's affection for him +was visibly ebbing. Seeing that with every day he lost some of his +former prestige, and foreseeing his speedy fall, he began to cast about +for the commission of one of the two acts of treason that I had long ago +suspected him of contemplating. He labored in the dark to reduce Gaul, +after the country had acquired its complete independence, back to the +level of a dependency of the Roman Emperors. Long in advance, and by +means of a thousand and one covert schemes, he sowed the germs of civil +discord in the country. By these means Gaul's powers of resistance were +weakened. He succeeded in re-kindling the old jealousies between +province and province that had long been allayed. By means of +deliberately practiced acts of favoritism and of injustice, he incited +violent rivalries between the generals and also between the several army +corps. When matters were ripe for the deed of treason he secretly wrote +to Aurelian, the Roman Emperor: + +"The favorable moment for an attack upon Gaul has arrived. You will +prevail easily over a people that is weakened by internal dissensions, +and an army, one division of which is jealous of the other. I shall +notify you in advance of how the Gallic troops are distributed, and also +of their moves, in order to insure the prospects of your triumph." + +The two armies met on the banks of the Marne on the wide plain of +Chalon. Agreeable to his promise, and acting in concert with the Roman +general, Tetrik allowed the corps that he led to be cut off from the +rest of the army. The Gallic legions of the Rhine fought with their +wonted intrepidity, but it was of no avail. Their movements being known +in advance by the enemy and overpowered by numbers, they were finally +cut to pieces. Tetrik and his son took refuge in the enemy's camp. Our +army being out of the way, and our country divided against itself, as it +had never been before even during the darkest days of our history, +victory was rendered an easy matter to the Romans. After re-enjoying +absolute freedom for many a year, Gaul became a Roman province once +more. As Caesar had done before him, in order to glorify the great +event, the Emperor Aurelian made a solemn entry into the Roman capital. +All the captives, gathered by that emperor in the course of his long +wars in Asia, marched before his chariot. Among these the queen of the +Orient was seen, the heroine who emulated Victoria--Zenobia. She was +loaded with golden chains riveted to the gold collar that she wore +around her neck. Behind Zenobia marched Tetrik, the last Chief of Gaul +before the country relapsed into a province of Rome. Tetrik and his son +marched free and with heads erect, despite their infamous treachery. +They wore long purple mantles over silk tunics and breeches. They +represented in the procession the recent submission of the Gauls to +Aurelian the Emperor. + +Alas! my son, the history of our fathers will teach you that one day, +three hundred years ago, another Gaul also marched before the triumphal +chariot of a Roman Emperor, Caesar. That Gaul did not march in brilliant +array, with audacious mien and with smiles for his vanquisher. That +captive was loaded with chains, he was clad in rags, and was hardly able +to walk; he was that day taken out of the dungeon where he had +languished four years after having defended the freedom of Gaul inch by +inch against the victorious armies of the great Caesar. That captive, +one of the most heroic martyrs of our country and our independence, was +called Vercingetorix, the Chief of the Hundred Valleys. + +After the triumphal march of Caesar, the head of the valiant defender of +Gaul was cut off. + +After the triumphal march of Aurelian, Tetrik, the renegade who +delivered his country to the foreigner, was led with pomp to a splendid +palace, the price of his sacrilegious treason. + +Let not the contrast cause you to despair of virtue, my son. The justice +of Hesus is eternal. Traitors will receive their punishment. + + + + +EPILOGUE. + + +The narrative of my father Amael's great-grandfather Schanvoch on the +events that transpired in Gaul--after the death of Victoria the Great, +during the time that, living retiredly in Brittany on the fields of our +ancestors that he bought back from a Roman colonist, he quietly spent +his life with his son Alguen and his second wife Sampso--ends here. + +While it is true that Gaul was again a province of Rome, nevertheless, +all the practical franchises, that we reconquered so dearly by +innumerable insurrections, and paid for with the blood of our fathers, +have remained to us. None has dared, none will dare to deprive us of +them. We shall preserve our laws and customs; we shall enjoy our full +rights as citizens. Our incorporation with the Empire, the impost that +we pay into the fisc, and our name of "Roman Gaul"--these are the only +evidences of our dependence. Such a chain may not be heavy; but, light +as it be, a chain it is. I doubt not that some day we shall be able to +break it. The apprehensions that weighed upon my great-great-grandfather +Schanvoch's mind and that continue to weigh upon mine do not arise from +that quarter. No! The dangers that we apprehend--if faith is to be +attached to the prediction made by Victoria upon her death-bed; the +danger, that has filled us with dread for the future, rises from the +once more swelling number of the Frankish hordes on the other side of +the Rhine, and in the dark machinations of the bishops of the new +religion. + +My great-great-grandfather Schanvoch died peaceably in our house, +situated near the sacred stones of Karnak. He left the narrative that he +wrote, and the casque's lark, given him by Victoria, together with the +previous narratives of our family and the relics that accompany them, to +his son Alguen. After a long and peaceful life Alguen died, three +hundred and forty years after our ancestress Genevieve saw Jesus of +Nazareth perish on the cross. Alguen's son Roderik, my grandfather, +inherited from his father both our family records and relics, and a +quiet, peaceful and contented life, all of which he bequeathed to his +son, my father Amael, who in turn bequeathed them to me, Gildas. + +I then, Gildas, make this entry to-day in our family annals three +hundred and seventy-five years after the death of Jesus. I feel sad on +this occasion. My father had intended to add a few words to our family +annals. He postponed doing so from day to day, seeing there was nothing +that he desired to make particular mention of to our descendants, his +life being the uneventful one of a quiet, industrious and obscure +husbandman. Two days ago my father died. He died in our own house, near +the stones of Karnak, after a short illness. + +The frightful predictions of Victoria, the illustrious foster-sister of +my ancestor Schanvoch, have not been verified. May they never be! Gaul +continues a dependence of the Roman Emperors. Occasionally a traveler +reaches these parts, penetrating into these remote regions of our old +Armorica. From them we have learned that, in some of the other provinces +there have been several popular uprisings of considerable strength and +generally called "Bagaudies." These uprisings must have taken place +shortly after the death of my ancestor Schanvoch. Brittany has remained +free from the revolts of the "Bagauders." The region enjoys profound +tranquility. The impost that we pay into the emperor's fisc is not too +heavy. We live peacefully and free. + +Several of our ancestors, during the darksome days of their enslavement +to Rome, and when they were steeped in ignorance and misery, recorded on +our family parchments that such was the leaden uniformity of their days, +spent by them from dawn to dusk, in oppressive labors, that they had +nothing to say except: "I was born, I have lived and I shall die in the +sorrows of slavery." May it please the gods that the happiness of the +generations that are to follow me be in turn, so uniform, that each of +my descendants may, as I do now, have nothing to add to our family +chronicles but these lines with which I shall close my narrative: + +"I have lived happy, peaceful and obscure in our Armorican Brittany +cultivating our ancestral fields with the help of my family. I shall +depart from this world without fear or regret when it will please Hesus +to call me away to live again in yonder unknown worlds." + +I am now aged eighteen years. The family relics in my possession consist +of Hena's gold sickle, Guilhern's little brass bell, Sylvest's iron +collar, Genevieve's silver cross, and the casque's lark of Schanvoch. + +THE END. + + +FOOTNOTES + +[1] The Frankish chiefs, at the time of the conquest, daubed their hair +with tallow mixed with crushed limestone, to make their hair a glaring +reddish-yellow. Such was the beauty of the period. + +[2] Ardent, or Fiery. See "The Brass Bell," the second work of this +series. + + +[3] For the source of these recollections, see the third volume of this +series, entitled "The Iron Collar." + +[4] The color of the Gallic emblem was crimson red. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Casque's Lark, by Eugène Sue + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CASQUE'S LARK *** + +***** This file should be named 33868-8.txt or 33868-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/3/8/6/33868/ + +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. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +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 + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/33868-8.zip b/33868-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3578e29 --- /dev/null +++ b/33868-8.zip diff --git a/33868-h.zip b/33868-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..cb0a08a --- /dev/null +++ b/33868-h.zip diff --git a/33868-h/33868-h.htm b/33868-h/33868-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9f34cfa --- /dev/null +++ b/33868-h/33868-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,9544 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" +"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en" xml:lang="en"> + <head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> +<title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Casque's Lark, by Eugene Sue. +</title> +<style type="text/css"> + p {margin-top:.75em;text-align:justify;margin-bottom:.75em;text-indent:2%;} + +.c {text-align:center;text-indent:0%;} + +.r {text-align:right;margin-right:25%;} + +.nind {text-indent:0%;margin-left:5%;} + +h1 {text-align:center;clear:both;} + +h2,h3 {margin-top:15%;text-align:center;clear:both;font-family:courier new, serif;} + +.top15 {margin-top:15%;} + +.top5 {margin-top:5%;} + + hr.full {width:100%;margin:5% auto 5% auto;border:4px double gray;} + + table {margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;border:none;text-align:left;} + + body{margin-left:10%;margin-right:10%;background:#fdfdfd;color:black;font-family:"Times New Roman", serif;font-size:medium;} + +a:link {background-color:#ffffff;color:blue;text-decoration:none;} + + link {background-color:#ffffff;color:blue;text-decoration:none;} + +a:visited {background-color:#ffffff;color:purple;text-decoration:none;} + +a:hover {background-color:#ffffff;color:#FF0000;text-decoration:underline;} + +.smcap {font-variant:small-caps;font-size:95%;} + + img {border:none;} + +.blockquot{margin:8% auto 8% auto;font-size:90%;} + +.footnotes {border:dotted 3px gray;margin-top:15%;clear:both;} + +.footnote {width:95%;margin:auto 3% 1% auto;font-size:0.9em;position:relative;} + +.label {position:relative;left:-.5em;top:0;text-align:left;font-size:.8em;} + +.fnanchor {vertical-align:30%;font-size:.8em;} + +.box {border: solid 3px black;padding:2%;max-width:60%;margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;margin-top:15%;max-height:800px;} + +.box2 {border: solid 3px black;padding:2%;} + +.boxseries {border: none;padding:2%;max-width:75%;margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;margin-top:15%;} + +.boxdouble {border: double 6px black;padding:2%;margin:4% 6% 4% 6%;} + +.full {text-align:center;text-indent:0%;font-size:150%;font-weight:bold;} + +td.part {font-size:125%;line-height:50px;} + +.sml {font-size:75%;} + +.space {letter-spacing:3px;} + +</style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Casque's Lark, 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 Casque's Lark + or Victoria, The Mother of The Camps + +Author: Eugène Sue + +Translator: Daniel De Leon + +Release Date: October 17, 2010 [EBook #33868] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CASQUE'S LARK *** + + + + +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.) + + + + + + +</pre> + +<hr class="full" /> + +<h3>THE CASQUE'S LARK</h3> + +<div class="boxseries"> +<div class="boxdouble"> +<p class="full">THE FULL SERIES OF</p> + +<p class="c"><img src="images/ill_mysteries.png" +alt="The Mysteries of the People" +width="80%" +/> +</p> + +<p class="c">OR</p> + +<p class="c">History of a Proletarian Family<br />Across the Ages</p> + +<p class="c space">By EUGENE SUE</p> + +</div> + +<p class="c"><i>Consisting of the Following Works:</i></p> + +<p class="nind"><b>THE GOLD SICKLE; or, <i>Hena the Virgin of the Isle of Sen</i>.<br /> +THE BRASS BELL; or, <i>The Chariot of Death</i>.<br /> +THE IRON COLLAR; or, <i>Faustine and Syomara</i>.<br /> + +THE SILVER CROSS; or, <i>The Carpenter of Nazareth</i>.<br /> +THE CASQUE'S LARK; or, <i>Victoria, the Mother of the Camps</i>.<br /> +THE PONIARID'S HILT; or, <i>Karadeucq and Ronan</i>.<br /> +THE BRANDING NEEDLE; or, The <i>Monastery of Charolles</i>.<br /> +THE ABBATIAL CROSIER; or, <i>Bonaik and Septimine</i>.<br /> + +THE CARLOVINGIAN COINS; or, <i>The Daughters of Charlemagne</i>.<br /> +THE IRON ARROW-HEAD; or, <i>The Buckler Maiden</i>.<br /> +THE INFANT'S SKULL; or, <i>The End of the World</i>.<br /> +THE PILGRIM'S SHELL; or, <i>Fergan the Quarryman</i>.<br /> +THE IRON PINCERS; or, <i>Mylio and Karvel</i>.<br /> + +THE IRON TREVET; or Jocelyn the Champion.<br /> +THE EXECUTIONER'S KNIFE; or, Joan of Arc.<br /> +THE POCKET BIBLE; or, <i>Christian the Printer</i>.<br /> +THE BLACKSMITH'S HAMMER; or, <i>The Peasant Code</i>.<br /> +THE SWORD OF HONOR; or, <i>The Foundation of the French Republic</i>.<br /> +THE GALLEY SLAVE'S RING; or, <i>The Family Lebrenn</i>.</b></p> + +<div class="boxdouble space"> +<p class="c"><span class="sml">Published Uniform With This Volume By</span><br /> +THE NEW YORK LABOR NEWS CO.<br /> +<span class="sml">28 CITY HALL PLACE NEW YORK CITY</span></p> +</div></div> + +<div class="box"> + +<div class="box2"> +<h1>The Casque's Lark</h1> + +<p class="c"><b>: : : : OR : : : :</b></p> + +<p class="c"><b>VICTORIA, THE MOTHER OF THE CAMPS</b></p> + +<table summary="name" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" +style="border-bottom:6px double black; +letter-spacing:8px;font-size:125%;"> +<tr><td> + + + + </td></tr> +</table> + +<p class="c top15"><b>A Tale of the Frankish Invasion of Gaul</b></p> + +<table summary="name" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" +style="border-top:4px double black; +border-bottom:6px double black;"> +<tr><td class="space"><b> By EUGENE SUE </b></td></tr> + +</table> + +<table summary="name" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" +style="border-bottom:6px double black; +letter-spacing:8px;font-size:125%;"> +<tr><td> + + + + </td></tr> +</table> + +<p class="c sml space"><b>TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL FRENCH</b></p> + +<p class="c"><b>By <span class="space"> DANIEL DE LEON</span></b></p> + +<p class="c sml space"><b>NEW YORK LABOR NEWS COMPANY, 1909</b></p> +</div> +</div> + +<p class="c top5 sml">Copyright, 1909, by the<br /> +New York Labor News Company</p> + +<h3>INDEX</h3> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" summary="contents" +style="font-family:courier new, serif;font-weight:bold;"> +<tr><td colspan="2"><a href="#TRANSLATORS_PREFACE">TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE</a></td><td align="right"><a href="#page_v">v</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="2"><a href="#INTRODUCTION">INTRODUCTION</a></td><td align="right"><a href="#page_001">1</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center" class="part"><a href="#PART_I">PART I—FOREIGN FOES.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_Ia">I.</a></td><td>SCHANVOCH AND SAMPSO</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_021">21</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_IIa">II.</a></td><td>ON THE RHINE</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_026">26</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_IIIa">III.</a></td><td>THE HORDES OF THE FRANKS</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_046">46</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_IVa">IV.</a></td><td>THE PRIESTESS ELWIG</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_055">55</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_Va">V.</a></td><td>NEROWEG THE TERRIBLE EAGLE</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_069">69</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIa">VI.</a></td><td>THE FLIGHT</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_083">83</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIIa">VII.</a></td><td>SHADOWS ACROSS THE PATH</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_094">94</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIIIa">VIII.</a></td><td>CAPTAIN MARION</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_099">99</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_IXa">IX.</a></td><td>VICTORIA THE GREAT</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_107">107</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_Xa">X.</a></td><td>TETRIK</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_114">114</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIa">XI.</a></td><td>VICTORIN</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_127">127</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIIa">XII.</a></td><td>TO BATTLE</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_143">143</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIIIa">XIII.</a></td><td>THE BATTLE OF THE RHINE</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_156">156</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIVa">XIV.</a></td><td>THE HOMEWARD RIDE</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_173">173</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="3" align="center" class="part"><a href="#PART_II">PART II—DOMESTIC TRAITORS.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">I.</a></td><td>GATHERING SHADOWS</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_185">185</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">II.</a></td><td>THE CATASTRO</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_195">195</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">III.</a></td><td>THE MORTUARY CHAMBER</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_208">208</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">IV.</a></td><td>FUNERAL PYRES</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_229">229</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">V.</a></td><td>ASSASSINATION OF MARION</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_233">233</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">VI.</a></td><td>THE TRAITOR UNMASKED</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_247">247</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">VII.</a></td><td>THE VISION OF VICTORIA</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_268">268</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">VIII.</a></td><td>CRIME TRIUMPHANT</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_274">274</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">IX.</a></td><td>KIDDA, THE BOHEMIAN GIRL</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_280">280</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="2"><a href="#EPILOGUE">EPILOGUE</a></td><td align="right"><a href="#page_288">288</a></td></tr> +</table> + +<p><a name="page_v" id="page_v"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="TRANSLATORS_PREFACE" id="TRANSLATORS_PREFACE"></a>TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE</h3> + +<p>The first four stories of Eugene Sue's series of historic novels—<i>The +Mysteries of the People; or, History of a Proletarian Family Across the +Ages</i>—are properly introductory to the wondrous drama in which, as +indicated in the preface to the first story of the series, "one family, +the descendants of a Gallic chief named Joel, typifies the oppressed; +one family, the descendants of a Frankish chief named Neroweg, typifies +the oppressor; and across and adown the ages, the successive struggles +between oppressors and oppressed—the history of civilization—is thus +represented in a majestic allegory." That wondrous drama opens with +this, the fifth of the stories—<i>The Casque's Lark; or, Victoria, the +Mother of the Camps</i>.</p> + +<p>Here, for the first time, does a descendant of Joel, the Breton chief, +encounter a Neroweg, the representative of the conquering race. Here +they cross swords for the first time, their descendants meeting again +and again in the course of the subsequent narratives, almost always in +deadly encounter, each typical of the advancing stage of civilization in +which the succeeding encounters occur.</p> + +<p>In point of time, the scene of this story is about the third century of +the Christian era. The great historic epoch which it describes is that +in which, the star of the Roman Empire being in the decline and the +Empire's hold upon Gaul having been greatly relaxed, the flood of the +barbarian migration of nations flowed westward from the primeval +forests and frozen fields of Germania, attempting to cross the Rhine and +enter Gaul. Foremost among these hordes were the savage and warlike +Franks, led by a number of independent chiefs. The present story +describes the two forces—Franks and Gauls, the latter supported by the +Romans—facing each other, frequently crossing swords in bloody +encounters and holding each other in check. Out of this material, into +which the thin thread of the initial introduction of Christianity in +Gaul is woven in the woof, Sue constructed the present superb +narrative—a fit overture for the following and successive fourteen +acts.</p> + +<p> +<span class="smcap">Daniel De Leon</span>.<br /> +<br /> +Milford, Conn., August, 1909.<br /> +</p> + +<p><a name="page_001" id="page_001"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="INTRODUCTION" id="INTRODUCTION"></a>INTRODUCTION.</h3> + +<p>I, Schanvoch, a descendant of Joel, the brenn of the tribe of Karnak; I, +Schanvoch, now a freeman, thanks to the valor of my father Ralf and the +bold Gallic insurrections that continued unabated from century to +century; I, Schanvoch, write the following narrative two hundred and +sixty-four years after my ancestress Genevieve, the wife of Fergan, +witnessed in Judea the death of the poor carpenter Jesus of Nazareth.</p> + +<p>I write the following account thirty-four years after Gomer, the son of +Judicaël and grandson of Fergan, who was a slave like his father and +grandfather, wrote to his son Mederik that he had nothing to add to the +family annals but the monotonous account of his life as a slave.</p> + +<p>Neither did my ancestor Mederik contribute aught to our family history, +and his son Justin contented himself with having a stranger's hand enter +these short lines:</p> + +<p>"My father Mederik died a slave, fighting as a Son of the Mistletoe for +the freedom of Gaul; he told me that he was driven to revolt against the +foreign oppression by the narrative of the bravery of our free ancestors +and by the description of the sufferance of our enslaved fathers. I, his +son Justin, a colonist, and no longer a slave of the fisc, have caused +this fact to be entered upon our family parchments, which I shall +faithfully transmit to my son Aurel, together with their accompanying +emblems, the gold sickle, the little<a name="page_004" id="page_004"></a> brass bell, the fragment of the +iron collar and the little silver cross, all of which I have carefully +preserved."</p> + +<p>Aurel, Justin's son and a colonist like his father, was not any more +literate than the latter, and left no record whatever. After him, again +a stranger's hand inserted these lines in our family annals:</p> + +<p>"Ralf, the son of Aurel the colonist, fought for the freedom of his +country. Ralf having become absolutely free, thanks to the Gallic arms +and the holy war preached by our venerable druids, found himself obliged +to resort to a friend's help in order to enter the death of his father +Aurel upon our family parchments. Happier than myself, my son Schanvoch +will not be forced to avail himself of a stranger in order to enter in +our family's archives the death of myself, the first male descendant of +Joel, the brenn of the tribe of Karnak, who again regained complete +freedom. As several of my ancestors have done before me, I here declare +that it was the history of our ancestors' valor and martyrdom that +induced me to take up arms against the Romans, our masters and secular +oppressors."</p> + +<p>These family scrolls, together with their accompanying relics, I shall +leave to you, my dear little Alguen, the son of my beloved wife Ellen, +who gave you birth this day four years ago.</p> + +<p>I choose this day, the anniversary of your birth, as a day of happy +augury, in order to start, for your benefit and the benefit of our +descendants, the narrative of my life and my battles, my joys and my +sorrows, obedient to the last wishes of our ancestor Joel, the brenn of +the tribe of Karnak.</p> + +<p>You will grieve, my son, when you learn from these archives that, from +the death of Joel down to that of my great-grandfather<a name="page_005" id="page_005"></a> Justin, seven +generations, aye, seven whole generations, were subjected to intolerable +slavery. But your heart will be cheered when you learn that my +great-grandfather had, from a slave, become a colonist or serf attached +to the glebe of Gaul—still a servile condition but greatly above that +of slavery. My own father, having regained his full freedom, thanks to +the formidable insurrections of the Sons of the Mistletoe that from +century to century were conjured up at the voice of the druids, the +tireless and heroic defenders of the freedom of oppressed Gaul, has +bequeathed to me freedom, that most precious of all wealth. I shall, in +turn, transmit it to you.</p> + +<p>By dint of constantly struggling for it, and also of stubborn +resistance, we Gauls have succeeded in successively reconquering almost +our full former freedom. A last and frail bond still holds us to Rome, +now our ally, after having formerly been our pitiless master. When that +last and frail bond will be snapped, we shall have regained our absolute +independence, and we shall resume our former place at the head of the +great nations of the world.</p> + +<p>Before acquainting you with the details of my life and time, my son, I +must fill certain voids that are left in the history of our family +through the omissions of those of our ancestors, who, either through +illiteracy or the hardness of the times, were prevented from joining +their respective accounts to our archives. Their lives must have been +the life of all the other Gauls, who, the fetters of slavery +notwithstanding, have, step by step and from century to century, +conquered through revolt and battle the deliverance of our country.</p> + +<p>You will find in the last lines written by our ancestor<a name="page_006" id="page_006"></a> Fergan, the +husband of Genevieve, that despite the vows taken by the Sons of the +Mistletoe and despite innumerable uprisings, one of the most formidable +of which was chieftained by Sacrovir, the worthy emulator of the Chief +of the Hundred Valleys, the Roman yoke that Caesar imposed upon Gaul +remained unshaken. In vain did Jesus, the carpenter of Nazareth, +prophesy that the chains of the slave would be broken. The slaves still +dragged their blood-stained chains. Nevertheless, our old race, +weakened, mutilated, unnerved or corrupted though it was by slavery, +never once was submissive, and allowed only short intervals to pass +without endeavoring to shake off the yoke. The secret associations of +the Sons of the Mistletoe covered the country, and furnished intrepid +soldiers to each succeeding revolt against Rome.</p> + +<p>After the heroic attempt of Sacrovir, the account of whose sublime death +you will find in the narrative of our ancestor Fergan, the weak and +timid weaver-slave, other insurrections broke out during the reigns of +the Emperors Tiberius and Claudius; they increased in force during the +civil wars that rent Italy under the reign of Nero. At about that time, +one of our heroes, Vindex, as intrepid a patriot as Sacrovir or the +Chief of the Hundred Valleys, long held the Roman arms in check. +Civilis, another Gallic patriot, taking his stand upon the prophecies of +Velleda—one of our female druids, a virile woman, wise in council and +worthy compeer of our brave and wise mothers—roused almost all Gaul to +revolt and gave the first serious wound to the power of Rome. Finally, +during the reign of the Emperor Vitellius, a poor field slave like our +ancestor Guilhern set himself up as the messiah and liberator of Gaul, +just as Jesus of Nazareth proclaimed himself the Messiah of Judea, and +pursued with patriotic ardor<a name="page_007" id="page_007"></a> the task of liberation that was started by +the Chief of the Hundred Valleys and continued after him by Sacrovir, +Vindex, Civilis and so many other heroes. That field slave's name was +Marik. He was then barely twenty-five years of age; robust, intelligent +and gifted with heroic bravery he joined the Sons of the Mistletoe. Our +venerable druids, always persecuted, had traversed Gaul inciting the +lukewarm, restraining the impatient, and preparing all for the hour of +the insurrection. It broke out. At the head of ten thousand slaves, +field laborers like himself and armed with their scythes and forks, +Marik engaged the Roman troops of Vitellius under the walls of Lyons. +That first attempt miscarried; the insurgents were cut to pieces by the +Roman army that greatly exceeded them in numbers. But so far from +feeling overwhelmed, this defeat intensified the ardor of the revolted +people. Whole populations rose in rebellion at the voice of the druids +that called them to the holy war. The combatants seemed to spring out of +the entrails of the earth, and Marik saw himself again at the head of a +numerous army. Endowed by the gods with a military instinct, he +disciplined his troops, inspired them with courage and a blind +confidence in him, and marched at their head towards the banks of the +Rhine, where, sheltered behind its trenches, lay the reserve of the +Roman army. Marik attacked it, beat it, and compelled whole legions that +he took prisoner to drop their own ensigns and substitute them with our +ancient Gallic cock. Those Roman legions had, due to their long sojourn +in our country, virtually become Gauls; carried away by the military +ascendency of Marik, they readily joined him, combatted under him +against the fresh Roman columns that were sent from Italy, and either +annihilated or dispersed<a name="page_008" id="page_008"></a> them. The hour of Gaul's deliverance was about +to sound—but at that moment Marik fell through cowardly treason into +the hands of the monster Vespasian, then Emperor of Rome. Riddled with +wounds the hero of Gaul was delivered to the wild beasts in the circus, +like our own ancestor Sylvest.</p> + +<p>The martyr's death exasperated the population. Fresh insurrections broke +out forthwith all over Gaul. The words of Jesus of Nazareth, declaring +that the slave is the equal of his master, began to penetrate our own +country, filtering through on the lips of itinerant preachers. The +flames of hatred for the foreign domination shot up with renewed vigor. +Attacked from all sides in Gaul, harrassed on the other side of the +Rhine by innumerable hordes of Franks, barbarous warriors that issued +from the depths of the northern forests and seemed but to await the +propitious moment to pour into Gaul, the Romans finally capitulated to +us. At last we harvested the fruits of so many heroic sacrifices! The +blood shed by our fathers for the previous three centuries watered our +deliverance. Indeed, the words of the Chief of the Hundred Valleys were +prophetic:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left">"Flow, flow thou blood of the captive!</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Drop, drop thou dew of gore!</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Germinate, sprout up, thou avenging harvest!"</span></td></tr> +</table> + +<p>Yes, my son, those words were prophetic. It was with that refrain on +their lips that our fathers fought and overcame the foreign oppressor. +Rome, at last, yielded back to us a part of our ancient freedom. We +formed Gallic legions commanded by our own officers; our provinces were +once more governed by magistrates of our own choice. Rome reserved<a name="page_009" id="page_009"></a> only +the right to appoint a "Principal" over Gaul, the suzerainty over which +she was to retain. We accepted, while waiting and striving for better +things—and these better things were not long in coming. Frightened by +our continual revolts, our tyrants had been slowly moderating the rigor +of our slavery. Terror was to force from them that which they +relentlessly refused as a matter of right and justice to the voice of +suppliant humanity. First the master was no longer allowed, as he was in +the days of Sylvest and several of his descendants, to dispose over the +life of his slaves as one disposes over the life of an animal. Later, as +their fear increased, the masters were forbidden from inflicting +corporal punishments upon their slaves, except with the express +authorization of a magistrate. Finally, my child, that horrible Roman +law, that, at the time of our ancestor Sylvest and of the five +generations that followed him, declared in its ferocious language that +the slave does not exist, that "he has no head" (<i>non caput habet</i>) that +shocking law was, thanks to the dread inspired by our unceasing revolts, +modified to the point that the Justinian code declared:</p> + +<p>"Freedom is a natural right; it is the statute law that has created +slavery; it has also created enfranchisement, which is the return to +natural freedom."</p> + +<p>Alack! It is distressing to notice that the sacred rights of humanity +can not triumph except at the cost of torrents of blood and of +unnumbered disasters! But who is to be cursed as the true cause of all +such evils? Is it not the oppressor, seeing that he bends his fellow-men +under the yoke of a frightful slavery, lives on the sweat of the brow of +his fellow-men, depraves, debases and martyrizes his fellow-beings, +kills<a name="page_010" id="page_010"></a> them to satisfy a whim or out of sheer cruelty, and thus compels +them to reconquer by force the freedom that they have been deprived of? +Never forget this, my son, if, once subjugated, the whole Gallic race +had shown itself as patient, as timid, as resigned as did our poor +ancestor Fergan the weaver, our slavery never would have been abolished! +After vain appeals to the heart and reason of the oppressor, there is +but one means left to overthrow tyranny—revolt—energetic, stubborn, +unceasing revolt. Sooner or later right triumphs, as it triumphed with +us! Let the blood that our triumph has cost fall upon the heads of those +who enslaved us.</p> + +<p>Accordingly, my son, thanks to our innumerable insurrections, slavery +was at first replaced by the state of the colonist, or serfdom, the +regime under which my great-grandfather Justin and my grandfather Aurel +lived. Under that system, instead of being forced to cultivate under the +whip and for the exclusive benefit of the Roman masters the lands that +they had plundered us of by conquest, the colonist had a small share of +the harvest that he gathered. He could no longer be sold as a draft +horse, along with his children; he could no longer be submitted to the +torture or killed; but they were, from father to children, compelled to +remain attached to the same domain. If the domain was sold, the colonist +likewise changed hands under the identical conditions of toil. Later the +condition of the colonists was further improved; they were granted the +rights of citizenship. When the Gallic legions were formed, the soldiers +that composed them became completely free. My father Ralf, the son of a +colonist, gained his freedom in that manner; I, the son of a soldier, +brought up in camp, was born free; and I shall bequeath that freedom to +you, as my father bequeathed it to me together<a name="page_011" id="page_011"></a> with the duty to +preserve it for your descendants.</p> + +<p>When you will read this narrative, my son, after you will have become +acquainted with the manifold sufferings of our ancestors, who were +slaves for so many generations, you will appreciate the wisdom of the +wish expressed by our ancestor Joel, the brenn of the tribe of Karnak. +You will admire his sagacity in expecting that, by piously preserving +the memory of its bravery and of the independence that it once enjoyed, +the Gallic race would be able to draw from the horror for Roman +oppression the strength to overthrow it.</p> + +<p>At this writing I am thirty-eight years of age. My parents are long +dead. Ralf, my father, a soldier in one of our Gallic legions, in which +he enrolled at the age of eighteen in the south of Gaul, came into this +region, near the western banks of the Rhine, along with the army. He was +in all the battles that were fought with the ferocious hordes of the +Franks, who, attracted by the fertility of our Gaul and by the wealth +contained in our borders, encamped on the opposite shore of the river, +ever ready to attempt a new invasion.</p> + +<p>About four years ago a descent of the insular population of England was +feared in Brittany. On that occasion several legions, the one in which +my father enlisted among them, were ordered into that province. During +several months he was quartered in the city of Vannes, not far from +Karnak, the cradle of our family. Having had one of his friends read to +him the narratives of our ancestors, Ralf visited with pious respect the +battle field of Vannes, the sacred stones of Karnak, and the lands that +we were plundered of in Caesar's time by the Roman conquerors. The lands +were held by a Roman family; colonists, sons of the Breton Gauls of our +tribe and who had formerly been in bondage,<a name="page_012" id="page_012"></a> now cultivated the lands +that their ancestors one time owned. The daughter of one of those +colonists loved my father; her love was reciprocated; her name was +Madalene; she was one of those proud and virile Gallic women, that our +ancestress Margarid, the wife of Joel, was a type of. She followed my +father when his legion left Brittany to return to the banks of the +Rhine, where I was born in the fortified camp of Mayence, a military +city that our troops occupied. The chief of the legion to which my +father belonged was the son of a field laborer. His bravery won him the +post. On the day after my birth that chief's wife died in child-bed of a +baby girl—a girl who, some day perhaps, may yet, from the retreat of +her humble home, reign over the world as she reigns to-day over Gaul. +To-day, at the time that I write, Victoria, by virtue of her +distinguished wisdom, her eminent qualities, the benign influence that +she exercises over her son Victorin and over our whole army, is, in +point of fact, empress of Gaul.</p> + +<p>Victoria is my foster-sister. Prizing the solid qualities of mind and +heart that my mother was endowed with, when Victoria's father became a +widower, he requested my mother to nurse his little babe. Accordingly, +she and I grew up like brother and sister. We never since failed in the +fraternal affection of our childhood. From her earliest age Victoria was +serious and gentle, although she greatly delighted in the blare of +trumpets and the sight of arms. She gave promise to be some day of that +august beauty that mingles calmness, grace and energy, and that is +peculiar to certain women of Gaul. You will see medals that have been +struck in her honor when she was still a young maid. She is there +represented as Diana the huntress, with a bow in one<a name="page_013" id="page_013"></a> hand and a torch +in the other. On a later medal, struck about two years ago, Victoria is +represented with her son Victorin in the guise of Minerva accompanied by +Mars. At the age of ten she was sent by her father to a college of +female druids. Being now again freed from Roman persecution, thanks to +the new birth of Gallic freedom, the druids, male and female, again +attended to the education of children as they did of yore.</p> + +<p>Victoria remained with these venerable women until her fifteenth year. +She drew from that patriotic and strict tuition an ardent love for her +country, and information on all subjects. She left the college equipped +with the secrets of former times, and, it is said, possessing, like +Velleda and other female druids, the power of seeing into the future. At +that period of her life the proud and virile beauty of Victoria was +sublime. When she met me again she was happy and she did not conceal her +joy. So far from declining through our long separation from each other, +her affection for me, her foster-brother, had increased.</p> + +<p>I must at this point make an admission to you, my son; I am free to make +it because you will not read these lines until after you will be a man. +You will find a good example of courage and abnegation in my confession.</p> + +<p>When Victoria returned in her dazzling beauty of fifteen years I was of +the same age and although hardly of the age of puberty myself, I fell +distractedly in love with her. I carefully concealed my feelings, out of +friendship as well as by reason of the respect that, despite the +fraternal attachment of which she every day gave me fresh proof, that +serious young maid, who brought with her from the college of the female +druids an indescribably imposing, pensive and mysterious<a name="page_014" id="page_014"></a> appearance, +inspired in me. I then underwent a cruel trial. Ignorant of the feelings +of my heart, as she ever will be, at fifteen and a half Victoria gave +her hand to a young military chief. I came near dying of a slow +consuming illness caused by my secret despair. So long as my life seemed +in danger, Victoria did not leave the head of my couch. A tender sister +could not have attended me with more devoted and touching care. She +became a mother. Although a mother, she ever accompanied her husband, to +whom she was passionately devoted, whenever called to war. By force of +reflection I succeeded at last in overcoming, if not my love, at least +its violent manifestations, the pain it gave me, the senselessness of +the passion. But there remained in me a sense of boundless devotion +towards my foster-sister. She asked me to remain near her and her +husband as a horseman in the body of cavalrymen that ordinarily act as +escorts to the Gallic chiefs, and either take down in writing or convey +their military orders. My foster-sister was barely eighteen years of age +when, in a severe battle with the Franks, she lost on the same day both +her father and her husband. A widow with her son, for whom she foresaw a +glorious future, bravely verified by himself since then, Victoria never +left the camp. The soldiers, accustomed ever to see her in their midst, +with her child in her arms, and walking between her father and her +husband, knew that more than once her profoundly wise advice prevailed +in the councils of the chiefs as the advice of our mothers of old often +prevailed in the councils of our forefathers. They came to look as a +good omen upon the presence of this young woman, who was trained in the +mysterious science of the druids. At the death of her father and husband +they begged her not to leave the army, declaring to her<a name="page_015" id="page_015"></a> with naïve +affection that thenceforth her son Victorin should be "Son of the Camps" +and she the "Mother of the Camps." Touched by so much affection, +Victoria remained with the troops, preserving her influence over the +chiefs, directing them in the government of Gaul, sedulous in imparting +a manly education to her son, and living as modestly as the wife of an +officer.</p> + +<p>Shortly after her husband's death, my foster-sister told me that she +would never marry again, it being her intention to consecrate her life +entirely to Victorin. The last and insane hope that I nursed when I saw +her a widow and free again, was dashed. With time I recovered my senses. +I suppressed my ill-starred love and gave no thought but to the service +of Victoria and her son. A simple horseman in the army, I served my +foster-sister as her secretary. Often she confided important state +secrets to me. At times she even charged me with confidential embassies +to the military chiefs of Gaul.</p> + +<p>I taught Victorin to ride, to handle the lance and the sword. Soon I +came to love him as an own son. A kinder and more generous disposition +than that of the lad could not be imagined. Thus he grew up among the +soldiers, who became attached to him by a thousand bonds of habit and of +affection. At the age of fourteen he made his first campaign against the +franks, who were fast becoming as dangerous enemies to us as the Romans +once were. I accompanied him. Like a true Gallic woman his mother +remained on horseback and surrounded by the officers, on a hill from +which the battle field could be seen on which her son was engaged. He +comported himself bravely and was wounded. Being thus from early youth +habituated to the life of war, the youth developed<a name="page_016" id="page_016"></a> great military +talents. Intrepid as the bravest of the soldiers, skilful and cautious +as a veteran captain, generous to the full extent that his purse allowed +it, of a joyful disposition, open and kind to all, he gained ever more +the attachment of the army that soon divided with him its adoration for +his mother.</p> + +<p>The day finally arrived when Gaul, already almost independent, demanded +to share with Rome the government of our country. The power was then +divided between a Gallic and a Roman chief. Rome appointed Posthumus, +and our troops unanimously acclaimed Victorin as the Gallic chief and +general of the army. Shortly after, he married a young girl by whom he +was dearly loved. Unfortunately she died within the year, leaving him a +son. Victoria, now a grandmother, devoted herself to her son's child as +she had done before to himself, and surrounded the babe with all the +cares that the tenderest solicitude could inspire.</p> + +<p>My early resolve was never to marry. I was nevertheless gradually +attracted by the modest graces and the virtue of the daughter of one of +the centurions of our army. She was your mother, Ellen, whom I married +five years ago.</p> + +<p>Such has been my life until this day, when I start the narrative that is +to follow. Certain remarks of Victoria decided me to write it both for +your benefit and the benefit of our descendants. If the expectations of +my foster-sister, concerning several incidents in this narrative, are +eventually realized, those of our relatives who in the centuries to come +may happen to read this story will discover that Victoria, the Mother of +the Camps, was gifted, like Hena, the Virgin of the Isle of Sen, and +Velleda, the female druid and companion of Civilis, with the holy gift +of prevision.<a name="page_017" id="page_017"></a></p> + +<p>What I am here about to narrate happened a week ago. In order to fix the +date with greater accuracy I certify that it is written in the city of +Mayence, defended by our fortified camp on the borders of the Rhine, on +the fifth day of the month of June, as the Romans reckon, of the seventh +year of the joint principality of Posthumus and Victorin in Gaul, two +hundred and sixty-four years after the death of Jesus of Nazareth, the +friend of the poor, who was crucified in Jerusalem under the eyes of our +ancestress Genevieve.</p> + +<p>The Gallic camp, composed of tents and light but solid barracks, is +massed around Mayence, which dominates it. Victoria lodges in the city; +I occupy a little house not far from the one that she inhabits.</p> + +<p><a name="page_018" id="page_018"></a></p> + +<p><a name="page_019" id="page_019"></a></p> + +<h2> +<a name="PART_I" id="PART_I"></a>PART I.<br /> +FOREIGN FOES.</h2> + +<p><a name="page_020" id="page_020"></a></p> + +<p><a name="page_021" id="page_021"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_Ia" id="CHAPTER_Ia"></a>CHAPTER I.<br /><br /> +SCHANVOCH AND SAMPSO.</h3> + +<p>The morning of the day that I am telling of, I quitted my bed with the +dawn, leaving my beloved wife Ellen soundly asleep. I contemplated her +for an instant. Her long loose hair partly covered her bosom; her sweet +and beautiful head rested upon one of her folded arms, while the other +reclined on your cradle, my son, as if to protect you even during her +sleep. I lightly kissed both your foreheads, fearing to awake you. It +required an effort on my part to refrain from tenderly embracing you +both again and again. I was bound upon a venturesome expedition; +perchance, the kiss that I hardly dared to give you was the last you +were ever to receive from me. I left the room where you slept and +repaired to the contiguous one to arm myself, to don my cuirass over my +blouse, and take my casque and sword. I then left the house. At our +threshold I met Sampso, my wife's sister, as gentle and beautiful as +herself. She held her apron filled with flowers of different colors; +they were still wet with the dew. She had just gathered them in our +little garden. Seeing me, she smiled and blushed surprised.</p> + +<p>"Up so early, Sampso?" I said to her. "I thought I was the first one +stirring. But what is the purpose of these flowers?"</p> + +<p>"Is it not to-day a year ago that I came to live with my sister Ellen +and you—you forgetful Schanvoch?" she answered<a name="page_022" id="page_022"></a> with an affectionate +smile. "I wish to celebrate the day in our old Gallic fashion. I went +out for the flowers in order to garland the house-door, the cradle of +your little Alguen, and his mother's head. But you, where are you bound +to this morning in full armor?"</p> + +<p>At the thought that this holiday might turn into a day of mourning for +my family I suppressed a sigh, and answered my wife's sister with a +smile that was intended to allay suspicion.</p> + +<p>"Victoria and her son charged me yesterday with some military orders for +the chief of a detachment that lies encamped some two leagues from here. +It is the military custom to be armed when one has such orders in +charge."</p> + +<p>"Do you know, Schanvoch, that you must arouse jealousy in many a +breast?"</p> + +<p>"Because my foster-sister employs my soldier's sword during war and my +pen during truces?"</p> + +<p>"You forget to say that that foster-sister is Victoria the Great, and +that Victorin, her son, entertains for you the respect that he would +have for his mother's brother. Hardly a day goes by without Victoria's +calling upon you. These are favors that many should envy."</p> + +<p>"Have I ever sought to profit by these favors, Sampso? Have I not +remained a simple horseman, ever declining to be an officer, and +requesting the only favor of fighting at Victorin's side?"</p> + +<p>"Whose life you have already twice saved when he was at the point of +perishing under the blows of those barbarous Franks!"</p> + +<p>"I did but my duty as a soldier and a Gaul. Should I not<a name="page_023" id="page_023"></a> sacrifice my +life to that of a man who is so necessary to our country?"</p> + +<p>"Schanvoch, we must not quarrel; you know how much I admire Victoria; +but—"</p> + +<p>"But I know your uncharitableness towards her son," I put in with a +smile, "you austere and severe Sampso!"</p> + +<p>"Is it any fault of mine if disorderly conduct finds no favor in my +eyes—if I even consider it disgraceful?"</p> + +<p>"Certes, you are right. Nevertheless I can not avoid being somewhat +indulgent towards the foibles of Victorin. A widower at twenty, should +he not be excused for yielding at times to the impulses of his age? Dear +but implacable Sampso, I let you read the narrative of my ancestress +Genevieve. You are gentle and good as Jesus of Nazareth, why do you not +imitate his charity towards sinners? He forgave Magdalen because she had +loved much. In the name of the same sentiment pardon Victorin!"</p> + +<p>"There is nothing more worthy of forgiveness than love, when it is +sincere. But debauchery has nothing in common with love. Schanvoch, it +is as if you were to say to me that my sister and I could be compared +with those Bohemian girls who recently arrived in Mayence."</p> + +<p>"In point of looks they might be compared with you or Ellen, seeing that +they are said to be ravishingly beautiful. But the comparison ends +there, Sampso. I trust but little the virtue of those strollers, however +charming, however brilliantly arrayed they may be, who travel from town +to town singing and dancing for public amusement—even if they indulge +not in worse practices."</p> + +<p>"And for all that, I make no doubt that, when you least expect it, you +will see Victorin the general of the army, one<a name="page_024" id="page_024"></a> of the two Chiefs of +Gaul, accompany on horseback the chariot in which these Bohemian girls +promenade every evening along the borders of the Rhine. And if I should +feel indignant at the sight of the son of Victoria serving as escort to +such creatures, you would surely say to me: 'Forgive the sinner, just as +Jesus forgave Magdalen the sinner.' Go to, Schanvoch, the man who can +delight in unworthy amours is capable of—"</p> + +<p>But Sampso suddenly broke off.</p> + +<p>"Finish your sentence," I said to her, "express yourself in full, I pray +you."</p> + +<p>"No," she answered after reflecting a moment; "the time has not yet come +for that. I would not like to risk a hasty word."</p> + +<p>"See here," I said to her, "I am sure that what you have in mind is one +of those ridiculous stories about Victorin that for some time have been +floating about in the army, without its being possible to trace the +slanders to their source. Can you, Sampso, you, with all your good sense +and good heart, make yourself the echo of such gossip, such unworthy +calumnies?"</p> + +<p>"Adieu, Schanvoch; I told you I was not going to quarrel with you, dear +brother, on the subject of the hero whom you defend against all comers."</p> + +<p>"What would you have me do? It is my foible. I love his mother as an own +sister. I love her son as if he were my own. Are you not as guilty as +myself, Sampso? Is not my little Alguen, your sister's son, as dear to +you as if he were your own child? Take my word for it, when Alguen will +be twenty and you hear him accused of some youthful indiscretion, you +will, I feel quite sure, defend him with even more<a name="page_025" id="page_025"></a> warmth than I defend +Victorin. But we need not wait so long, have you not begun your role of +pleader for him, already? When the rascal is guilty of some misconduct, +is it not his aunt Sampso whom he fetches to intercede in his behalf? He +knows how you love him!"</p> + +<p>"Is not my sister's son mine?"</p> + +<p>"Is that the reason you do not wish to marry?"</p> + +<p>"Surely, brother," she answered with a blush and a slight embarrassment. +After a moment's silence she resumed:</p> + +<p>"I hope you will be back home at noon to complete our little feast?"</p> + +<p>"The moment my mission is fulfilled I shall return. Adieu, Sampso!"</p> + +<p>"Adieu, Schanvoch!"</p> + +<p>And leaving his wife's sister engaged in her work of garlanding the +house-door, Schanvoch walked rapidly away, revolving in his mind the +topic of the conversation that Sampso had just broached.<a name="page_026" id="page_026"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IIa" id="CHAPTER_IIa"></a>CHAPTER II.<br /><br /> +ON THE RHINE.</h3> + +<p>I had often asked myself why Sampso, who was a year older than Ellen, +and as beautiful and virtuous as my wife, had until then rejected +several offers of marriage. At times I suspected that she entertained +some secret love, other times I surmised she might belong to one of the +Christian societies that began to spread over Gaul and in which the +women took the vow of virginity, as did several of our female druids. I +also pondered the reason for Sampso's reticence when I asked her to be +more explicit concerning Victorin. Soon, however, I dropped all these +subjects and turned my mind upon the expedition that I had in charge.</p> + +<p>I wended my way towards the advance posts of the camp and addressed +myself to an officer under whose eyes I placed a scroll with a few lines +written by Victorin. The officer immediately put four picked soldiers at +my disposal. They were chosen from among a number whose special +department was to manoeuvre the craft of the military flotilla that was +used in ascending or descending the Rhine in order, whenever occasion +required, to defend the fortified camp. Upon my recommendation the four +soldiers left their arms behind. I alone was armed. As we passed a clump +of oak trees I cut down a few branches to be placed at the prow of the +bark that was to transport us. We soon arrived at the<a name="page_027" id="page_027"></a> river bank, where +we found several boats that were reserved for the service of the army, +tied to their stakes. While two of the soldiers fastened on the prow of +the boat the oak branches that I had furnished them with, the other two +examined the oars with expert eyes in order to assure themselves that +they were in fit condition for use. I took the rudder, and we left the +shore.</p> + +<p>The four soldiers rowed in silence for a while. Presently the oldest of +them, a veteran with a grey moustache and white hair, said to me:</p> + +<p>"There is nothing like a Gallic song to make time pass quickly and the +oars strike in rhythm. I should say that some old national refrain, sung +in chorus, renders the sculls lighter and the water more easy to cleave +through. Are we allowed to sing, friend Schanvoch?"</p> + +<p>"You seem to know me, comrade?"</p> + +<p>"Who in the army does not know the foster-brother of the Mother of the +Camps?"</p> + +<p>"Being a simple horseman I thought my name was more obscure than it +seems to be."</p> + +<p>"You have remained a simple horseman despite our Victoria's friendship +for you. That is why, Schanvoch, everybody knows and esteems you."</p> + +<p>"You certainly make me feel happy by saying so. What is your name?"</p> + +<p>"Douarnek."</p> + +<p>"You must be a Breton!"</p> + +<p>"From the neighborhood of Vannes."</p> + +<p>"My family also comes from that neighborhood."</p> + +<p>"I thought as much, your name being a Breton name. Well, friend +Schanvoch, may we sing a song? Our officer<a name="page_028" id="page_028"></a> gave us orders to obey you +as we would himself. I know not whither you are taking us, but a song is +heard far away, especially when it is struck up in chorus by vigorous +and broad-chested lads. Perhaps we must not draw attention upon our +bark?"</p> + +<p>"Just now you may sing—later not—we shall have to advance without +making any noise."</p> + +<p>"Well, boys, what shall we sing?" said the veteran without either +himself or his companions intermitting the regular strokes of their +oars, and only slightly turning his head towards them, seeing that, +seated as he was on the first bench, he sat opposite to me. "Come, make +your choice!"</p> + +<p>"The song of the mariners, will that suit you?" answered one of the +soldiers.</p> + +<p>"That is rather long," replied Douarnek.</p> + +<p>"The song of the Chief of the Hundred Valleys?"</p> + +<p>"That is very beautiful," again replied Douarnek, "but it is a song of +slaves who await their deliverance; by the bones of our fathers, we are +now free in old Gaul!"</p> + +<p>"Friend Douarnek," said I, "it was to the refrain of that slaves' +song—'Flow, flow, thou blood of the captive! Drop, drop, thou dew of +gore!' that our fathers, arms in hand, reconquered the freedom that we +enjoy to-day."</p> + +<p>"That is true, Schanvoch, but that song is very long, and you warned us +that we were soon to become silent as fishes."</p> + +<p>"Douarnek," one of the soldiers spoke up, "sing to us the song of Hena +the Virgin of the Isle of Sen. It always brings tears to my eyes. She is +my favorite saint, the beautiful and sweet Hena, who lived centuries and +centuries ago."</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes," said the other soldiers, "sing the song of Hena,<a name="page_029" id="page_029"></a> Douarnek! +That song predicts the victory of Gaul—and Gaul is to-day triumphant!"</p> + +<p>Hearing these words I was greatly moved, I felt happy and, I confess it, +proud at seeing that the name of Hena, dead more than three hundred +years, had remained in Gaul as popular as it was at the time of Sylvest.</p> + +<p>"Very well, the song of Hena it shall be!" replied the veteran. "I also +love the sweet and saintly girl, who offered her blood to Hesus for the +deliverance of Gaul. And you, Schanvoch, do you know the song?"</p> + +<p>"Yes—quite well—I have heard it sung—"</p> + +<p>"You will know it enough to repeat the refrain with us."</p> + +<p>Saying this Douarnek struck up the song in a full and sonorous voice +that reached far over the waters of the Rhine:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left">"She was young, she was fair,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">And holy was she.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">To Hesus her blood gave</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">That Gaul might be free.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Hena her name!</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Hena, the Maid of the Island of Sen!</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">"—Blessed be the gods, my sweet daughter,—</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Said her father Joel,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">The brenn of the tribe of Karnak.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">—Blessed be the gods, my sweet daughter,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Since you are at home this night</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">To celebrate the day of your birth!—</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">"—Blessed be the gods, my sweet girl,—</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Said Margarid, her mother.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">—Blessed be your coming!</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">But why is your face so sad?—</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">"—My face is sad, my good mother;</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">My face is sad, my good father,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Because Hena your daughter</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Comes to bid you Adieu,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Till we meet again.—</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">"—And where are you going, my sweet daughter?</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Will your journey, then, be long?</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Whither thus are you going?—</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">"—I go to those worlds</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">So mysterious, above,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">That no one yet knows,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">But that all will yet know.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Where living ne'er traveled,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Where all will yet travel,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">To live there again</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">With those we have loved.—"</td></tr> +</table> + +<p>And myself and the three other oarsmen replied in chorus:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left">"She was young, she was fair,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">And holy was she.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">To Hesus her blood gave,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">That Gaul might be free.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Hena her name!</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Hena, the Maid of the Island of Sen!"</td></tr> +</table> + +<p>Douarnek then proceeded with the song:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left">"Hearing Hena speak these words,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Sadly gazed upon her her father</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">And her mother, aye, all the family,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Even the little children,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">For Hena loved them very dearly.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">"—But why, dear daughter,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Why now quit this world,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">And travel away beyond</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Without the Angel of Death having called you?—</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">"—Good father, good mother,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Hesus is angry.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">The stranger now threatens our Gaul so beloved.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">The innocent blood of a virgin</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Offered by her to the gods</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">May their anger well soften.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Adieu, then, till we meet again,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Good father, good mother,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Adieu till we meet again,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">All, my dear ones and friends.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">These collars preserve, and these rings</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">As mementoes of me.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Let me kiss for the last time your blonde heads,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Dear little ones. Good bye till we meet.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Remember your Hena, she waits for you yonder,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">In the worlds yet unknown.—"</td></tr> +</table> + +<p>And the other oarsmen and I replied in chorus to the rythmical sound of +the oars:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left">"She was young, she was fair,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">And holy was she.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">To Hesus her blood gave</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">That Gaul might be free.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Hena her name.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Hena, the Maid of the Island of Sen!"</td></tr> +</table> + +<p>Douarnek proceeded:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left">"Bright is the moon, high is the pyre</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Which rises near the sacred stones of Karnak;</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Vast is the gathering of the tribes</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Which presses 'round the funeral pile.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">"Behold her, it is she, it is Hena!</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">She mounts the pyre, her golden harp in hand,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">And singeth thus:</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">"—Take my blood, O Hesus,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">And deliver my land from the stranger.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Take my blood, O Hesus,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Pity for Gaul! Victory to our arms!—</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">And it flowed, the blood of Hena.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">"O, holy Virgin, in vain 'twill not have been,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">The shedding of your innocent and generous blood.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Bowed beneath the yoke, Gaul will some day rise erect,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Free and proud, and crying, like thee,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">—Victory and Freedom!"</td></tr> +</table> + +<p>And Douarnek, along with the three other soldiers, repeated in a low +voice, vibrating with pious admiration, this last refrain:<a name="page_032" id="page_032"></a></p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left">"So it was that she offered her blood to Hesus,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">To Hesus for the deliverance of Gaul!</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">She was young, she was fair,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">And holy was she,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Hena her name!</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Hena, the Maid of the Island of Sen!"</td></tr> +</table> + +<p>I alone did not join in the last refrain of the song. I was too deeply +moved!</p> + +<p>Noticing my emotion and my silence, Douarnek said to me surprised:</p> + +<p>"What, Schanvoch, have you lost your voice? You remain silent at the +close of so glorious a song?"</p> + +<p>"Your speech is sooth, Douarnek; it is just because that song is +particularly glorious to me—that you see me so deeply moved."</p> + +<p>"That song is particularly glorious to you? I do not understand you."</p> + +<p>"Hena was the daughter of one of my ancestors."</p> + +<p>"What say you!"</p> + +<p>"Hena was the daughter of Joel, the brenn of the tribe of Karnak, who +died, together with his wife and almost all his family, at the great +battle of Vannes—a battle that was fought on land and water nearly +three centuries ago. From father to son, I descend from Joel."</p> + +<p>"Do you know, Schanvoch," replied Douarnek, "that even kings would be +proud of such an ancestry?"</p> + +<p>"The blood shed for our country and for liberty by all of us Gauls is +our national patent of nobility," I said to him. "It is for that reason +that our old songs are so popular among us."</p> + +<p>"When one considers," put in one of the younger soldiers, "that it is +now more than three hundred years since Hena,<a name="page_033" id="page_033"></a> the saintly maid, +surrendered her own life for the deliverance of the country, and that +her name still reaches us!"</p> + +<p>"Although it took the young virgin's voice more than two centuries to +rise to the ears of Hesus," replied Douarnek, "her voice did finally +reach him, seeing that to-day we can say—Victory to our arms! Victory +and freedom!"</p> + +<p>We had now arrived at about the middle of the river, where the stream is +very rapid.</p> + +<p>Raising his oar, Douarnek asked me:</p> + +<p>"Shall we enter the strong current? That would be a waste of strength, +unless we are either to ascend or descend the river a distance equal to +that that now separates us from the shore."</p> + +<p>"We are to cross the Rhine in its full breadth, friend Douarnek."</p> + +<p>"Cross it!" cried the veteran with amazement. "Cross the Rhine! And what +for?"</p> + +<p>"To land on the opposite shore."</p> + +<p>"Do you know what that means, Schanvoch? Is not the army of those +Frankish bandits, if one can honor those savage hordes with the name of +army, encamped on the opposite shore?"</p> + +<p>"It is to those very barbarians that I am bound."</p> + +<p>For a few moments all the four oars rested motionless in their oarlocks. +The soldiers looked at one another speechless, as if they could not +believe what they heard me say.</p> + +<p>Douarnek was the first to break the silence. With a soldier's unconcern +he said to me:</p> + +<p>"Is it, then, a sacrifice that we are to offer to Hesus by delivering +our hides to those hide-tanners? If such be the orders, forward! Bend to +your oars, my lads!"<a name="page_034" id="page_034"></a></p> + +<p>"Have you forgotten, Douarnek, that we have a truce of eight days with +the Franks?"</p> + +<p>"There is no such thing as a truce to those brigands."</p> + +<p>"As you will notice, I have made the signal of peace by ornamenting the +prow of our bark with green boughs. I shall proceed alone into the +enemy's camp, with an oak branch in my hand."</p> + +<p>"And they will slay you despite all your oak branches, as they have +slain other envoys during previous truces."</p> + +<p>"That may happen, Douarnek; but when the chief commands, the soldier +obeys. Victoria and her son have ordered me to proceed to the Frankish +camp. So thither I go!"</p> + +<p>"It surely was not out of fear that I spoke, Schanvoch, when I said that +those savages would not leave our heads on our shoulders, nor our skins +on our bodies. I only spoke from the old habit of sincerity. Well, then, +my lads, fall to with a will! Bend to your oars! We have the order from +our mother—the Mother of the Camps—and we obey. Forward! even if we +are to be flayed alive by the barbarians, a cruel sport that they often +indulge in at the expense of their prisoners."</p> + +<p>"And it is also said," put in the young soldier with a less unperturbed +voice than Douarnek's, "it is also said that the priestesses of the +nether world who follow the Frankish hordes drop their prisoners into +large brass caldrons, and boil them alive with certain magic herbs."</p> + +<p>"Ha! Ha!" replied Douarnek merrily, "the one of us who may be boiled in +that way will at least enjoy the advantage of being the first to taste +his own soup—that's some consolation. Forward! Ply your oars! We are +obeying orders from the Mother of the Camps."<a name="page_035" id="page_035"></a></p> + +<p>"Oh! We would row straight into an abyss, if Victoria so ordered!"</p> + +<p>"She has been well named, the Mother of the Camps and of the soldiers. +It is a treat to see her visiting the wounded after each battle."</p> + +<p>"And addressing them with her kind words, that almost make the whole +ones regret that they have not been wounded, too."</p> + +<p>"And then she is so beautiful. Oh, so beautiful!"</p> + +<p>"Oh! When she rides through the camp, mounted on her white steed, clad +in her long black robe, her bold face looking out from under her casque, +and yet her eyes shining with so much mildness, and her smile so +motherly! It is like a vision!"</p> + +<p>"It is said for certain that our Victoria knows the future as well as +she knows the present."</p> + +<p>"She must have some charm about her. Who would believe, seeing her, that +she is the mother of a son of twenty-two?"</p> + +<p>"Oh! If the son had only fulfilled the promise that his younger years +gave!"</p> + +<p>"Victorin will always be loved as he has been."</p> + +<p>"Yes, but it is a great pity!" remarked Douarnek shaking his head sadly, +after the other soldiers had thus given vent to their thoughts and +feelings. "Yes, it is a great pity! Oh! Victorin is no longer the child +of the camps that we, old soldiers with grey moustaches, knew as a baby, +rode on our knees, and, down to only recently, looked upon with pride +and friendship!"</p> + +<p>The words of these soldiers struck me with deeper apprehension than +Sampso's words did a few hours before. Not<a name="page_036" id="page_036"></a> only did I often have to +defend Victorin with the severe Sampso, but I had latterly noticed in +the army a silent feeling of resentment towards my foster-sister's son, +who until then, was the idol of the soldiers.</p> + +<p>"What have you to reproach Victorin with?" I asked Douarnek and his +companions. "Is he not brave among the bravest? Have you not watched his +conduct in war?"</p> + +<p>"Oh! If a battle is on, he fights bravely, as bravely as yourself, +Schanvoch, when you are at his side, on your large bay horse, and more +intent upon defending the son of your foster-sister than upon defending +yourself. '<i>Your scars would declare it, if they could speak through the +mouths of your wounds</i>,' as our old proverb says!"</p> + +<p>"I fight as a soldier; Victorin fights as a captain. And has not that +young captain of only twenty-two years already won five great battles +against the Germans and the Franks?"</p> + +<p>"His mother, well named Victoria, must have contributed with her counsel +towards his victories. He confers with her upon his plans of campaign. +But, anyhow, it is true, Victorin is a brave soldier and good captain."</p> + +<p>"And is not his purse open to all, so long as there is anything in it? +Do you know of any invalid who ever vainly applied to him?"</p> + +<p>"Victorin is generous—that also is true."</p> + +<p>"Is he not the friend and comrade of the soldiers? Is he ever haughty?"</p> + +<p>"No, he is a good comrade, and always cheerful. Besides, what should he +be proud about? Are not his father, his glorious mother and himself from +the Gallic plebs, like the rest of us?"</p> + +<p>"Do you not know, Douarnek, that often it happens that<a name="page_037" id="page_037"></a> the proudest +people are the very ones who have risen from the lowest ranks?"</p> + +<p>"Victorin is not proud!"</p> + +<p>"Does he not, during war, sleep unsheltered with his head upon the +saddle of his horse, like the rest of us horsemen?"</p> + +<p>"Brought up by so virile a mother as his, he was bound to grow up a +rough soldier, as he is."</p> + +<p>"Are you not aware that in council he displays a maturity of judgment +that many men of our age do not possess? In short, is it not his +bravery, his kindness, his good judgment, his rare military qualities as +a soldier and captain that caused him to be acclaimed general by the +army, and one of the two Chiefs of Gaul?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, but in electing him, all of us knew that his mother Victoria would +always be near him, guiding him, instructing him, schooling him in the +art of governing men, without neglecting, worthy matron that she is, to +sew her linen near the cradle of her grandson, as is her thrifty habit."</p> + +<p>"No one knows better than I how precious the advices of Victoria to her +son are to our country. But what is it, then, that has changed? Is she +not always there, watching over Victorin and Gaul that she loves with +equal and paternal devotion? Come, now, Douarnek, answer me with a +soldier's frankness. Whence comes the hostility that, I fear, is ever +spreading and deepening against Victorin, our young and brave general?"</p> + +<p>"Listen, Schanvoch. I am, like yourself, a seasoned soldier. Your +moustache, although younger than mine, begins to show grey streaks. Do +you want to know the truth? Here it is: We are all aware that the life +of the camp does not make people chaste and reserved like young girls +who are<a name="page_038" id="page_038"></a> brought up by our venerated female druids. We also know, +because we have emptied many a cup, that our Gallic wines throw us into +a merry and riotous humor. We know, furthermore, that when he is in a +garrison, the young soldier who proudly carries a cockade on his casque +and caresses his brown or blonde moustache, does not long preserve the +friendship of fathers who have handsome daughters, or of husbands who +have handsome wives. But, for all that, you will have to admit, +Schanvoch, that a soldier who is habitually intoxicated like a brute, +and takes cowardly advantage of women, would deserve to be treated to a +hundred or more stripes laid on well upon his back, and to be +ignominiously driven from camp. Is not that so?"</p> + +<p>"That is all very true, but what connection has it with Victorin?"</p> + +<p>"Listen, friend Schanvoch, and then answer me. If an obscure soldier +deserves such treatment for his shameful conduct, what should be done to +an army chief who disgraces himself in such fashion?"</p> + +<p>"Do you venture to say that Victorin has offered violence to women and +that he is daily drunk?" I cried indignantly. "I say that you lie, or +those who carried such tales to you lied. So, these are the unworthy +rumors that circulate in the camp against Victorin! And can you be +credulous enough to attach faith to them?"</p> + +<p>"Soldiers are not quite so credulous, friend Schanvoch, but they are +aware of the old Gallic proverb—'The lost sheep are charged to the +shepherd.' Now, for instance, you know Captain Marion, the old +blacksmith?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know the brave fellow to be one of the best officers in the +army."<a name="page_039" id="page_039"></a></p> + +<p>"The famous Captain Marion, who can carry an ox on his shoulders," put +in one of the soldiers, "and who can knock down the same ox with a blow +of his fist—his arm is as heavy as the iron mace of a butcher."</p> + +<p>"And Captain Marion," added another oarsman, "is a good comrade, for all +that, despite his strength and military renown. He took a simple +soldier, a former fellow blacksmith, for his 'friend in war,' or, as +they used to say in olden times, took the 'pledge of brotherhood' with +him."</p> + +<p>"I am aware of the bravery, modesty, good judgment and austerity of +Captain Marion," I answered him, "but why do you now bring in his name?"</p> + +<p>"Have a little patience, friend Schanvoch, I shall satisfy you in a +minute. Did you see the two Bohemian girls enter Mayence a few days ago +in a wagon drawn by mules covered with tinkling bells and led by a Negro +lad?"</p> + +<p>"I did not see the women, but have heard them mentioned. But I must +insist upon it, what has all this got to do with Victorin?"</p> + +<p>"I have reminded you of the proverb—'The lost sheep are charged to the +shepherd.' It would be idle to attribute habits of drunkenness and +incontinence to Captain Marion, would it not? Despite all his +simpleness, the soldier would not believe a word of such slanders; not +so? While, on the other hand, the soldier would be ready to believe any +story of debauchery about the said Bohemian strollers, and he would +trust the narrator of the tale, do you understand?"</p> + +<p>"I understand you, Douarnek, and I shall be frank in turn. Yes, Victorin +loves wine and indulges in it with some of his companions in arms. Yes, +having been left a widower at the<a name="page_040" id="page_040"></a> age of twenty, only a few months +after his marriage, Victorin has occasionally yielded to the headlong +impulses of youth. Often did his mother, as well as myself, regret that +he was not endowed with greater austerity in morals, a virtue, however, +that is extremely rare at his age. But, by the anger of the gods! I, who +have never been from Victorin's side since his earliest childhood, deny +that drunkenness is habitual with him; above all I deny that he ever was +base enough to do violence to a woman!"</p> + +<p>"Schanvoch, you defend the son of your foster-sister out of the goodness +of your heart, although you know him to be guilty—unless you really are +ignorant of what you deny—"</p> + +<p>"What am I ignorant of?"</p> + +<p>"An adventure that has raised a great scandal, and that everybody in +camp knows."</p> + +<p>"What adventure?"</p> + +<p>"A short time ago Victorin and several officers of the army went to a +tavern on one of the isles near the border of the Rhine to drink and +make merry. In the evening, being by that time drunk as usual, Victorin +violated the tavern-keeper's wife, who, in her despair, threw herself +into the river and was drowned."</p> + +<p>"The soldier who misdemeaned himself in that manner," remarked one of +the oarsmen, "would speedily have his head cut off by a strict chief."</p> + +<p>"And he would have deserved the punishment," added another oarsman. "As +much as the next man, I would find pleasure in bantering with the +tavern-keeper's wife. But to offer her violence, that is an act of +savagery worthy only of those Frankish butchers, whose priestesses, +veritable devil's cooks, boil their prisoners alive in their caldrons."<a name="page_041" id="page_041"></a></p> + +<p>I was so stupefied by the accusation made against Victorin that I +remained silent for a moment. But my voice soon came to me and I cried:</p> + +<p>"Calumny! A calumny as infamous as the act would have been. Who is it +dares accuse Victoria's son of such a crime?"</p> + +<p>"A well informed man," Douarnek answered me.</p> + +<p>"His name! Give me the liar's name!"</p> + +<p>"His name is Morix. He was the secretary of one of Victoria's relatives. +He came to the camp about a month ago to confer upon grave matters."</p> + +<p>"The relative is Tetrik, the Governor of Gascony," I said with increased +stupefaction. "The man is the incarnation of kindness and loyalty; he is +one of Victoria's oldest and most faithful friends."</p> + +<p>"All of which renders the man's testimony all the more reliable."</p> + +<p>"What! He, Tetrik! Did Tetrik confirm what you have just said?"</p> + +<p>"He communicated it to his secretary, and confirmed the occurrence, +while deploring the shocking excesses of Victorin's dissoluteness."</p> + +<p>"Calumny! Tetrik has only words of kindness and esteem for Victoria's +son."</p> + +<p>"Schanvoch, I have served in the army for the last twenty-five years. +Ask my officers whether Douarnek is a liar."</p> + +<p>"I believe you to be sincere; only you have been shamefully imposed +upon."</p> + +<p>"Morix, the secretary of Tetrik, narrated the occurrence not to me only +but to other soldiers in the camp for whose wine he was paying. We all +placed confidence in his words,<a name="page_042" id="page_042"></a> because more than once did I myself and +several others of my companions see Victorin and his friends heated with +wine and indulging in crazy feats of arms."</p> + +<p>"Does not the ardor of courage heat up young heads as much as wine?"</p> + +<p>"Listen, Schanvoch, I have seen—with my own eyes—Victorin drive his +steed into the Rhine saying that he would cross the river on horseback; +and he would certainly have been drowned had not another soldier and I +rushed into a boat and fished him half drunk out of the water, while the +current carried his horse away. And do you know what Victorin then said +to us? 'You should have let me drink; the white wine of Beziers runs in +this stream.' What I am telling you now is no calumny, Schanvoch, I saw +it with my own eyes, heard it with my own ears."</p> + +<p>Despite my attachment to Victorin I could not but reply to the soldier's +testimony, saying: "I knew him to be incapable of an act of cowardice +and infamy; but I also knew him to be capable of certain acts of +extravagance and hotheadedness."</p> + +<p>"As to myself," replied another soldier, "more than once, as I mounted +guard near Victorin's house which is separated from Victoria's by a +little plot of flowers, have I seen veiled women leave his place at +early dawn. They were of all colors and sizes, blondes and brunettes, +tall and short, some robust and stout, others slender and thin. At +least, that was the impression that the women left upon me, unless the +gloaming deceived my sight, and it was always the same woman."</p> + +<p>"I notice that you are too sincere to make any answer to that, friend +Schanvoch," Douarnek said to me; indeed, I<a name="page_043" id="page_043"></a> could raise no objection +against the latter accusation. "You must, therefore, not feel surprised +at our trust in the words of Tetrik's secretary. You must admit that the +man who in a drunken fit takes the Rhine for a stream of Bezier's wine, +and from whose house a procession of women is seen to issue in the +morning, is quite capable, in a fit of inebriety, of doing violence to a +tavern-keeper's wife."</p> + +<p>"No!" I cried. "A man may be afflicted with the faults of his years in +an aggravated degree, without therefore being an infamous fellow, a +criminal!"</p> + +<p>"See here, Schanvoch, you are the personal friend of our mother +Victoria. You love Victorin as if he were your own son. Say to him—'The +soldiers, even the grossest and most dissolute among them, do not like +to see their own vices reproduced in the chief whom they have chosen. By +your conduct, the army's affection is daily withdrawn more and more from +you and is centering wholly upon Victoria.'"</p> + +<p>"Yes," I answered thoughtfully, "and the process started since Tetrik, +the Governor of Gascony, the relative and friend of Victoria, made his +last visit to our camp. Until then our young chief was generally +beloved, despite his little foibles."</p> + +<p>"That is true. He is so good, so brave, so kind to all! He sat his horse +so well! He had so bold a military bearing! We loved the young captain +as an own child! We knew him as a babe, and rode him on our knees when +still a little fellow, during the watches in the camp! Later we shut our +eyes to his foibles, because parents are ever indulgent! But there can +be no room for indulgence towards baseness!"</p> + +<p>"And of this baseness," I replied, now more and more forcibly struck by +the circumstance, which, recalling certain incidents to my mind, +awakened a vague suspicion in me,<a name="page_044" id="page_044"></a> "and of these acts of baseness there +is no evidence other than the word of Tetrik's secretary?"</p> + +<p>"The secretary repeated to us his own master's words."</p> + +<p>During this conversation, to which I lent increasing attention, our +bark, ever moving forward under the vigorous strokes of the four +oarsmen, had traversed the Rhine and reached the opposite shore. The +soldier's backs were turned to the bank on which we were about to land. +I was so wholly absorbed in what I had just learned regarding the army's +increasing disaffection towards Victorin, that I never once thought of +casting my eyes upon the shore to which we were drawing near. Suddenly a +sharp whizz struck our ears. I cried out: "Throw yourselves down flat +upon your benches!"</p> + +<p>It was too late. A volley of long arrows flew over our boat. One of the +oarsmen was instantly killed, while Douarnek, whose back was still +turned to the shore received one of the arrows in the back.</p> + +<p>"This is the way the Franks receive parliamentarians during a truce," +remarked the veteran without dropping his oar, and even without turning +around. "This is the first time I have been hit in the back. An arrow in +the back does not become a soldier. Pull it out quick, comrade," he +added, addressing the oarsman who sat behind him.</p> + +<p>But despite his intrepidity, Douarnek managed his oar with less vigor. +Although the wound that he received was not serious, his face betrayed +the pain that he felt; the blood flowed copiously.</p> + +<p>"I told you so, Schanvoch," he proceeded to say. "I told you that your +foliage of peace would prove a poor rampart against the treachery of the +Frankish barbarians. Fall to, my lads! We must now row all the harder, +seeing we are<a name="page_045" id="page_045"></a> only three left. Our comrade yonder, who is bumping his +nose against his bench, with his limbs stiffened, can no longer count as +an oarsman!"</p> + +<p>Douarnek had not finished his sentence before I dashed forward to the +prow of the bark, and passing over the corpse of the soldier who lay +dead across his bench seized one of the oak branches and waved it over +my head as a signal of peace.</p> + +<p>A second volley of arrows, that came flying from behind an embankment of +the river, was the only answer to my appeal. One of the missiles grazed +my arm, another broke off its point against my iron casque; but none of +the soldiers was hit. We were then only a short distance from the shore. +I threw myself into the water, swam a little distance, and as soon as my +feet struck ground called out to Douarnek:</p> + +<p>"Pull the bark safely beyond the reach of the arrows and drop anchor, +then wait for me. If I am not back after sunset, return to camp and +inform Victoria that I have either been made prisoner or killed by the +Franks. She will take my wife Ellen and my son Alguen under her +protection."</p> + +<p>"I do not at all like the idea of leaving you alone in the hands of +those barbarians, friend Schanvoch," answered Douarnek; "but to stay +where we can be killed would be to deprive you of all possible means of +return to our camp, should you be lucky enough to escape with your life. +Courage, Schanvoch! We shall await the evening!"</p> + +<p>And the bark pulled away, while I clambered up the embankment.</p> + +<p><a name="page_046" id="page_046"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IIIa" id="CHAPTER_IIIa"></a>CHAPTER III.<br /><br /> +THE HORDES OF THE FRANKS.</h3> + +<p>I had hardly reached the shore, always holding the green oak branch +aloft, when I saw a large number of Franks, belonging to the hordes of +their army, rush forward from behind the rocks where they had lain in +ambush. They carried black bucklers and wore casques made of black +calves' skin. Their arms, legs and faces were dyed black in order to +escape detection when they march in the shadow of the forests or +contemplate an attack in the night. Their appearance was rendered all +the more hideous and strange, seeing that their chiefs were tattooed +with a bright red on their foreheads, their cheeks and around their +eyes. My long sojourn along the Rhine enabled me to speak the Frankish +tongue with sufficient fluency.</p> + +<p>The black warriors emitted savage yells, surrounded me from all sides +and threatened me with their long knives, the blades of which also were +blackened in the fire.</p> + +<p>"A truce has been concluded, several days ago," I cried out to them; "I +have come in the name of the chief of the Gallic army with a message to +the chiefs of your hordes. Lead me to them. You surely will not kill an +unarmed man?"</p> + +<p>Saying this I drew my sword and threw it away. The barbarians +immediately precipitated themselves upon me, redoubling their cries for +my blood. Some of them unwound<a name="page_047" id="page_047"></a> the cords of their bows, and, despite +all my remonstrances, threw me to the ground and bound me fast.</p> + +<p>"Let us flay him," said one. "We shall carry his skin to the chief +Neroweg, the Terrible Eagle. It will serve him as a bandage to wrap his +legs in."</p> + +<p>I was well aware that the Franks often skinned their enemies alive with +great dexterity, and that the chiefs of their hordes decked themselves +triumphantly with such human spoils. The proposition that I be skinned +alive was received with shouts of approval; those who held me down began +to cast about for a convenient place to perform the operation; others +started to sharpen their knives upon the pebbles.</p> + +<p>At this juncture, the warrior in command of the band approached me. The +man was horrible to behold. A bright red tattoo encircled his eyes and +streaked his cheeks. The marks looked like bleeding wounds, standing off +strongly against his blackened face. His hair, raised after the Frankish +style over his forehead and tied in a knot on top of his head, fell back +like the plume of a helmet over his shoulders, and was of a coppery +yellow, due to the lime-water that those barbarians used in order to +impart a warm bright color to their hair and beard.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> Around his neck +and his wrists he wore a necklace and bracelets of rough wrought tin. +His raiment consisted of a casque of black calfskin; strips of black +calfskin fastened with criss-cross bandelets, covered his thighs and +lower extremities. A sword and a long knife hung from his belt. After +fixedly looking at me for a moment, he raised his hand and letting it +down on my shoulder said:<a name="page_048" id="page_048"></a></p> + +<p>"I shall take and keep this Gaul for Elwig. He is my prisoner."</p> + +<p>Muffled growls from several of the other black warriors greeted these +words of their chief, who, raising his voice, proceeded to say:</p> + +<p>"I, Riowag, will take this Gaul to the priestess Elwig. Elwig needs a +prisoner for her auguries."</p> + +<p>The chief's decision was acquiesced in by the majority of the black +warriors; the growls ceased; and a mob of voices repeated in chorus:</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes; the Gaul must be kept for Elwig!"</p> + +<p>"He must be taken to Elwig!"</p> + +<p>"It is many days since she consulted our tutelary deities!"</p> + +<p>"And we," cried one of the black warriors who had bound me, "we object +to having the prisoner delivered to Elwig. We want to flay him and +present his skin in token of homage to the chief Neroweg, the Terrible +Eagle; he will reward us with some present."</p> + +<p>There is small choice between being skinned alive and being boiled in a +brass caldron. I did not feel called upon to manifest my preferences, +and took no part whatever in the debate. Already those who wished to +flay me cast savage glances at those who insisted that I be boiled, and +carried their hands to their knives, when one of the black warriors +proposed a compromise to the chief:</p> + +<p>"Riowag, do you want to deliver the Gaul to the priestess Elwig?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," answered the chief; "yes, I want to, and it shall be done as I +order!"</p> + +<p>"And the rest of you," proceeded the conciliatory black<a name="page_049" id="page_049"></a> warrior, "you +wish to offer the Gaul's skin to the chief Neroweg?"</p> + +<p>"That is what we propose to do!"</p> + +<p>"Very well, you can be accommodated, both."</p> + +<p>A profound silence fell all around at these conciliatory words. The +black warrior proceeded:</p> + +<p>"First, flay him alive, you will then have his skin; after that Elwig +will boil his body in her caldron."</p> + +<p>The compromise seemed at first to satisfy both parties, but Riowag, the +captain of the band, objected:</p> + +<p>"Do you not know that Elwig needs a living prisoner to render her +auguries certain? You would be giving her only a corpse if you first +flay the Gaul."</p> + +<p>And he added in a terrific voice:</p> + +<p>"Would you expose yourselves to the anger of the gods of the nether +world by depriving them of a victim?"</p> + +<p>At this threat a shudder ran through the surrounding black warriors, and +the party that demanded my skin seemed about to yield to a superstitious +terror.</p> + +<p>The peacemaker, the warrior who had proposed that I be first flayed and +then boiled, now spoke again:</p> + +<p>"Some of you wish to present the Gaul as an offering to the great +Neroweg, others of you wish to present him to the priestess Elwig. Now +do you not see that to give to the one is to give to the other also? Is +not Elwig Neroweg's sister?"</p> + +<p>"And he would be the first to surrender the Gaul to the gods of the +nether world, in order to render them propitious to our arms!" put in +Riowag.</p> + +<p>The captain of the black warriors pointed thereupon at me, and added +imperiously:</p> + +<p>"Take the Gaul on your shoulders and follow me!"<a name="page_050" id="page_050"></a></p> + +<p>"We want to have his spoils," said one of the black warriors who were +the first to seize me. "We want his casque, his cuirass, his blouse, his +belt, his shirt. We want everything, down to his shoes!"</p> + +<p>"The booty belongs to you," answered Riowag. "You will have it so soon +as Elwig will have stripped the Gaul preparatorily to throwing him into +her caldron."</p> + +<p>"We shall go with you, Riowag," replied the black warriors who made the +arrest, "otherwise others than ourselves will take possession of the +plunder from the Gaul."</p> + +<p>My perplexity was now at an end. I knew my fate. I was to be boiled +alive. I would have gladly looked a useful or brave death in the face; +but the death that awaited me seemed so barren and absurd, that I +decided to make one more effort to save my life. Addressing the captain +of the black warriors, I said:</p> + +<p>"Your conduct is unjust. Frankish warriors have often come to the Gallic +camp to solicit an exchange of prisoners. Those Franks have always been +respected. A truce is now in force between us, during a truce only spies +who furtively enter the camp are put to death. I have come in open +daylight, with a green bough in my hand, and in the name of Victorin, +the son of Victoria. I am the carrier of a message from them for the +chiefs of the Frankish army. Take care! If you act without orders from +them, they will be sorry for not having heard me, and they may make you +pay dearly for your treachery towards a soldier, who comes unarmed, +during a truce, and in broad daylight, with the bough of peace in his +hand."</p> + +<p>Riowag's answer to my words was a sign to his band. I was immediately +raised up by four black warriors who placed<a name="page_051" id="page_051"></a> me on their shoulders and +carried me off in the tracks of their captain, who marched with a solemn +air in the direction of the Frankish camp.</p> + +<p>At the moment when the barbarians raised me on their shoulders, I +overheard one of those who wished to flay me alive say to one of his +companions in a mocking tone:</p> + +<p>"Riowag is Elwig's lover; he wishes to make a present of the prisoner to +his mistress."</p> + +<p>These words enabled me to realize that Riowag, the captain of the band +of black warriors, being the lover of the priestess Elwig, gallantly +made her a present of my person, just as in our country bridegrooms +offer a dove or a sheep to the young girl whom they love.</p> + +<p>You will be astonished, my child, to find in this narrative that I have +used words that sound almost droll in describing events that were so +threatening to my life. Do not imagine that this is due to the +circumstance that at the hour when I write these lines, I had escaped +all danger. No. Even when the danger was most imminent—a danger from +which I was almost miraculously delivered—I had full control of my +spirit, and the old Gallic sense of humor, a thing so natural to our +race, however long it lay torpid under the weight of the shame and the +trials of slavery, revived in me as it did with so many others when we +once more tasted the boon of freedom. The observations that you will +encounter, and which I have reproduced as they occurred to me at times +when death seemed inevitable, were sincere, they proceeded from my faith +in that belief of our fathers that man never dies, that when he leaves +this world he enters others in which he proceeds to live.</p> + +<p>Carried upon the shoulders of the four black warriors, I<a name="page_052" id="page_052"></a> traversed a +section of the Frankish camp. The vast bivouac which was arranged +without order, consisted of huts for the chiefs and tents for the +soldiers. It was a sort of gigantic village of savages. Here and there +lay their innumerable war chariots sheltered under rude sheds made of +the trunks of trees. Their indefatigable small, lean, rough-coated and +shaggy-maned horses, that they managed with a halter of cord for only +bridle, were, as is the custom with these barbarians, tied to the wheels +of the chariots or to the trunks of trees, the bark of which they gnawed +at. The Franks themselves, barely clad in skins of animals, their hair +and beard greasy with suet, presented an aspect that was repulsive, +stupid and ferocious. Some of them were stretched out at full length in +the warm rays of that sun that they started in search of from the depths +of their dark northern forests. Others found amusement in the hunt for +vermin over their hairy bodies; these barbarians lived in such filth +that, although they were in the open air, their encampment exhaled a +fetid odor.</p> + +<p>At the sight of these undisciplined hordes, ill armed but innumerable, +and whose forces were incessantly recruited by fresh migrations that +poured down in mass from the glacial regions of the north to swoop upon +the fertile and laughing fields of our Gaul as upon a prey, certain +words of sinister omen that escaped the lips of Victoria came to my +mind. Nevertheless supreme contempt speedily filled me for those +barbarians, who, three or four times superior to our own armies in point +of numbers, never had been able, despite many a bloody battle delivered +for a number of years, to invade our soil, but found themselves every +time driven back to the other side of the Rhine, our natural frontier.<a name="page_053" id="page_053"></a></p> + +<p>While crossing a section of the encampment on the shoulders of the four +black warriors who carried me, I was pursued by insults, threats and +cries for my blood from the Franks who saw me pass. Several times was +the escort that accompanied me obliged, upon orders from Riowag, to use +their arms in order to prevent my being slain on the spot.</p> + +<p>Thus we arrived at last near a thick wood. I observed in passing a large +and more carefully constructed hut than the others, before which a +yellow and red banner was planted. A large number of horsemen clad in +bearskins, some in the saddle, others on foot near their mounts and +leaning on their long lances, were posted around the habitation, thereby +indicating clearly enough that it was occupied by one of the leading +chiefs of their hordes. Again I sought to persuade Riowag, who now +marched beside me, but still grave, silent and solemn, to conduct me +first to that one of the chiefs whose banner I saw, after which, I said +to him, they might kill me if they so pleased. My requests were vain. We +entered the thick wood, and arrived at a large clearing, to the center +of which I was taken. At a little distance I noticed a natural grotto, +formed of large blocks of grey rock, from between which saplings and +stately chestnut trees shot upwards. A stream of living water that +trickled over the ledges of rock fell into a sort of natural basin. Not +far from the cavern stood a brass pan, rather narrow and of about the +length of a man. The opening or mouth of the infernal caldron was +furnished with a net of iron chains. The latter was undoubtedly meant to +keep the victim, who was thrown in to be boiled alive, from jumping out. +Four large boulders supported the pan, under which a bundle of large +logs of kindling wood lay ready. Human bones, bleached and strewn +hither<a name="page_054" id="page_054"></a> and thither over the ground, imparted to the spot the appearance +of a charnel house. Finally, in the center of the clearing, rose a +colossal statue; it was surmounted with three heads rudely carved with +axes and adjusted to the enormous tree-trunk that, though shapeless, was +intended to represent a gigantic body. The aspect of the statue was +grotesque and repulsive.</p> + +<p>Riowag made a sign to the four black warriors who carried me to stop and +deposit me at the foot of the statue. He thereupon entered the grotto +alone while the warriors of the escort called out aloud:</p> + +<p>"Elwig! Elwig!"</p> + +<p>"Elwig! Priestess of the underground gods!"</p> + +<p>"Rejoice, Elwig, we bring you a prisoner for your caldron!"</p> + +<p>"You will now be able to prophesy to us!"<a name="page_055" id="page_055"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IVa" id="CHAPTER_IVa"></a>CHAPTER IV.<br /><br /> +THE PRIESTESS ELWIG.</h3> + +<p>I expected to see some hideous old hag; I was mistaken. Elwig was young, +tall and endowed with savage beauty. Her grey eyes, shielded under a +pair of naturally reddish eyebrows of the same color as her hair, +glistened like the steel of the long knife that she was armed with. Her +eagle-beaked nose and high forehead imparted to her an aspect at once +savage and imposing. She was clad in a long tunic of a somber hue. Her +bare neck and arms were heavily laden with copper necklaces and +bracelets, that clinked upon one another as she walked, and upon which +she cast coquettish glances as she approached me. On her thick reddish +hair, that fell upon and parted on both sides of her shoulders, she wore +a scarlet coif that was a ridiculous imitation of the charming headgear +used by the women of Gaul. In short, I thought I noticed in the strange +creature the evidence of that mixture of puerile pride and vanity so +peculiar to barbarous peoples.</p> + +<p>Standing a few paces from her, Riowag seemed to contemplate the +priestess with profound admiration. Despite his black dye and the red +tattoo under which his face disappeared, his features seemed to me to +betoken a violent love, and his eyes sparkled with joy when, twice in +succession, pointing at me, Elwig turned her face to her lover with a +smile upon her lips, in token, no doubt, of thankfulness for the +offering that he brought her. I also noticed on the bare<a name="page_056" id="page_056"></a> arms of the +infernal priestess two tattoo marks that brought back to my mind some +reminiscences of the war we had been waging with the Franks.</p> + +<p>One of the two marks represented two talons of a bird of prey; the +other, a red serpent.</p> + +<p>With her knife in her hand, Elwig again turned towards me and fastened +her large grey eyes upon me with ferocious satisfaction, while the black +warriors contemplated her with looks of fear and superstition.</p> + +<p>"Woman," I said to the priestess, "I came here unarmed, an oak branch in +my hand, and bearing a message of peace to the grand chiefs of your +hordes.—I was fallen upon and bound fast.—I am in your power—you can +kill me—if such be your pleasure—but before you do, have me presented +to one of your chiefs.—The interview that I request is of as much +importance to the Franks as to the Gauls. It is Victorin himself and his +mother Victoria the Great who have sent me hither."</p> + +<p>"You are sent by Victoria?" cried the priestess with a singular air. +"Victoria, who is said to be so very beautiful?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I am sent by her who is called the Mother of the Camps."</p> + +<p>Elwig reflected, and after a long silence she raised her hands over her +head, brandished her knife, and pronounced some mysterious words in a +voice that sounded at once threatening and inspired. Thereupon she +motioned to the black warriors to retire.</p> + +<p>They all obeyed, walking slowly back towards the thicket that surrounded +the clearing.</p> + +<p>Only Riowag remained a few steps from the priestess. Turning towards him +she pointed with an imperious gesture<a name="page_057" id="page_057"></a> towards the wood in which the +other black warriors had disappeared. Seeing that the captain did not +obey her summons, she raised her voice, and again pointed to the wood.</p> + +<p>Riowag then obeyed and left in turn.</p> + +<p>I remained alone with the priestess. I was left bound, lying at the foot +of the statue of the under gods. Elwig squatted down upon her haunches +near me and asked:</p> + +<p>"You were sent by Victoria to speak with the Frankish chiefs?"</p> + +<p>"I said so before."</p> + +<p>"You are one of Victoria's officers?"</p> + +<p>"I am one of her soldiers."</p> + +<p>"Does she cherish you?"</p> + +<p>"She is my foster-sister, I am as a brother to her."</p> + +<p>These words seemed to cause Elwig to reflect anew. She remained silent +for a while, and then resumed:</p> + +<p>"Would Victoria weep over your death?"</p> + +<p>"As one would weep over the death of a faithful servant."</p> + +<p>"She surely would give much to save your life?"</p> + +<p>"Is it ransom you want?"</p> + +<p>Elwig again relapsed into silence, and resumed with a mixture of +embarrassment and cunning that struck me forcibly:</p> + +<p>"Let Victoria come and ask my brother for your life. He will grant it to +her.—But listen, Victoria has a great reputation for beauty; handsome +women love to deck themselves with the Gallic jewelry that is so +celebrated.—Victoria must have superb ornaments, seeing she is the +mother of the chief of your country.—Tell her to cover herself with her +richest jewelry; it will please my brother's eyes.—He will be all the +more gracious, and will grant your life to her."</p> + +<p>I immediately surmised the snare that the priestess of hell<a name="page_058" id="page_058"></a> was laying +for me with the clumsy cunning natural to barbarians. Wishing to make +certain, I observed without referring to her last words:</p> + +<p>"It seems that your brother is a powerful chief."</p> + +<p>"He is more than a chief," Elwig answered proudly; "he is a king."</p> + +<p>"We also, in the days of our barbarism, had kings. What is your +brother's name?"</p> + +<p>"Neroweg, surnamed the Terrible Eagle."</p> + +<p>"You carry on your arms two figures, one representing a red serpent, the +other the talons of a bird of prey. What do those emblems mean?"</p> + +<p>"The fathers of our fathers in our royal family have always worn these +signs of valor and subtlety. The eagle's talons denote valor; the +serpent subtlety. But let us drop my brother," added Elwig with somber +impatience. My digression seemed to displease her. "Will you induce +Victoria to come here?"</p> + +<p>"One word more on your royal brother.—Does he not carry on his forehead +the identical symbols that you carry on your arms?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," she replied with increasing impatience. "Yes, my brother carries +an eagle's talon over each eye-brow, and the red serpent on a head-band +over his forehead. Kings wear a head-band. But we have spoken enough of +Neroweg—quite enough—"</p> + +<p>I thought I noticed on Elwig's features an ill dissembled sentiment of +hatred when she pronounced his name. She proceeded:</p> + +<p>"If you do not wish to die, write to Victoria to come to our camp +ornamented with her most precious jewels. She<a name="page_059" id="page_059"></a> shall repair alone to a +place that I shall designate to you—a secluded spot that I know—I +shall come for her and shall lead her to my brother to solicit your life +from him—"</p> + +<p>"Victoria to come alone to this camp?—I have come hither, relying upon +the sacredness of the truce;—I carried the bough of peace in my hand, +and yet one of my companions was killed, another was wounded, and to cap +the climax of treachery, I am delivered to you bound hand and foot to be +put to death—"</p> + +<p>"Victoria may bring a small escort with her."</p> + +<p>"Which would be unquestionably massacred by your men!—The scheme is too +transparent!"</p> + +<p>"You, then, wish to die!" cried the priestess gnashing her teeth in +actual or simulated rage, and threatening me with her knife. "The fire +will be shortly kindled under the caldron.—I shall have you plunged +alive into the magic water, and you shall boil in it until you are +dead.—Once more, and for the last time, make your choice.—Either you +shall die in tortures, or you will write to Victoria to repair to our +camp decked in her richest ornaments!—Choose!" she added with redoubled +fury and again threatening me with her knife. "Choose—or you die!"</p> + +<p>I knew there was no more thievish, covetous or vainglorious race than +this breed of Franks. I noticed that Elwig's large grey eyes glistened +with cupidity every time she mentioned the magnificent ornaments, that, +as she imagined, the Mother of the Camps surely possessed. The +ridiculous accoutrement of the priestess; the profusion of valueless +gewgaws that she wore with a savage woman's coquetry, in order, no +doubt, to appear pleasing to the eye of Riowag, the captain of the black +warriors; above all, her persistence in demanding of me that<a name="page_060" id="page_060"></a> Victoria +come to the Frankish camp covered with rich jewels;—everything +justified the conclusion that Elwig aimed at drawing my foster-sister +into an ambush in order to slay her and rob her of her jewels. The +clumsy scheme did not do credit to the ingenuity of the priestess of the +nether regions. Nevertheless, her cupidity might be turned to my +service. I answered her in a tone of indifference:</p> + +<p>"Woman, you mean to kill me if I do not induce Victoria to come here? +You are free to kill me—boil my flesh and bones—you will thereby lose +more than you think for, seeing that you are the sister of Neroweg, the +Terrible Eagle, one of the greatest kings of all your hordes!"</p> + +<p>"What would I lose?—"</p> + +<p>"Magnificent Gallic ornaments!"</p> + +<p>"Ornaments!—What ornaments?" cried Elwig doubtfully, although her eyes +snapped with greed.</p> + +<p>"Do you imagine that, in sending her foster-brother to convey a message +to the kings of the Franks, Victoria the Great did not prepare, as a +pledge of truce, rich presents for the wives and sisters who accompany +them, and for those whom they left behind in Germany?"</p> + +<p>Elwig leaped to her feet with one bound, hurled her knife away, clapped +her hands, and emitted loud peals of laughter that sounded like a crazy +woman's transports. Thereupon she crouched down again beside me, and +said in a voice broken with childish breathlessness:</p> + +<p>"Presents? You bring presents with you?—Where are they?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I bring with me presents fit to dazzle an empress—gold necklaces +studded with carbuncles, ear pendants of pearls and rubies, gold +bracelets, belts and crowns that are so loaded<a name="page_061" id="page_061"></a> with precious stones +that they glitter in all the colors of the rainbow.—All these +masterpieces of our most skilled Gallic goldsmiths I have brought with +me for presents.—And seeing that your brother Neroweg, the Terrible +Eagle, is the most powerful king of all your hordes, the bulk of all +those riches—those bracelets, those necklaces and other jewels—would +have fallen to you."</p> + +<p>Elwig listened to me open-mouthed, her hands clasped together, without +endeavoring to hide either the admiration or unbridled greed that the +enumeration of such treasures kindled in her breast. Suddenly, however, +her features assumed an expression of mingled doubt and anger. She rose, +ran to her knife, and returning with it in her hands, raised it over me +crying:</p> + +<p>"You either lie, or you are mocking me!—Where are those treasures?"</p> + +<p>"In a safe place.—I foresaw that I might be killed and plundered before +I was able to fulfil the orders of Victoria and her son."</p> + +<p>"Where did you put that treasure in safety?"</p> + +<p>"It remained in the bark that brought me to this side of the river.—My +companions rowed back from the shore and cast anchor beyond the reach of +the arrows of your hordes."</p> + +<p>"We also have barks moored at the other end of the camp. I shall order +your companions to be pursued—I shall have the treasures!"</p> + +<p>"You deceive yourself!—As soon as my companions see the enemy's barks +approach from a distance, they will suspect foul play. Seeing that they +have a long lead, they will be able to regain the opposite shore of the +Rhine without any danger whatever.—Such will be the only fruit of the +treachery<a name="page_062" id="page_062"></a> practiced by your people upon me.—Come, woman! Have me +boiled for your infernal auguries! Perhaps my bones, bleached in your +caldron, may be transformed into magnificent ornaments!"</p> + +<p>"I want the treasures!" replied Elwig struggling against her lingering +suspicions. "Since you did not carry the jewels about you, when would +you have given them to the kings of our hordes?"</p> + +<p>"When I left the jewels in the bark I expected I would be received as an +envoy of peace, and that as such I would be escorted back to the river +bank. My companions would then have returned to the shore to receive me, +and I would have taken the presents out of the bark and distributed them +among the kings in the name of Victoria and her son."</p> + +<p>The priestess looked upon me for a while with darkling eyes. She seemed +to yield alternately to mistrust and to the promptings of cupidity. +Finally, however, the latter sentiment evidently prevailed. She took a +few steps away, and with a strong voice pronounced the bizarre name of a +person who was not until then upon the scene.</p> + +<p>Almost instantly a hideous old hag with grey hair and clad in a +blood-bespattered robe issued from the cavern. She was, no doubt, the +active priestess at the inhuman sacrifices. She exchanged a few words in +a low voice with Elwig and forthwith vanished in the surrounding wood, +in the direction that the black warriors had followed.</p> + +<p>Again dropping on her haunches beside me, the priestess said in a low +and muffled voice:</p> + +<p>"Since you wish to speak with my brother, King Neroweg, I have sent for +him.—He will soon be here—but you shall not mention a word to him +concerning the jewels."<a name="page_063" id="page_063"></a></p> + +<p>"Why keep him in the dark concerning them?"</p> + +<p>"Because he would keep them to himself."</p> + +<p>"What!—He!—Your own brother!—Would he not share the jewels with you, +his sister?"</p> + +<p>A bitter smile contracted Elwig's lips. She resumed:</p> + +<p>"My brother came near cutting off my arm with a blow of his axe a few +weeks ago, simply because I merely wished to touch part of his booty."</p> + +<p>"Is that the way brothers and sisters behave towards one another among +the Franks?"</p> + +<p>"Among the Franks," Elwig answered with a face of deepening rancor, "the +mother, sister and wives of a warrior are his first slaves."</p> + +<p>"His wives!—Has he, then, several?"</p> + +<p>"As many as he can capture and feed—the same as he has as many horses +as he can buy."</p> + +<p>"What! Does not a sacred and eternal union join the husband to the +mother of his children, as with us Gauls?—What! Sisters, wives and +mothers—all are slaves? Blessed of the gods is Gaul, my own country, +where our mothers and wives, venerated by all, proudly take their seat +in the nation's councils and where their advice, often wiser than that +of their husbands and sons, not infrequently prevails."</p> + +<p>Palpitating with cupidity, Elwig made no answer to me, and resumed the +thread of her dominant thoughts.</p> + +<p>"You will, accordingly, not mention the jewels to Neroweg. He would keep +them all for himself. You will wait until it is dark to leave the camp. +I shall accompany you. You will give me the jewels, all the presents—to +me alone!"</p> + +<p>And again bursting into almost insane peals of laughter, she added:<a name="page_064" id="page_064"></a></p> + +<p>"Gold bracelets! Necklaces of pearls! Ear pendants studded with rubies! +Diadems full of precious stones! I shall look grand as an empress! Oh, +how beautiful I shall be in the eye of Riowag!"</p> + +<p>Elwig thereupon cast disdainful glances at the copper bracelets that she +rattled as she shook her arms, and repeated:</p> + +<p>"I shall look very beautiful to Riowag!"</p> + +<p>"Woman," I said to her, "your advice is prudent. We shall have to wait +until it is night for us to leave the camp together and regain the river +bank."</p> + +<p>And, to the end of still further enlisting Elwig's confidence in me by +seeming to take an interest in her vainglorious greed, I added:</p> + +<p>"But if your brother sees you decked with such magnificent ornaments, +will he not take them away from you?"</p> + +<p>"No," she promptly answered with a strange and sinister look. "No, he +will not take them!"</p> + +<p>"If Neroweg the Terrible Eagle is of as violent a temperament as you +claim, if he came near cutting off your arm for having wished merely to +touch part of his booty," I suggested, surprised at her answer, and +anxious to fathom her thoughts, "what will prevent your brother from +seizing the jewels?"</p> + +<p>Elwig held up to me her large knife with an expression of calm ferocity +that made me shiver, as she answered:</p> + +<p>"When I shall have the treasure—to-night, I shall enter my brother's +hut—I shall share his bed, as usual—and when he is asleep I shall kill +him—"</p> + +<p>"Your own brother!" I cried with a shudder and hardly believing what I +heard, although the insight that the priestess gave into the shocking +immorality prevalent among the<a name="page_065" id="page_065"></a> Franks was nothing new to me. "How! You +share your own brother's bed?"</p> + +<p>The priestess seemed no wise disconcerted by my question, and answered +with a somber mien:</p> + +<p>"I have shared my brother's bed since the day that he violated me. It is +the fate of almost all the sisters of the Frankish kings who follow them +in war. Did I not tell you that their wives, their sisters and their +mothers are the first slaves of the warriors? What female slave is there +who, willingly or unwillingly, does not share her master's bed?"</p> + +<p>"Hold your tongue, woman!" I cried interrupting her. "Hold your tongue! +Your monstrous words might draw a thunderbolt upon our heads!"</p> + +<p>And without being able to add another word I contemplated the creature +with horror. Such a mixture of debauchery, greed, barbarism and, withal, +stupid frankness, seeing that Elwig unbosomed herself to me, a man whom +she then saw for the first time in her life, upon her fratricidal +intentions—that fratricide, preceded by incest, which this priestess of +a sanguinary cult was subjected to and who shared her brother's bed +while she at the same time surrendered herself to another man—all that +filled me with horror, notwithstanding I had often heard accounts of the +abominable morals of the barbarians beyond the Rhine.</p> + +<p>Elwig seemed not to concern herself about the cause of my silence nor of +the evident disgust that she filled me with. She mumbled some +unintelligible words, and counted the copper bracelets that her arms +were loaded with. She presently said to me pensively:</p> + +<p>"Do you think I shall have nine fine bracelets studded with precious +stones to replace these? Could they all go into a<a name="page_066" id="page_066"></a> little bag that I +shall keep concealed under my robe when I return to the hut of the king, +my brother? Why do you not answer my questions?"</p> + +<p>The cold, I should almost say naïve, ferocity of the woman redoubled the +disgust that the monster inspired in me. Again I remained silent, and +she cried aloud:</p> + +<p>"Why do you not answer me? You promised me the jewels!"</p> + +<p>But seeming to be suddenly struck by a new thought she added with +terror:</p> + +<p>"I told him all! Suppose he tells it all again to Neroweg! My brother +would kill us both, me and Riowag! The thought of the treasure bereft me +of my senses!"</p> + +<p>And again she started to call, turning her face towards the cavern.</p> + +<p>A second old hag, no less hideous than the first, hobbled out holding in +her hand the bone of an ox from which hung a partly boiled shred of meat +at which she gnawed with her toothless gums.</p> + +<p>"Come quick to me," the priestess said to her, "and leave your bone +there."</p> + +<p>The old hag obeyed unwillingly, grumbling like a dog whose meat is taken +away from him. She laid the bone on one of the projecting rocks at the +entrance of the grotto, and drew near, wiping her lips.</p> + +<p>"Gather some dry, good branches and roots of trees and kindle a fire +with them under the brass caldron," the priestess said to the old woman.</p> + +<p>The latter returned into the cavern, and brought out all the things that +she was ordered. Soon a bright fire burned under the caldron.<a name="page_067" id="page_067"></a></p> + +<p>"Now," Elwig said to the old woman, pointing her finger at me as I lay +stretched out upon the earth at the feet of the statue of the +subterranean deity, with my hands pinioned behind my back and my feet +bound fast, "kneel down upon him."</p> + +<p>I could make not the slightest motion. The old hag planted herself on +her knees upon my breast-plate, and said to the priestess:</p> + +<p>"What must I do next?"</p> + +<p>"Make him put out his tongue."</p> + +<p>I then understood that, carried away at first by her savage greed into +making dangerous confidences to me, Elwig now reproached herself for +having heedlessly mentioned her amours and her fratricidal intentions, +and could think of no better way to compel my silence on these subjects +towards her brother than to cut off my tongue. The project was more +easily conceived than it could be executed. I clenched my teeth with all +my might.</p> + +<p>"Tighten your fingers on his throat!" Elwig commanded the hag. "He will +then open his mouth and stick his tongue out. I shall then cut it off."</p> + +<p>With her knees firmly planted upon my cuirass, the hag leaned forward so +close to me that her hideous face almost touched mine. I shut my eyes +with disgust. Presently I felt the crooked yet nervous fingers of the +priestess' assistant tighten at my throat. For a while I struggled +against suffocation and did not unlock my teeth; but, as Elwig had +foreseen, I soon felt almost smothered and unconsciously opened my +mouth. Elwig immediately thrust in her fingers in order to seize my +tongue. I bit her so savagely that she withdrew her hand screaming with +pain. At that moment I saw the black warriors and Riowag reissue from +the wood whither<a name="page_068" id="page_068"></a> they had withdrawn at the priestess' orders. Riowag +approached on a run, but he stopped undecided what to do at the sight of +a troop of Franks who arrived from the opposite side and stepped into +the clearing. One of these called out in a hoarse and imperious voice:</p> + +<p>"Elwig! Elwig!"</p> + +<p>"The king, my brother!" gasped the priestess, who was on her knees +beside me.</p> + +<p>It seemed to me that she looked for the knife that she had dropped +during her struggle with me.</p> + +<p>"Fear not! I shall be dumb. You shall have the treasure all for +yourself," I whispered to Elwig, fearing lest, in her terror, the woman +plunge the knife into my throat. I sought to secure her support at all +hazard, and to contrive a means of escape by inciting her cupidity.</p> + +<p>Whether Elwig trusted my word, or whether her brother's presence stayed +her hand, she cast a significant glance at me, and remained on her knees +at my side, with her head drooping upon her chest as if absorbed in +revery. The old hag having risen to her feet, my breast-plate was +relieved of her weight; I could again breathe freely; and I saw the +Terrible Eagle standing before me, escorted by several other Frankish +kings, as the chiefs of those marauding hordes styled themselves.</p> + +<p><a name="page_069" id="page_069"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_Va" id="CHAPTER_Va"></a>CHAPTER V.<br /><br /> +NEROWEG THE TERRIBLE EAGLE.</h3> + +<p>The Frankish chief who stood before me was a man of colossal stature. +Due to the use of lime-water, his beard as well as his greasy hair, that +rose in a knot over his forehead, had turned coppery red. His hair, tied +with a leather thong on the top of his head, fell behind his shoulders +like the flowing crest of a casque. Above each of his bushy red eyebrows +I saw an eagle's talon tattooed in blue, while another scarlet tattoo +mark, representing the undulations of a serpent, spanned his forehead. +His left cheek was also ornamented with a red and blue tattoo that +consisted of transverse rays. On his right cheek, however, the savage +ornament disappeared almost wholly in the cavity of a deep scar that +began below the eye and was finally lost under his shaggy beard. Heavy +and coarsely-wrought gold medals, that hung from and distended his ears, +dropped upon his shoulders. A heavy silver chain, wound three times +around his neck, reached down to his semi-bare breast. Above his cloth +tunic he wore a jacket of some animal's hide. His hose, of the same +quality and as soiled as his tunic, were fastened by a leather belt from +which, on one side, hung a long sword, on the other an axe of sharp +stone. Wide strips of tanned skin criss-crossed upward over his hose, +from the ankle to the knees. He leaned upon a short pike that ended in a +sharp point. The other kings who accompanied Neroweg were<a name="page_070" id="page_070"></a> tattooed, +clad and armed more or less after the same fashion. The features of all +bore the stamp of savage gravity.</p> + +<p>Elwig, who remained on her knees at my side, sought to conceal her face +from Neroweg. He rudely touched his sister's shoulder with the point of +his pike, and addressed her harshly:</p> + +<p>"Why did you send for me before boiling the Gallic dog for your +auguries? My flayers have promised me his skin."</p> + +<p>"The hour is not favorable," answered the priestess abruptly with a +mysterious air. "The hour of night—of dark night is preferable to +sacrifice to the gods of the nether world. The Gaul, moreover, says, oh +mighty king, that he has a message from Victoria and her son."</p> + +<p>Neroweg drew nearer and looked at me. At first his mien was one of +disdainful indifference; presently, however, as he examined me more +attentively, his features assumed an expression of hatred and of +triumphant rage; at last he cried as if he could not believe his own +eyes:</p> + +<p>"It is he! He is the horseman of the bay steed! It is himself!"</p> + +<p>"Do you know him?" Elwig asked her brother. "Do you know this prisoner?"</p> + +<p>"Off with you!" was Neroweg's brusque answer. "Get you gone!"</p> + +<p>He then proceeded to contemplate me with renewed interest and repeated:</p> + +<p>"Yes, it is he; the horseman of the bay steed!"</p> + +<p>"Did you ever meet him in battle?" again asked Elwig. "Answer me. Do +answer me!"</p> + +<p>"Will you be gone!" repeated Neroweg now raising his pike over the head +of the priestess. "I told you before, be gone!"<a name="page_071" id="page_071"></a></p> + +<p>My eyes at that moment caught sight of the group of black warriors. I +saw that their captain Riowag could hardly be restrained by his men from +drawing his sword, and revenging the insult offered to Elwig by Neroweg.</p> + +<p>But so far from obeying her brother, and no doubt fearing that in her +absence I might reveal to the Terrible Eagle both her own fratricidal +projects and the secret of Victoria's presents which she coveted, Elwig +cried:</p> + +<p>"No! No! I remain here! The prisoner belongs to me for my auguries. I +shall not go away. I shall keep him—"</p> + +<p>The only answer that Neroweg vouchsafed his sister were several blows +with the handle of his pike, delivered over her back. He thereupon made +a sign, and several of the warriors who accompanied him violently drove +the priestess, together with the haggish old assistant, back into the +cavern at the mouth of which they posted themselves on guard, sword in +hand.</p> + +<p>The black warriors who surrounded Riowag were put to their mettle in +order to prevent their captain from precipitating himself with drawn +sword upon the Terrible Eagle. The latter, thinking only of me, failed +to notice the fury of his rival, and addressed me in a voice trembling +with rage, while he kicked me with his feet:</p> + +<p>"Do you recognize me, dog?"</p> + +<p>"I recognize you, rapacious wolf."</p> + +<p>"This wound," resumed Neroweg carrying his finger to the deep scar that +furrowed his cheek, "do you know who made this wound?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, it is my handiwork. I fought you as a soldier."</p> + +<p>"You lie! You fought me like a coward! You were two against one!"<a name="page_072" id="page_072"></a></p> + +<p>"You were making a furious onset on the son of Victoria the Great. He +was wounded—his hand could hardly hold his sword—I dashed to his +help—and struck in Gallic fashion."</p> + +<p>"You marked my face with your Gallic sword—dog!"</p> + +<p>Saying this Neroweg struck me repeatedly with the handle of his pike, to +the great amusement of the other kings.</p> + +<p>I remembered my ancestor Guilhern, chained like a slave and supporting +with dignity the cruel treatment of the Romans after the battle of +Vannes. I emulated his example. I merely said to Neroweg:</p> + +<p>"You are striking an unarmed soldier who is bound fast and who, relying +upon the truce, came to you on an errand of peace—that is a coward's +act. You would not dare to raise your stick at me if I stood on my feet +and sword in hand."</p> + +<p>The Frankish chief laughed, struck me again and said:</p> + +<p>"He is a fool who, able to kill his enemy disarmed, does not exterminate +him. I would like to kill you twice over. You are doubly my enemy. I +hate you because you are a Gaul, I hate you because your race holds +Gaul, the country of sunshine, of good wine and beautiful women; then +also I hate you because you marked my face with a wound that is my +eternal shame. I shall therefore make you suffer so much that your pain +will be equal to two deaths, a thousand deaths, if I only could—you +Gallic dog!"</p> + +<p>"The Gallic dog is a noble animal for war and for the hunt," I replied +to him; "the Frankish wolf, however, is an animal of rapine and carnage. +But it will not be long before the brave Gallic dogs will have chased +from their frontiers this pack of voracious wolves that have come +prowling from the northern forests. Be careful! If you refuse to<a name="page_073" id="page_073"></a> listen +to the message that I have for you from Victoria and her valiant son—be +careful! Our army is numerous. It will be a war to the death that will +be waged between the Gallic dog and the Frankish wolf—a war of +extermination—and the Frankish wolf will be devoured by the Gallic +dog."</p> + +<p>Grinding his teeth with rage, Neroweg seized the axe that hung from his +belt, and raising it in both hands was about to let it come crashing +down upon my head. I believed my last hour had come, but two of the +other kings held the arm of Elwig's brother, into whose ears they +whispered a few words that seemed to calm him. He held a short +conference with his companions and returned to me:</p> + +<p>"What is the message that you bring from Victoria for the Frankish +kings?"</p> + +<p>"The messenger of Victorin and Victoria can only speak on his feet, +unfettered, his head high—not stretched down on the ground, and bound +fast like the ox that expects the butcher's knife. Order my bonds to be +removed, and I shall speak—if not, not. You have heard me, brute that +you are!"</p> + +<p>"Speak on the spot—unconditionally, you Gallic dog!—or tremble before +my anger!"</p> + +<p>"No; I shall not speak!"</p> + +<p>"I shall know how to make you speak!"</p> + +<p>"Try it! You will find me unshakeable!"</p> + +<p>Neroweg ordered one of the other kings to fetch a firebrand from under +the brass caldron. I was held down by the shoulders and feet, so as to +prevent me from making the slightest motion, while the Terrible Eagle +placed the firebrand upon my iron cuirass and heaped up others about it. +The brasier that he thus built upon my body seemed to amuse him greatly. +He laughed out aloud and said to me:</p> + +<p>"You shall speak, or be broiled like a tortoise in its shell."<a name="page_074" id="page_074"></a></p> + +<p>The iron of my cuirass soon began to heat under the coals which two of +the Frankish kings kept alive by blowing upon them. I suffered greatly +and cried:</p> + +<p>"Oh! Neroweg! Neroweg! Cowardly assassin! I would gladly endure these +tortures, if I only could see myself once more sword in hand before you, +and put my mark upon your other cheek. Oh! You have said it—there is +room only for hatred and death between our two races!"</p> + +<p>"What is Victoria's message?" the Terrible Eagle asked again.</p> + +<p>I remained silent, despite the intense pain that I suffered. The iron of +my cuirass was growing hot all around.</p> + +<p>"Will you speak?" the Frankish chief cried anew, evidently astonished at +my resistance.</p> + +<p>"Victoria's messenger speaks erect and free," I answered. "If not, not!"</p> + +<p>Whether the Frankish chief considered it desirable to know the message +that I brought, or whether he only yielded to the suggestions of his +companions, who were less ferocious than himself, one of them unbuckled +my casque, raised it off my head, took it to the stream that rippled +down the rocks at the mouth of the cavern, filled it and poured the cold +water upon my heated cuirass. By degrees it cooled off.</p> + +<p>"Free him of his bonds," said Neroweg, "but surround him; and let him +instantly fall under your blows should he try to escape."</p> + +<p>I slowly regained my strength while I was being unbound; the torture I +had just undergone almost caused me to faint. I drank some of the water +that remained in my casque, and stood up in the midst of the kings, who +surrounded me so as to cut off my retreat.<a name="page_075" id="page_075"></a></p> + +<p>"Give us now your message," said Neroweg.</p> + +<p>"A truce has been concluded between our two armies," I proceeded. +"Victoria and her son send to tell you: Since you issued from your +northern forests you have taken possession of the whole territory of +Germany on the right bank of the Rhine. That soil is as fertile as +Gaul's. Before your invasion it produced an abundance of everything. +Your acts of violence and cruelty have driven almost all its inhabitants +to flight. The soil, nevertheless, remains, ready and willing for the +husbandman. Why do you not cultivate it, instead of waging incessant war +against us and living on rapine? Is it the love for war that sways you? +We Gauls, better than anyone else, understand and appreciate the love +for martial display. We appreciate it, and make this proposition to you. +At each new moon, send one or two thousand of your picked warriors to +one of the large islands in the Rhine, which is our joint frontier. We +shall expedite thither an equal number of our warriors. The two sets +will be free to fight it out at their heart's content. But then, at +least, you Franks, on one side of the river, and we Gauls on the other +shall be able to cultivate our respective fields in peace, we shall be +able to work, to manufacture and to enrich our countries, without being +forever compelled to keep an eye upon the frontier, and a sword hanging +from the plow handle. If you refuse our proposition we shall then wage a +war of extermination against you, drive you from our frontiers, and +chase you back into your forests. When two nations are separated only by +a river they should be friends, or one of the two must destroy the +other. Choose! I await your answer."</p> + +<p>Neroweg consulted with several of the kings who stood<a name="page_076" id="page_076"></a> near him, and +presently answered me with marked insolence:</p> + +<p>"The Frank is not one of those races, like the Gallic, who work by +cultivating the soil. The Frank loves war; but above all he loves the +warmth of the sun, good wine, fine weapons, brilliant clothes, gold and +silver goblets, rich necklaces, large and well built cities, superb +palaces after the fashion of the Romans, the beautiful Gallic women, +industrious slaves who mind the whip and work for their masters while +these drink, sing, sleep and make love or war. In their gloomy country +of the north, however, the Franks find neither sunshine nor good wine, +nor fine weapons, nor brilliant clothes, nor gold and silver goblets, +nor large and well built cities, nor superb palaces, nor beautiful +Gallic women—all these things are to be found among you, Gallic dogs! +We purpose and mean to take all that from you—we purpose and mean to +establish ourselves in your fertile country, and enjoy all the good +things that it contains, while the males of you will work for us under +the whip and the sharp sword that we shall hold over you, and the +females—your wives, sisters and daughters—will lie in our beds, will +weave our shirts and will wash our clothes. Do you understand, Gallic +dog?"</p> + +<p>The other kings applauded Neroweg and accentuated their approval with +loud laughter and clatter of arms, joined to cries of:</p> + +<p>"Yes—that is what we want—do you understand, Gallic dog?"</p> + +<p>"I understand," I replied, unable to refrain from indulging in raillery +against such savage insolence. "I understand that you wish to conquer +and subjugate us as did the Romans for a time, after our own race +dominated and conquered the whole world for centuries in succession. But +you<a name="page_077" id="page_077"></a> who so much love the sunshine, the goods, the country and the women +of other peoples, you seem to forget that, despite the universal power +that they acquired and despite their innumerable armies, even the Romans +were compelled to return to us one by one the rights that we enjoyed, so +that, at this hour, the Romans are no longer our conquerors, but our +allies. Now, then, seeing that you so much love the sunshine, the +country, the goods and wives of others, listen to my words: We, the +Gauls, alone and unaided by the Romans, will chase you from our +frontiers, or we shall exterminate you to the last man if you persist in +being bad neighbors and in proposing to plunder us of our old Gaul."</p> + +<p>"Yes, we are plunderers!" cried Neroweg. "And, by the snows of Germany +we shall plunder you of your old Gaul! Our army is four times as large +as yours; you have your palaces, your cities, your wealth, your women, +your sun, your fertile earth to defend—we have nothing to defend and +everything to gain. We camp in our huts and sleep on the backs of our +horses; our only wealth is our sword; we have nothing to lose, +everything to gain. And we will gain everything, and we will subjugate +your race, you Gallic dog! It will be the end of Gaul!"</p> + +<p>"Go and ask the Romans, whose army was even larger than yours, how many +foreign cohorts the sod of old Gaul has devoured! Even the greatest +battles that they, the conquerors of the world delivered, did not cost +them one-quarter the number of soldiers that our fathers, as insurgent +slaves, exterminated with their scythes and forks. Take care! Strong and +sharp is the sword of the Gallic soldier; trenchant is the scythe, heavy +the fork of the Gallic husbandman in the defense of hearth, family and +freedom! Take care! If you<a name="page_078" id="page_078"></a> persist in remaining bad neighbors, the +Gallic scythe and fork will be enough to drive you back into your +snow-bound wilderness, ye people of sloth, of rapine and of carnage, who +desire to enjoy the fruits of the labors of others, who covet their +soil, their wives and their sunshine, and strive after these by means of +theft and massacre!"</p> + +<p>"Dare you, Gallic dog, hold such language to us!" cried Neroweg grinding +his teeth. "You, a prisoner! You, under the points of our swords! under +the edge of the Frankish battle axe!"</p> + +<p>"The moment seems to me opportune to say the truth to the enemies of +Gaul!"</p> + +<p>"And I think the moment is opportune to put you through a thousand +deaths!" cried the Frankish king in a passion as towering as that of his +fellows. "Yes, you shall undergo a thousand deaths—and after that, my +sole answer to the audacious message of your Victoria will be to return +your head to her with the announcement in the name of Neroweg the +Terrible Eagle, that, before the sun shall have risen six times, I shall +capture herself in the midst of her own camp, shall take her to my bed, +and shall then pass her over to my men, that they may, in turn, enjoy +Victoria, the proud Gallic woman!"</p> + +<p>I lost all control over myself at the ribald and ferocious insolence +flung at the woman whom I venerated above all others. I was unarmed, but +I picked up one of the now extinguished firebrands that lay at my feet +and which the Franks had used to torture me with; I seized the heavy +log, and swift as lightning struck Neroweg so sound a blow with it over +his head that he reeled back, stumbled and fell to the ground +unconscious.<a name="page_079" id="page_079"></a></p> + +<p>Ten swords struck me almost simultaneously. But my casque and cuirass +protected me. In their blind rage the Frankish chiefs struck at random, +and cried:</p> + +<p>"Death! Death to the dog of a Gaul!"</p> + +<p>Only Riowag, the captain of the black warriors, did not join in the +attempt to avenge upon my person the blow I dealt to his rival, Neroweg. +On the contrary, he profited by the tumult to enter the cavern into +which Elwig had been driven back, the entrance of which was now left +free, seeing that the two kings, who, sword in hand, mounted guard +before it, rushed to the assistance of the Terrible Eagle, who lay +prostrate at a distance from them.</p> + +<p>Immediately after Riowag entered the grotto, the priestess and her two +assistant hags rushed out. With streaming hair, haggard looks, and hands +raised heavenward they cried:</p> + +<p>"The hour has come—the sun is setting—night approaches—death, death +to the Gaul! He struck the Terrible Eagle—death, death to the Gaul! +Bind him fast. We shall consult the subterranean gods in the magic water +in which he is to boil!"</p> + +<p>"Yes—death!" cried the Franks rushing upon me and binding me fast +again. "He shall die under a prolonged agony! Death to the dog of a +Gaul!"</p> + +<p>"We are the priestesses of the sacrifice!" Elwig and the two hags +protested in chorus, while they redoubled their bizarre contortions that +by degrees imposed the Frankish warriors with terror.</p> + +<p>"Oh! you who struck my brother, the blood of my blood," Elwig screamed, +writhing her arms, and howling furiously she threw herself upon me in a +real or feigned transport of rage; "the gods of the nether world have +delivered you into<a name="page_080" id="page_080"></a> my hands! Come—come—let us drag him into the +cavern," she added addressing the old hags, "we must season him for his +death with the proper tortures. Vengeance! Let our vengeance be +merciless!"</p> + +<p>The confusion into which the Franks were thrown by the blow that I dealt +Neroweg kept them from interfering with Elwig and her two female +assistants. Several of the kings even joined her in dragging me into the +cavern, while the others were hurrying hither and thither or gathered +anxiously around the Terrible Eagle who lay prone upon the ground, pale, +motionless and his head bleeding.</p> + +<p>"Our grand chief is not dead," said some; "his hands are warm and his +heart beats."</p> + +<p>"Let us transport him to his hut."</p> + +<p>"If he die we shall draw lots for his five black horses, his fine Gallic +sword with the gold handle, and also for his necklace and silver +bracelets."</p> + +<p>"The horses and arms of Neroweg belong to the oldest chief!" cried one +of those who were holding up the head of the Terrible Eagle. "I am the +oldest. To me belong both horses and arms! To me also his tent and +chariots! To me his gold necklaces and silver bracelets!"</p> + +<p>"You lie!" came from one of the chiefs at the feet of Neroweg. "His +horses, his tent and his arms belong to me as his war companion."</p> + +<p>"No!" cried the others. "No! Everything that belongs to Neroweg must be +drawn lots for."</p> + +<p>From the threshold of the cavern where I then was, I could see and hear +the dispute wax hot and the swords glisten, while Neroweg, who still +remained unconscious, was almost trampled under the feet of the enraged +disputants, as they<a name="page_081" id="page_081"></a> leaped over his body to get at closer quarters with +one another. The conflict threatened to take a bloody turn when, leaving +me where I was, Elwig threw herself between the combatants, whom she +sought to separate, and shouted aloud:</p> + +<p>"Shame and ill luck to those who contend over the spoils of a king who +is neither dead nor revenged! Shame and ill luck to those who contend +over the spoils of a brother before the very eyes of his sister! Shame +and ill luck to the impious men who disturb the quiet of a place that is +consecrated to the gods of the nether world!"</p> + +<p>And with an inspired and dreadful mien, the priestess drew herself to +her full length, and throwing up her clenched fists above her head, +cried:</p> + +<p>"My two hands are full of fearful misfortunes. Tremble!"</p> + +<p>At these threats, the frightened barbarians involuntarily lowered their +heads, as if afraid of being struck with the mysterious ills that the +priestess held in her closed hands. They put their swords back into +their scabbards. Profound silence ensued.</p> + +<p>"Carry the Terrible Eagle to his hut!" Elwig thereupon commanded. "The +sister will accompany her wounded brother. The Gallic prisoner will be +watched by Map and Mob who assist me at the sacrifices. Two of you will +remain at the mouth of the cavern, with your swords in your hands. Night +is drawing near. Elwig will presently return with Neroweg. The execution +of the prisoner will then begin, and I shall consult the auguries in the +magic waters in which he is to boil until death supervenes!"</p> + +<p>My last hope was dashed. In contemplating to return with her brother, +Elwig must have doubtlessly renounced the project that her greed had +caused her to hatch. I had pinned<a name="page_082" id="page_082"></a> my safety on that project. I was +bound firmly, hands and feet. My arms were pinioned behind my back; a +belt was strapped around my legs. I could hardly move a step. I slowly +followed the two hags into the grotto, at the entrance of which several +of the kings posted themselves, sword in hand. The deeper I penetrated +the cave, all the darker it grew. After having proceeded a little way, +one of the two hags said to me:</p> + +<p>"You may lie down on the ground if you wish; the sun has gone down. +While waiting for Elwig's return, my companion and I shall keep the fire +alive under the caldron."</p> + +<p><a name="page_083" id="page_083"></a>Saying this both the hags left me. I remained alone.</p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VIa" id="CHAPTER_VIa"></a>CHAPTER VI.<br /><br /> +THE FLIGHT.</h3> + +<p>From the solitude and darkness in which I was left at the departure of +Elwig's sacrificial assistants, I could see the mouth of the cavern at +some distance. The opening grew darker and darker as dusk yielded to +night. Presently the gloom became complete, relieved only, from time to +time, by the flickering light that the flames of the fire, kept alive +under the huge brass caldron by the two hags, occasionally cast upon the +grotto's mouth.</p> + +<p>I tried to snap my bonds. With my hands and feet free, I would have +endeavored to disarm one of the Franks who guarded the issue, and, sword +in hand, and protected by the darkness of the night, I would have +reached the river bank guided by the sound of the rushing waves. Perhaps +and notwithstanding the orders I gave him, Douarnek might not yet have +rowed back to camp. But all my efforts proved futile against the +bow-strings and the belt that held me fast. A muffled but increasing +rumbling of feet and voices began to announce to me the arrival and +assembling of a large number of people in the neighborhood of the cave. +They must he doubtlessly gathering to witness my execution and listen to +the auguries of the priestess.</p> + +<p>I believed there was nothing left to me but to resign myself to my fate. +I turned my last thoughts to my wife and child.<a name="page_084" id="page_084"></a></p> + +<p>Suddenly, from the thickest of the surrounding darkness I heard the +voice of Elwig two steps behind me. I started with surprise. I was +certain she did not enter by the mouth of the cavern.</p> + +<p>"Follow me," she said.</p> + +<p>At the same moment her feverish hand seized mine and held it firmly.</p> + +<p>"How came you here?" I asked her stupefied, with hope re-rising in my +breast, and endeavoring to walk.</p> + +<p>"The cavern has two issues," Elwig answered. "One of them is secret and +known to me only. It is by that entrance that I came in, while the kings +are waiting for me at the other entrance near the caldron. Come! Come! +Take me to the bark where the treasure lies, where you left the +necklaces, bracelets, diadems and other jewels!"</p> + +<p>"My legs are tied," I said. "I can hardly put one foot before the +other."</p> + +<p>Elwig did not answer, but I could feel that she was cutting with her +knife the leather strap and the bow-strings that bound my arms and legs. +I was free!</p> + +<p>"And your brother," I inquired, following close upon her footsteps, "has +he regained consciousness?"</p> + +<p>"Neroweg is still dazed, like a bull whom the butcher did not kill +outright. He awaits in his hut the hour of your execution. I am to +notify him in time. He wishes to see you suffer and die. Come, come!"</p> + +<p>"The darkness is so intense that I can not see before me."</p> + +<p>"Give me your hand."</p> + +<p>"Should your brother tire of waiting," I observed as she almost dragged +me along through the windings of the secret issue, "and should he enter +the sacred wood with the other<a name="page_085" id="page_085"></a> chieftains and not find either you or me +in the cavern, what will happen? Will they not immediately start in +pursuit of us?"</p> + +<p>"Only I know this secret issue. When they miss both you and me from the +cave, my brother and the chiefs will believe that I made you descend to +the gods of the nether world. They will be all the more afraid of me. +Come! Come quick!"</p> + +<p>While Elwig thus spoke I was following her through so narrow a passage +that I felt myself grazing the rocks on either side. The passage seemed +at first to dip down towards the bowels of the earth, but presently its +ascent became so steep and difficult for my legs, still numb from their +recent ligatures, that it was with difficulty I kept step with the +hurrying priestess. We had been for some time in the maze of the +underground cave when at last I felt the fresh air strike my face. I +imagined we were about to step into the open.</p> + +<p>"To-night, after I shall have killed my brother in revenge for his +outrages upon me," Elwig explained to me in abrupt words, "I shall flee +with a king whom I love. He is waiting for us outside. He is strong, +brave and well armed. He will accompany us to your bark. If you deceived +me, Riowag will kill you—do you hear me, Gaul? You will fall under his +axe."</p> + +<p>I was little affected by the threat—my hands were free—my only +uneasiness was whether Douarnek and the bark still waited for me.</p> + +<p>A moment later we issued out of the cavern. The stars shone so brilliant +in the sky that once out of the wood in<a name="page_086" id="page_086"></a> which we still were, I was +certain I would be able to see my way before me.</p> + +<p>The priestess stopped for a moment and called:</p> + +<p>"Riowag!"</p> + +<p>"Riowag is here," answered a voice so close to me that I realized the +chief of the black warriors was near enough to be able to touch me. +Nevertheless, it was in vain that I sought to distinguish his black +shape in the dark. It became clearer to me than ever before how, by +rendering themselves undistinguishable in the dark, these men could not +choose but be dangerous foes in a night assault or ambuscade.</p> + +<p>"Is it far from here to the river bank?" I asked Riowag. "You must know +the spot where I landed; you were the chief of the band that greeted me +with a volley of arrows."</p> + +<p>"No, we have not far to go," Riowag answered.</p> + +<p>"Shall we have to cross the camp?" I inquired, perceiving the lights of +the Frankish encampment at a little distance.</p> + +<p>Neither of my two guides made any answer. They exchanged a few words in +a low voice, each took me by an arm, and they struck into a path that +led away from the camp. Soon the roar of the rushing waters of the Rhine +reached our ears. We drew rapidly near the shore. Finally from the +height of the embankment on which we stood, I could distinguish a bluish +sheet of water across the darkness—it was the river!</p> + +<p>"We shall now ascend the beach about two hundred feet," said Riowag; "we +shall then be at the spot where you reached land under our arrows. Your +bark must be only a little distance from there. If you deceived us your +blood will redden the beach, and the waters of the Rhine will wash away +your corpse."<a name="page_087" id="page_087"></a></p> + +<p>"Can we call out from the bank without being heard by the outposts of +the camp?" I asked the Frank.</p> + +<p>"The wind blows off shore," Riowag answered with the sagacity of a +savage. "You can freely raise your voice and call; you will not be heard +at the camp, and your voice will surely travel to the middle of the +stream."</p> + +<p>Riowag walked a few steps further and then stopped.</p> + +<p>"It is here," he said, "where you reached land; your bark must be +anchored near by. I am a professional night warrior, and am able to see +through the dark, but I can not distinguish your bark."</p> + +<p>"Oh! You deceived us! You deceived us!" murmured Elwig in a subdued +voice. "You will die for it!"</p> + +<p>"It may be," I observed, "that, after having waited for me in vain, the +bark may have just left its anchorage. The wind will carry my voice far; +I shall call."</p> + +<p>Saying this I raised our battle cry of rally, well known to Douarnek.</p> + +<p>Only the sound of the waves made answer.</p> + +<p>Doubtlessly Douarnek had followed my orders and rowed back to camp at +sunset.</p> + +<p>I uttered our war cry a second time and louder than the first.</p> + +<p>Again the only response was the rushing of the waves.</p> + +<p>Meaning to gain time and prepare myself for defense, I said to Elwig: +"The wind blows off shore; it carries my voice to the river; but it +blows back the voices that may have answered my signal. Let us listen!"</p> + +<p>While I spoke I strained my eyes to peer through the dark and discover +the weapons that Riowag was armed with. In his belt he carried a dagger; +in his hand his short, broad<a name="page_088" id="page_088"></a> sword. Although he and his beloved were +close to me, one on each side, I could elude them with a bound, plunge +into the river, and escape by swimming. I was watching for my +opportunity when suddenly the distant and rhythmic sound of oars reached +my ears. My call was heard by Douarnek.</p> + +<p>In the measure that the decisive instant approached, the suspense and +uneasiness of Elwig and her companion increased. To kill me would be to +renounce the possession of the treasure, which, I had clearly told them, +my soldiers would deliver only at my orders. But again, to allow the +latter to disembark would be to furnish me with auxiliaries and render +mine the stronger side. Elwig no doubt began to realize that her greed +had carried her too far. Seeing the bark draw nearer she said to me in +great excitement:</p> + +<p>"The sacredness of the Gallic word is proverbial. You owe your life to +me. I hope you did not deceive me with a false promise."</p> + +<p>That priestess of the nether world, the incestuous and blood-thirsty +monster, who had meant to cut out my tongue in order to make sure of my +silence, and who calmly contemplated adding fratricide to her other +crimes, had saved my life moved thereto only by base greed. +Nevertheless, I could not remain insensible to her appeal to Gallic +faith. I almost regretted the lie I had uttered, however excusable it +might be in view of the treachery that the Frankish warriors had +practiced towards me. At that critical moment I was, however, bound to +consider my own safety only. I jumped at Riowag, and after a violent +struggle in which Elwig did not venture to take a hand, out of fear that +she might wound her lover while seeking to strike me, I succeeded in +disarming the warrior.<a name="page_089" id="page_089"></a> Soon as that was done I threw myself into a +posture of defense with the sword in my hand and cried:</p> + +<p>"No, I have no treasure for you, Elwig, but if you fear to return to +your brother, follow me. Victoria will treat you kindly; you will not be +a prisoner; I give you my word; you may rely upon the faith of a Gaul."</p> + +<p>Both the priestess and Riowag refused to listen; breaking out into wild +imprecations they made a furious rush at me. In the tussle that ensued I +killed the black warrior at the moment when he sought to stab me with +his dagger, and I was wounded in the hand in the attempt to wrench the +knife from Elwig's grasp. I had just succeeded and thrown the weapon +into the water when, attracted by the noise of the struggle, Douarnek +and one of the soldiers leaped upon the shore to hasten to my help.</p> + +<p>"Schanvoch," Douarnek said quickly to me, "we did not follow your orders +and row back at sunset. We remained at our anchorage, resolved to wait +for you until morning. But thinking that you might issue at some other +spot than where you landed, we rowed up and down along the shore. When +we saw you this morning surrounded by those black devils, our first +impulse was to row straight to the bank and suffer death beside you. But +I recalled your orders, and we considered that for us to be killed was +to cut off your retreat. But here you are, hale and sound. Now take my +advice and let us return quickly to camp. These skinners of human bodies +are ill neighbors to dwell among."</p> + +<p>While Douarnek was speaking to me, Elwig threw herself upon the corpse +of Riowag and rent the air with roars of rage interspersed with sobs. +However detestable the creature<a name="page_090" id="page_090"></a> was, her paroxysm of grief touched my +heart. I was about to address her when Douarnek cried:</p> + +<p>"Schanvoch, look at the torches approaching yonder!"</p> + +<p>Saying this Douarnek pointed in the direction of the Frankish camp. +Luminous streaks were seen rapidly approaching through the dark.</p> + +<p>"Your flight has been discovered, Elwig," I said to her, and sought to +tear her from her lover's corpse, which she held clasped in a close +embrace and over which she moaned piteously. "Your brother has started +in your pursuit—you have not a minute to lose—come!—come!—or you are +lost!"</p> + +<p>"Schanvoch," Douarnek said to me as I vainly sought to drag away Elwig, +who seemed not to hear me and sobbed aloud, "the torches are carried by +armed horsemen! Listen to the clanging of their weapons! Listen to the +tramp of their horses! They cannot be further than six bow shots! I +beached the bark in order to reach you all the quicker! We shall have +barely time to put it afloat! Would you have us all killed? If that is +your purpose, say so, and we shall die like brave men; but if you mean +to flee, it is high time that you move!"</p> + +<p>"It is your brother! It is death that is approaching!" I once more cried +to Elwig, whom I could not bring myself to abandon without one more +effort to save her. After all, she did save my life. A minute later and +she would be lost.</p> + +<p>Seeing, however, that the priestess did not answer me, I cried to +Douarnek:</p> + +<p>"Give me a hand—let us take her away by force!"</p> + +<p>It was impossible to tear Elwig from the corpse of Riowag; she held it +in a convulsive embrace; the only alternative<a name="page_091" id="page_091"></a> left was to carry off +both bodies. We tried it, but soon gave up the attempt.</p> + +<p>In the meantime the Frankish horsemen were approaching so rapidly that +the light of their resinous torches projected itself as far as the +beach. It was too late to save Elwig. Our bark was with difficulty +pushed off; I took the rudder; Douarnek and the two remaining soldiers +bent vigorously to their oars.</p> + +<p>We were still within easy bowshot from the shore when, by the light of +the torches that the troops carried, we saw the first hurrying Frankish +horsemen ride up. At their head I recognized Neroweg, the Terrible +Eagle, distinguishable by his colossal stature. He was closely followed +by several other horsemen, all shouting with concentrated rage. Neroweg +drove his horse up to the animal's neck into the river. His companions +did the same, while they brandished their long lances with one hand and +with the other their torches, whose ruddy reflections lighted far the +waters of the river and fell upon our swiftly speeding bark.</p> + +<p>Seated near the rudder, my back was turned to the bank and I remarked +sadly to Douarnek:</p> + +<p>"The miserable creature is killed by this time."</p> + +<p>And propelled by the three vigorous oarsmen, our bark shot through the +water.</p> + +<p>"Is that a man, a woman, or a demon that is following us?" cried +Douarnek a moment later, dropping his oar and rising on his feet in +order to look at the track that our bark left behind, and that was +lighted by the glimmer of the distant torches that the Frankish horsemen +continued to brandish even after they gave up the pursuit.<a name="page_092" id="page_092"></a></p> + +<p>I also rose to my feet and looked in the same direction. A second later +I cried:</p> + +<p>"Stop! Do not row! It is she! It is Elwig! Douarnek, hand me an oar! I +shall reach it to her! She seems to be exhausted!"</p> + +<p>So said, so done. Fleeing from her brother and certain death, the +priestess had thrown herself into the water and must have swam after us +with extraordinary vigor. She seized the extremity of the oar with a +convulsive grasp; two strokes of the oars backed the bark to her; and +aided by one of the soldiers I was able to draw Elwig on board.</p> + +<p>"Blessed be the gods!" I cried. "I would always have reproached myself +for your death."</p> + +<p>The priestess made no answer; she let herself down on the bench of one +of the oarsmen, and shrinking into a heap with her face between her +knees, remained ominously silent. The oarsmen rowed vigorously on, and +from time to time I looked back at the receding river bank. The torches +of the Frankish horsemen glimmered fitfully, luminous spots through the +haze of the night and the vapors that rose from the river. The end of +our passage drew near; we began to distinguish the lights of our own +encampment on the opposite bank. Several times I addressed Elwig, but +received no answer. I threw over her shoulders and her clothes, wet with +the chilly waters of the Rhine, the thick night cloak of one of the +soldiers. In doing this I touched one of her arms; it was feverishly +warm. A stranger to all that happened in the bark, the woman did not +emerge from her savage silence. As I jumped ashore I said to Neroweg's +sister:</p> + +<p>"I shall take you to-morrow to Victoria. Until then I<a name="page_093" id="page_093"></a> tender you the +hospitality of my house. My wife and her sister will treat you like a +friend."</p> + +<p>She made me a sign to lead the way, and she followed. Douarnek then +approached me and said in a low voice:</p> + +<p>"If you take my advice, Schanvoch, after the she-devil, who I know not +for what reason swam after you, has dried and warmed herself at your +hearth, you will lock her up safely until morning. She might otherwise +strangle your wife and child during the night. There is nothing more +wily and ferocious than these Frankish women."</p> + +<p>"It will be a wise precaution to take," I answered Douarnek.</p> + +<p>And accompanied by Elwig, who, somber and silent, followed me like a +specter, I proceeded homeward.<a name="page_094" id="page_094"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VIIa" id="CHAPTER_VIIa"></a>CHAPTER VII.<br /><br /> +SHADOWS ACROSS THE PATH.</h3> + +<p>The night was far advanced. I had reached within a few steps from my +house when I saw through the dark a man crouching on the sill of one of +the windows. He seemed to be peeping through the shutters. I gave a +start. It was the window of my wife's room.</p> + +<p>I seized Elwig's arm and said to her in a low voice:</p> + +<p>"Do not budge—wait—"</p> + +<p>She stopped and stood motionless. Controlling my emotion I advanced +cautiously, seeking to avoid making the sand crunch under my feet. I +failed. My steps were heard; the man jumped down from the window sill +and fled. I rushed after him. Thinking that I meant to leave her in the +lurch, Elwig ran after me, overtook me and seized me by the arm, crying +with terror:</p> + +<p>"If I am found alone in the Gallic camp I shall be killed!"</p> + +<p>Despite all I could do, I could not disengage myself of Elwig's hold +until after the man had vanished from sight. He had too long a lead and +the night was too dark for me to endeavor to catch him. Surprised and +uneasy at the incident, I retraced my steps, and knocked at the door of +my house.</p> + +<p>I could hear from within the voices of my wife and her sister, who +seemed uneasy at my prolonged absence. Although<a name="page_095" id="page_095"></a> they knew not that I +had gone to the Frankish camp, they had not yet retired.</p> + +<p>"It is I!" I cried to them. "It is I, Schanvoch!"</p> + +<p>The door was no sooner opened than my wife, seeing me by the light that +Sampso held in her hand, threw herself into my arms, saying in a tone of +sweet and tender reproach:</p> + +<p>"At last you are back! We began to feel alarmed about you, seeing you +were gone since early morning."</p> + +<p>"And we, who counted upon you for our little feast," put in Sampso; "but +I suppose you met with old comrades in arms, and time passed quickly in +their company."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I suppose the conversation was strung out over battles," added +Ellen still hanging on my neck, "and my dear Schanvoch forgot his wife, +just a little—"</p> + +<p>Ellen was interrupted by a cry from Sampso. She did not at first notice +Elwig, who had remained in shadow near the door. At the sight, however, +of the savage creature—pale, sinister and motionless—my wife's sister +could not repress her surprise and involuntary fear. Ellen quickly +stepped back, noticed the presence of the priestess, and gazing at me as +much surprised as her sister, said:</p> + +<p>"Schanvoch, who is that woman?"</p> + +<p>"Why, sister," cried Sampso forgetting the presence of Elwig and looking +at me more closely, "look, the sleeves of Schanvoch's blouse are red +with blood—he is wounded!"</p> + +<p>My wife grew pale, stepped quickly back to me and anxiously scanned my +face.</p> + +<p>"Calm yourself," I answered; "my wounds are slight. I concealed from you +both the mission on which I was bound. I went to the camp of the Franks, +our savage foes. I carried a message from Victoria."<a name="page_096" id="page_096"></a></p> + +<p>"To the camp of the Franks!" Ellen and Sampso cried terrified. "That +meant death!"</p> + +<p>"And this is the being who saved my life," I said to my wife, pointing +at Elwig, who stood motionless at the door. "I must bespeak the +attention of you both in her behalf until to-morrow."</p> + +<p>When they learned that I owed my life to the Frankish woman my wife and +her sister hastened toward Elwig, moved by a simultaneous impulse of +gratitude; but they almost immediately stopped short, intimidated and +even frightened by the sinister and impassive countenance of Elwig, the +priestess, who seemed not to see them, and whose mind probably hovered +over scenes far away.</p> + +<p>"Give her some dry clothes, those that she has on are wet," I said to my +wife and her sister. "She does not understand Gallic; your thanks will +be lost upon her."</p> + +<p>"Had she not saved your life," Ellen said to me, "I would think the +woman's face looks somber and threatening."</p> + +<p>"She is a savage like the rest of her people. Get her some dry clothes, +and I shall take her to the little side room, where I shall lock her up +as a matter of precaution."</p> + +<p>Sampso went into a contiguous room to fetch a tunic and mantle for +Elwig, while I said to my wife:</p> + +<p>"Did you hear any noise at the window of your room to-night, shortly +before I came in?"</p> + +<p>"None whatever—neither did Sampso; she did not leave me since evening; +we both felt uneasy at your absence. But why do you ask?"</p> + +<p>I did not then answer my wife, seeing that Sampso at that moment +returned with the clothes that she had gone after. I took them, passed +them over to Elwig and said to her:<a name="page_097" id="page_097"></a></p> + +<p>"My wife and her sister offer you these clothes. Yours are wet. Is there +anything else that you wish? Are you hungry, or thirsty? What would you +have?"</p> + +<p>"I want solitude," was Elwig's answer, rejecting the proffered clothes +with a gesture; "I want the black night. Only that will suit me at +present."</p> + +<p>"Very well—follow me," I said to her.</p> + +<p>Leading the way, I opened the door of a little chamber, and raising the +lamp in order to light its interior, I said to the priestess:</p> + +<p>"You see yonder couch—rest yourself, and may the gods render peaceful +to you the night that you are to pass under my roof."</p> + +<p>Elwig made no answer; she threw herself upon the couch and covered her +face with her hands.</p> + +<p>"And now," I said to my wife as I closed and locked the door, "these +duties of hospitality being attended to, I burn with the desire to +embrace my little Alguen."</p> + +<p>I found you, my child, sleeping peacefully in your cradle. I covered you +with kisses, that were all the sweeter to me seeing I had that very day +feared never to see you again. Your mother and her sister examined and +bandaged my wounds. They were slight.</p> + +<p>While Ellen and Sampso were attending to me, I spoke to them of the man +whom I had caught sight of on the window sill, and who seemed to be +peeping through the shutters. They were greatly astonished at my words; +they had heard no sound; they had been together since evening. While +talking over the matter, Ellen said to me:</p> + +<p>"Did you hear the news?"</p> + +<p>"No."<a name="page_098" id="page_098"></a></p> + +<p>"Tetrik, the Governor of Gascony and relative of Victoria, arrived this +evening. The Mother of the Camps rode out on horseback to meet him. We +saw him go by."</p> + +<p>"And did Victorin accompany his mother?"</p> + +<p>"He rode beside her. That must be the reason that we did not see him +during the day."</p> + +<p>The arrival of Tetrik gave me food for reflection.</p> + +<p>Sampso left me alone with Ellen. It was late. Early the next morning I +was to report to Victoria and her son the result of my mission to the +camp of the Franks.<a name="page_099" id="page_099"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VIIIa" id="CHAPTER_VIIIa"></a>CHAPTER VIII.<br /><br /> +CAPTAIN MARION.</h3> + +<p>Early in the morning I repaired to Victoria's residence. The humble +house of the Mother of the Camps was reached through a long narrow path, +skirted on either side by high ramparts that constituted the outer +fortifications of one of the gates of Mayence. I was about twenty paces +from the house when I heard behind me the following cries uttered in +terror:</p> + +<p>"Save yourself! Save yourself!"</p> + +<p>Looking back, I saw with no little fright a two-wheeled cart dashing +rapidly towards me. The cart was drawn by two horses whose driver had +lost control over them.</p> + +<p>I could jump off neither to the right nor the left of the narrow path to +let the cart pass; its wheels almost grazed the opposite walls; I was +still too far from Victoria's residence to hope for escape in that +direction; however swiftly I might run, I would be overtaken by the +horses and trampled under their hoofs long before I could have reached +the door. There was nothing left for me to do but to face the runaways, +and, however hopeless the prospect, to seize them by the bit and attempt +to stop them. Accordingly, I rushed forward upon the animals with my +hands raised. Oh! A prodigy! Hardly did I touch the horses' reins when +they suddenly reared upon their haunches. It was almost as if my mere<a name="page_100" id="page_100"></a> +gesture had sufficed to check their impetuous course. Happy at having +escaped what seemed certain death, but aware that I was not a magician, +endowed with the power to arrest a runaway team with a mere motion of my +hand, I asked myself while leaping back what the cause might be of the +extraordinary spectacle. I noticed that the horses still made violent +efforts to proceed on their career; they reared, tugged forward and +stretched out their necks, but were unable to advance, as if the cart's +wheels were locked, or some superior power restrained them.</p> + +<p>My curiosity stirred to a high pitch, I drew near, and gliding between +the horses and the wall, succeeded in climbing over the dashboard of the +cart whose driver I found crouching under the seat, looking more dead +than alive. As the mystery seemed to deepen, my curiosity was pricked +still more. I ran to the rear of the vehicle and noticed with no slight +amazement that a large sized man, robust as a Hercules, was clinging to +two ornamental pieces that projected from the rear of the cart. It was +thanks to his weight, and to the superhuman resistance that his great +strength enabled him to offer, that the team was held back.</p> + +<p>"Captain Marion!" I cried. "I should have known as much! There is none +other in the whole Gallic army able to hold back a cart going at full +speed."</p> + +<p>"Tell that fool of a driver to pull in the reins. My wrists begin to +tire."</p> + +<p>I was transmitting the orders to the driver who was beginning to recover +his senses, when I saw several soldiers, on guard at Victoria's +dwelling, pour out of the house attracted by the noise. They opened the +yard gate and thus offered a safe exit to the cart.<a name="page_101" id="page_101"></a></p> + +<p>"There is no longer any danger," I said to the driver; "lead your horses +on. But whom does this conveyance belong to?"</p> + +<p>"To Tetrik, the Governor of Gascony, who arrived yesterday at Mayence. +He stops at Victoria's house," answered the driver, while calming down +his horses.</p> + +<p>While the cart proceeded into the yard of Victoria's residence, I walked +back towards the captain to thank him for his timely aid.</p> + +<p>Marion had left his blacksmith's anvil for the army many years previous. +He was well known and generally beloved among the soldiers, as much for +his heroic courage and extraordinary strength, as for his exceptional +good judgment, his sound reasoning powers, the austerity of his morals, +and his extreme good fellowship. He now stood on the road, and with his +casque in his hand wiped the sweat off his brow. He wore a cuirass of +steel scales over his Gallic blouse, and a long sword at his side. His +dusty boots told of a recent and long ride on horseback. His large +sunburnt face, partly covered by a thick beard that began to be streaked +with grey, was open and pleasing.</p> + +<p>"Captain Marion," I said to him, "I must thank you for having saved me +from being ground under the wheels of that cart."</p> + +<p>"I did not know it was you who ran the risk of being trampled under the +hoofs of those horses like a dog! A stupid sort of a death for a brave +soldier like you, Schanvoch! But when I heard that devil of a driver +crying: 'Save yourself!' I surmised he was about to kill somebody and I +tried to hold the cart back. Fortunately my mother endowed me<a name="page_102" id="page_102"></a> with a +good pair of wrists. But where is my dear friend Eustace?" added the +captain looking around.</p> + +<p>"Whom do you refer to?"</p> + +<p>"To a brave fellow, the old companion of my blacksmith days. Like me, he +left the hammer for the lance. The fortune of war served me better than +it did him. Despite his bravery, my friend Eustace has remained a simple +horseman, while I have been promoted to captain. But there he is, +yonder, with his arms crossed, and motionless as a signpost. Ho! +Eustace! Eustace!"</p> + +<p>At the call, the companion of Captain Marion approached slowly, with his +arms crossed over his breast. He was a man of middle size and vigorous +frame. His pale blonde hair and beard, his bilious complexion, his harsh +and sullen physiognomy offered a striking contrast to the pleasant +exterior of the captain. I asked myself what singular affinity could +draw two men of such different appearance, and doubtless also such +dissimilar characters, into close and constant friendship.</p> + +<p>"How is that, friend Eustace," the captain jokingly remarked to him, +"you remain yonder looking at me with crossed arms, while I am engaged +in holding back a runaway team?"</p> + +<p>"You are strong," Eustace answered; "what aid can the flesh-worm bring +to the bull?"</p> + +<p>"That man is certainly consumed with jealousy and hatred," I thought to +myself at hearing the answer and observing the sullen looks of the +captain's friend.</p> + +<p>"There is no flesh-worm nor bull in the case, my friend Eustace," +answered the captain with his habitual joviality and looking rather +flattered by the comparison; "but when<a name="page_103" id="page_103"></a> the flesh-worm and the bull are +comrades, then, however strong the latter may be, or small the former, +the one does not forsake the other—union makes strength, says the +proverb."</p> + +<p>"Captain," answered the soldier with a bitter smile, "did I ever forsake +you in the hour of danger? Have I not always fought at your side, since +we left the forge together?"</p> + +<p>"I bear witness to the truth of that," cried Marion cordially, taking +Eustace by the hand. "As true as the sword you carry is the last weapon +I forged in order to give you a token of friendship, as it is engraved +on the blade, you have ever in battle 'marched in my shadow,' as the +saying goes in my country."</p> + +<p>"What is there strange about that?" replied the soldier. "Beside you, so +brave and robust, I was what the shadow is to the body."</p> + +<p>"By the devil! Look at the shadow! My friend Eustace!" the captain +exclaimed and laughed, and addressing me he added pointing at his +companion Eustace:</p> + +<p>"Let me have two or three thousand shadows like that, and the first +battle that we fight on the other side of the Rhine, I shall bring back +a herd of Frankish prisoners."</p> + +<p>"You are a captain of renown! I, like so many other poor waifs, are good +only to obey, to fight and to be killed. We are only meat for battles," +replied the old blacksmith with an envious look and his lips slightly +losing their color.</p> + +<p>"Captain," I said to Marion, "I presume you wish to see Victorin and his +mother?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I have a report to render to Victorin of a journey that my friend +and I have just made."</p> + +<p>"I followed you as a soldier," Eustace said; "the name of<a name="page_104" id="page_104"></a> an obscure +horseman must not be remembered before Victoria the Great."</p> + +<p>The captain shrugged his shoulders with impatience and jokingly shook +his enormous fist at his friend.</p> + +<p>"Captain," I insisted, addressing Marion, "let us hasten to Victoria. I +should have been with her since dawn. I am late."</p> + +<p>"Friend Eustace," Marion said, starting to walk with me toward +Victoria's residence, "will you stay here, or wait for me at our +lodging?"</p> + +<p>"I shall wait here at the door—that is a subaltern's place."</p> + +<p>"Would you believe it, Schanvoch," Marion replied laughing, "would you +believe that it is nearly twenty years that lad and I live together and +quarrel like two brothers? He will not forget that I am a captain, and +will not treat me as a simple anvil-beater, as he formerly used to."</p> + +<p>"I am not the only one, Marion, to realize the difference there is +between us," Eustace answered. "You are one of the most renowned +captains in the army—I am only one of the least of its soldiers."</p> + +<p>Saying this Eustace sat down on a stone near the door, and bit his +nails.</p> + +<p>"He is incorrigible," the captain remarked to me; and we two entered the +house of Victoria.</p> + +<p>"Captain Marion must be strangely blinded by friendship," I thought to +myself, "to fail to perceive that his companion is consumed with +malevolent jealousy."</p> + +<p>The residence of the Mother of the Camps was extremely simple. Captain +Marion having asked one of the soldiers on guard whether Victorin could +receive him, the soldier answered that he could give him no information +on that head,<a name="page_105" id="page_105"></a> seeing that the young general had not spent the night in +the house.</p> + +<p>Despite the camp life, Marion preserved great austerity of morals. He +seemed shocked to learn that Victorin had not yet returned home, and he +cast a dissatisfied look at me. I wished to excuse Victoria's son, and +said to him:</p> + +<p>"Let us not be hasty in believing evil. Tetrik, the Governor of Gascony, +arrived yesterday at the camp. It may be that Victorin spent the night +in conference with him."</p> + +<p>"So much the better. I would like to see that young man, who to-day is +chief of the Gauls, free himself from the claws of that pest of +profligacy that drives so many of us to evil deeds. As to myself, the +moment I see a woman's bonnet or a short skirt, I turn my head away as +if I saw the devil in person."</p> + +<p>"Victorin improves, and he will improve still more with ripening years," +I replied to the captain. "But what can we do—he is young—he loves +pleasure—and pretty girls."</p> + +<p>"I also love pleasure, and furiously, too!" exclaimed the good captain. +"There is nothing that I delight more in, when my duties are done, than +to enter my lodging and empty a pot of cool beer with my friend Eustace, +while we chat over our old trade, or entertain ourselves furbishing our +weapons and good armor. Those are real pleasures! And notwithstanding +all the excitement that one finds in them, they are absolutely +honorable. Let us hope, Schanvoch, that Victorin may some day prefer +them to his immodest and diabolical orgies with the pretty girls, that +scandalize us."</p> + +<p>"I am of your opinion, captain; hope is better than despair. But in the +absence of Victorin you may confer with his mother. I shall notify her +of your arrival."<a name="page_106" id="page_106"></a></p> + +<p>Saying this I left Marion alone, and passing into a neighboring +apartment, encountered a serving-girl who led me to Victoria, the Mother +of the Camps, my foster-sister.<a name="page_107" id="page_107"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IXa" id="CHAPTER_IXa"></a>CHAPTER IX.<br /><br /> +VICTORIA THE GREAT.</h3> + +<p>I wish, my son, for your benefit and the benefit of our descendants, to +trace here the portrait of that illustrious Gallic woman, one of the +purest glories of our country.</p> + +<p>I found Victoria seated beside the cradle of her grandson Victorinin, a +handsome boy of two who lay profoundly asleep. Victoria had some +needlework in her hands, and was busy sewing, agreeable to her custom as +a good housekeeper. She was then, like myself, thirty-eight years of +age, but she would have been hardly taken for thirty. In her youth she +was appropriately compared to Diana, the huntress. In her mature years +she was no less appropriately compared to the antique Minerva. Tall, +well built, and virile, without thereby forfeiting the chaste graces of +womanhood, she was magnificently shaped. Her beautiful face, instinct +with a grave yet gentle expression, bore the impress of majesty under +the crown of black hair which she wore in two braids coiled over her +august forehead. Sent when still a little girl to a college of our +venerated female druids, and having taken at the age of fifteen the +mysterious vows that bound her indissolubly to the sacred religion of +our fathers, she ever since, and although married, preserved the black +garb of the female druids, which was also the habitual garb of the +matrons of old Gaul. Her long wide sleeves, open up to the elbows, +exposed<a name="page_108" id="page_108"></a> a pair of arms as white and as strong as those of the valiant +Gallic women, who, as you will see in our family narratives, my son, +heroically fought the Romans at the battle of Vannes under the eyes of +our grandmother Margarid, and preferred death to the disgraces of +slavery.</p> + +<p>In the middle of the chamber, and not far from the seat occupied by the +Mother of the Camps near her grandson's cradle, several rolls of +parchment, together with all that was necessary for writing, lay upon a +table. From the wall hung the two casques and swords of Victoria's +father and husband, both killed in the same battle. One of the two +casques was surmounted by the Gallic cock of gilt bronze, with his wings +partly spread, and holding under his feet a lark that he menaced with +his beak. The emblem was adopted by Victoria's father as a military +ornament after a heroic combat in which, at the head of only a handful +of men, he exterminated a Roman legion that bore a lark on its ensign. +Under the weapons stood a little brass vase in which seven twigs of +mistletoe were arranged. Gaul, you must remember, my son, reconquered +her religious liberty in recovering her independence. Close to the brass +vase and the twigs of mistletoe, a druid symbol, was a wooden cross, in +commemoration of the death of Jesus of Nazareth, for whom the Mother of +the Camps, without being a Christian, professed profound admiration. She +looked upon him as one of the sages who shed luster upon humanity.</p> + +<p>Such, my son, was Victoria the Great, the illustrious Gallic woman whose +name our descendants will ever pronounce with pride.</p> + +<p>When the Mother of the Camps saw me come in, she rose<a name="page_109" id="page_109"></a> quickly and +approached me with gladness, saying in her sonorous and sweet voice:</p> + +<p>"Welcome, brother! The mission was a dangerous one. Not seeing you back +before sunset, I did not wish to send any message to your house, lest I +alarm your wife by showing uneasiness at your prolonged absence. But +here you are; I feel happy to see you back again."</p> + +<p>Saying this Victoria pressed my hand tenderly in hers.</p> + +<p>The words that we spoke must have disturbed the slumber of Victoria's +grandson; he moved in his cradle and made a slight sound. Victoria +stepped quickly to him, and kissed the child on the forehead. She then +sat down, and placing the tip of her foot on a treadle below the cradle, +rocked it gently, while she continued her conversation with me.</p> + +<p>"And the message?" she asked, "how did the barbarians receive it? Are +they ready for peace? Do they want war? Did they accept our +proposition?"</p> + +<p>I was just about to begin giving my foster-sister a complete account of +my mission, when she interrupted me with a gesture, and, reflecting a +second, proceeded to say:</p> + +<p>"Do you know that my dear relative Tetrik has been here since +yesterday?"</p> + +<p>"I know it, sister."</p> + +<p>"He is due here any moment. I prefer that you make the report to me +before him only."</p> + +<p>"I shall do so. Can you receive Captain Marion? He came for a conference +with Victorin."</p> + +<p>"Schanvoch, my son again spent the night out of the house!" remarked +Victoria plying her needle more quickly, an action that, with her, +always denoted deep annoyance.</p> + +<p>"Having heard of your relative's arrival, I surmised that,<a name="page_110" id="page_110"></a> possibly, +grave questions kept Victorin closeted with Tetrik during the night. +That is the theory I threw out to Captain Marion, and told him that +perhaps you would be ready to hear the report he has for your son."</p> + +<p>Victoria remained silent for a moment; she then dropped her needlework +on her lap, raised her head and resumed in a tone of suppressed grief:</p> + +<p>"Victorin has vices—his vices are smothering his good parts. Moths +destroy the best of grain."</p> + +<p>"Have confidence and hope—age will mature him."</p> + +<p>"During the last two years his vices grow upon him, his good parts +decline."</p> + +<p>"His bravery, his generosity, his frankness have not degenerated."</p> + +<p>"His bravery no longer is the calm and provident bravery that becomes a +general—it is becoming blind—headless. His generosity no longer +distinguishes between the worthy and the unworthy. His reasoning powers +decline—wine and debauchery are killing him. By Hesus! A drunkard and a +debauché! He, my son! One of the chiefs of Gaul, free to-day and, +perhaps, to-morrow, matchless among nations. Schanvoch, I am an +unfortunate mother!"</p> + +<p>"Victorin loves me—I shall reprove him severely."</p> + +<p>"Do you imagine that your remonstrances will accomplish what the prayers +of his own mother have failed to do? Of the mother who never left his +side all his life, following him with the army, often even into battle? +Schanvoch, Hesus punishes me—I have been too proud of my son!"</p> + +<p>"And what mother would not have been proud of him the day when a whole +valiant army, of its own free choice, acclaimed<a name="page_111" id="page_111"></a> as its chief the +general of twenty years of age, behind whom they saw—you, his mother!"</p> + +<p>"What does it matter, if he dishonors me! And yet, my only ambition was +to make of my son a citizen, a man worthy of our fathers! Did I not, +when nourishing him with my milk, also nourish him with an ardent and +holy love for our Gaul that was coming to life again—and to freedom! +What was it that I asked; what was it that I always desired? To live an +obscure life and ignored, but devote my night-watches and my days, my +intelligence, my knowledge of the past, which enables me to understand +the present, and at times to peer into the future—in short, to devote +all the energies of my soul and of my mind to rendering my son brave, +wise, enlightened, worthy at all points of guiding the free men who +chose him their chief. And then, Hesus is my witness, proud as a Gallic +woman, happy as a mother of having given birth to such a man, I would +have enjoyed his glory and my country's prosperity in the seclusion of +my humble home. But to have a drunkard and debauché for a son! Oh, wrath +of heaven! Does not the giddy-headed boy understand that every excess +that he indulges in is a slap that he gives his mother in the face? If +he does not understand it, our soldiers do. Yesterday, as I crossed the +camp, three old horsemen rode towards me. Do you know what they said to +me? 'Mother, we pity you!'—and they rode off dejectedly. Schanvoch, I +tell you, I am an unhappy mother!"</p> + +<p>"Listen to me. For some time since, our soldiers have been growing +dissatisfied with Victorin. I admit it, I understand it. The warrior +whom free men have chosen for their chief must be above excesses, and +must even be able to<a name="page_112" id="page_112"></a> control the impulses of his age. That is true, +sister; and have I not often chided your son in your presence?"</p> + +<p>"You have."</p> + +<p>"Well, at this moment I take up his defense. These soldiers, whom we see +to-day so full of scruples on the score of slips that are frequent with +young chiefs, act, not so much in obedience to their own scruples, as in +obedience to perfidious incitements that emanate from some secret +enemy."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"There are people who envy your son; they envy his influence over the +troops. In order to undo him, his defects are being exploited so as to +furnish a foundation for infamous calumnies."</p> + +<p>"Who is jealous of Victorin? Who would have an interest in spreading +such calumnies?"</p> + +<p>"It is especially during the last month, not so, that this hostility to +your son has manifested itself and has been on the increase?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes; but whom do you suspect of inciting it?"</p> + +<p>"Sister, what I am about to tell you is serious. It is a month ago that +one of your relatives, the Governor of Gascony, came to Mayence—"</p> + +<p>"Tetrik!"</p> + +<p>"Yes; he departed after a stay of a few days! Almost immediately after +Tetrik's departure the silent hostility towards your son began, and has +since steadily grown!"</p> + +<p>Victoria looked at me in silence, as if she did not quite grasp the +bearing of my words. But a sudden thought seeming to flash through her +mind, she cried in a tone of reproach:</p> + +<p>"What! You suspect Tetrik! My own relative and best<a name="page_113" id="page_113"></a> friend, the wisest +of men, one of the most enlightened citizens of our age, a man who seeks +his delight in letters and displays no mean poetic talents! One of the +most useful men in the defense of Gaul, although he is not a man of war! +Tetrik, who in his government of Gascony repairs by dint of wisdom the +evils that civil war inflicted upon the province! Oh, brother, I +expected better things from your loyal heart and your good sense!"</p> + +<p>"I suspect that man!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, you iron-headed, inflexible nature! Why should you suspect Tetrik? +By what right? What has he done? By Hesus! If you were not my +brother—if I did not know your heart—I would think you are jealous of +my esteem for my relative!"</p> + +<p>Victoria had barely uttered these last words, when she seemed to regret +having allowed them to escape her. She said:</p> + +<p>"Forget these words!"</p> + +<p>"They would greatly grieve me, sister, if the unjust doubt that they +express could blind you to the truth."</p> + +<p>At this moment the servant entered and asked whether Tetrik could be +admitted.</p> + +<p>"Let him in," answered Victoria, "let him in immediately."</p> + +<p>Tetrik stepped into the room.<a name="page_114" id="page_114"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_Xa" id="CHAPTER_Xa"></a>CHAPTER X.<br /><br /> +TETRIK.</h3> + +<p>The personage who now entered the apartment was an undersized man of +middle age. His face was refined and gentle; an affable smile played +permanently around his lips. In short, his exterior bespoke so fully the +man of honor that, seeing him enter, Victoria could not refrain from +casting at me a look that still seemed to reproach me for my suspicions.</p> + +<p>Tetrik walked straight to Victoria, kissed her on the forehead with +paternal familiarity and said:</p> + +<p>"Greeting to you, Victoria!"</p> + +<p>And approaching the cradle in which the grandson of the Mother of the +Camps still slept, the Governor of Gascony contemplated the child with +tenderness, and added, in a low voice, as if afraid to awaken him:</p> + +<p>"Sleep, poor little one! You are smiling in your infantine dreams, and +you know not that, perhaps, the future of our beloved Gaul may rest upon +your head. Sleep, little fellow, predestined, no doubt, to carry out the +task that your glorious father has undertaken! A noble task that will +engage his efforts for many long years under the inspiration of your +august grandmother! Sleep, poor little one," Tetrik added, with eyes +dimmed with tears of tenderness, "the gods that are propitious to Gaul +will watch over you—you will grow up for the welfare of your country!"</p> + +<p>While her relative wiped his moist eyes, Victoria again<a name="page_115" id="page_115"></a> interrogated me +with her looks, as if asking me whether such was the language and the +physiognomy of a traitor, of a cowardly hypocrite, of a man who was a +perfidious enemy of the child's father.</p> + +<p>Turning then to me, Tetrik said affectionately:</p> + +<p>"Greeting to the best, the most faithful friend of the woman whom I most +love and venerate in the world; greeting to Victoria's foster-brother."</p> + +<p>"Your speech is true. I am the obscurest but also the most devoted +friend of Victoria," I answered looking fixedly at Tetrik, "and it is +the duty of a friend to unmask scamps and traitors."</p> + +<p>"I am of your opinion, friend Schanvoch," Tetrik answered with +simplicity. "A friend's first duty is to unmask scamps and traitors. I +fear the roaring lion with its jaws wide open less than the serpent that +creeps in the dark."</p> + +<p>"Now, then, I, Schanvoch, have this to say to you, Tetrik. You are one +of the dangerous reptile that you have just mentioned. I consider you a +traitor! And I purpose to unmask your treason!"</p> + +<p>"Schanvoch!" cried Victoria interrupting me in a reproachful tone.</p> + +<p>"I perceive that the old Gallic love for raillery, one of our +franchises, has returned with our gods and our freedom," replied the +governor smiling.</p> + +<p>And turning to Victoria he added:</p> + +<p>"Our friend Schanvoch possesses the art of dry humor—the most amusing +of all—"</p> + +<p>"My brother speaks seriously and out of an honorable impulse," the +Mother of the Camps broke in saying. "And I<a name="page_116" id="page_116"></a> grieve thereat, since I +know that he is mistaken; but he is sincere in his error—"</p> + +<p>Tetrik let his eyes wander alternately from Victoria to me with no +little amazement; for a moment he was silent; thereupon he said in a +serious and penetrating voice:</p> + +<p>"All faithful friends are quick to suspect. Good Schanvoch, your +distrust is inexplicable to me; but it must have its reason. The attack +was frank, frank shall be the answer. Let us settle the question. What +is your charge against me?"</p> + +<p>"About a month ago you came to Mayence. A man of your retinue, your +secretary, Morix by name and well supplied with money, gave the soldiers +to drink and at the same time endeavored to irritate them against +Victorin, saying to them that it was disgraceful that their general, one +of the two chiefs of regenerated Gaul, should be a drunkard and a +profligate. Did your secretary hold such language, yes or no? I wait for +your answer."</p> + +<p>"Proceed, friend Schanvoch, proceed—"</p> + +<p>"Your secretary told a story that, being subsequently spread through the +camp, has greatly irritated the soldiers against Victorin. This was the +story: A few months ago, Victorin and several officers went to a tavern +on one of the isles in the Rhine; after having drunk copiously, +Victorin, excited by the wine, violated the innkeeper's wife, and she +thereupon killed herself in despair—"</p> + +<p>"Calumny!" cried Victoria. "I know and condemn my son's faults—but he +is incapable of such an infamous act!"</p> + +<p>The governor listened to me without betraying the slightest emotion. +Presently he said with a smile and his habitual placidity of +countenance:</p> + +<p>"So, then, good Schanvoch, it is your opinion that, obedient<a name="page_117" id="page_117"></a> to orders +received from me, my secretary spread unworthy calumnies in the camp?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. It is all done with your knowledge and consent."</p> + +<p>"And what could be my motive?"</p> + +<p>"You are ambitious—"</p> + +<p>"And in what manner could such calumnies subserve my ambition?"</p> + +<p>"If the dissatisfaction of the soldiers with Victorin, whom they +elected, continues, you would then use your influence with Victoria to +the end of inducing her to propose you to the soldiers as Victorin's +successor in the government of Gaul."</p> + +<p>"A mother! Did you stop to consider that, good Schanvoch?" Tetrik +answered looking at Victoria. "A mother sacrifice a son to a friend!"</p> + +<p>"In the greatness of her love for her country, Victoria would certainly +sacrifice her son to your elevation if the measure became necessary to +the welfare of Gaul. Am I mistaken, sister?"</p> + +<p>"No," Victoria answered me evidently grieved at my accusations against +her relative; "in that you say the truth, but as to the inferences that +you draw therefrom, I reject them."</p> + +<p>"And that heroic sacrifice, good Schanvoch," resumed the governor, +"Victoria is expected to make knowing that it was through my underground +calumnies that her son's reputation was blasted with the soldiers?"</p> + +<p>"My sister would not have been aware of your intrigues had I not +unmasked them. Besides, more than once did I hear her say, and justly +say, that in case peace was established, it would be better for the +country if its chief, instead of being ever prone to battle, gave +serious thought to the healing<a name="page_118" id="page_118"></a> of the wounds inflicted by the past +wars. She often mentioned you as one of the men who wisely prefer peace +to war."</p> + +<p>"It is true, I hold that the sword, good to destroy, is impotent to +reconstruct," remarked Victoria; "and the freedom of Gaul once firmly +established, I would prefer to see my son give more thought to peace +than to war. It was, therefore, Schanvoch, that I commissioned you with +one last attempt with the Franks, looking to the restoration of peace."</p> + +<p>"Allow that I interrupt you, Victoria," put in Tetrik, "and that I ask +our friend Schanvoch whether he has any other charges against me."</p> + +<p>"I charge you with being either the secret agent of the Roman Emperor +Galien, or the agent of the chief of the new creed, Roman Catholicism."</p> + +<p>"I!" cried the governor. "I the agent of the Christians!"</p> + +<p>"I said the agent of the chief of the new creed. I refer to the Bishop +of Rome, who entitles himself 'Sovereign Pontiff.'"</p> + +<p>"I the agent of Etienne, the Bishop of Rome, and fourteenth Pope of the +new church?—of that Pope, of whom Firmilien, the Bishop of Caesarea, +wrote to Cyprian, the presiding officer of the Spanish council, composed +of twenty-eight bishops: 'Would one believe that that man (Pope Etienne) +had a soul in his body? Evidently his body is but ill conducted, and his +soul is in a disordered condition. Etienne does not stick at calling his +brother Cyprian a false Christ, a false apostle, a fraudulent artisan; +in order to forestall having these things said of himself, he has the +audacity to make the accusation against others.' And can I be the agent +of that ambitious pontiff! Of that simoniacal bishop, who is given over +to all manner of vices!"<a name="page_119" id="page_119"></a></p> + +<p>"Yes—unless that, deceiving at once both the Roman Emperor and the Pope +of Rome, you are serving both, ready to sacrifice the one or the other, +according as your ambition may require."</p> + +<p>"That I serve the Romans is a thing that I am ready to admit," Tetrik +answered with his unalterable placidity. "However unjust your suspicion +towards me, it may be understood, as an instance of extreme patriotism. +We are well aware that, although we have succeeded, by force of arms, to +reconquer during nearly three centuries, inch by inch the full freedom +once enjoyed by old Gaul, the Roman Emperors have seen with sorrow our +country slip from their dominion. Accordingly, I can understand, +Schanvoch, how you might accuse me of desiring to arrive at power in +Gaul, with the end in view of sooner or later restoring the country to +the Romans, although in doing so I would be betraying it most +infamously. But is it imaginable that I act in the interest of the Pope +of the Christians, of those unhappy people who are everywhere persecuted +and martyrized? It is not a sane thought! What could I do for them? What +could they do for me?"</p> + +<p>Schanvoch was about to answer. Victoria interrupted him with a gesture +and said to Tetrik while she pointed to the cross of black wood, the +emblem of the death of Jesus, that was placed near the brass vase with +the seven twigs of mistletoe, a druid symbol much in use among the +Gauls:</p> + +<p>"Look at that cross, Tetrik, it tells you that, without infidelity to +our own gods, I nevertheless venerate him who said that no man has the +right to oppress his fellows; that the guilty merit pity and +consolation, not contempt and severity; and that the irons of the slave +should be stricken off. Blessed<a name="page_120" id="page_120"></a> be these maxims, Tetrik; the wisest of +our druids have accepted them as holy; accordingly, you may judge how +dearly I love the gentle and pure morality of that young man of +Nazareth. But listen, Tetrik," Victoria added pensively, "there is +something unexplainable, strange and mysterious that makes me shudder. +Yes, many a time and oft, during my long watches beside the cradle of my +grandson, and when I pondered the present and the past, tormenting +thoughts crowded upon my mind concerning the future of our well-beloved +Gaul."</p> + +<p>"And whence does your terror proceed?" Tetrik asked. "What is its +cause?"</p> + +<p>"That for three successive centuries Rome was the implacable foe of +Gaul," Victoria answered; "that for so many centuries Rome was the +merciless scourge of the world!"</p> + +<p>"Rome?" replied the governor. "Pagan Rome?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. The tyranny that weighed down upon the world had its seat in +Rome," rejoined Victoria. "Now, then, I ask myself, by what strange +fatality have the bishops, the Popes of the new creed, who aspire to +reign over the universe by ruling the sovereigns of the world, been led +to establish the seat of their empire in Rome? Jesus of Nazareth branded +the high priests as liars and hypocrites. He preached above all, +humility, forgiveness, equality, fraternity among men, and lo! in his +apotheosized name, we now see a new hierarchy of high priests arising, +pretending to be the rulers of the world, and already, as Pope Etienne, +meriting the charges of ambition, deception and intolerance, even from +their fellow Christian bishops!"</p> + +<p>"Is it you, Victoria, who hold such language?" Tetrik interrupted her +saying: "You so wise, so enlightened—can<a name="page_121" id="page_121"></a> you fear the future of Gaul +to be endangered by those unhappy people who bear witness to their faith +by their martyrdom?"</p> + +<p>"Oh!" cried the Mother of the Camps with exaltation. "I love, I admire +those poor Christians who die in torture while proclaiming the equality +of man before God, the liberation of the slaves, the community of goods, +love and forgiveness for the guilty! I love, I admire those poor +Christians who die on the scaffold and proclaim in the name of Jesus: +'Those are monsters of iniquity who hold their brothers in bondage, who +leave them to suffer in cold and hunger, instead of sharing with them +their bread and their cloak.' Oh! pity and veneration for those heroic +martyrs! But I stand in dread of those people who call themselves the +chiefs, the Popes of the Christians. Yes, I stand in dread of those high +priests who have fixed upon Rome as the seat of their mysterious +empire!—in that city, the center of the most frightful tyranny that has +ever crushed down the human race! I fear for the future of Gaul from +that quarter."</p> + +<p>"Victoria," again Tetrik interrupted, saying: "You exaggerate the power +of those Christian pontiffs. Have not large numbers of them, persecuted +by the Roman Emperors, undergone martyrdom, like any other neophytes?"</p> + +<p>"Every battle has its dead, and the Popes struggle with the Emperors in +order to wrench from these the dominion over the world! Among those +bishops there have been many who have spoken and died like Jesus. But if +there are some worthy pontiffs among them, and they are few, the +domination of the priests is not, for that, any the less dread a +visitation upon the people. Has not the government of our own priests +been despotic and merciless? Did not the druids<a name="page_122" id="page_122"></a> leave the people for +over ten centuries steeped in crassest ignorance, governing them with +the instruments of barbarism—superstition and terror? Did not those +days of oppression and debasement last until the glorious and prosperous +epoch when, merged in the body of the nation as citizens, fathers and +soldiers, our druids took part in the common life of the people, in the +joys of the family, and in the national wars against the foreigner? What +I apprehend for the future of the nations is that some day there may be +established in Rome a murky alliance between the Pope and the most +powerful Emperors and Kings of the world! Unhappy will that day be for +the peoples! From such an alliance a frightful political and religious +tyranny will be born, and it will be watered with the blood of fresh +martyrs! Woe, then, to the peoples! They will once more be made to bend +under a pitiless theocratic yoke!"</p> + +<p>As she uttered these words, Victoria seemed inspired by the prophetic +genius of the female druids of olden times. Tetrik listened to her in +silence, but instead of answering, he resumed with a smile:</p> + +<p>"See how far we have wandered from the charges that our friend Schanvoch +has preferred against me—and yet, Victoria, your words, regarding the +apprehension that the Christian high priests, as you style them, fill +you with for the future, in a manner bring us back to the charges. So, +then, Schanvoch, the purpose of the perfidies that you charge me with is +to arrive at power in Gaul, to the end of betraying the country to pagan +or to Catholic Rome?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, that is my opinion."</p> + +<p>"Schanvoch, I shall not need many words for my defense. One of my +secretaries did seek to arouse the hostility of our<a name="page_123" id="page_123"></a> soldiers against +Victorin. Your revelation comes rather late—"</p> + +<p>"I learned the facts only yesterday."</p> + +<p>"That is of no consequence," he replied, "that secretary was dismissed +by me just because I learned that, irritated at Victorin for having +railed at him several times, he sought to revenge himself by spreading +against the general calumnies that were even more ridiculous and odious. +But let us drop these petty matters. I am ambitious, you say, friend +Schanvoch! I aim at the government of Gaul, even if, in order to +accomplish my purpose, I should have to resort to unworthy intrigues! +Now, ask Victoria what errand brings me back to Mayence."</p> + +<p>"Tetrik believes that the peace and prosperity of Gaul require that the +soldiers be induced to proclaim my son's son the heir of his father's +office. Tetrik believes he can count upon the consent of Emperor +Galien."</p> + +<p>"Tetrik must, then, anticipate the speedy death of Victorin," I answered +looking fixedly at the governor.</p> + +<p>He, however, whose eyes were rarely met, seeing he kept them habitually +lowered, answered:</p> + +<p>"The Franks are on the other side of the Rhine—and Victorin is of +temerarious bravery. My ardent wish is that he may live many more years; +but death has no respect even for the most valuable life. It is my +opinion that Gaul would find a pledge of security for the future if it +knew that after Victorin the power would remain with the son of him whom +the army acclaimed its chief, especially seeing that the child would +have for his instructress Victoria, the Mother of the Camps."</p> + +<p>"But in case Victoria were to die, who tells me, Tetrik,<a name="page_124" id="page_124"></a> that you would +not have yourself appointed the child's tutor, exercise the power in his +name, and in that manner arrive at the government of Gaul?"</p> + +<p>"Are you speaking seriously, Schanvoch?" Tetrik replied. "Ask Victoria +whether she needs my help in order to render her grandson worthy of her +and of the country? Do you imagine she is one of those weak women who +feel forced to share a glorious task with others? Is not the idolatry +that the soldiers entertain for her a sufficient guarantee that, in the +event of Victorin's premature death, she could preserve alone the +wardship of her grandson and govern in his name?"</p> + +<p>Victoria shook her head thoughtfully and sadly, and said:</p> + +<p>"I do not like your project of transmitting the office by inheritance, +Tetrik. What! Shall a child, still in his cradle, be designated to the +soldiers for their choice! Who knows what may become of this child?"</p> + +<p>"Has he not you for his teacher?" asked Tetrik.</p> + +<p>"Have I not been the teacher and instructress of Victorin also?" the +Mother of the Camps answered sadly. "And yet, despite all my vigilant +cares, my son has defects that serve as the basis for frightful +calumnies. But of these, I sincerely assure you, Tetrik, I hold you +guiltless; and I now hope that my brother Schanvoch will join me in +doing justice to your loyalty."</p> + +<p>"I said so before, I repeat it now—I suspect this man!" I answered +Victoria.</p> + +<p>She replied with impatience: "And I said so before and repeat it +now—you are a head of iron, a genuine Breton head, rebellious to all +reason, the moment a notion takes root in your brain."<a name="page_125" id="page_125"></a></p> + +<p>Instinctively convinced of Tetrik's perfidy, but having no more proofs +against him, I said nothing more.</p> + +<p>But Tetrik resumed with a smile, and without betraying the slightest +perturbation:</p> + +<p>"Neither you nor I, Victoria, could convince our good Schanvoch of his +error. Let us leave that to an irresistible seductress—Truth. It will +with time furnish the evidence of my loyalty. We shall return later, +Victoria, to your repugnance in the matter of causing the army to +acclaim your grandson the heir of his father's office. I still expect to +overcome your scruples. But as I came in I saw one of your officers who +seemed to await his turn for an audience. Do you not think it well to +let him come in? It is Captain Marion, the old blacksmith, whom you +introduced to me at my first trip to the camp as one of the bravest men +in the army."</p> + +<p>"His valor matches his disposition and good judgment," replied the +Mother of the Camps. "The man has a noble heart and is a faithful +friend. Despite his promotion, he has continued to love as a brother one +of the old companions of his trade, who remained a simple soldier."</p> + +<p>"Even at the risk of being again taken for an iron head, I am of the +opinion that in the matter of this affection the good heart of Captain +Marion misleads his judgment. I can only hope, Victoria, that your +blindness may not be as complete as Captain Marion's."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean that the faithful companion of Captain Marion is his +enemy?" queried Victoria. "You are singularly mistrustful to-day, +brother!"</p> + +<p>When I alluded to Captain Marion and his friend I again sought to catch +the eyes of the Governor of Gascony, but in<a name="page_126" id="page_126"></a> vain. Nevertheless it was +with no slight surprise that I noticed him slightly start with joy when +I asserted that Captain Marion had a secret foe in his camp companion. +Ever master over himself, Tetrik doubtlessly feared that slight as was +his manifestation of joy it might not have escaped me. He said:</p> + +<p>"Envy is so revolting a feeling that I can never hear it mentioned +without it makes a painful impression upon me. I feel positively grieved +at what Schanvoch, who in this respect also, I hope, may be mistaken, +tells us of the comrade of Captain Marion. But, should my presence +prevent you from receiving the captain, Victoria, I shall withdraw."</p> + +<p>"On the contrary, I wish you to be present at the interview that I am to +have with Marion and my brother Schanvoch. They were given important +commissions by my son, and yet," she added with a sigh, "the morning is +passing, and my son is not yet home!"</p> + +<p>At that very moment the door of the room was thrown open, and Victorin +entered accompanied by Captain Marion.<a name="page_127" id="page_127"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XIa" id="CHAPTER_XIa"></a>CHAPTER XI<br /><br /> +VICTORIN.</h3> + +<p>The son of Victoria the Great was then in his twenty-third year. I told +you, my son, that several medals were struck on which he figured in the +guise of the god Mars beside his mother, who wore on her head a casque +resembling that of the antique Minerva. Indeed, Victorin could have +served as a model for a statue of the god of war. Tall, supple, robust, +with a shape at once elegant and martial, he pleased all eyes. His +features, imprinted with the rare beauty of his mother's, differed from +them by an expression of mirthfulness and daring. The openness and +generosity of his character was clearly visible on his face. On seeing +him, one forgot, despite himself, the defects that marred that manly +being, too vivacious and too fiery to curb the impulses of his age. +Victorin doubtlessly came from a night of pleasure; yet his face looked +as fresh as if he had just left his bed. A felt coif, ornamented with a +little brooch, half covered his black hair, that fell in luxuriant +ringlets around his virile and browned face. His Gallic blouse, made of +silken fabric striped white and purple, was held around his waist by a +silver-embroidered leather belt, from which hung his curiously chiseled +gold hilted sword—a veritable masterpiece of Autun goldsmithing. Upon +entering his mother's room followed by Captain Marion, Victorin +proceeded straight to her with<a name="page_128" id="page_128"></a> a mixture of tenderness and respect. He +dropped upon one knee, took and kissed one of her hands, removed his +head-cover, and, reaching up his forehead for her to kiss, said:</p> + +<p>"Greeting to my mother!"</p> + +<p>There was so touching a charm in the young general's features and +posture, there on his knee before his mother, that I noticed her +hesitate for a second between the desire to embrace the son whom she +adored and the inclination to express her dissatisfaction with him. She +gently pushed Victorin's head back with her hand, and said in a grave +voice while pointing at the cradle that stood near:</p> + +<p>"Embrace your son—you have not seen him since yesterday."</p> + +<p>The young general understood the indirect reproach; he rose sadly, +approached the cradle, took up the child in his arms, and embraced him +effusively while his eyes wandered over to his mother, as if to tell her +that he was indemnifying himself for her maternal severity.</p> + +<p>Captain Marion had drawn close to me and said in a low voice:</p> + +<p>"After all, Victorin has a good heart. How he does love his mother! How +he cherishes his child! He surely is as much attached to them as I am to +my friend Eustace, who constitutes my whole family. What a pity that +that pest of profligacy" (the good captain hardly ever spoke without +throwing in those words) "so frequently has the young man fast in its +claws!"</p> + +<p>"It is a misfortune! But do you believe Victorin capable of the infamous +act that he is charged with in camp?" I inquired from the captain loud +enough to be heard by Tetrik,<a name="page_129" id="page_129"></a> who, speaking with Victoria in a low +voice, seemed to be reproaching her for her severity towards her son.</p> + +<p>"No, by the devil!" was Marion's quick answer. "I do not believe +Victorin capable of such indignities—least way when I see him there +between his mother and child."</p> + +<p>After carefully placing his child back into the cradle and kissing its +outstretched hands, the young general said affectionately to the +Governor of Gascony:</p> + +<p>"Greeting to Tetrik! I always love to see among us my mother's wise and +faithful friend."</p> + +<p>And turning towards me:</p> + +<p>"I knew that you had returned, Schanvoch. When I heard the news my heart +filled with joy—with as much joy as I felt apprehension during your +absence. These Frankish bandits have often shown us how little they +respect truces and parliamentarians."</p> + +<p>But doubtlessly noticing the sadness that still marked the visage of +Victoria, her son approached her and said with as much frankness as +tender deference:</p> + +<p>"Listen, mother—before you broach the matter of Captain Marion's and +Schanvoch's messages, let me tell you what I have upon my heart; it +might unwrinkle your brow, and I might no longer read on it the +displeasure that afflicts me. Tetrik is a kind relative, Captain Marion +is our friend, Schanvoch your brother—I can here speak freely. Admit +it, mother, you are annoyed that I spent the night out of the house, are +you not?"</p> + +<p>"Your disorderly conduct grieves me, Victorin—and it grieves me still +more to see that my voice is no longer heard by you."</p> + +<p>"Mother, I shall make a full confession to you; but I<a name="page_130" id="page_130"></a> swear that I have +upbraided myself more severely for my weakness than you could have done +yourself. Last evening, faithful to my promise of discussing fully with +you the grave matters that we have in hand, I went home betimes; I had +declined—Oh! heroically declined an invitation to take supper with +three of the captains of the legions that recently arrived at Mayence +from Beziers. Vain were all their praises of the kegs of fine old wines, +of that country of wine <i>par excellence</i>, that they brought with them +carefully stowed away in their war chariots to celebrate their safe +arrival. I remained unmoved. They then tried to win me over by speaking +of two strolling Bohemian songstresses, Kidda and Flora—pardon me, +mother, for pronouncing the names of such women before you, but +truthfulness compels me to do so. These Bohemian girls, my tempters said +to me, had recently arrived in Mayence; they described them as +wondrously beautiful, frisky as demons, magnificent dancers, and singers +like nightingales! Certes, there was enough to tempt me in such a +description."</p> + +<p>"Ah! I see it—I see it clearly approaching, that pest of profligacy—I +see it creeping towards him on its velvet feet, like a wily and hungry +tigress!" Marion cried. "How I would like to make those brazen Bohemian +she-devils dance on sheets of red-hot iron! It is only then they would +sing tunes to suit my ears—"</p> + +<p>"I was even wiser than you, brave Marion," Victorin proceeded to say; "I +did not wish to see and hear them dance and sing in any way; I ran +precipitately away from my tempters to come here—"</p> + +<p>"It is easy to say that; run away?—that pest of profligacy<a name="page_131" id="page_131"></a> has legs as +long as its arms and teeth!" the captain said. "It surely overtook you, +Victorin!"</p> + +<p>"Deign to listen to me, mother," Victorin resumed, seeing my +foster-sister make a gesture of disgust and impatience. "I was only two +hundred paces from the house—the night was dark—a woman wrapped in a +hooded cloak accosted me."</p> + +<p>"Now they are three!" cried the good captain clasping his hands. "We now +have the two Bohemian girls reinforced by a hooded woman. Oh, +unfortunate Victorin! You have no idea what diabolical snares lie hidden +under those hoods—my friend Eustace would surely succumb and wind up by +being hooded himself—but I would flee!"</p> + +<p>"'My father is an old soldier,' the woman said to me," proceeded +Victorin with his narrative. "'One of his old wounds opened, he is +dying; he knew you as a child, Victorin; he does not wish to die without +once more pressing the hand of his young general; you will not refuse +such a favor to my dying father, will you?' Such was the tale of the +unknown woman; she spoke in accents that went straight to my heart. What +would you have done, mother?"</p> + +<p>"Despite my dread of women's hoods, I would have gone and seen the poor +old soldier," answered the captain. "Certes, I would have gone, seeing +that my presence would render death sweeter to him."</p> + +<p>"Well, I did what you would have done, Marion. I followed the unknown +woman; we arrived at a rickety house; it was dark; the door opened; my +female guide seized my hand; led by her, I took a few steps in the +darkness. Suddenly the glare of lights fell upon my eyes and dazed me. +The three captains of the Beziers legions and other officers<a name="page_132" id="page_132"></a> surrounded +me. The veiled woman dropped her wraps, and I recognized—"</p> + +<p>"One of the cursed Bohemian girls!" cried the captain. "Ha! I told you +so, Victorin! Women's hoods hide frightful things!"</p> + +<p>"Frightful? Alas, no, Marion! I had not the courage to shut my eyes. I +was immediately surrounded from all sides; the other Bohemian girl ran +out of a room and joined my captors. The doors were locked. I was +dragged to a seat of honor at a banquet table. Kidda placed herself at +my right, Flora at my left; and before me, upon a table loaded with +eatables, rose one of the kegs of old and divine nectar, as the accursed +fellows informed me; and—"</p> + +<p>"And day surprised you in that fresh orgy," said Victoria interrupting +her son. "You thus forgot amidst the pleasures of the table and +debauchery the hour that summoned you to me! Is that an excuse?"</p> + +<p>"No, dear mother, it is a confession—I was weak—but as truly as Gaul +is free, I would have come dutifully home to you, but for the ruse by +which I was misled and kept away. Will you not be indulgent towards me, +mother, this once? I pray you!" saying which Victorin again knelt down +before my foster-sister. "Be not so severe! I know my faults! Age will +cure me! I am still too young, and my blood is still too warm. The ardor +of pleasure often carries me away, despite myself—and yet, you know, +mother, I would give my life for you—"</p> + +<p>"I believe you—but yet you will not sacrifice to me your insensate and +evil passions—"</p> + +<p>"When one sees Victorin so respectful and repentant at his mother's +feet," I whispered to Marion, "would one think he<a name="page_133" id="page_133"></a> is the celebrated +general, so dreaded by the enemies of Gaul—the general, who, at the age +of twenty-two already has won five great battles?"</p> + +<p>"Victoria," said Tetrik in his kind and insinuating voice, "I also am a +father and inclined to indulgence. Besides, in my hours of recreation, I +am a poet, and I wrote an ode to Youth. How could I be severe? I love +Victorin's brilliant qualities so much, that I find it hard to censure +him! Could you be insensible to the tender words of your son? His only +crime is his youth. As he said, years will cure that—and his affection +for you, his deference to your wishes will hasten the cure—"</p> + +<p>As the Governor of Gascony was saying these words, a great noise was +heard outside of the house, and the cry was soon heard:</p> + +<p>"To arms! To arms!"</p> + +<p>Victoria, who was seated, quickly rose to her feet, together with +Victorin.</p> + +<p>"They cry to arms!" repeated Captain Marion anxiously, and listened.</p> + +<p>"The Franks must have broken the truce!" I cried in turn. "Yesterday one +of their chiefs threatened me with a speedy attack upon our camp; I did +not believe they would put their threat so quickly into action."</p> + +<p>"A truce is never broken before its expiration, without notice is given +in advance," observed Tetrik.</p> + +<p>"The Franks are barbarians; they are capable of any act of treachery," +cried Victoria rushing to the door.</p> + +<p>It opened before an officer covered with dust, and so breathless that he +could not at first utter a word.</p> + +<p>"Do you not belong to the post of the camp's vanguard,<a name="page_134" id="page_134"></a> four leagues +from here?" the young general asked the officer; he knew personally all +the officers of the army. "What has happened?"</p> + +<p>"A large number of rafts, loaded with troops and towed by barks, hove in +sight towards the middle of the Rhine, when, upon orders of the +commander of the post, I rode hither at full speed to bring the news to +you, Victorin. By this hour the Frankish hordes must have disembarked. +The post that I left is too weak to resist a whole army, and must have +fallen back upon the camp. While crossing the camp I cried to arms! The +legions and cohorts are forming in all haste."</p> + +<p>"It is the barbarians' answer to the message that Schanvoch took to +them," said the Mother of the Camps to Victorin.</p> + +<p>"What answer did the Franks give you?" the young general asked me.</p> + +<p>"Neroweg, one of the principal kings of their army, rejected all idea of +peace," I said to Victorin. "The barbarians are set upon invading Gaul +and subjugating us. I threatened their chief with a war of +extermination. He answered me insolently that the sun would not rise six +times before he would fall upon our camp, set fire to our tents, pillage +our baggage and carry off Victoria the Great—"</p> + +<p>"If they are on the march upon us, we have not a minute to spare!" cried +Tetrik in a fright addressing the young general, who, calm and +collected, with his arms crossed over his chest, was reflecting in +silence. "We must act, and act quickly!"</p> + +<p>"Before acting," answered Victorin, "we must reflect."</p> + +<p>"But," replied the governor, "suppose the Franks move with forced +marches upon the camp?"<a name="page_135" id="page_135"></a></p> + +<p>"So much the better!" Victorin said impatiently. "So much the better! We +shall let them draw near to us!"</p> + +<p>Victorin's answer astonished Tetrik, and I must admit, I would myself +have been astonished and even alarmed at hearing the young general speak +of temporizing in the presence of an imminent attack, had I not had +innumerable proofs of his unerring judgment. His mother made a sign to +the governor not to disturb her son in his meditation upon the plan of +battle, which, undoubtedly, he was revolving in his mind, and said to +Marion:</p> + +<p>"You arrived this morning from your trip to the inhabitants on the other +side of the Rhine, who are so often pillaged by these barbarians. What +is the plan of those tribes?"</p> + +<p>"Too weak to act single-handed, they are ready to join us at the first +call. Fires, that we are to light either by day or night on the hill of +Berak, will give them the signal. There will be men on the watch for +them. The moment the signal is given they will start on the march. One +of our best captains shall head a troop of picked soldiers across the +river and effect a junction with them, while the bulk of our army shall +simultaneously operate upon this side."</p> + +<p>"The plan is excellent, Captain Marion," observed Victoria approvingly. +"Especially at this juncture, such an alliance is of great service to +us. Your eyes have, as usual, seen rightly."</p> + +<p>"If one has good eyes, he must seek to put them to the best use +possible," the captain answered with his wonted affability. "That is +what I said to my friend Eustace."</p> + +<p>"What friend is that?" asked Victoria. "Whom do you refer to?"</p> + +<p>"I refer to a soldier—my old companion at the anvil. I<a name="page_136" id="page_136"></a> took him with +me on the journey that I am now back from. Thus, instead of ruminating +over my little projects all to myself, I uttered them aloud to my friend +Eustace. He is discreet; by no means a fool; true enough, he is as +peevish as the devil, and he often grumbles at me, whereat I profit not +a little."</p> + +<p>"I am aware of your friendship for that soldier," replied Victoria. +"Your affection does you honor."</p> + +<p>"To love an old friend is a simple and natural matter. I said to him: +'Do you see, Eustace, one day or other those Frankish skinners will +undertake a decisive attack upon us. In order to protect their retreat, +they will leave a body of reserve to protect their camp and wagons. That +reserve will not be too large a morsel for our allied tribes to swallow, +especially if they are reinforced by a picked legion in command of one +of our own captains. So that if those skinners are beaten on this side +of the Rhine, their retreat will be cut off on the other side of the +river.' What I then foresaw is coming about to-day. The Franks are +attacking us; I think we should forthwith send word to the allied +tribes, and follow that with some picked troops, commanded by a captain +of energy, prudence and skill—"</p> + +<p>"That captain will be yourself, Marion," Victoria quickly put in +interrupting the captain.</p> + +<p>"I? Very well! I know the country. My plan is quite simple. While the +Franks are marching upon us, I shall cross the Rhine, and there burn +their wagons and cut the reserve to pieces. Let Victorin deliver battle +on our side of the river; the Franks will then try to re-cross the +Rhine; there they will find me and my friend Eustace ready to meet them +with something else than a glad hand to help them disembark.<a name="page_137" id="page_137"></a> And their +hopes will be dashed when they learn that camp, reserves and wagons have +all gone up in flames."</p> + +<p>"Marion," replied my foster-sister after having carefully listened to +the captain, "victory is certain if you carry out the plan with your +customary bravery and coolness."</p> + +<p>"I have great good hopes. My friend Eustace said to me in a more than +usually querulous voice: 'Your plan is not so very stupid; it is not so +very stupid.' I know from experience that the approval of Eustace has +always brought me good luck."</p> + +<p>"Victoria," Tetrik approached saying in a low voice and no longer able +to control his uneasiness, "I am not a man of war. I repose complete +confidence in the military genius of your son. But an enemy twice as +strong as ourselves is drawing nearer by the minute—and Victorin, still +absorbed in his meditations, decides nothing, orders nothing!"</p> + +<p>"He told you rightly that before acting, one must think," answered +Victoria. "The power of calm reflection, at the moment of danger, is the +sign of a wise and prudent captain. Would it not be folly to run blindly +ahead of danger?"</p> + +<p>Suddenly Victorin clapped his hands, leaped to his mother's neck, +embraced her and cried:</p> + +<p>"Mother—Hesus inspires me. Not one of the barbarians who crossed the +river will escape, and the peace of Gaul will be assured for many years. +Your project is excellent, Captain Marion; it fits in with my own plan +of battle, as if we had jointly conceived it!"</p> + +<p>"What! Did you hear me?" asked the astonished captain. "I thought you +were wrapped up in your own thoughts!"</p> + +<p>"However absorbed a lover may seem to be, he always overhears what is +said of his sweetheart, my brave Marion,"<a name="page_138" id="page_138"></a> was Victorin's mirthful +answer. "My sovereign mistress is war!"</p> + +<p>"Again that pest of profligacy!" Captain Marion whispered to me. "Alack! +It pursues him even in his thoughts of battle!"</p> + +<p>"Marion," remarked Victorin, "we have on this side of the Rhine two +hundred and ten barks of war propelled by six oars—have we?"</p> + +<p>"About that number, and well equipped!"</p> + +<p>"Fifty of them will suffice for you to transport the reinforcement of +picked troops that you are to take to our allies. The remaining hundred +and sixty, manned by ten soldier oarsmen provided with axes, besides +twenty picked archers, will hold themselves ready to descend the Rhine +as far as the promontory of Herfel, where they will wait for further +instructions. Issue this order to the captain of the flotilla before you +embark."</p> + +<p>"It shall be done—rely upon me!"</p> + +<p>"Carry out your plan, brave Marion, from point to point. Cut the +Frankish reserve to pieces, burn their camp and wagons. Ours is the day +if I succeed in forcing the barbarians to retreat," said Victorin.</p> + +<p>"And you will, Victorin! I shall run for my friend, Eustace, and carry +out your orders."</p> + +<p>Before leaving the room Captain Marion drew his sword, presented the +hilt to the Mother of the Camps and making the military salute, said:</p> + +<p>"Touch this sword with your hand if you please, Victoria—it will be a +good augury for the day."</p> + +<p>"Go, brave and good Marion," answered the Mother of the<a name="page_139" id="page_139"></a> Camps returning +the weapon after she had clasped the hilt with a virile hand; "go, Hesus +is with Gaul!"</p> + +<p>"Our battle cry shall be, 'Victoria!' and it will resound from one bank +of the river to the other," Marion exclaimed with exaltation; and +leaving precipitately he added: "I shall run for my friend Eustace, and +then to our barks! to our barks!"</p> + +<p>As Marion was rushing out of the room, several chiefs of legions and +cohorts, having learned of the landing of the Franks from the officer +who brought the tidings to the camp—tidings that rapidly spread among +the soldiers—hastened to Victorin in order to receive the orders of +their general.</p> + +<p>"Place yourselves at the head of your detachments," he said to them, +"and march to the parade ground. I shall join you there and assign you +your posts in battle. I wish first to confer with my mother."</p> + +<p>"We well know your valor and military genius," answered the oldest of +the chiefs of the cohorts, a robust old man with a white beard. "Your +mother, the angel of Gaul, watches by your side; we shall await your +orders confident of victory."</p> + +<p>"Mother," said the young general in touching accents, "your pardon, here +before all, and a kiss from you will give me the needed courage for this +day of bloody battle!"</p> + +<p>"The excesses of my son have often saddened my heart, as they have the +hearts of you all who have known him since his earliest days," said +Victoria to the chiefs of the cohorts; "I hope you will forgive him as I +do."</p> + +<p>Saying this she clasped her son passionately to her heart.</p> + +<p>"Infamous calumnies against Victorin have floated about the camp," the +old captain proceeded to say. "We gave them no credence; but, less +enlightened than ourselves, the soldier<a name="page_140" id="page_140"></a> is ever hasty in censure as he +is in praise. Follow the instructions of your august mother, Victorin, +and no longer offer a handle to calumny. We shall wait for your orders +on the parade ground; rely upon us, as we do upon you."</p> + +<p>"You speak to me like a father," answered Victorin deeply moved by the +simple and dignified words of the old captain. "I shall hearken to your +words as a son; your old experience guided me on the field of battle +when I was still a child; your example made me the soldier that I am; +to-day and always I shall strive to approve myself worthy of you and of +my mother—worthy of Gaul—"</p> + +<p>"It is your duty, seeing that we glory in you and her," rejoined the old +captain; and addressing Victoria: "Will the army not see you before we +march to battle? To the soldiers and to us your presence always is a +good omen—and your good words fire our courage."</p> + +<p>"I shall accompany my son as far as the parade ground—let the battle +and triumph follow! Once the Roman eagles circled over our enslaved +nation! The Gallic cock drove them away! And it will again drive away +this cloud of birds of prey that seek to swoop down upon our Gaul!" +cried the Mother of the Camps in so proud and superb a transport that, +at the moment, I believed I saw before me the goddess of our land and of +liberty. "By Hesus, shall the barbarous Franks conquer us? Before that +happens neither a lance, nor a sword, nor a scythe, nor a club, nor a +stone can have been left in Gaul! By Hesus! We shall triumph over the +barbarian Franks!"</p> + +<p>At these brave words, the chiefs of the legions, sharing the enthusiasm +of Victoria, spontaneously drew their swords, struck them against one +another, and cried in chorus the war cry that they had more than once +intoned:<a name="page_141" id="page_141"></a></p> + +<p>"By the iron of our swords, Victoria, we swear to you that Gaul shall +remain free!—or you will never see us again!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, by your beloved and august name, Victoria, we shall fight to the +last drop of our blood."</p> + +<p>And all left the room crying:</p> + +<p>"To arms, our legions!"</p> + +<p>"To arms, our cohorts!"</p> + +<p>During the whole scene, in which the military genius of Victorin, his +tender deference for his mother, the controlling influence that both she +and he exercised over the chiefs of the army were displayed, I more than +once cast a covert look at the Governor of Gascony, who had withdrawn +into a corner of the room. Was it fear at the approach of the Franks? +Was it secret rage at witnessing how idle were his calumnies against +Victorin?—because, despite the blandness and skilfulness of his +defense, my suspicions were not lulled to sleep—I know not; but his +livid and disturbed face grew by degrees more horrid to behold. +Doubtlessly, evil thoughts and impulses, that he meant to keep +concealed, came to the surface in that moment. Immediately after the +departure of the chiefs, and as the Mother of the Camps turned to speak +with the governor, the latter strove to resume his customary mask of +mildness. Making an effort to smile he said to Victoria:</p> + +<p>"You and your son are endowed with a sort of magic power. According to +my feeble understanding nothing can be more alarming than this march of +the Frankish army upon our camp, while neither of you seem to be +particularly concerned, and you deliberate as calmly as if the battle +was to be to-morrow. And yet, I must confess, the tranquility that you +display under such circumstances inspires me with blind confidence."<a name="page_142" id="page_142"></a></p> + +<p>"There is nothing more natural than our tranquility," replied Victorin. +"I have calculated the time that it will take the Franks to cross the +Rhine and disembark their troops, form their columns and arrive at a +place that they are forced to cross. To hasten my movements would be a +mistake, a grave strategic error. Delay serves my purposes well."</p> + +<p>Victorin thereupon turned to me:</p> + +<p>"Schanvoch, go and put on your armor; I shall have orders for you after +I shall have conferred with my mother."</p> + +<p>"You will join me here, before proceeding to the parade ground," +Victoria said to me. "I also have some recommendations to make to you."</p> + +<p>"I almost forgot to notify you of an important thing," said I. "The +sister of one of the Frankish kings feared that her brother would put +her to death, and fled the camp of the barbarians. She accompanied me to +ours."</p> + +<p>"The woman can serve as a hostage," remarked Tetrik. "It is a valuable +capture. She should be kept a prisoner."</p> + +<p>"No," I answered the governor. "I promised the woman that she would be +free in the Gallic camp, and I assured her of Victoria's protection."</p> + +<p>"I shall keep the promise that you made," replied my foster-sister. +"Where is the woman?"</p> + +<p>"At my house."</p> + +<p>"Have her sent to me after the departure of our troops. I wish to see +her."</p> + +<p>I left the room together with the Governor of Gascony. As I stepped out +several bards and druids, who, adhering to our ancient custom, always +marched at the head of the armies in order to encourage the troops with +their songs, stepped in to confer with Victoria and Victorin.<a name="page_143" id="page_143"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XIIa" id="CHAPTER_XIIa"></a>CHAPTER XII.<br /><br /> +TO BATTLE!</h3> + +<p>Upon leaving Victoria's house I hastened home to arm myself and take my +horse. From all parts of the camp trumpets and clarions were heard +blowing signals. When I entered my house I found Sampso and my wife, +whom the tidings of the landing of the Franks had speedily reached, +busily engaged getting my arms ready. Ellen was vigorously furbishing my +steel cuirass, the polish of which was soiled by the fire that was +kindled upon it the day before by order of Neroweg, the Terrible Eagle +and powerful king of the Franks.</p> + +<p>"You are truly a soldier's wife," I said smiling to Ellen, seeing her +provoked at not being able to restore the tarnished spot to the +brilliancy of the rest of the cuirass. "The brilliancy of your husband's +armor is your own greatest ornament."</p> + +<p>"If we were not so much pressed for time," Ellen answered, "we would +have succeeded in furbishing off this black spot. Sampso and I have for +the last hour been wondering how you managed to blacken and tarnish your +armor in this manner."</p> + +<p>"They look like traces of fire," said Sampso, who was actively engaged +polishing my casque with a piece of smooth skin. "Only fire can tarnish +the polish of steel in that way."<a name="page_144" id="page_144"></a></p> + +<p>"You have guessed right, Sampso," I answered her laughing and taking up +my sword, my battle axe and my dagger; "there was a big fire in the camp +of the Franks; those hospitable folks insisted that I draw near to the +brasier; the evening was cool, and I hugged the fire a little too +closely."</p> + +<p>"I perceive that the announcement of battle throws you into a mirthful +mood, my Schanvoch," put in my wife. "That is like you, I have long +noticed it."</p> + +<p>"And the announcement of battle does not sadden you, my Ellen, because +you have a stout heart."</p> + +<p>"I draw my strength from the faith of our fathers, my Schanvoch. It +teaches me that we proceed to live in other worlds in the company of +those whom we have loved in this," Ellen sweetly answered me while she +and Sampso helped to buckle on my cuirass. "That is why I put into +practice our mothers' maxim that the Gallic woman never grows pale when +her brave husband departs for battle, and that she reddens with joy at +his return. And if he does not return, she is proud at the knowledge +that he died as a brave man, and every evening she says to herself: 'One +more day has passed, one more step is taken towards those unknown +worlds, where we shall meet our dear ones again.'"</p> + +<p>"Let us not talk of absence but of return," said Sampso, offering me my +casque, which she had so carefully polished with her own hands that she +could have seen her sweet face in the burnished steel. "You have always +been so lucky in war, Schanvoch, that I feel sure you will return to +us."</p> + +<p>"I rely on your faith, dear Sampso. I depart happy in the knowledge of +your sisterly affection, and of Ellen's love. I shall return happy, +above all if I shall have been able to leave a fresh mark on the face of +a certain king of those Frankish<a name="page_145" id="page_145"></a> skinners of human bodies, as a token +of acknowledgment for the loyalty of the hospitality that he yesterday +bestowed upon me. But here I am armed. A kiss to my little Alguen, and +then to horse!"</p> + +<p>As I was about to proceed to my wife's room, Sampso held me back, +saying:</p> + +<p>"Brother—what of the strange woman?"</p> + +<p>"You are right, Sampso; I forgot all about her."</p> + +<p>As a matter of precaution I had locked Elwig's room. I knocked at the +door and called out to her:</p> + +<p>"Shall I come in?"</p> + +<p>I received no answer. Alarmed at the silence I opened the door. Elwig +sat on the edge of the couch with her head in her hands, in the +identical posture that I saw her last.</p> + +<p>"Did sleep bring you rest?"</p> + +<p>"There is no more sleep for me!" she answered brusquely. "Riowag is +dead! I weep for my lover!"</p> + +<p>"My wife and sister will take you at noon to Victoria the Great. She +will treat you as a friend. I announced to her your arrival in our +camp."</p> + +<p>The sister of Neroweg, the Terrible Eagle, shrugged her shoulders with +indifference.</p> + +<p>"Do you need anything?" I asked her. "Would you eat or drink?"</p> + +<p>"I want water—I am thirsty—"</p> + +<p>Despite the priestess' refusal to eat, Sampso went for some +provisions—a pitcher of water, some bread and fruits—and placed them +near Elwig, who remained motionless and mute. I again locked the door +and gave the key to my wife, saying:</p> + +<p>"You and Sampso will take the poor woman to Victoria at<a name="page_146" id="page_146"></a> noon. But be +careful that she is not left alone with our child—"</p> + +<p>"Do you fear anything?"</p> + +<p>"Everything is to be feared from those barbarian women; they are as wily +as they are ferocious. I killed her lover in defending myself against +him; she is quite capable of strangling my child out of vengeance."</p> + +<p>You came running in at that moment, my child. Hearing my voice from your +mother's room, you left your bed and came half naked to me with your +little arms outstretched, smiling with pleasure at the sight of my +armor, the brilliancy of which pleased your eyes. Time pressed; I +embraced you, your mother and aunt tenderly. I then proceeded to saddle +my horse, my good and strong Tom-Bras,<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> whom I named in remembrance of +our ancestor Joel, who also gave the name of Tom-Bras to the spirited +stallion that he rode at the battle of Vannes. Sampso and your mother, +the latter of whom took you in her arms, accompanied me to the stable. +Your aunt helped me to put on the bridle, and, caressing his sinewy +neck, said to the war steed:</p> + +<p>"Tom-Bras, do not leave your master in danger; save him with your +swiftness, if need be; defend him like the brave Tom-Bras of old who, as +he bore the brenn of the tribe of Karnak, attacked the Romans with his +hoofs and teeth."</p> + +<p>"Dear Sampso," I answered smiling as I leaped into the saddle, "do not +give Tom-Bras bad advice by urging him to save me with his swiftness. A +good war horse is rapid in pursuit, slow in flight. As to plying his +teeth and hoofs, he does that to perfection; the Frankish horse that I +captured, and that he almost tore to shreds in the stable, can testify +<a name="page_147" id="page_147"></a>to that. Tom-Bras is like his master; he abhors the Franks. Adieu, dear +Sampso! Adieu, my beloved Ellen! Adieu, my little Alguen!"</p> + +<p>Casting one more look at your mother who held you in her arms, I +departed at a gallop to the parade ground, where the army was +assembling.</p> + +<p>The distant sound of the clarions, and the neighing of the horses, to +which he responded, enlivened Tom-Bras. He bounded with vigor. I calmed +him with my voice, I patted his neck so as to control his buoyant +spirits and reserve his energy for the hard day's work ahead. When I was +near the parade ground I perceived Victoria about a hundred paces ahead +of me. She rode with an escort of several mounted officers. I quickly +joined them. Mounted on a palfrey, Tetrik rode to the left of the Mother +of the Camps; at her right rode a druid bard named Rolla, whom she +greatly esteemed for his bravery, his noble character and his poetic +talents. Several other druids were scattered among the various army +corps, and were to march beside the chiefs at the head of their several +detachments.</p> + +<p>Coifed in the light brass helmet of the antique Minerva, which was +surmounted with the Gallic cock in gilt bronze holding an expiring lark +under his spurs, Victoria sat with proud ease her beautiful steed, whose +satin coat shimmered like silver. The housings of the prancing animal +were, like its bridle, of scarlet color, they almost reached the ground +and were partially covered by the long black robe of the Mother of the +Camps, who seemed to inspire her mount with her own self-restraint and +confidence. Her beautiful and virile visage seemed animated with martial +ardor. A light flush suffused her cheeks; her bosom heaved; her large +blue<a name="page_148" id="page_148"></a> eyes shone with matchless brilliancy, under their long black +lashes. Without being noticed by her, I joined the riders of her escort. +With their banners to the breeze and their platoons of trumpeters at +their head, the cohorts passed by us one after the other on their way to +the parade ground. The officers saluted Victoria with their swords, the +banners dipped before her, and soldiers, captains and chiefs, in short, +the whole armed force cried in enthusiastic chorus:</p> + +<p>"Greeting to Victoria the Great!"</p> + +<p>"Greeting to the Mother of the Camps!"</p> + +<p>Among the first soldiers of one of the cohorts that passed us, I +recognized Douarnek, one of the four oarsmen of the day before who was +wounded in the back by an arrow. Despite his recent wound, the brave +Breton marched in his place. I pricked my horse, drew near him and said:</p> + +<p>"Douarnek, the gods send a propitious opportunity to Victorin to prove +to the army that, unworthy calumnies to the contrary notwithstanding, he +is still worthy of his post."</p> + +<p>"You are right, Schanvoch," the Breton answered. "Let Victorin win this +battle, as he won the others, and in the joy of their triumph the +soldiers will acclaim their general and forget many a disagreeable +thing. We shall meet again, Schanvoch!"</p> + +<p>Some Roman legions, our then allies, shared the enthusiasm of our own +troops. As they passed under the eyes of Victoria their acclamations +also greeted her. The whole army, the cavalry on the two wings, the +infantry in the center, was soon gathered on the parade ground, a vast +field that lay without the camp. It was bounded by the Rhine on one +side, on the other by the slopes of a high hill. A wide road was seen at +a distance. It wound its way and disappeared<a name="page_149" id="page_149"></a> behind some woody slopes. +The casques, the arms, the banners, all of which were surmounted by the +Gallic cock wrought in gilt copper, glistened in the rays of the sun, +and presented the bright and cheerful sight that does so much to raise +the soldier's spirits. From the moment that she entered the parade +ground Victoria put her horse to a gallop in order to join her son, who, +surrounded by a group of chiefs to whom he was issuing orders, was +conspicuous in the very center of the field. No sooner had the Mother of +the Camps, whose brass helmet, black robe and white steed pointed her +out to all eyes, appeared before the front ranks of the army, than one +loud, vast, ringing cry from fifty thousand soldiers' breasts saluted +Victoria the Great!</p> + +<p>"May that cry be heard of Hesus," my foster-sister said to the druid +bard with deep emotion. "May the gods grant Gaul a new victory! Justice +and right are on our side! We are not after conquest; we only defend our +own soil, our hearths, our families, and our freedom!"</p> + +<p>"Our cause is holy among holy causes!" answered Rolla, the druid bard. +"Hesus will render our arms invincible!"</p> + +<p>We rode up to Victorin. It seems to me I never saw him handsomer, or of +a more martial bearing than on that morning, clad in his brilliant steel +armor and with his casque, ornamented, like his mother's, by the Gallic +cock and the expiring lark. Victoria herself, as she approached her son, +could not keep from turning towards me and betraying her maternal pride +with a look that, perhaps, only I understood. Several officers, the +bearers of the young general's orders to the different army corps, left +at a gallop in different directions. I drew near my foster-sister and +said to her in a low voice:<a name="page_150" id="page_150"></a></p> + +<p>"You reproach your son with no longer displaying that cool bravery that +must distinguish the general of an army. And yet, watch and see how cool +and collected he is. Do you not read in his masculine face the wise and +cautious cast of mind of the general who will not rashly risk his +soldiers' lives, or the fate of his country?"</p> + +<p>"Your speech is sooth, Schanvoch; I saw him just as cool and collected +at the great battle of Offenbach—one of his finest, one of his most +fruitful victories. It was that victory that restored to us the Rhine +for our frontier. It drove the accursed Franks to the other bank of the +river."</p> + +<p>"And to-day's battle will supplement the victory won at Offenbach, if, +as I expect we shall, we drive off the barbarians for all time from our +frontier."</p> + +<p>"Brother," replied my foster-sister, "as always, you will not leave +Victorin's side?"</p> + +<p>"I promise you."</p> + +<p>"He is now calm. But once the action is engaged, I fear the ardor of his +blood, and his passion for battle. You know, Schanvoch, I do not fear +peril for Victorin, I am the daughter, wife and mother of soldiers; all +I fear is that, carried away by the heat of action, and anxious, even at +the risk of his life, to achieve great deeds, he put the success of this +day in jeopardy, and by his death endanger the safety of Gaul, that may +otherwise be firmly established by to-day's action."</p> + +<p>"I shall use my full powers to convince Victorin that a general must +preserve himself for his army."</p> + +<p>"Schanvoch," my foster-sister remarked with a tremulous voice, "you +always are the best of brothers!"</p> + +<p>And looking towards her son, evidently anxious that none but myself be +made aware of the anxious thoughts that struggled<a name="page_151" id="page_151"></a> in her maternal +breast, and her doubts concerning the firmness of his character, she +added again, in a low voice:</p> + +<p>"You will watch over him?"</p> + +<p>"As over my own son."</p> + +<p>After the young general issued his last orders, he alighted from his +horse the moment he saw his mother, walked over to where she was, and +said:</p> + +<p>"The hour has come, mother. I have taken with the other captains the +last dispositions on the plan of battle that I submitted to you and +which you approved. I have reserved ten thousand men under the command +of Robert, one of the most experienced chiefs, for the protection of the +camp. He is to receive orders from you. May the gods look down favorably +upon our arms. Adieu, mother. I shall do my best—"</p> + +<p>Saying this he bent his knee.</p> + +<p>"Adieu, my son. Come not back, unless you come back victorious over the +barbarians!"</p> + +<p>As she said these words, the Mother of the Camps stooped down from her +horse and reached her hand to Victorin, who kissed it and rose.</p> + +<p>"Be brave, my young Caesar!" the Governor of Gascony called out to my +foster-sister's son. "The fate of Gaul is in your hands—and, thanks to +the gods, your hands are powerful. Furnish me the opportunity to write +an ode on this fresh victory."</p> + +<p>Victorin remounted his horse. A moment later our army set itself upon +the march, with the scouts on horseback riding ahead of the vanguard. +Victorin placed himself at the head of the army. We had the bank of the +Rhine on our right. A few light bodies of mounted archers rode forward +as scouts,<a name="page_152" id="page_152"></a> to the end of guarding our left wing against a surprise. +Victorin called me to his side; I drove my horse abreast his own, and as +he hastened the step of his mount we were soon beyond the escort that +accompanied him.</p> + +<p>"Schanvoch," he said to me, "you are an old and experienced soldier. I +wish to explain my plans to you. I confided the plan to the chief who is +to take my place in the event of my being killed. I wish you also to be +posted on it. You will be all the better able to help in its execution."</p> + +<p>"I listen. Speak, Victorin."</p> + +<p>"It is now nearly three hours since the rafts of the Franks were seen by +our scouts at about the middle of the river. Those rafts, towed by barks +and loaded with troops navigate slowly. It must have taken them fully an +hour to reach the bank and disembark on this side of the Rhine—"</p> + +<p>"Your calculation is correct. But why did you not hasten the march of +the army in order to arrive at the spot before the Franks disembarked? +Landing forces are always in disorder. Their disorder would have favored +our attack."</p> + +<p>"Two reasons kept me from doing so. I shall tell them to you. How long, +do you calculate, did it take the officer, who notified us of the +enemy's approach, to ride in all haste from our advanced posts to +Mayence?"</p> + +<p>"About an hour and a half. It is nearly five leagues from there to +Mayence."</p> + +<p>"And how long will it take an army to cover the same distance, even at +forced marches, but not rapid enough to be tired out and breathless when +it reaches the spot and offers battle?"</p> + +<p>"It would take about three hours and a half."</p> + +<p>"Accordingly, you will perceive, Schanvoch, that it would<a name="page_153" id="page_153"></a> have been +impossible for us to have arrived in time to attack the Franks at the +moment of their landing. Those barbarians' lack of discipline is +surprising. They must have consumed considerable time in forming their +ranks. This will enable us to arrive before and wait for them at the +defile of Armstadt—the only military route open to them in order to +attack our camp, unless they throw themselves across the marsh and the +forests, where their cavalry, their principal arm, could not deploy."</p> + +<p>"That is true."</p> + +<p>"I temporized in order to give the Franks time to approach the defile."</p> + +<p>"If they undertake the passage, they are lost."</p> + +<p>"I hope so. With our swords in their loins we shall drive them back +towards the river bank. Our hundred and sixty well armed barks, that +left port under my orders and at the same time that we started on the +march, will scatter the barbarians' rafts and cut off their retreat. +Besides that, Captain Marion crossed the river with a picked body of +men; he will effect a juncture with the friendly tribes on the other +bank, and will march straight upon the Frankish camp, where the enemy +must have left a strong reserve force together with all their wagons. +These will all be destroyed!"</p> + +<p>Victorin was thus engaged in unfolding to me his ably conceived plan of +battle, when we saw several of the scouts, who were sent forward, +running back to us at full gallop. One of these reined in his foaming +steed and cried out to Victorin:</p> + +<p>"The army of the Franks is advancing. It can be seen at a distance from +the top of the hills. Their scouts approached the defile; they were all +shot down by the arrows of our<a name="page_154" id="page_154"></a> archers who were ambushed behind the +shrubs. Not one of the Frankish scouts escaped with his life."</p> + +<p>"Well done," replied Victorin. "Those scouts would have ridden back and +warned the Frankish army of our approach. It might not then have entered +the defile. But I shall ride forward and judge the enemy's position +myself. Follow me, Schanvoch!"</p> + +<p>Victorin put his horse to a gallop; I did likewise. The escort followed +us; we quickly overtook and passed our vanguard, to whom Victorin gave +the order to halt. We arrived at a place that dominated the defile of +Armstadt. The rather broad road lay at our feet, hemmed in by two steep +escarpments. The one to the right seemed cut with the pick, it rose so +perpendicular over the road and formed a sort of promontory on the side +of the Rhine. The escarpment to the left consisted of a rocky series of +shelves, and served, so to speak, as the basis to the vast plateau +through the heart of which the deep and wide gully was cut. The gully or +road dipped gently till it ran out into a vast plain, bordered to the +east and north by the curve of the river, to the west by woods and +marshes, and behind us by the elevated plateau where our troops were +ordered to halt. We presently distinguished at a great distance from +where we stood and down in the direction of the plain, a large and +confused black mass. It was the army of the Franks.</p> + +<p>Victorin remained silent for a few seconds; he attentively examined the +disposition of the enemy's forces and the field at our feet.</p> + +<p>"My calculation and expectation did not deceive me," he observed. "The +Frankish army is twice as large as ours. If their tactics were less +savage, instead of entering the defile,<a name="page_155" id="page_155"></a> as they will surely do, they +would, despite the difficulty that accompanies that sort of assault, +climb the plateau at several places simultaneously, and thereby compel +me to divide my much inferior forces in order to attack them at a large +number of places. Nevertheless, for greater certainty, and so as to lure +the enemy into the defile, I shall resort to a ruse of war. Let us +return to our vanguard; Schanvoch, the hour of battle has sounded!"</p> + +<p>"And such an hour," I answered, "is always solemn!"</p> + +<p>"Yes," he replied melancholically, "such an hour is always solemn, +especially for the general, who, at this bloody game of war, plays with +the lives of his soldiers and has his country's fate for stake. Come, +let us ride back, Schanvoch—and may my mother's star protect me!"</p> + +<p>I rode back with Victorin to our troops, asking myself due to what +singular contradiction that young man, always so firm and so calculating +at the great crises of his life, showed himself below mediocrity in the +power to combat his foibles.<a name="page_156" id="page_156"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XIIIa" id="CHAPTER_XIIIa"></a>CHAPTER XIII.<br /><br /> +THE BATTLE OF THE RHINE.</h3> + +<p>The young general was not long in rejoining the vanguard. After a +hurried conference with the officers, the troops took their posts of +battle. Three cohorts of infantry, each one thousand strong, received +orders to march through the defile into the open plain, engage the +vanguard of the Franks, and draw the bulk of the enemy's army into the +dangerous passage. Victorin, several officers and myself stood grouped +upon one of the highest bluffs that dominated the field on which the +scrimmage was to take place. From where we stood we had a complete view +of the immense Frankish army. Massed in a compact body, the bulk of +their forces was still far away. A swarm of horsemen rode in advance and +extended beyond the two wings. Our three cohorts had barely emerged from +the pass into the plain when the Frankish horsemen rushed like a swarm +of hornets towards them from all sides and sought to envelop them. +Intent only upon taking the lead of one another, these horsemen gave the +rein to their mounts, and tumultuously, without any order whatever, +galloped towards our troops. When the former had drawn near enough, the +latter formed themselves into a wedge in order to sustain the first +shock of the cavalry; they were thereupon to feign a retreat back into +the defile. The Frankish horsemen emitted such loud yells that, despite +the considerable<a name="page_157" id="page_157"></a> distance that separated us from the plain and the +elevation of the plateau, their savage cries reached us like a muffled +roar pierced from time to time by the distant notes of their wind +instruments. As ordered, our soldiers did not yield to the first +impetuous attack. In an instant we could see through the thick cloud of +dust, raised by the Frankish horse, only a confused mass, in the midst +of which our soldiers could be distinguished by their brilliant armor. +Presently our troops began to operate their retreat towards the defile, +yielding the ground before them foot by foot to the swarm of Frankish +assailants, who received every moment fresh accessions from the cavalry +of their vanguard, while their main body began to move at a quickened +step.</p> + +<p>"By heaven!" cried Victorin, his fiery eyes fixed upon the field, "our +brave Firmian who commands those three cohorts seems to have forgotten +in his ardor for the fray that he was steadily to fall back into the +defile so as to draw the enemy in after him. Firmian is no longer +retreating; he has stopped and does not budge back an inch—he will +cause his troops to be uselessly sacrificed—"</p> + +<p>And addressing one of the officers:</p> + +<p>"Ride quick to Ruper, and order him to proceed with his three veteran +cohorts to the support of Firmian's retreat. Ruper is to order the +retreat to be made rapidly. The bulk of the Frankish army is now only a +hundred bow-shots from the entrance of the defile."</p> + +<p>The officer departed at a gallop. Obedient to the orders that he +carried, the three veteran cohorts speedily emerged from the defile at +the double quick; they hastened to join and sustain Firmian's troops; a +little later the feigned retreat was effected in good order. Seeing the +Gauls yield, the<a name="page_158" id="page_158"></a> Franks set up a shout of savage joy, and charged +impetuously upon our cohorts. The Frankish vanguard was soon close to +the mouth of the defile. Suddenly Victorin grew pale. Anxiety was +depicted on his face as he cried:</p> + +<p>"By my father's sword! Can I have been mistaken as to the barbarians' +plans? Do you perceive their movement?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," I said, "instead of following their vanguard into the defile, the +Frankish army has halted; it is forming into numerous separate columns +of attack, and these are marching towards the plateau! Malediction! They +are resorting to the skilful manoeuvre that you feared. Oh, we have +taught the barbarians the art of war!"</p> + +<p>Victorin did not reply. He seemed to be counting the enemy's columns of +attack. Thereupon he galloped back to our main army and cried:</p> + +<p>"My boys! It is not now in the defile that we are to await these +barbarians—we shall have to fight them in the open field. Fall upon +them from the height of the plateau that they are seeking to +climb—drive their hordes into the Rhine! They are three to our one—so +much the better! This evening, when we shall be back in camp, our +mother, Victoria, will say to us: 'Children, you were brave!'"</p> + +<p>At these words, Rolla, the druid bard, improvised the following war +song, which he struck up with a powerful, resonant voice:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left">"This morning we say:—</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> ‘How many are there of these barbarous hordes,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> Who thievishly aspire to rob us of land.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> Of homes, of wives, and of sunshine?</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> Yes, how many are there of these Franks?’</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">"This evening we'll say:—</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> ‘Make answer, thou sod, red drenched</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> In the blood of the stranger;</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> Make answer, ye deep-rolling waves of the Rhine;</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> Make answer, ye crows that flutter for carrion,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> Make answer—make answer!</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> How many were they,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> These robbers of land, of homes, of wives and of sunshine?</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> Aye, how many were there,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> Of these blood-thirsty, ravenous Franks?’"</td></tr> +</table> + +<p>And the several detachments of our troops ran up the plateau at the +double quick to the refrain of the chant that flew from mouth to mouth +until it reached the rearmost ranks.</p> + +<p>Our army was promptly deployed on the crest of the plateau that +dominated the vast plain whose edge was bordered by the curve of the +Rhine in the distant horizon. Instead of awaiting the attack from that +advantageous position, Victorin wished, by sheer audacity, to terrify +the enemy. Despite our numerical inferiority, he issued the orders to +pounce down upon the Franks from the crest of our elevated position. At +the same moment, the enemy's column, which, deceived by the feigned +retreat of our cohorts, had allowed itself to be lured into the defile, +was being hurled back into the plain by the Gallic troops which +confronted them. Our whole army thereupon reassumed the offensive, and +not unlike an avalanche our full forces poured down from the summit of +the plateau. The battle began; it was engaged all along the line.</p> + +<p>I promised Victoria not to leave the side of her son. Nevertheless, such +was the impetuosity with which, from the very start of the action, he +dashed upon the enemy at the head of a legion of cavalry, that the flux +and reflux of the<a name="page_160" id="page_160"></a> melee at first separated me from him. We were at the +time engaged hand to hand with a picked, well mounted and well armed +body of Franks. Their soldiers wore neither casque nor cuirass; but +their double jackets of hides covered with long hair and their +iron-lined fur caps, were the equivalent of our own armor. These Franks +fought with fury, often with stupid ferocity. I saw several allow +themselves to be killed like animals while, at the hottest of the +battle, they madly sought to hack off the head of some fallen Gaul with +their axes in order to make to themselves a trophy of the gory spoils. I +was defending myself against two of these horsemen, and my hands were +full; a third barbarian, a warrior who had been unhorsed and disarmed, +clinched my leg and sought to pull me off the saddle, and as he found +his efforts vain bit me with such rage in the ankle that his teeth cut +through the leather of my gaiter and penetrated to the very bone. +Without neglecting my two mounted adversaries, I found time to deal a +blow with my mace upon this third Frank's skull. Freed from him, I was +vainly endeavoring to discover and join Victorin, when I descried +Neroweg, the Terrible Eagle, only a few paces from me, in the melee +which his gigantic stature overtowered. At the sight of that man, there +thronged to my mind the recollection of the outrageous insults heaped +upon me only the day before, which I had only partly avenged by smiting +him over the head with a firebrand; my blood, already warm with the +ardor of the fray, now seethed. Over and above the anger that Neroweg +inspired in me by reason of his cowardly insults of the previous day, I +experienced for the man an unexplainable, mysterious, profound hatred. +It was as if I saw in him the incarnation of that thievish and ferocious +race that sought to<a name="page_161" id="page_161"></a> subjugate us. It was to me, strange and +unaccountable as it may seem, as if I abhorred Neroweg by reason of the +future as much as of the present; as if that hatred was to perpetuate +itself not only between our two races of Franks and Gauls, but also +between our families, individually. What shall I say to you, my child! I +even forgot the promise I made to my foster-sister of watching over her +son. Instead of any longer striving to find and join Victorin, I now +only strove to draw close to Neroweg. I was bent upon having that +Frank's life—he alone, among so many other enemies, incited in me +personally the thirst for blood. I happened at the time to find myself +surrounded by several horsemen of the legion at the head of which +Victorin had just charged the Frankish army with such impetuosity. Our +troops were steadily pushing forward at that point, the enemy was being +crowded towards the Rhine. Two of the soldiers in front of me fell under +the heavy francisque of the Terrible Eagle. I now saw him across that +human breach.</p> + +<p>Clad in a Gallic armor, the spoils of one of our captains who was killed +at one of the previous battles, Neroweg wore a casque of gilded bronze, +the visor of which partly covered his face, tattooed in blue and +scarlet. His long copper colored beard reached down to the iron corselet +that he had donned over his jacket of hides. Thick fleeces of sheep, +held fast by criss-crossing strips of cloth, covered his legs from the +thighs down to the feet. He rode a savage stallion from the forests of +Germany, whose pale yellow coat was spotted with black. The tufts of the +animal's thick mane fell below his square chest; his long tail, that +streamed in the wind, lashed his sinewy haunches when he reared +impatient under the restraint of his bit and silver-wrought reins, also +the<a name="page_162" id="page_162"></a> proceeds of some Gallic spoils. A wooden buckler ribbed with iron +and roughly painted in yellow and red stripes, the colors of Neroweg's +banner, covered the left arm of the Terrible Eagle. In his right hand he +wielded his heavy francisque that now dripped blood. From his belt hung +a sort of large butcher's knife with a wooden handle, together with a +magnificent Roman sword with a hilt of chased gold, doubtlessly the +fruit of some raid. Neroweg emitted a roar of rage as he recognized me. +Rising in his stirrups he cried out:</p> + +<p>"The man of the bay horse!"</p> + +<p>Thereupon, striking the flank of his courser with the flat of his axe, +he caused the animal to clear with an enormous leap both the bodies and +mounts of the fallen horsemen who lay between us. The leap was so +violent that when his horse touched ground again, the animal's head and +chest struck the head and chest of my own mount. At the heavy shock the +two animals were thrown upon their haunches and both fell over. Dazed at +first by my fall, I quickly disengaged myself, took my stand firmly upon +my feet and drew my sword, my mace having slipped from my hands with my +fall. On his part, having had to disentangle himself from under his +horse, as I was forced to do, Neroweg also rose to his feet and +precipitated himself upon me. The chin-band of his casque had snapped +with his fall, his head was bare, his thick red hair, tied over his +head, floated behind him like the mane of a horse.</p> + +<p>"Ha! This time, you Gallic dog," he cried out as he ground his teeth and +aimed at me with his axe a furious blow that I parried, "this time I +shall have your life and your skin!"<a name="page_163" id="page_163"></a></p> + +<p>"And I, Frankish wolf, I shall once more put my mark on your face, +whether dead or alive, so that the devil will recognize you!"</p> + +<p>For a long time we fought with maddening fury, all the while exchanging +insults that redoubled our rage.</p> + +<p>"Dog!" cried Neroweg. "You carried off my sister!"</p> + +<p>"I took her from your infamous love! In the bestiality of your unclean +race it couples like animals—brother with sister!"</p> + +<p>"Dare you insult my race, you bastard dog! Half Roman, half Gallic! My +race will subjugate yours, vile revolted slaves! We shall clap the yoke +back upon your necks—and we shall take possession of your goods, your +lands, and your wives!"</p> + +<p>"Just look yonder at your routed army, Oh, great king! Just take a look +at your packs of Frankish wolves, as cowardly as they are +ferocious—just look at them, fleeing from the fangs of the Gallic +dogs!"</p> + +<p>It was in the midst of such torrents of invectives that we fought with +heightening rage without either being able to wound the other. Many a +furiously aimed blow had glided harmlessly down our cuirasses; we seemed +to manage our swords with equal dexterity. Suddenly and despite all the +maddened rage of our duel, a strange spectacle drew away our attention +for an instant. After our horses had rolled to the ground under the +shock that they both received, they also rose to their feet. +Immediately, as is usually the case with stallions, they rushed at each +other neighing wildly, and with flashing eyes sought to tear each other +to pieces. My brave Tom-Bras had raised himself on his haunches, and, +holding the other steed by the neck between his teeth, was<a name="page_164" id="page_164"></a> frantically +battering his belly with his hoofs. Nettled at seeing his horse at the +mercy of mine, Neroweg cried out without either he or I intermitting our +battle:</p> + +<p>"Folg! Will you allow that Gallic swine to vanquish you? Defend yourself +with your hoofs and teeth! Tear him to pieces!"</p> + +<p>"Steady, Tom-Bras!" I cried out in turn. "Disfigure and kill that horse, +as I shall disfigure and kill his master."</p> + +<p>I had hardly uttered these words when the Frank's sword penetrated my +thigh between skin and flesh, and it did so at the very moment when I +dealt him a blow over the head that would have been mortal but for the +backward move that Neroweg made in withdrawing his sword from my thigh. +My weapon thus missed its full aim, but struck him over the eye, and, by +a singular accident, plowed his face on the side opposite the one which +already bore my mark.</p> + +<p>"I told you so! Dead or living the other side of your face would be also +marked by me!" I cried at the moment when Neroweg, whose eye was put out +by my blow and whose face was bathed in blood, precipitated himself upon +me, roaring with pain and rage like an infuriated lion. Having calmly +made up my mind to kill the man, I did not allow myself to be carried +away with elation, but met his wrathful onset by throwing myself on the +defensive, and watched for the opportunity to deal him a certain and +mortal wound.</p> + +<p>We were thus engaged when Neroweg's stallion rolled to the ground under +the feet of Tom-Bras, whose rage seemed to increase with his success. +The animal almost fell upon us. Half a foot nearer, and we would both +have been thrown off our feet.</p> + +<p>At the same instant, a legion of our reserve cavalry, the<a name="page_165" id="page_165"></a> muffled sound +of whose approaching tramp had struck my oars shortly before, hove in +sight. In the impetuosity of its headlong dash, the heavily armed +cavalry legion rode rough-shod and trampled over everything that lay in +its path. The legion was three ranks deep, and approached with the +swiftness of a gale. Both Neroweg and myself were doomed to be crushed +to dust; the legion's line of battle was two hundred paces long; even if +I had time to leap upon my horse, it would have been next to impossible +to get in time out of the way of that long line of cavalry by +endeavoring to ride, however swiftly, beyond the reach of either of its +wings. Escape seemed impossible from the threatened shock. Nevertheless, +I undertook it, despite my chagrin at not having been allowed time to +despatch the Frankish king—so inveterate was my hatred of him! I took +quick advantage of the accident, that, due to the fall of Neroweg's +horse, interrupted our battle a second before, and I leaped upon the +back of Tom-Bras that was near me. It required a rude handling of the +reins and of the flat of my sword before I could cause my courser to +desist from his infuriated assault upon the other stallion that he held +under and kicked and bit unmercifully. Finally I succeeded. The long +line of cavalry reaching far to my right and left was now only a few +paces from me. I rushed ahead of it, adding with my voice and my spurs +to the speed of Tom-Bras's rapid gallop; I rode on, keeping well in the +lead of the legion, and from time to time casting a look behind to see +the Frankish king, and what became of him. With his visage streaming +blood he sought distractedly to run after me and wildly brandished his +sword. Suddenly I saw him vanish in the cloud of dust raised by the +rapid gallop of the legion of cavalry.<a name="page_166" id="page_166"></a></p> + +<p>"Hesus hearkened to my prayer!" I cried out. "Neroweg must be dead. The +legion has trampled over his body."</p> + +<p>Thanks to Tom-Bras's exceptional swiftness, I was soon far enough in +advance of the cavalry line that followed me to think of imparting to my +course a direction that enabled me to take my place to the right of the +legion's line. I immediately addressed one of the officers, inquiring +after Victorin and the turn of the battle. He answered:</p> + +<p>"Victorin is fighting like a hero. A rider who brought to our reserve +the orders to advance said to us that never before did the general +reveal such consummate skill in his manoeuvres. Being more than twice +our numbers, and above all displaying unwonted military skill, the +Franks fought stubbornly. All the indications are that the day is ours, +but it shall have been paid for dearly. Thousands of Gauls will have +bitten the dust."</p> + +<p>The officer's report was correct. Victorin again fought with a soldier's +intrepidity and the consummate skill of an experienced general. I found +him, his heart overflowing with joy, in the midst of the melee. +Miraculously enough, he had received only a slight wound. His reserve +forces, skilfully managed by him, decided the fate of the battle. The +routed Franks, rolled back three leagues with our triumphant forces +pressing close upon their heels, were being crowded towards the Rhine +despite the stubbornness of their retreat. After enormous losses a +portion of their hordes were hurled headlong into the river, others +succeeded in regaining their rafts in disorder, and in towing them with +their barks from the shore. But at that moment the flotilla of a hundred +and sixty large vessels fell upon the fleeing Franks on the river. Upon +orders from Victorin, the flotilla had sped forward,<a name="page_167" id="page_167"></a> doubled a tongue +of land behind which it had kept itself concealed until then, and came +into action. After a number of volleys of arrows that threw the Franks +on the rafts into utter demoralization, our barks boarded the rafts from +all sides. The episode that took place on the floating battlefield was +the last, but not the least bloody of that day. The barks that towed the +Frankish rafts were sunk under the blows of battle axes; the small +number of Franks who survived this supreme struggle gave themselves over +to the mercy of the river; clinging to some of the planks that were +loosened from their rafts, they were carried helplessly down stream.</p> + +<p>Although cruelly decimated, still our army thrilled with the ardor of +the fray as, massed along the bluffs of the river, it witnessed the +enemy's disastrous rout, upon which the rays of the westering sun shed +their parting light. At that sublime moment, the soldiers struck up in +chorus the heroic chant of the bard to the words and melody of which +they had stepped to battle in the morning:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left">"This morning we say:—</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> ‘How many are there of these barbarous hordes,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> Who thievishly aspire to rob us of land.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> Of homes, of wives, and of sunshine?</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> Yes, how many are there of these Franks?’</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">"This evening we'll say:—</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> ‘Make answer, thou sod, red drenched</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> In the blood of the stranger;</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> Make answer, ye deep-rolling waves of the Rhine;</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> Make answer, ye crows that flutter for carrion,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> Make answer—make answer!</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> How many were they,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> These robbers of land, of homes, of wives and of sunshine?</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> Aye, how many were there,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> Of these blood-thirsty, ravenous Franks?’"</td></tr> +</table> + +<p>The last strophes of the refrain were falling from the lips of our +soldiers when, from the other side of the river—which was so wide at +that place that the opposite bank could hardly be distinguished, veiled +moreover, as it was by the rising evening haze—I noticed a gleam that, +rapidly gaining in brightness and extent, soon spanned the horizon like +the reflection of a gigantic conflagration.</p> + +<p>Victorin immediately cried:</p> + +<p>"Our brave Marion has carried out his plans at the head of his picked +men and the allied tribes on the other side of the Rhine. He marched +with them upon the camp of the Franks. The last reserve force of the +barbarians must have been cut to pieces, and their huts and wagons given +over to the flames! By Hesus! Rid at last of the neighborhood of those +savage marauders, Gaul will now enjoy the sweets of a friendly peace! +Oh, my mother! Your prayers have been heard!"</p> + +<p>Victorin had just uttered these words with a face beaming with bliss, +when I saw a considerable body of our soldiers belonging to different +cavalry and infantry corps of the army marching slowly towards him. All +of these soldiers were old men. Douarnek marched at their head. When the +body had drawn near, Douarnek advanced alone a few steps and said in a +grave and firm voice:</p> + +<p>"Listen, Victorin! Each legion of cavalry, each cohort of infantry, +chose its oldest soldier. They are the comrades who accompany me yonder. +Like myself, they have known you from the day of your birth; like myself +they have seen you as a baby in the arms of Victoria, the Mother of the +Camps, the august mother of the soldiers. We long have loved you out of +love both for her and yourself. We acclaimed<a name="page_169" id="page_169"></a> you our general and one of +the two Chiefs of Gaul. We, veterans in war, have loved you as our son +while we obeyed you as our father. And then came the day when, ever +obeying you as our general and a Chief of Gaul, our love for you was +less—"</p> + +<p>"And why did your love for me decline?" Victorin interrupted, struck by +the solemn tone of the old soldier. "Why, pray, did your love for me +decline?"</p> + +<p>"Because we respected you less. But if you have faults, we also have +ours; to-day's battle proves it to us. We have come to make the +admission to you."</p> + +<p>"Let us hear it," replied Victorin affectionately; "let us hear what are +my faults and which are yours!"</p> + +<p>"Your faults, Victorin, are these—you love too much, much more than is +meet, both wine and pretty girls!"</p> + +<p>"By all the sweethearts that you have had, my old Douarnek, by all the +cups that you have emptied and that you will still empty, why such words +on the evening of a battle that we have won?" merrily answered Victorin, +who was slowly returning to his natural weakness, now no longer held +under by concern for the battle. "In truth! There was no need for you +and your comrades to put yourselves to the trouble of reproaching me +with my peccadillos. Speak up frankly, are these reproaches that are +usual from soldier to soldier?"</p> + +<p>"From soldier to soldier, no, Victorin!" resumed Douarnek with severity, +"but from soldier to general, yes! We freely chose you our chief; we +must speak freely to you! The more we have loved you, you, young man, +the more we have honored you, all the more are we entitled to say to +you: Keep yourself at the height of your mission!"<a name="page_170" id="page_170"></a></p> + +<p>"I endeavor to, brave Douarnek, by fighting at my best, by leading our +legions in the hottest of the fray."</p> + +<p>"All is not said when one has done his duty in battle. You are not a +captain only, you are also a Chief of Gaul!"</p> + +<p>"Be it so! But why, in the name of all the devils, do you imagine, my +brave Douarnek, that as a general and a Chief of Gaul I should be less +sensitive than a soldier to the splendor of two beautiful black or blue +eyes, or to the bouquet of good old white or red wine?"</p> + +<p>"The man chosen by free men should, even in matters that appertain to +his private life, observe wise moderation if he wishes to be beloved, +obeyed and respected. Have you observed such moderation? No! And +accordingly, having seen you swallow a pea, we have believed you capable +of gulping down an ox. It is in that that we did wrong!"</p> + +<p>"What! My boys!" the young general replied smiling. "Did you really +think I had such a maw as to be able to swallow a whole ox?"</p> + +<p>"We often saw you in your cups—we knew you to be a runner after girls. +We were told that on one occasion, being intoxicated, you violated a +woman, a tavern-keeper's wife on one of the isles of the Rhine, who +thereupon killed herself in despair. We believed the story. Were we +perhaps mistaken in that?"</p> + +<p>"Malediction!" cried Victorin indignantly and with grief depicted on his +face. "And you believed such a thing of my mother's son!"</p> + +<p>"Yes," answered the veteran, "yes—in that lay the wrong that we did. So +that we each did wrong—you and we. We have come to notify you that we +are ready to forget the past, and that our hearts remain loyal to you. +We wish you, in<a name="page_171" id="page_171"></a> turn, to forgive us, so that we may love you and you us +as in the past. Is it agreed, Victorin?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," answered Victorin, deeply moved by the veteran's loyal and +touching words; "it is agreed."</p> + +<p>"Your hand!" replied Douarnek, "in the name of our comrades."</p> + +<p>"Here it is," said the young general, stooping down over his horse's +neck in order cordially to clasp the veteran's hand. "I thank you for +your frankness, my children. I shall be to you as you are to me for the +glory and peace of Gaul. Without you I can do nothing; although it is +the general who carries the triumphal chaplet, it is the soldier's +bravery that weaves it, and imparts to it the purple of his own blood!"</p> + +<p>"It is, then, agreed, Victorin," Douarnek replied with moistening eyes. +"Our blood belongs to you, to the last drop—and to our beloved Gaul—to +your glory!"</p> + +<p>"And to my mother who made me what I am," interrupted Victorin with +increasing emotion; "and to my mother our respect, our love, our +devotion, my children!"</p> + +<p>"Long live the Mother of the Camps!" cried Douarnek in a resonant voice. +"Long live Victorin, her glorious son!"</p> + +<p>Douarnek's companions, the rest of the soldiers and officers, in short, +all of us present at this scene joined in the cheers of Douarnek:</p> + +<p>"Long live the Mother of the Camps! Long live Victorin, her glorious +son!"</p> + +<p>The whole army thereupon set itself in march back to the camp while, +under the protection of a legion that was ordered to watch our +prisoners, the medical druids and their aides remained on the field of +battle to gather the dead, and tend the wounded, both Frank and Gallic.<a name="page_172" id="page_172"></a></p> + +<p>It was a superb summer's night, that in which the army struck the road +to Mayence. As it marched, the banks of the Rhine re-echoed to the chant +of the bard:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left">"This morning we say:—</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> ‘How many are there of these barbarous hordes,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> Who thievishly aspire to rob us of land.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> Of homes, of wives, and of sunshine?</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> Yes, how many are there of these Franks?’</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">"This evening we'll say:—</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> ‘Make answer, thou sod, red drenched</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> In the blood of the stranger;</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> Make answer, ye deep-rolling waves of the Rhine;</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> Make answer, ye crows that flutter for carrion,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> Make answer—make answer!</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> How many were they,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> These robbers of land, of homes, of wives and of sunshine?</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> Aye, how many were there,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> Of these blood-thirsty, ravenous Franks?’"</td></tr> +</table> + +<p><a name="page_173" id="page_173"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XIVa" id="CHAPTER_XIVa"></a>CHAPTER XIV.<br /><br /> +THE HOMEWARD RIDE.</h3> + +<p>In his haste to inform his mother of our splendid victory, Victorin +passed the command of the troops to one of the oldest chiefs. We changed +our tired horses for two fresh ones which were always led by the reins +ready for Victorin's use, and he and I rode rapidly towards Mayence.</p> + +<p>The night was serene; the moon shone superbly among myriads of +stars—those unknown worlds where we shall proceed to live when we leave +this world. Strange! In the very midst of the ineffable bliss that I +experienced at the triumph of our army, a triumph that insured the peace +and prosperity of Gaul; in the very midst of the pleasurable thoughts of +soon again seeing your mother and you, my son, after a hard day's +fighting; in the very midst of all these pleasing emotions a sudden fit +of profound melancholy came over me, a painful presentiment saddened my +heart.</p> + +<p>In the fulness of my gratitude to the gods, I had raised my eyes to +heaven in order to thank them for our success. The moon shed its +brilliant light upon our path. I know not for what reason, but that +moment my thoughts traveled back to our ancestors, and I recalled with +sad piety all the glorious, the touching and the terrible deeds that +they had done, and upon which also the sacred luminary of Gaul shed its +never-ceasing light generations and generations ago. The<a name="page_174" id="page_174"></a> sacrifice of +Hena; the journey of Albinik the mariner and his wife Meroë to Caesar's +camp, across a region that was heroically given up to the flames by our +fathers during their war with the Romans; the nocturnal expeditions of +Sylvest the slave to the secret meetings of the Sons of the Mistletoe +and to the palace of Faustina, his escape and flight from the circus of +Orange where he came near being devoured by ferocious beasts; and +finally the bold insurrections, the formidable revolts, the signal for +which was ever given by the courses of the moon, as prearranged by our +venerable druids; all these events that lay in the distant past rose at +that moment before my mind like pale phantoms of the past.</p> + +<p>The merry voice of Victorin drew me from my meditations:</p> + +<p>"What are you dreaming about? How can you, one of the vanquishers in +this fair day's battle, be as mute as one of the vanquished?"</p> + +<p>"Victorin, I was thinking of days that are no more—of events that took +place during the centuries that have rolled by—"</p> + +<p>"A curious thought!" replied the young general; and giving a loose to +his exuberant feelings he proceeded to say: "Let us leave the past to +the empty cups and the departed sweethearts! As for me, I am thinking +first of all of my mother's joy when she will learn of our victory; +next, my thoughts run, and they run strongly, upon the burning black +eyes of Kidda the Bohemian girl, who is waiting for me. When I left her +this morning, at the close of the protracted banquet to which she drew +me by a ruse, she made an appointment with me for this evening. This +will be a well rounded day, Schanvoch! A battle in the morning, and, in +the evening, a festive supper with a charming sweetheart on<a name="page_175" id="page_175"></a> my knees! +Ah! It is pleasurable to be a soldier and twenty years of age!"</p> + +<p>"Listen, Victorin. So long as the cares of battle lay upon your mind, I +saw you wise, thoughtful and grave, as becomes a Chief of Gaul, and at +all points worthy of your mother and yourself—"</p> + +<p>"And by the beautiful eyes of Kidda, am I not still worthy of myself +when my thoughts turn to her after battle?"</p> + +<p>"Do you know, Victorin, that Douarnek's mission to you in the name of +the whole army is an evidence of the proud independence that animates +our soldiers, whose free will alone made you a general? Do you realize +that such words, pronounced by such men, are not, and will not be +vain—and that it will be fatal to forget them?"</p> + +<p>"Why, Schanvoch! It was a whim of veterans who grieve over their lost +youth—old men's words, censuring pleasures that their age can no longer +taste."</p> + +<p>"Victorin, you affect an indifference that your heart does not share. I +saw you touched, deeply affected by the language of that old +soldier—and also by the attitude of his comrades."</p> + +<p>"One feels so happy on the evening of a battle won, that everything +pleases. Besides, although his words were peevish enough, did they not +betoken the army's affection for me?"</p> + +<p>"Do not deceive yourself, Victorin! The army's affection for you +ebbed—it returned at floodtide with to-day's great victory. But, be +careful! Fresh acts of imprudence will furnish the basis for fresh +calumnies, started by those who would wish to undo you—"</p> + +<p>"And who wishes to undo me?"</p> + +<p>"A chief always has rivals who envy him secretly; and you<a name="page_176" id="page_176"></a> will not have +every day a triumph on the battle field to confound those envious souls +with. Thanks to the gods, the utter annihilation of these barbarous +hordes insures the peace of our beloved Gaul for many a year to come!"</p> + +<p>"All the better, Schanvoch! All the better! Becoming again one of Gaul's +most obscure citizens, and hanging my sword, that will have become +useless, beside that of my father, I shall then be free to empty +innumerable cups without restraint, and to make love to all the Bohemian +girls of the universe!"</p> + +<p>"Victorin! Be careful, I repeat! Remember the words of the old soldier!"</p> + +<p>"The devil take the old soldier and his foolish harangue! At this hour I +think only of Kidda! Ah! Schanvoch, if you only saw her dance with her +short skirt and her silvery corsage!"</p> + +<p>"Be careful! Both the camp and the town have their eyes upon those +Bohemian dancers! Your friendly relations with them will make a scandal! +Take my advice! Be reserved in your conduct; at any rate, veil your +amours in secrecy and obscurity!"</p> + +<p>"Obscurity? Secrecy? No hypocrisy! I love to display to the eyes of all, +the sweethearts that I am proud of! And I am even prouder of Kidda than +of to-day's victory!"</p> + +<p>"Victorin! Victorin! Be careful, or that woman will be fatal to you!"</p> + +<p>"Oh! Schanvoch! If you heard Kidda sing and dance, accompanying herself +with a tambourine—Oh! If you heard and saw her you would become as +crazily in love with her as I am! But," added the young general breaking +off the thread of his delighted description, and pointing ahead of him,<a name="page_177" id="page_177"></a> +"look at yonder torches! Heaven be praised! It is my mother! In her +anxiety to know the issue of the day she must have ridden out towards +the battle field! Oh, Schanvoch! I am young, impetuous, ardent after +pleasures, that never leave me. I enjoy them with the delight of +intoxication—and yet, I swear to you by my father's sword, I would +exchange all my future pleasures for the happiness that I am about to +experience when my mother will press me to her heart!"</p> + +<p>Saying this, the young general gave the reins to his horse and without +waiting for me rode forward to meet Victoria, who was, indeed, +approaching. When I reached the group, they had both alighted. Victoria +held Victorin in a close embrace, and was saying to him in accents +impossible to describe:</p> + +<p>"My son, I am a happy mother!"</p> + +<p>It was only then that I perceived by the light of the torches of +Victoria's escort that her right hand was bandaged. Victorin inquired +with anxiety:</p> + +<p>"Are you wounded, mother?"</p> + +<p>"Only slightly," answered Victoria. And addressing me she extended her +hand affectionately, saying:</p> + +<p>"Brother, you are with us! My heart overflows with joy!"</p> + +<p>"But who gave you the wound?"</p> + +<p>"The Frankish woman whom Ellen and Sampso brought to my house after your +departure—"</p> + +<p>"Elwig!" I cried horrified. "Oh! The accursed creature! She has approved +herself worthy of her race!"</p> + +<p>"Schanvoch," Victoria said to me gravely, "we must not curse the dead. +She whom you call Elwig lives no more—"<a name="page_178" id="page_178"></a></p> + +<p>"Mother!" cried Victorin with increased anxiety. "Dear mother! Are you +certain the wound is slight?"</p> + +<p>"Here, my son; I shall let you see it!"</p> + +<p>And in order to reassure Victorin, she unwound the bandage in which her +right hand was wrapped.</p> + +<p>"You can see for yourself," she added. "I cut myself only in two places +in the palm of my hand as I sought to disarm the woman."</p> + +<p>Indeed, the wounds that my foster-sister exhibited were two long but by +no means deep cuts. They were in no respect serious.</p> + +<p>"And Elwig was armed?" I inquired, seeking to recollect the events of +the previous evening. "Where could she have found a weapon? Unless last +evening, before starting to swim after us, she picked up her knife from +the beach and hid it under her clothes."</p> + +<p>"And how and when did the woman try to stab you, mother? Were you alone +with her?"</p> + +<p>"I asked Schanvoch to have Elwig brought to me at noon; I wanted to see +her and give her my help. Ellen and Sampso brought her to me. I happened +to be speaking with Robert, the chief of our reserves; we were +considering measures for the defense of the camp and town in the event +of our army's defeat. Elwig was taken to a contiguous apartment, and +Schanvoch's wife and sister-in-law left the stranger alone while I sent +for an interpreter to help us understand each other. At the close of my +conversation with Robert on military matters, he asked me for some help +for the widow of an old soldier. That took me to the chamber where Elwig +was waiting for me. I went in for some silver pieces which I kept in a +little casket in which were also several Gallic<a name="page_179" id="page_179"></a> jewels, necklaces and +bracelets that I inherited from my mother—"</p> + +<p>"If the casket was open," I cried, the savage cupidity of Neroweg's +sister flashing through my mind, "Elwig, like the true daughter of a +race of thieves, must have wished to seize some of the precious +articles."</p> + +<p>"And that was how it happened, Schanvoch. When I entered, the young +Frankish woman was holding in her hand a gold necklace of exquisite +workmanship. She was contemplating it greedily. The moment she saw me +she dropped the necklace at her feet, and crossing her arms over her +breast she looked at me for a moment in silence and with a savage +expression. Her pale face became red with shame and rage. She then gave +me a somber look, and pronounced my name. I supposed she asked whether I +was Victoria. I nodded my head affirmatively and said: 'Yes, I am +Victoria.' I had hardly uttered the words when Elwig threw herself at my +feet. Her forehead almost touched the floor, as if she humbly implored +my protection. The woman must doubtlessly have profited by the movement +to draw her knife from under her clothes without my perceiving it. I +stooped down to raise her, when she suddenly leaped up, and with eyes +that shot fire sought to stab me, while saying 'Victoria!' 'Victoria!' +in a tone of rooted hatred."</p> + +<p>Although the danger was over, Victorin shuddered at the report that his +mother was making; he approached her, gently took the wounded hand +between his own, and kissed it tenderly and lovingly.</p> + +<p>"When I saw Elwig's knife raised over me," added Victoria, "my first and +involuntary movement was to parry the blow and try to seize the knife, +while I cried aloud to Robert<a name="page_180" id="page_180"></a> for help. Robert rushed in and saw me +struggling with Elwig. I was cut in the hand and my blood flowed. Robert +believed me dangerously wounded, drew his sword, seized Elwig by the +throat, and despatched her before I had time to stay his hand. I deplore +the death of the Frankish woman—she came voluntarily to my house."</p> + +<p>"You pity her, mother!" cried Victorin. "That creature thievish and +savage like the rest of her kith! You pity her! I feel certain that she +followed Schanvoch only in order to find an opportunity to introduce +herself into your house, cut your throat and then rob you!"</p> + +<p>"I pity her for being born of such a stock," answered Victoria sadly. "I +pity her for having harbored murder in her heart."</p> + +<p>"Believe me," I said to my foster-sister. "That woman's death is a just +punishment; besides it puts an end to a life that was soiled with crimes +at which nature shudders. May it have pleased the gods that, like Elwig, +her brother Neroweg lost his life to-day, and that his stock may be +extinguished in him. I will otherwise regret all my life that I did not +finish the man when I had a chance. I have a presentiment that his +descendants will be fatal to mine."</p> + +<p>Victoria gave me a look of astonishment at hearing me utter these words, +the sense of which she could not comprehend.</p> + +<p>But Victorin turned her thoughts and mine into other channels, +exclaiming:</p> + +<p>"Hesus be blessed, mother! This was a happy day for Gaul! You escaped a +grave danger, and our arms are victorious! The Franks are driven from +our frontier!—"<a name="page_181" id="page_181"></a></p> + +<p>Victorin broke off; he seemed to listen to a sound in the distance; with +flashing eyes he resumed:</p> + +<p>"Do you hear, mother? Do you hear the song that the wind carries to our +ears?"</p> + +<p>We all remained silent; and repeated in chorus by thousands of voices +tremulous with the joy of triumph, the following refrain reached us +across the stillness of the night:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left">"This morning we said:—</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> ‘How many are there of these barbarians?’</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">This evening we say:—</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> ‘How many were there of these blood-thirsty Franks!’"</td></tr> +</table> + +<p><a name="page_182" id="page_182"></a></p> + +<p><a name="page_183" id="page_183"></a></p> + +<h2><a name="PART_II" id="PART_II"></a>PART II.<br /> +DOMESTIC TRAITORS.</h2> + +<p><a name="page_184" id="page_184"></a></p> + +<p><a name="page_185" id="page_185"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.<br /><br /> +GATHERING SHADOWS.</h3> + +<p>Several years have elapsed since I wrote for you, my child, the account +that closed with the great battle of the Rhine.</p> + +<p>The utter annihilation of the Frankish hordes and the simultaneous +destruction of their establishment on the other side of the river, freed +Gaul of the perpetual fear that she stood in, of a threatened invasion +of barbarians. Perhaps from their retreat in the woods of northern +Germany the Franks are now only awaiting a favorable opportunity to +swoop down again upon Gaul. But for all the joy of this deliverance, I +now resume my narrative after having experienced years of bitter sorrow. +Great misfortunes have befallen me across this interval. I have seen a +frightful intrigue of hypocrisy and malice unfold before my eyes. Since +then an incurable sadness has taken possession of my soul. I left the +borders of the Rhine for Brittany; here I established myself with your +second mother and you, my son, at the identical place that long ago was +the cradle of our family—near the sacred stones of Karnak, the +witnesses of the heroic sacrifice of our ancestress Hena.</p> + +<p>Only yesterday, as I was returning from the fields with you—from a +soldier I have become a field laborer like our fathers in the days of +their independence—only yesterday I<a name="page_186" id="page_186"></a> pointed out to you, on the border +of the stream, two hollow willow trees; they were old. Their age must +now be more than three hundred years. They are so very, very old that +they no longer put forth but a few straggling leaves. You asked me to +tie a rope between the two trees for you to swing yourself. You noticed +with surprise that I grew sad at your request, and that I suddenly +became pensive.</p> + +<p>It occurred to me how, nearly three hundred years ago, by a strange +coincidence it occurred to Sylvest and his sister Syomara to tie a rope +between those identical trees in order to disport themselves. Nor were, +alas! those recollections the only ones that those two centenarian +trunks brought back to my mind. I said to you:</p> + +<p>"Look at those two trees with sadness and veneration, my son. One of our +ancestors, Guilhern, the son of Joel, the brenn of the tribe of Karnak, +died an atrocious death bound to one of them; Guilhern's son, a lad a +little older than yourself and named Sylvest, was tied to the other +willow to die the same death as his father. An unexpected accident +snatched him from the frightful fate."<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p> + +<p>"And what was their crime?" you asked me.</p> + +<p>"The crime of the father and of his son was to have tried to escape from +bondage, so as not to be forced to cultivate under a master's whip, with +the slave's collar on their necks and chains to their feet, the fields +that were their own patrimony. They wished to escape cultivating those +fields for the benefit of the Romans who had robbed them of them."</p> + +<p>My answer astonished you still more, my child—you who always lived +happy and free, who until now have known no other grief than that of the +loss of your dear mother, of<a name="page_187" id="page_187"></a> whom you have preserved only a vague +memory. You were barely four years and two months old a short time after +the victory that Gaul won over the Franks on the border of the Rhine.</p> + +<p>You will remember that I broke off our conversation, and that I relapsed +into one of those fits of melancholy that I find it impossible to +overcome every time I recall the terrible domestic catastrophes that +befell us on the Rhine. But I always regain courage when I remember the +duty imposed upon me by our ancestor Joel, who lived nearly three +hundred years ago in the same place where we are now again established +after our family's having experienced innumerable vicissitudes.</p> + +<p>When you will be old enough to read these pages, my son, you will +understand the cause of these mortal fits of sadness in which you have +often seen me steeped, despite your second mother's tenderness, whom I +could not cherish too dearly. Yes, when you will have read the last and +solemn words of Victoria, the Mother of the Camps, dreadful words, you +will then understand that, however painful may be to me the past that +will throw a shadow over my path until death, the future that is perhaps +in store for Gaul by the mysterious will of Hesus, must fill me with +still greater anguish—and you will share my anguish, my son, when you +reflect over the wise and profound observation of our ancestor Sylvest:</p> + +<p>"Alas, every time the nation is wounded the family bleeds."</p> + +<p>Aye, if Victoria was endowed with the science of foreseeing the future, +as so many of our venerable female druids have been before her; if ever +her redoubtable prophecies are verified—then, woe is Gaul! Woe is our +race! Woe is our family! A longer period of even more cruel sufferings +will<a name="page_188" id="page_188"></a> lie before our country under the yoke of the Rome of the Bishops +than it experienced under the yoke of the Rome of the Caesars and the +Emperors!</p> + +<p>As I said before, I now resume the thread of my narrative where I +dropped it several years ago.</p> + +<p>After an extensive conversation on the events of the day, Victorin and +his mother returned to Mayence, where they arrived late in the evening. +Pretending great fatigue and some pain from the light wound that he +received, the young general retired. The moment he reached his house he +threw off his armor, and wrapping himself in his cloak repaired to the +Bohemian girls.</p> + +<p>"That woman will be fatal to you," were my words to the young general on +our way from the battle field. Alas! My foresight was destined to prove +true. By the way of these creatures, keep in mind, my son, a +circumstance with which I later became acquainted; you will presently +appreciate its importance—those Bohemian girls came to Mayence two days +after the arrival of Tetrik in the same town, and they arrived from +Gascony, the department that he governed.</p> + +<p>This discovery, together with many others, imparted to me such accurate +information on certain facts that I am enabled to describe them the same +as if I had been present.</p> + +<p>As I said, Victorin left his house at night to keep his assignation with +Kidda, the Bohemian girl. He had met her only the previous evening for +the first time. She made a deep impression upon him. He was young, +handsome, bright and generous. That very day he had won a glorious +battle. He was well aware of the easy morals of those strolling singers, +who, in effect, were nothing but courtesans. He felt certain<a name="page_189" id="page_189"></a> that he +would possess the object of this latest whim. How great must his +surprise have been when Kidda said to him with well simulated firmness, +sadness and repressed passion:</p> + +<p>"Victorin, I shall not speak to you of my virtue; you will laugh at the +virtue of a strolling Bohemian singer. But you may believe me when I say +that long before I saw you, your glorious name had reached me. Your +renown for valor and goodness made my heart beat, unworthy of you as +that heart is, seeing that I am a poor, degraded creature. Believe me, +Victorin," she added with tears in her eyes, "if I were pure, you would +have my love and my life; but I am soiled; I do not deserve your +attention. I love you too passionately, I honor you too much ever to +offer to you the remains of an existence debased by men, who are not +worthy of being compared with you."</p> + +<p>So far from cooling, the hypocritical language fired the ardor of +Victorin; it exalted him beyond measure. His sensual whim for the woman +was speedily transformed into a consuming and mad passion. Despite his +protestations of devotion, despite his entreaties, despite his tears—he +actually wept at the feet of the execrable woman—the Bohemian remained +inexorable. Victorin's nature underwent thereupon a marked change. From +mirthful, pleasant and open, it became retired and morose. He grew +somber and taciturn. Both his mother and I were ignorant at the time of +the cause of the change. To our pressing questions the young general +would answer that, being struck by the manifestations of displeasure +that the army had shown towards him, he did not wish to expose himself +to a recurrence of their anger; thenceforth his life was to be austere +and retired. With the exception of a few hours that he consecrated every +day to his<a name="page_190" id="page_190"></a> mother, Victorin now rarely left his house, and he avoided +the company of his former boon companions. Struck, on their part, by his +sudden change of deportment, the soldiers saw in it only the salutary +effect of the remonstrances made to their young general in their name by +Douarnek. They cherished him more than ever before. I later learned +that, in his self-imposed solitude, the unhappy man habitually drank +himself into utter stupor in order to forget his fatal passion, and that +every evening he repaired to the Bohemian dancer's, only, however, to +find her pitiless as ever.</p> + +<p>About a month passed in this manner. Tetrik remained in Mayence in order +to overcome Victoria's repugnance to the idea of having her grandson +acclaimed the heir of his father's office. But Victoria ever answered +the Governor of Gascony, saying:</p> + +<p>"Ritha-Gaur, who made himself a blouse of the beard of the kings whom he +shaved, overthrew royalty in Gaul about ten centuries ago. He held that, +under royalty, it is the people and their descendants who are +transmitted by hereditary right, to kings, and that these are rarely +good, and generally bad. More and more enlightened by our venerable +druids, the Gauls have wisely preferred to elect the chief whom they +consider worthiest to govern them. They thus constituted themselves into +a Republic. My grandson is still a child in his cradle; no one can know +whether he will later have the qualities that are necessary for the +government of a great people like ours. To acknowledge this child to-day +as the heir of his father's office is tantamount to restoring the +royalty that we have wisely overthrown. I hate royalty as much as did +Ritha-Gaur."</p> + +<p>Still hoping to overcome the resolution of the Mother of<a name="page_191" id="page_191"></a> the Camps by +his persistence, Tetrik prolonged his stay in Mayence—at least I was +long under the impression that such was the only reason for his +postponing his departure. Nor did Tetrik seem to be less surprised at +the unaccountable change that came over Victorin. The latter, although +plunged in brooding sadness, still preserved his affection for me. I +even thought that more than once he was on the point of opening his +heart to me and of confiding to me what he there kept hidden. Later, +however, he ceased calling at my house as he formerly used to, and +seemed even to avoid meeting me. His features, once so handsome and +open, were no longer the same. Pale with suffering, worn by excessive +and solitary indulgence in wine, their expression gradually assumed a +sinister aspect. At times a sort of dementia seemed to speak out of his +alternately fixed and wandering gaze.</p> + +<p>About five weeks after the great battle of the Rhine, Victorin resumed +his visits to my house. The turn was marked, both in point of suddenness +and assiduity. Noticeable was the circumstance that the hours which he +chose for his visits were those during which Sampso and my wife were +home alone, I being at Victoria's writing the letters which she +dictated. Ellen received the son of my foster-sister with her wonted +affability. At first I imagined that, sorry at having kept himself away +from me without cause and by a mere whim, he sought to bring about a +reconciliation by means of my wife. I believed this all the more seeing +that, despite his persistence in seeking to avoid me, he never spoke of +me to Ellen except in terms of deep affection. Sampso was usually +present at the conversations between her sister and Victorin. Only once +did she leave them alone, and then, when she returned she was struck by +the painful expression on my<a name="page_192" id="page_192"></a> wife's face and the visible embarrassment +shown by Victorin, who speedily took his departure.</p> + +<p>"What is the matter, Ellen?" asked Sampso.</p> + +<p>"Sister, I conjure you, never again leave me alone with Victoria's son. +May it please the gods that I am mistaken! But to judge from some broken +words that Victorin let drop, to judge by the expression of his face, I +imagine that he is moved by a guilty love for me—and yet he is aware of +my devotion to Schanvoch!"</p> + +<p>"Sister!" exclaimed Sampso, "Victorin's excesses have ever shocked me, +but latterly he seems to have changed. The sacrifice of his unregulated +pleasures doubtlessly costs him much; notwithstanding the young +general's changed conduct is praised by everyone, they all comment on +his profound sadness. I can not believe him capable of thinking of +dishonoring your husband, who loves Victorin as if he were his own +child, and who even saved his life in battle. You must be mistaken, +Ellen! No! Such baseness is not possible!"</p> + +<p>"I only hope you are right, Sampso; nevertheless, I must conjure you not +to leave me alone with Victorin if he comes again. At any rate, I mean +to tell all to Schanvoch."</p> + +<p>"Be careful, Ellen. If, as I believe, you are mistaken, you would but +raise a frightful and unjustified suspicion in your husband's breast. +You know how attached he is to Victoria and her son. Only imagine +Schanvoch's despair at such a revelation! Ellen, follow my advice, +receive Victorin once more alone. Should your suspicions grow into +certainty, then, hesitate no longer—reveal Victorin's treachery to +Schanvoch. It would otherwise be imprudent on your part to awaken in him +suspicions that may be wholly baseless. An<a name="page_193" id="page_193"></a> infamous hypocrite, however, +should be unmasked, when there is no longer any doubt as to his +purpose."</p> + +<p>Ellen promised her sister to follow her advice. But Victorin never +returned. I learned all these details only later. This happened in the +course of the fifth or sixth week after the great battle of the Rhine, +and exactly eight days before the catastrophe that it is my duty, my +son, to relate to you.</p> + +<p>On that fateful day I spent the early part of the evening near Victoria +conferring with her upon an urgent mission on which I was to depart on +that very evening, and which might keep me several days from home. +Although Victorin promised his mother to be present at the conference, +the purpose of which was known to him, he remained away. I did not +wonder at his absence. For some time, and without it being possible for +me to fathom his whimsical conduct, he had avoided all opportunity of +encountering me. Victoria said to me pathetically when I left her at the +usual hour:</p> + +<p>"Private feelings must be hushed before interests of state. I have +spoken to you fully on the subject of the mission that I have charged +you with, Schanvoch. And now the mother will unbosom her private grief. +I had this morning a sad conversation with my son. I vainly implored him +to confide to me the cause of the secret sorrow that is consuming him. +He answered me with a distressful smile:</p> + +<p>"'Mother, one time you reproached me with my levity and my too strong +taste for pleasures—those days are now far behind—I now live in +solitude and meditation. My lodging, where formerly the joyful din of +song and revelry by torch light used to keep the night astir, is now +lonely, silent and somber—like myself. Our scrupulous soldiers feel +edified at my conversion, and now no longer reproach me with too<a name="page_194" id="page_194"></a> much +love for joy, wine and women! What more do you want, mother?'</p> + +<p>"'I want much more,' I replied to him, unable to restrain my tears. 'I +want to see you happy as in the past. You suffer, my son; you suffer a +pain that you conceal from me. The consciousness of a wise and +thoughtful life, as becomes the chief of a great people, imparts to his +face a grave yet serene expression. Your face, however, is haggard, +sinister, pale, like that of a man distracted and in despair—'"</p> + +<p>"And what did Victorin say to that?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing. He relapsed into the gloomy brooding in which I find him so +often plunged, and from which he emerges only to cast wandering looks +about. I then showed him his child, whom I held in my arms. He took it, +kissed it several times with great tenderness, put it back into its +cradle, and left abruptly without saying a word. I believe he wished to +hide his tears from me. I saw that he wept. Oh! Schanvoch, my heart +breaks when I think of the future that seemed to me so rosy for Gaul, +for my son and for me!"</p> + +<p>I sought to console Victoria by joining her in conjecturing the cause of +her son's mysterious grief. The hour grew late. I was to travel all that +night in order to fulfil my mission as promptly as possible. I left my +foster-sister's and proceeded home in order to embrace your mother and +you, my son, before starting on my journey.<a name="page_195" id="page_195"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.<br /><br /> +THE CATASTROPHE.</h3> + +<p>When I reached home, my son, I found your mother Ellen and her sister +Sampso seated near your cradle. The moment Sampso saw me she cried:</p> + +<p>"You arrive in time, Schanvoch, to help me convince Ellen that her fears +are groundless—she is weeping—"</p> + +<p>"What ails you, Ellen? What afflicts you?"</p> + +<p>She dropped her head, made no answer, and continued weeping.</p> + +<p>"She does not dare to admit to you the cause of her affliction, +Schanvoch; my sister weeps because you are about to depart."</p> + +<p>"What?" I asked Ellen in a tone of tender reproach, "you who are always +so brave even when I leave for battle, are now timorous and tearful when +I am only going on a peaceful journey that will not keep me away more +than a few days—a journey into Gaul, where peace reigns! Ellen, your +apprehensions are groundless."</p> + +<p>"That is exactly what I have been repeating to my sister. Your journey +does not expose you to any danger; and if you depart to-night it is +because the matter is urgent."</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed! Why, it must be a positive pleasure to journey in the +manner that I am about to do—on a mild<a name="page_196" id="page_196"></a> summer's night, across the +smiling fields of our own beautiful country that is to-day so calm and +peaceful!"</p> + +<p>"I know all that," said Ellen in a tremulous voice. "My alarm is +senseless; and yet this journey fills me with dread."</p> + +<p>And stretching her arms towards me imploringly:</p> + +<p>"Schanvoch, my beloved husband, do not depart; I conjure you—do not +depart—"</p> + +<p>"Ellen," I replied sadly, "for the first time in my life I am compelled +to answer you with a refusal—"</p> + +<p>"I beg you, stay near me!"</p> + +<p>"I would sacrifice everything to you, my duty excepted. The mission with +which I am charged by Victoria is important—I promised to fulfil it. I +must keep my word."</p> + +<p>"Well, then, go," answered my wife amid a paroxysm of sobs, "and let my +fate come upon me; it is your will!"</p> + +<p>"Sampso, what fate does she mean?"</p> + +<p>"Alas! Since this morning my sister has been a prey to gloomy +presentiments. She admitted them to be as unaccountable as I considered +them myself, and yet she is unable to overcome them. She says she feels +certain that she will never see you again—or that some grave peril +threatens you during your journey."</p> + +<p>"Ellen, my beloved wife," I said, clasping her to my heart, "need I tell +you that, short as our separation may be, it is always hard for me to be +away from you? Would you add to that sorrow, the even greater one of +having to leave you in such a desolate state?"</p> + +<p>"Pardon me," answered Ellen making a strong effort over herself. "You +are right; such weakness is unworthy of the wife of a soldier. See; I +have stopped weeping. I am calm; your words have reassured me; I am +ashamed of my timorous<a name="page_197" id="page_197"></a> terrors; but in the name of our child who is now +asleep in his cradle, do not go away annoyed at me. Let your good-bye +caresses be tender as ever; I shall need that; yes, I shall need that in +order to recover the courage that I am deficient in to-day."</p> + +<p>Despite her apparent resignation, my wife seemed to suffer so much under +the restraint that she imposed upon herself, that for a moment I thought +of requesting Victoria to transfer the commission to Captain Marion, to +the end that I might remain at home. One consideration held me back from +putting the thought into execution; the time was too short. Seeing that +the journey had to be undertaken that same night, Captain Marion could +not possibly start on the spot. It would take hours in order to post the +captain upon a matter of which he knew absolutely nothing, and which +demanded promptness for success. Yielding to my duty, and, I must also +say, convinced of the idleness of Ellen's fears, I decided to depart. I +clasped her in my arms, and recommending her to the tender care of +Sampso, I mounted my horse and rode off.</p> + +<p>It was ten o'clock at night. A rider was to serve as my escort and +messenger in case I had occasion to write to Victoria on the road. The +rider was chosen for me by Captain Marion, to whom I applied for a +reliable man; I found him ready, waiting for me at one of the gates of +Mayence, and we trotted forth together. Although the moon was not to +rise until late, the night was luminous by the light of the stars. I +noticed, although without attaching at the time any importance to the +circumstance, that, despite the mildness of the season, my traveling +companion had on a heavy coat the hood of which fell down deep over his +casque, so that even<a name="page_198" id="page_198"></a> in full daylight it would have been difficult for +me to see the man's face. Although a simple soldier like myself, instead +of riding beside me, he allowed me to ride ahead of him without +exchanging a word. On any other occasion, and being like all Gauls of a +chatty disposition, I would not have accepted this mark of exaggerated +deference; it would have deprived me of the conversation of a companion +during a long ride. But I was saddened by the condition in which I had +left my wife, and as despite myself, my mind insisted upon turning upon +the sad forebodings that alarmed her, the sense of sadness grew upon me +in the measure that the distance separating us increased; consequently I +did not regret being left to my reflections during a part of the night. +Thus, the rider following me, we traveled away from the town.</p> + +<p>We had ridden about two hours without exchanging a word; the moon due in +the sky towards midnight began to show her disk behind a hill that +bounded the horizon. We had arrived at a crossing where four highways, +built by the Romans, met. I slackened Tom-Bras's pace in order to +ascertain the road I was to take, when suddenly my traveling companion +raised his voice behind me and cried:</p> + +<p>"Schanvoch, ride back home at full tilt—a horrible crime is being +committed at this hour in your house!"</p> + +<p>At these words I quickly turned in my saddle. By the glamour of the +rising moon I could see the rider give a stupendous bound with his +horse, clear the hedge that lined the road, and vanish in the shadow of +the forest that we had been skirting for some time. Struck dumb with +terror, I remained motionless for a moment; when, yielding to an impulse +of curiosity and anguish, I thought of dashing after the rider and +compelling an explanation of his words, it was<a name="page_199" id="page_199"></a> too late. The moon was +not yet far up enough to justify my pursuing the fugitive through the +wood, which, moreover, was unknown to me. Besides, the rider had too +much the lead of me. I listened intently for a moment, and I could hear +in the profound stillness of the night the rapid gallop of the man's +horse. He was far away. It seemed to me that he resumed the road to +Mayence through the forest, consequently by a shorter route. For a +moment I hesitated what to do. But recalling my wife's unaccountable +forebodings and comparing them with the rider's words, I turned my +horse's head and dashed back to the city.</p> + +<p>"If," I thought to myself, "by some unconceivable accident the +announcement to which I hearkened was as ill founded as Ellen's +forebodings, with which, however, it strangely coincided; if my alarm +turns out to be vain, I shall take a fresh horse at the camp and +immediately resume my journey, which will have been delayed by three +hours."</p> + +<p>With voice and heels I urged on the rapid course of my horse Tom-Bras, +and I rode headlong towards Mayence. In the measure that I approached +the place where I left my wife and child, the gloomiest thoughts crowded +upon me. What crime could it be that was being committed in my house? +Was it to a friend, or was it to an enemy that I owed the revelation? At +times I imagined the rider's voice was not unknown to me, yet I could +not remember where I had heard it before. That which, above all, added +fuel to my anxiety was the mysterious accord between the announcement +just made to me and the presentiments that alarmed Ellen. The rising +moon aided the swiftness of my course as it lighted the road. Trees, +fields, houses vanished behind me with giddy swiftness. I consumed less +than an hour in covering<a name="page_200" id="page_200"></a> the same route that I had just spent two hours +over. At last I reached the gates of Mayence. I felt Tom-Bras trembling +under me, not for want of ardor or courage, but because his strength was +spent. Seeing a soldier mounting guard, I said:</p> + +<p>"Did you see a rider enter town this night?"</p> + +<p>"About a quarter of an hour ago," the soldier answered, "a rider wrapped +in a hooded mantle went by at a gallop. He rode towards the camp."</p> + +<p>"It is he," I said to myself, and resumed my course at the risk of +seeing Tom-Bras expire under me. There could be no doubt; my traveling +companion made a short cut through the forest, but why did he proceed to +the camp, instead of entering the town? A few moments later I arrived +before my house. I leaped down from my horse that neighed gladly as he +recognized the place. I ran to the door and knocked hard. No one opened +to me, but I heard muffled cries within. Again I knocked with the handle +of my sword, but in vain. The cries grew louder; I thought I heard +Sampso's voice—I tried to break down the door—impossible. Suddenly the +window of my wife's room was thrown open. I ran thither sword in hand. +At the instant when I arrived at the casement, the shutters were pulled +open from within. I rushed through the passage and found myself face to +face with a man. The darkness prevented me from recognizing him. He was +in the act of fleeing from Ellen's room, whose heartrending cries then +reached my ears. To seize the man by the throat at the moment when he +put his foot upon the window sill in order to escape, to throw him back +into the pitch dark room, and to strike him several times with my sword +while I cried: 'Ellen, here I am!'—all this happened<a name="page_201" id="page_201"></a> with the +swiftness of thought. I drew my sword from the body that lay at my feet +and was about to plunge it again into the carcass—my rage was +uncontrollable—when I felt two arms clasp me convulsively. I thought +myself attacked by a second adversary and forthwith ran the other body +through. The arms that had been thrown around my neck immediately +loosened their hold, and at the same time I heard these words pronounced +by an expiring voice:</p> + +<p>"Schanvoch—you have killed me—thanks, my friend—it is sweet to me to +die at your hands—I would not have been able to survive my shame—"</p> + +<p>It was Ellen's voice.</p> + +<p>My wife had run, dumb with terror, to place herself under my protection. +It was her arms that had clasped me. I heard her fall upon the floor. I +remained thunder-struck. My sword dropped from my hand; for several +seconds the silence of death reigned in the room that was perfectly dark +except for a beam of pale light that fell from the moon through the +lattice of one of the shutters that the wind had blown to. The shutter +was suddenly thrown open again from without, and by the light of the +moon I saw a tall and slender woman, clad in a short red skirt and a +silvery corsage, resting with her knee upon the outer window sill and +leaning her head into the room say:</p> + +<p>"Victorin, handsome Tarquin of a new Lucretia, quit the house; the night +is far advanced. I saw you enter the door at midnight, the hour agreed +upon, the husband being away. You shall now leave your charmer's house +by the window, the passage of lovers. You kept your promise—now I am +yours. Come, my cart awaits us. Venus will protect us!"<a name="page_202" id="page_202"></a></p> + +<p>"Victorin!" I cried horrified, believing myself the sport of a frightful +nightmare. "It was he—I killed him!"</p> + +<p>"The husband!" exclaimed Kidda, the Bohemian, leaping back. "It must be +the devil that brought him back!"</p> + +<p>And she vanished.</p> + +<p>Immediately afterwards I heard the sound of a cart's wheels and the +clinking of the bell of the mule that drew it rapidly away, while from +another direction, from the quarter of the camp, I heard a distant roar +that drew steadily nearer and resembled the hubbub of a tumultuous mob. +My stupor was followed by a distressful agony lighted by a faint ray of +hope—perhaps Ellen was not dead. I ran to the inside chamber; it was +closed from within. I knocked and called Sampso at the top of my voice. +She answered me from another room, in which she had been locked up. I +set her free, crying aloud:</p> + +<p>"I struck Ellen with my sword in the dark—the wound may not be +mortal;—run for the druid Omer—"</p> + +<p>"I shall run to him on the spot," answered Sampso without asking me any +questions.</p> + +<p>She rushed to the house door which was bolted from within. As she opened +it I saw a mob of soldiers advancing over the square where my house was +situated and which was close to the entrance of the camp. Several +soldiers carried torches; all uttered loud and threatening cries in +which the name of Victorin constantly recurred.</p> + +<p>I recognized the veteran Douarnek at the head of the mob. He was +brandishing his sword.</p> + +<p>"Schanvoch," he cried the moment he recognized me, "the rumor has just +run over the camp that a shocking crime was committed in your house!"<a name="page_203" id="page_203"></a></p> + +<p>"And the criminal is Victorin!" cried several voices drowning mine. +"Death to the infamous fellow!"</p> + +<p>"Death to the infamous fellow, who violated the wife of his friend!"</p> + +<p>"Just as he violated the wife of the tavern-keeper on the Rhine, who +killed herself in despair."</p> + +<p>"The cowardly hypocrite pretended to have mended his ways!"</p> + +<p>"To dishonor a soldier's wife! The wife of Schanvoch, who loved the +debauché as if he were his own son!"</p> + +<p>"And who, moreover, saved his life in battle!"</p> + +<p>"Death! Death to the wretch!"</p> + +<p>I found it impossible to dominate the furious cries with my voice; +Sampso vainly sought to cross the crowd.</p> + +<p>"For pity's sake, let me pass!" Sampso implored them. "I wish to fetch a +physician druid. Ellen still breathes; her wound may not be mortal! Let +me bring her help!"</p> + +<p>Her words only served to redouble the indignation and fury of the +soldiers. Instead of opening a passage for my wife's sister, they drove +her back as they crowded towards the door. A compact and enraged mass +stood there brandishing their swords, shaking their fists and +vociferating:</p> + +<p>"Death! Death to Victorin!"</p> + +<p>"He slew Schanvoch's wife after doing violence to her!"</p> + +<p>"She has died as the tavern-keeper's wife on the Rhine!"</p> + +<p>"Victorin!" thundered Douarnek. "You will not this time escape +punishment for your crimes!"</p> + +<p>"We shall be your executioners!"</p> + +<p>"Death! Death to Victorin!"</p> + +<p>"It is impossible to break through the crowd and fetch a physician for +my sister—she is lost!" Sampso cried out to<a name="page_204" id="page_204"></a> me wringing her hands, +while I vainly strove to make myself heard by the delirious crowd.</p> + +<p>"I shall try to get out by the window," said Sampso.</p> + +<p>Saying this the distracted girl rushed into the mortuary chamber, and I, +making superhuman efforts to prevent the infuriated soldiers from +invading my house in search of the general, for whose blood they +thirsted, cried out to them:</p> + +<p>"Withdraw! Leave me alone in this house of mourning! Justice has been +done! Withdraw, comrades, withdraw!"</p> + +<p>An ever heightening tumult drowned my words. I saw Sampso issuing from +your mother's room carrying you, my son, in her arms. She was sobbing +aloud and said:</p> + +<p>"Brother, there is no hope! Ellen is rigid—her heart has stopped +beating—she is dead!"</p> + +<p>"Dead! Oh, dead! Hesus, have pity upon me!" I moaned and leaned against +the wall of the vestibule; I felt my strength leaving me. Suddenly, +however, a thrill ran through my frame. From mouth to mouth these words +began to circulate among the soldiers:</p> + +<p>"Here is Victoria! Here comes our mother!"</p> + +<p>As the words were uttered the crowd swayed back from the entrance of my +house to make room for my foster-sister. Such was the respect that the +august woman inspired in the army, that silence speedily succeeded the +tumultuous clamors of the soldiers. They realized the terrible position +of that mother, who, attracted by the cries for justice and vengeance +uttered against her own son, accused of an infamous crime, approached +the scene in all the majesty of her maternal grief.</p> + +<p>As to me, my heart felt like breaking. Victoria, my foster-sister, the +woman in whose behalf my life had been but one continuous day of +devotion—Victoria was about to find in my<a name="page_205" id="page_205"></a> house the corpse of her son, +slain by me—by me who knew him since his birth, and who loved him like +my own! The thought of fleeing flashed through my mind—I lacked the +physical strength. I remained where I was, supporting myself against the +wall—distracted—vaguely looking before me, unable to stir.</p> + +<p>The crowd of soldiers parted; they formed a long passage; and by the +light of the moon and the torches I saw Victoria, clad in her long black +robe and her little grandson in her arms, advancing slowly. She +doubtlessly hoped to soothe the exasperation of the soldiers by +presenting the innocent creature to their sight. Tetrik, Captain Marion +and several other officers, who had notified Victoria of the tumult and +its cause, followed behind her. They seemed to succeed in calming the +seething fury of the troops. The silence grew solemn. The Mother of the +Camps was only a few steps from my house when Douarnek approached her, +and bending his knee said:</p> + +<p>"Mother, your son has committed a great crime—we pity you from the +bottom of our hearts. But you will see to it that justice is rendered +us—we demand justice—"</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes, justice!" cried the soldiers, whose irritation, after being +checked for a moment, now broke out with renewed violence. The cry broke +forth from all parts: "Justice! Or we will do justice ourselves!"</p> + +<p>"Death to the infamous wretch!"</p> + +<p>"Death to the man who dishonored his friend's wife!"</p> + +<p>"Cursed be the name of Victorin!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, cursed—cursed!" repeated a thousand threatening voices. "Cursed +be his name forever!"</p> + +<p>Pale, calm and imposing, Victoria stopped for a moment before Douarnek, +who bent his knee as he addressed her. But<a name="page_206" id="page_206"></a> when the cries of: "Death to +Victorin!" "Cursed be his name!" exploded anew, my foster-sister, whose +virile and beautiful countenance betrayed mortal anguish, stretched out +her arms with the little child in them, as if the innocent creature +implored mercy for its father.</p> + +<p>It was then that the cries broke forth with fiercest violence:</p> + +<p>"Death to Victorin! Cursed be his name!"</p> + +<p>And immediately I perceived my recent traveling companion, recognizable +by his cloak and hood, in which he still kept himself closely wrapped, +push himself with a menacing air toward Victoria, and shaking his fist +at her, cry:</p> + +<p>"Yes, cursed be the name of Victorin! Let his stock be uprooted!"</p> + +<p>Saying this the man violently tore the child from Victoria's arms, took +it by the two feet, and dashed it with such fury upon the cobble-stones +that its head was instantly shattered. The deed of ferocity was done +with such brutality and swiftness that, although it aroused instant +indignation, neither Douarnek nor any of the soldiers who precipitated +themselves upon the hooded man to save the child were in time. The +innocent child lay dead and bleeding upon the ground. I heard a +heartrending cry escape Victoria, but immediately lost sight of her; +fearing that some sort of danger threatened her life, the soldiers +speedily surrounded and built with their breasts a wall around their +mother. The rumor also reached my ears that, thanks to the tumult which +ensued, the perpetrator of the horrible murder had succeeded in making +his escape. Presently the ranks of the soldiers opened anew amid +mournful silence, and again I perceived Victoria, her face bathed in +tears, holding in her arms the now lifeless and bleeding body of +Victorin's son. At the sight, I cried out<a name="page_207" id="page_207"></a> from the threshold of my +house to the crowd that was now dumb and in consternation:</p> + +<p>"You demand justice? Justice has been done. I, Schanvoch, I have killed +Victorin myself. He is innocent of my wife's death. Now, withdraw. Allow +the Mother of the Camps to enter my house that she may weep over the +bodies of her son and grandson."</p> + +<p>Victoria thereupon said to me in a firm voice as she stood at the +threshold of my house:</p> + +<p>"You killed my son; you were right to avenge the outrage done to you."</p> + +<p>"Yes," I answered her in a hollow voice, "yes, and in the dark I also +killed my wife."</p> + +<p>"Come, Schanvoch, join me in closing the eyelids of Ellen and +Victorin."<a name="page_208" id="page_208"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.<br /><br /> +THE MORTUARY CHAMBER.</h3> + +<p>Victoria entered the house amidst the religious silence of the soldiers +who stood grouped without. Captain Marion and Tetrik followed her in. +She motioned to them to remain outside of the death room, where she +wished to be left alone with me and Sampso.</p> + +<p>At the sight of my wife, lying dead upon the floor, I fell upon my knees +sobbing beside her. I raised her beautiful head, now pale and cold; +closed her eyes; and taking the beloved body in my arms I laid it on my +bed. Again I knelt down, and with my head resting upon the pillow on +which hers reclined, I could no longer restrain my grief. I sobbed and +moaned. I remained there long weeping and disconsolate; I could hear the +suppressed sobs of Victoria.</p> + +<p>Finally her voice recalled me to myself; I thought of what she must be +suffering; I looked around. She was seated on the floor near the corpse +of Victorin, whose head rested on her maternal knees.</p> + +<p>"Schanvoch," said my foster-sister as she gently brushed back with her +hands the hair that fell over Victorin's forehead, "my son is no more; I +may weep over him, despite his crime. Here he lies dead—dead—dead and +not yet twenty-three years old!"</p> + +<p>"Dead—and killed by me—who loved him as my son!"<a name="page_209" id="page_209"></a></p> + +<p>"Brother, you avenged your honor—you have my pardon and pity—"</p> + +<p>"Alas! I struck Victorin in the dark—I struck him in a fit of blind +rage—I struck him without knowing that it was he! Hesus is my witness! +Had I recognized your son, Oh, sister! I would have cursed him, but my +sword would have dropped at my feet—"</p> + +<p>Victoria gazed at me in silence. My words seemed to lift a heavy weight +from her heart. She looked relieved at learning that I had killed her +son without knowing him. She reached out her hand to me feelingly, and I +carried it respectfully to my lips. For several minutes we remained +silent. She then said to Ellen's sister:</p> + +<p>"Sampso, were you here this fatal night? Speak, I pray you. What +happened?"</p> + +<p>"It was midnight," Sampso answered in a voice broken with sobs. +"Schanvoch had left the house two hours before on his journey. I was +lying here beside my sister—I heard a rap at the house door—I threw a +cloak over my shoulders and went to the door to ask who it was. A +woman's voice with a foreign accent answered—"</p> + +<p>"A woman's voice?" I asked in a tone of surprise shared by Victoria. +"Are you sure it was a woman's voice that answered you, Sampso?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; that was the snare. The voice said to me: 'I come from Victoria +with a very important message for Ellen, the wife of Schanvoch, who left +on a journey two hours ago.'"</p> + +<p>At these words of Sampso's, Victoria and I exchanged looks of increasing +astonishment. Sampso proceeded:</p> + +<p>"As I could in no way suspect a messenger from Victoria, I opened the +door. Immediately, instead of a woman, a man<a name="page_210" id="page_210"></a> rushed at me; he violently +pushed me back—and immediately bolted the street door. By the light of +the lamp, which I had placed on the floor, I recognized Victorin. He was +pale—frightful to behold—he seemed to be intoxicated, and could hardly +stand on his feet—"</p> + +<p>"Oh! The unhappy boy! The unhappy boy!" I cried. "He was not in his +senses! Only so! Oh, only so! He never could otherwise have attempted +such a crime!"</p> + +<p>"Proceed, Sampso," said Victoria with a profound sigh; "proceed with +your account—"</p> + +<p>"Without saying a word to me, Victorin pointed to the door of my own +room, the room I always occupied when I did not share my sister's room +during the absence of Schanvoch. In my terror I guessed all. I cried to +Ellen: 'Sister, lock your door!' and I began to call for help as loud as +I could. My cries exasperated Victorin. He seized and threw me into my +room. Just as he was about to lock me in I saw Ellen hurrying out of her +room. She looked pale and frightened; she was almost naked. I afterwards +heard the distressing cries of my sister calling for help—I heard them +struggle—I fainted away. I know not how long I remained in that state. +I regained consciousness when someone knocked at my door and called me +by name. It was Schanvoch. I answered him. He must have opened it for +me—I saw him—"</p> + +<p>"And you," Victoria said, turning to me. "How was it that you returned +so suddenly?"</p> + +<p>"At about four leagues from Mayence, I was notified that a crime was +being committed in my house."</p> + +<p>"And who could have notified you?"</p> + +<p>"A soldier; my escort."</p> + +<p>"And who was that soldier?" asked Victoria with heightening intensity. +"How did he know of the crime?"<a name="page_211" id="page_211"></a></p> + +<p>"I know not—he vanished across the forest the instant that he gave me +the sinister information. That soldier got back to town before me—he +was the same man who tore your grandchild from your arms and killed it +at your feet—"</p> + +<p>"Schanvoch," resumed Victoria with a shudder and carrying both her hands +to her forehead, "my son is dead—I shall neither accuse nor excuse +him—but a horrible mystery underlies this crime—"</p> + +<p>"Listen," I replied, as several circumstances that had slipped my memory +at the first pangs of my grief now came back to my mind. "When I arrived +before the door of my house, I knocked; only the distant sound of +Sampso's cries answered me. A moment later the lower window of my wife's +room was opened. I ran thither. The shutters were being pushed aside to +give passage to a man, while Ellen cried for help. I pushed the man back +into the room, which was dark as a tomb—in the darkness I struck and +killed your son. Almost immediately after I felt two arms thrown around +my neck—I imagined myself attacked by a new assailant—I made another +thrust in the dark—it was Ellen, my beloved wife, whom I killed—"</p> + +<p>And my sobs choked me.</p> + +<p>"Brother—brother," said Victoria to me, "this has been a fatal night to +us all—"</p> + +<p>"Listen further—above all to this," I said to my foster-sister, +controlling my emotion: "At the very moment when I recognized the voice +of my expiring wife, I saw by the light of the moon a woman perched on +the casement of the window—"</p> + +<p>"A woman!" cried Victoria.<a name="page_212" id="page_212"></a></p> + +<p>"It is she probably whose voice deceived me," observed Sampso, "by +announcing to me a message from Victoria."</p> + +<p>"I think so too," I replied; "and that woman, doubtlessly the accomplice +of Victorin's crime, called to him, saying it was time to flee, and that +she now was his, seeing he had kept the promise that he made to her."</p> + +<p>"A promise?" Again Victoria pondered. "What promise could he have made +to her?"</p> + +<p>"To dishonor Ellen—"</p> + +<p>My foster-sister shuddered and said:</p> + +<p>"I repeat it, Schanvoch, this crime is wrapped in some horrible mystery. +But who may that woman have been?"</p> + +<p>"One of the two Bohemian dancers who recently arrived at Mayence. +Listen. Seeing that she received no answer from Victorin, and hearing +the distant but approaching clamors of the soldiers who were angrily +hastening to my house, she leaped down and vanished. A second after the +rumbling of her cart informed me of her flight. In my despair it never +occurred to me to pursue her. I knew I had just killed Ellen near the +cradle of our son—Ellen, my dearly beloved wife!"</p> + +<p>I could not continue. Tears and sobs deprived me of speech. Sampso and +Victoria remained silent.</p> + +<p>"This is a veritable abyss!" resumed the Mother of the Camps. "An abyss +that my mind can not fathom. My son's crime is great—his intoxication, +so far from excusing, only serves to render the deed all the more +shameful. And yet, Schanvoch, you know not what love this poor child had +for you—"</p> + +<p>"Say not so, Victoria," I murmured, hiding my face in my hands. "Say not +so—my despair becomes only more distressing!"<a name="page_213" id="page_213"></a></p> + +<p>"It is not a reproach that I make, brother," replied Victoria. "Had I +been a witness of my son's crime, I would have killed him with my own +hands, to the end that he cease to dishonor his mother, and Gaul, that +chose him chief. I refer to Victorin's love for you because I believe +that, without his being in a state of inebriety and without some dark +machination, he never would have committed such a misdeed—"</p> + +<p>"As for me, sister, I believe I see through this infernal plot—"</p> + +<p>"You do? Speak!"</p> + +<p>"Before the great battle of the Rhine an infamous calumny was spread +over the camp against Victorin. The army's affection for him was being +withdrawn. Your son's victory regained for him the soldiers' affection. +See how that old calumny becomes to-day a frightful reality. Victorin's +crime cost him his life—and also his son's. His stock is extinct. A new +chief must now be chosen for Gaul. Is this not so?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, brother, all that is true."</p> + +<p>"Did not that unknown soldier, my traveling companion, know when he +revealed to me that a crime was being committed in my house—did he not +know that unless I arrived in time to kill Victorin myself in the first +access of my rage, your son would certainly be slaughtered by the troops +who would undoubtedly rise in revolt at the first tidings of the +felony?"</p> + +<p>"But how," put in Sampso, "was the army apprised so soon of the felony, +seeing that no one left the house?"</p> + +<p>Struck by Sampso's observation the Mother of the Camps started and +looked at me. I proceeded:</p> + +<p>"Who is the man, Victoria, who tore your grandson from your arms and +dashed his life against the ground? The same<a name="page_214" id="page_214"></a> unknown soldier! Did he +yield to an impulse of blind rage against the child? Not at all! +Accordingly, he was but the instrument of some ambition that is as +concealed as it is ferocious. Only one man had an interest in the double +murder that has just extinguished your stock—because, once your stock +is extinguished Gaul must choose a new chief—and the man whom I +suspect, the man whom I accuse has long wished to govern Gaul!"</p> + +<p>"His name!" cried Victoria, fixing upon me a look of intense agony. "The +name of the man whom you suspect—"</p> + +<p>"His name is Tetrik, your relative, the Governor of Gascony."</p> + +<p>For the first time since I first expressed my suspicions of her +relative, did Victoria seem to share them. She cast her eyes upon the +corpse of her son with an expression of pitiful sorrow, kissed his icy +forehead several times, and after a moment of profound reflection she +seemed to take a supreme resolution. She rose and said to me in a firm +voice:</p> + +<p>"Where is Tetrik?"</p> + +<p>"He awaits your orders in the next room, I presume, with Captain Marion. +What are your orders?"</p> + +<p>"I wish them both to come in, immediately."</p> + +<p>"In this chamber of death?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, in this chamber of death. Yes, here, Schanvoch, before the +inanimate remains of your wife, my son and his child. If it was that man +who wove this dark and horrible plot, then, even if he were a demon of +hypocrisy and bloodthirstiness, he can not choose but betray himself at +the sight of his victims—at the sight of a mother between the corpses +of her son and grandson; at the sight of a husband beside the corpse of +his wife. Go, brother. Order them in! Order<a name="page_215" id="page_215"></a> them in! Then also, we must +at all cost find that unknown soldier, your traveling companion!"</p> + +<p>"I have thought of that—" and struck with a sudden thought, I added: +"It was Captain Marion who chose the rider that was to escort me."</p> + +<p>"We shall question the captain. Go, brother. Order them in! Order them +in!"</p> + +<p>I obeyed Victoria and called in Tetrik and Marion. Both hastened to +answer to the summons.</p> + +<p>Despite the grief that rent my heart I had the fortitude to watch +attentively the face of the Governor of Gascony. The moment he stepped +into the room, the first object he seemed to notice was the corpse of +Victorin. Tetrik's features immediately assumed the appearance of +unspeakable anguish; tears flowed copiously down his cheeks; clasping +his hands he dropped on his knees near the body and cried in a voice +that seemed rent with grief:</p> + +<p>"Dead at the prime of his age—dead—he, so brave—so generous! The +hope, the strong sword of Gaul. Ah! I forget the foibles of this unhappy +youth before the frightful misfortune that has befallen my country!"</p> + +<p>Tetrik could not proceed. Sobs smothered his voice. On his knees and +cowering in a heap, his face hidden in his hands and dropping scalding +tears he remained as if crushed with pain near Victorin's body.</p> + +<p>Standing motionless at the door, Captain Marion was the prey of profound +internal sorrow. He indulged in no outbursts of moans; he shed no tears; +but he ceased not to contemplate the corpse of Victoria's grandson with +a pathetic expression, as the little body lay in my son's cradle; and<a name="page_216" id="page_216"></a> +presently I heard him say in a low voice looking from Victoria to the +innocent victim:</p> + +<p>"What a calamity! Ah! poor child! Poor mother!"</p> + +<p>Captain Marion then took a few steps forward and said in short and +broken words:</p> + +<p>"Victoria—you are to be pitied—I pity you. Victorin loved you—he was +a worthy son—I also loved him. My beard has turned grey, and yet I +found a delight in serving under that young man. He was the first +captain of our age. None of us can replace him. He had but two +vices—the taste for wine and, above all, the pest of profligacy. I +often quarreled with him on that. I was right, you see it! Well, we must +not quarrel with him now. He had a brave heart. I can say no more to +you, Victoria. And what would it boot? A mother can not be consoled. Do +not think me unfeeling because I do not weep. One weeps only when he +can; but I assure you that you have my sympathy from the bottom of my +heart. I could not be sadder or more cast down had I lost my friend +Eustace—"</p> + +<p>And taking a few steps, Marion again looked from Victoria to her little +grandson, repeating as his eyes wandered from the one to the other:</p> + +<p>"Oh! the poor child! Oh! the poor mother!"</p> + +<p>Still upon his knees beside Victorin, Tetrik did not cease sobbing and +moaning. While his grief was as demonstrative as Captain Marion's was +reserved, it seemed sincere. Nevertheless, my suspicions still resisted +the test, and I saw that my foster-sister shared my doubts. Again she +made a violent effort over herself and said:</p> + +<p>"Tetrik, listen to me!"<a name="page_217" id="page_217"></a></p> + +<p>The Governor of Gascony did not seem to hear the voice of his relative.</p> + +<p>"Tetrik," Victoria repeated, leaning over to touch the man's shoulder, +"I am speaking to you; answer me."</p> + +<p>"Who speaks?" cried the governor as if his mind wandered. "What do they +want? Where am I?"</p> + +<p>A moment later he raised his eyes to my foster-sister and cried +surprised:</p> + +<p>"You here—here, Victoria? Oh, yes! I was with you shortly ago—I had +forgotten. Excuse me. My head swims. Alas! I am a father—I have a son +almost of the age of this unfortunate boy. More than anyone else, I pity +you!"</p> + +<p>"Time presses and the occasion is grave," replied my foster-sister +solemnly while she fastened a penetrating look upon Tetrik in order to +fathom the man's most hidden thoughts. "Private sorrow is hushed before +the public interest. I have my whole life left to weep my son and +grandson; but we have only a few hours to consider the succession of the +Chief of Gaul and of the general of the army—"</p> + +<p>"What!" exclaimed Tetrik. "At such a moment as this—"</p> + +<p>"I wish that before daylight breaks upon us, I, Captain Marion and you, +Tetrik, my relative, one of my most faithful friends, you, who are so +devoted to Gaul, you, who grieve so bitterly over Victorin—I wish that +we three revolve in our wisdom what man we shall to-morrow propose to +the army as my son's successor."</p> + +<p>"Victoria, you are a heroic woman!" cried Tetrik clasping his hands in +admiration. "You match with your courage and patriotism the most august +women who have honored the world!"</p> + +<p>"What is your opinion, Tetrik, as to the successor of Victorin?<a name="page_218" id="page_218"></a> Captain +Marion and myself will speak after you," the Mother of the Camps +proceeded to say without noticing the praises of the Governor of +Gascony. "Yes, whom do you think capable of replacing my son—to the +glory and advantage of Gaul?"</p> + +<p>"How can I give you my opinion?" Tetrik replied dejectedly. "How can I +give you advice upon a matter of such gravity, when my heart is racked +with pain—it is impossible!"</p> + +<p>"It is possible, since you see me here—between the corpses of my son +and my grandson—ready to give my opinion—"</p> + +<p>"If you insist, Victoria, I shall speak, provided I can collect my +thoughts. I am of the opinion that Gaul needs for her chief a wise, firm +and enlightened man, a man who inclines to peace rather than to +war—especially now when we no longer have the neighborhood of the +Franks to fear, thanks to the sword of this young hero, whom I loved and +will eternally mourn—"</p> + +<p>At this moment the governor interrupted himself to give renewed vent to +his grief.</p> + +<p>"We shall weep later," said Victoria. "Life is long enough, but the +night is short. It will soon be morning."</p> + +<p>Tetrik wiped his eyes and proceeded:</p> + +<p>"As I was saying, the successor of our Victorin should, above all, be a +man of good judgment, and of long and approved devotion in the service +of our beloved Gaul. Now, then, if I am not mistaken, the only one whom +I can think of who unites these virtues, is Captain Marion, whom we see +here."</p> + +<p>"I!" cried the captain raising his two enormous hands heavenward. "I, +the Chief of Gaul! Grief makes you talk like a fool! I, Chief of Gaul!"<a name="page_219" id="page_219"></a></p> + +<p>"Captain Marion," Tetrik resumed in a dismal accent, "I know that the +shocking death of Victorin and his innocent child has thrown my mind +into disorder and desolation. And yet I believe that at this moment I +speak not like a fool but like a sage—and Victoria will herself be of +my opinion. Although you do not enjoy the brilliant military reputation +of our Victorin, whom we shall never be able to mourn sufficiently, you +have deserved, Captain Marion, the confidence and affection of our +troops by your good and numerous services. Once a blacksmith, you +exchanged the hammer for the sword; the soldiers will see in you one of +their own rank rise to the dignity of chief through his valor and their +own free choice. They will esteem you all the more knowing, above all, +that, although you reached distinction, you never lost your friendship +for your old comrade of the anvil."</p> + +<p>"Forget my friend Eustace!" said Marion. "Oh! Never!"</p> + +<p>"The austerity of your morals is known," Tetrik proceeded to say; "your +excellent judgment, your straightforwardness, your calmness, are, +according to my poor judgment, a guarantee for the future. You have put +into practice Victoria's wise thought that now the days of barren war +are ended, and the hour has come to think of fruitful peace. The task is +arduous, I admit; it can not choose but startle your modesty. But this +heroic woman, who, even at this terrible moment, forgets her maternal +despair in order to turn her thoughts upon our beloved country, +Victoria, I feel certain, in presenting you to the soldiers as her son's +successor, will pledge herself to assist you with her precious counsel. +And now, Captain Marion, if you will hearken to my feeble voice, I +implore you, I beg you in the name of Gaul to accept the reins of +office. Victoria joins me in demanding of you this<a name="page_220" id="page_220"></a> fresh proof of +self-sacrificing devotion to our common country!"</p> + +<p>"Tetrik," answered Marion in a grave voice, "you have ably described the +man who is needed to govern Gaul. There is only one thing to change in +the picture that you have drawn, and that is its name. In the place of +my name, insert your own—it will then be complete—"</p> + +<p>"I!" cried Tetrik. "I, Chief of Gaul! I, who in all my life never have +held a sword in my hand!"</p> + +<p>"Victoria said it," replied Marion. "The season for war is over, the +season for peace has come. In times of war we need warriors—in times of +peace we need men of peace. You belong to the latter category, Tetrik; +it is your place to govern—do you not think so, Victoria?"</p> + +<p>"By the manner in which he has governed Gascony, Tetrik has shown how he +would govern Gaul," answered my foster-sister; "I join you, captain, in +requesting—my relative—to replace my son—"</p> + +<p>"What did I tell you?" broke in Captain Marion, addressing Tetrik. +"Would you still refuse?"</p> + +<p>"Listen to me, Victoria; listen to me, Captain Marion; listen to me, +Schanvoch," replied the governor turning towards me. "Yes, you also, +Schanvoch, listen to me, you who are as stricken as Victoria. You, who, +in your nervous friendship for this august woman, suspected my +sincerity; I wish you all to believe me. I have received an incurable +wound here, in my heart, by the occurrences of this fatal night; they +have bereft us at once, in the person of our unfortunate Victorin and in +that of his innocent son, of the present and the future support of Gaul. +It was for the purpose of securing and rendering the future certain that +I sought to induce<a name="page_221" id="page_221"></a> Victoria to propose her grandson to the army as the +heir of Victorin, and that I have made this journey to Mayence. My hopes +are dashed—an eternal sorrow takes their place—"</p> + +<p>After stopping for a moment in order to allow his inexhaustible tears to +flow, the governor proceeded:</p> + +<p>"My resolution is formed. Not only do I decline the power that is +offered me, but I shall also give up the government of Gascony. The few +years of life left to me shall henceforth be spent with my son in +seclusion and sorrow. At another time I might have been able to render +some service to our country, but that is now past with me. I shall carry +into my retirement a grief that will be rendered less unbearable by the +knowledge that my country's future is in such worthy hands as yours, +Captain Marion, and that Victoria, the divine genius of Gaul, will +continue to watch over our land. And now, Schanvoch," added the Governor +of Gascony turning once more towards me, "have I put an end to your +suspicions? Do you still think me ambitious? Is my language, are my +actions those of a perfidious or treacherous man? Alas! Alas! I never +thought that the frightful misfortunes of this night would so soon +afford me the opportunity to justify myself—"</p> + +<p>"Tetrik," said Victoria extending her hand to her relative, "if ever I +could have doubted the loyalty of your heart, I would at this hour +perceive my error—"</p> + +<p>"And I admit it freely, my suspicions were groundless," I added in turn. +After all that I had seen and heard, I was, as Victoria, convinced of +her relative's innocence. And still, as my mind ever returned to the +mysterious circumstances that surrounded the events of that night, I +said to Marion,<a name="page_222" id="page_222"></a> who, silent and pensive, seemed overwhelmed with the +tender that was made to him:</p> + +<p>"Captain, yesterday I asked you for a discreet and safe man to serve me +as escort."</p> + +<p>"You did."</p> + +<p>"Do you know the name of the soldier whom you picked out for me?"</p> + +<p>"It was not I who chose him—I do not know his name."</p> + +<p>"And who chose him?" asked Victoria.</p> + +<p>"My friend Eustace is better acquainted with the soldiers than I am. I +commissioned him to find me a safe man, and to order him to repair after +dark to the town gate, where he was to wait for the rider whom he was to +accompany on the journey."</p> + +<p>"And after that," I asked the captain, "did you see your friend Eustace +again?"</p> + +<p>"No; he has been mounting guard at the outposts of the camp since last +evening, and he was not to be relieved until this morning."</p> + +<p>"But at any rate we could learn from him the name of the rider who +escorted Schanvoch," observed Victoria. "I shall let you know later, +Tetrik, the importance that I attach to that information, and you will +be able to counsel me."</p> + +<p>"You must excuse me, Victoria, if I do not acceed to your wishes," the +governor replied with a sigh. "Within an hour, at earliest dawn, I shall +leave Mayence—the sight of this place is too harrowing to me. I have a +humble retreat in Gascony; I shall bury my life there in the company of +my son; he is to-day the only consolation left to me."</p> + +<p>"My friend," said Victoria reproachfully, "do you leave me at such a +moment as this? The sight of this place is harrowing<a name="page_223" id="page_223"></a> to you, you +say—and what about myself? Does not this place recall at every turn +memories that must distress me? And yet I shall leave Mayence only when +Captain Marion will no longer stand in need of whatever counsel he may +think that he may be in need of from me at the start of his government."</p> + +<p>"Victoria," put in Captain Marion in a resolute tone, "I have said +nothing during this conversation in which you and Tetrik have disposed +of me. I am not fluent in words, moreover, my heart is too heavy +to-night. I have said little, but I have reflected a good deal. These +are my thoughts: I love the profession of arms; I know how to execute a +general's orders, and I am not altogether unskilful in the management of +troops confided to me. At a pinch I can plan an attack like the one +which completed Victorin's great victory by the destruction of the camp +and reserve forces of the Franks. This is to say, Victoria, that I do +not consider myself more of a fool than others—wherefore I have sense +enough to understand that I am not fit for the government of Gaul—"</p> + +<p>"Nevertheless, Captain Marion," Tetrik broke in, "Victoria will agree +with me that the task is not beyond your strength."</p> + +<p>"Oh! As to my strength, that is well known," replied Captain Marion +soberly. "Fetch me an ox, and I'll carry him on my back, or fell him +with a blow of my fist. But square shoulders are not all that is wanted +for the chief of a great people. No—no. I am robust—granted. But the +burden of state is too heavy. Therefore, Victoria, do not put such a +weight upon me. I would break down under it—and Gaul will, in turn, +break down under the weight of my weakness. And, moreover, it might as +well be said, I love, after service<a name="page_224" id="page_224"></a> hours, to go home and empty a pot +of beer in the company of my friend Eustace, and chat with him over our +old blacksmith's trade, or entertain ourselves with furbishing our arms +like skilful armorers. Such am I, Victoria—such have I ever been—and +such I wish to remain."</p> + +<p>"And these call themselves men! Oh, Hesus!" cried the Mother of the +Camps indignantly. "I, a woman—I, a mother—I saw my son and grandson +die this very night—and yet I have the necessary fortitude to repress +my grief—and this soldier, to whom the most glorious post that can shed +luster upon a man is offered, dares to answer with a refusal, giving his +love for beer and the polishing of armor as an excuse! Oh! Woe is Gaul, +if the very ones whom she regards as her bravest sons thus cowardly +forsake her!"</p> + +<p>The reproach of the Mother of the Camps impressed Captain Marion. He +dropped his head in confusion, remained silent for a moment, and then +spoke:</p> + +<p>"Victoria, there is but one strong soul here—it is yours. You make me +ashamed of myself. Well, then," he added with a sigh, "be it as you +will—I accept. But the gods are my witnesses—I accept as a duty and +under protest. If I should commit any asininities as Chief of Gaul, none +will have a right to reproach me. Very well, I accept, Victoria, but +under two imperative conditions."</p> + +<p>"What are they?" asked Tetrik.</p> + +<p>"This is the first," replied Marion: "The Mother of the Camps shall +remain in Mayence to help me with her advice. I am as new a hand at my +new work as a blacksmith's apprentice who for the first time dips the +iron into the brasier."</p> + +<p>"I promised you that I would, Marion," answered my foster<a name="page_225" id="page_225"></a>-sister. "I +shall remain here as long as you may need my services."</p> + +<p>"Victoria, if your spirit should withdraw from me, I would be like a +body without a soul—accordingly, I thank you from the bottom of my +heart. I know that that promise must cost you a good deal, poor woman. +And yet," added the captain with his habitual good nature, "do not run +away with the idea that I am so foolishly vainglorious as to imagine +that it is to the strong bull of a warrior, named Marion, that Victoria +the Great makes the sacrifice of burying her grief in order to guide +him. No—no. It is to our old Gaul that she renders the sacrifice. As a +good son of my country, I am as thankful for the kind act done to my +mother, as if it were done to myself."</p> + +<p>"Nobly thought and nobly said, Marion," replied Victoria deeply touched +by these words of the captain. "Nevertheless, your straightforwardness +and sound judgment will soon enable you to dispense with my advice; +then," added she with an expression of profound pain that she strove to +repress, "I shall be able, like you, Tetrik, to retire and bury myself +in some secluded spot with my sorrows."</p> + +<p>"Alas," replied the governor, "to weep in peace is the only consolation +for irreparable losses." "But," he proceeded, addressing the captain, +"you referred to two conditions. Victoria has accepted the first; which +is the second?"</p> + +<p>"Oh! As to the second, it is as important to me as the first," and the +captain shook his head. "Aye, it is as important as the first—"</p> + +<p>"And what is it?" asked my foster-sister. "Explain yourself, Marion."</p> + +<p>"I know not," replied the good captain with a naïve and<a name="page_226" id="page_226"></a> embarrassed +mien, "I know not whether I ever spoke to you of my friend Eustace."</p> + +<p>"Yes, and more than once," replied Tetrik. "But what has your friend +Eustace to do with your new functions?"</p> + +<p>"What!" cried Captain Marion, "you ask me what my friend Eustace has to +do with me—you might as well ask what has the sheath of the sword to do +with the blade, the hammer with the handle, the bellows with the forge."</p> + +<p>"You are, in short, bound together by an old and close friendship; we +know it," said Victoria. "Would you desire, captain, to accord some +favor to your friend?"</p> + +<p>"I shall never consent to be separated from him. True enough, he is not +of a gay disposition; he is habitually sullen, often peevish. Still, he +loves me as I do him, and we can not do without each other. Now, then, +it may be considered surprising that the Chief of Gaul should have a +common soldier, a former blacksmith, for his intimate friend and chum. +But as I said to you, Victoria, if I must be separated from my friend +Eustace, the plan falls through—I decline. Only his friendship can +render the burden supportable to me."</p> + +<p>"Is not Schanvoch, my foster-brother, who remained a simple horseman in +the army, a close friend of mine?" observed Victoria. "No one is +astonished at a friendship that does honor to us both. It will be so, +Captain Marion, with you and your old blacksmith friend."</p> + +<p>"And your elevation, Captain Marion, will redouble your mutual +affection," put in Tetrik. "In his tender affection your friend will +rejoice over your elevation perhaps more than yourself."</p> + +<p>"I doubt whether my friend Eustace will greatly rejoice over my +elevation," replied Marion. "Eustace is not ambitious<a name="page_227" id="page_227"></a> after glory. Far +from it. He loves me, his old companion at the anvil, and not the +captain. But, Victoria, always keep this in mind: The same as to-day you +say to me: 'Marion, you are needed,' never be backward in saying: +'Marion, be gone; you are of no further use; someone else will fill the +place better than you.' I shall understand the slightest hint, and shall +gladly return arm in arm with my friend Eustace to our pot of beer and +our armor. So long, however, as you will say to me: 'Marion, you are +needed,' I shall remain Chief of Gaul"—and smothering a last sigh, +"seeing that you insist that I fill the place."</p> + +<p>"And chief you will long remain to the glory of Gaul," put in Tetrik. +"Believe me, captain, you do not know yourself; your modesty blinds you. +But a few hours hence, when Victoria will propose you to the soldiers as +their general, the acclamation of the whole army will inform you of the +high opinion that is entertained for your merits."</p> + +<p>"The one who will be most astonished at my merits will be myself," +replied the good captain naïvely. "Well, I have made the promise; it is +promised; count with me, Victoria, you have my word. I shall withdraw—I +shall go to my lodging and wait for my good friend Eustace. It is now +dawn; he is due from the advanced posts, where he has been on guard +since yesterday. He will be uneasy if he does not find me in."</p> + +<p>"Forget not, captain," I said to him, "to ask your friend for the name +of the soldier whom he chose to escort me."</p> + +<p>"I shall remember."</p> + +<p>"And now, adieu," said the Governor of Gascony with a smothered voice to +Victoria. "Adieu; the sun will soon be up. Every minute that I spend +here is torture to me—"<a name="page_228" id="page_228"></a></p> + +<p>"Would you not stay in Mayence at least until the ashes of my two +children are returned to the earth?" Victoria asked the governor. "Will +you not accord that religious homage to the memory of those who have +just preceded us to those unknown worlds, where we shall one day meet +them again? Oh! May it please Hesus that that day be soon!"</p> + +<p>"Oh! Our druid faith will always be the consolation of strong souls and +the support of the weak!" answered Tetrik. "Alas! But for the certainty +of meeting again the beings whom we have loved in this world, how much +more dreadful would not their departure in death be to us! Believe me, +Victoria, I shall see long before you, these dear beings whom to-day we +weep. Agreeable to your wishes, I shall render to them to-day, before my +departure, the last homage that is due to them."</p> + +<p>Tetrik and Captain Marion withdrew, leaving Victoria, Sampso and myself +alone.<a name="page_229" id="page_229"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.<br /><br /> +FUNERAL PYRES.</h3> + +<p>Left all alone to ourselves, we no longer repressed our tears. In silent +and pious meditation we clad Ellen in her wedding gown, while you, my +child, still slept peacefully.</p> + +<p>In order to attend to the supreme interests of Gaul, Victoria had +heroically curbed her grief. After the departure of Tetrik and Marion +she gave way to the overpowering sorrow that heaved her bosom. She +wished to wash the wounds of her son and grandson with her own hands; +with her maternal hands she wrapped them in the same winding cloth. Two +funeral pyres were raised on the border of the Rhine, one destined for +Victorin and his son, the other for my wife Ellen.</p> + +<p>Towards noon, two war chariots covered with green and accompanied by +several of our venerated female druids proceeded to my house. The body +of my wife Ellen was deposited on one of the two chariots, on the other +the remains of Victorin and his son.</p> + +<p>"Schanvoch," said Victoria to me, "I shall follow on foot the chariot on +which your beloved wife lies. Be merciful, brother, follow on foot the +chariot on which lie the remains of my son and grandson. Before the eyes +of all, you, the outraged husband, will thus be giving a token of pardon +to the memory of Victorin. And I also, will, before the eyes<a name="page_230" id="page_230"></a> of all, +give token, as a mother, of pardon for the death that, alas! my son but +too fully merited!"</p> + +<p>I understood the touching appeal that lay in that thought of mutual +mercy and pardon. It was so done. A deputation of the cohorts and +legions preceded the funeral procession. I followed the hearses +accompanied by Victoria, Sampso, Tetrik and Marion. The chief officers +of the camp joined us. We marched amidst lugubrious silence. The first +outburst of rage against Victorin having spent itself, the army now only +remembered his bravery, his kindness, his openheartedness. The crowds +saw me, the victim of an outrage that cost Ellen's life, give public +token of pardon to Victorin by my following the hearse that carried his +remains; they also saw his mother following the hearse on which Ellen +reposed, and none had any but words of forgiveness and pity for the +memory of the young general.</p> + +<p>The funeral convoy was approaching the river bank where the two pyres +were raised, when Douarnek, who marched at the head of one of the +deputations of cohorts, profited by a halt in the procession to approach +me. He said with pronounced sadness:</p> + +<p>"Schanvoch, you have my sympathy. Assure Victoria, your sister, that we, +the soldiers, remember only the valor of her glorious son. He has so +long been our beloved son as well. Why did he disregard the frank and +wise words that I carried to him in the name of our whole army, on the +evening after our great battle of the Rhine! Had Victorin taken our +advice and mended his ways, had he reformed, none of these misfortunes +would have happened—"</p> + +<p>"Your words, comrade, will be a consolation to Victoria in her grief," I +answered Douarnek. "But do you know whatever<a name="page_231" id="page_231"></a> became of the hooded +soldier who committed the barbarity of killing Victorin's child?"</p> + +<p>"Neither I, nor any of those near me at the time when the abominable +crime was committed, was able to catch the felon. He slipped from us in +the tumult and darkness. He fled towards the outposts of the camp, but +there, thanks to the gods, he met with condign punishment."</p> + +<p>"He is dead?"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps you know Eustace, the old blacksmith and friend of our brave +Captain Marion? He was mounting guard last night at the outposts. It +seems that Eustace has a sweetheart in town. Excuse me, Schanvoch, if I +mention to you such matters on so sad an occasion, but you asked me, and +I am answering—"</p> + +<p>"Proceed, friend Douarnek."</p> + +<p>"Well, instead of remaining at his post, and despite the watchword, +Eustace spent a part of the night in Mayence. He was returning at about +an hour before dawn, hoping, as he said to me, that his absence would +have passed unnoticed, when he saw a hooded man running breathlessly +near the posts on the river bank. 'Whither are you running so fast?' he +cried out. 'Those brutes are pursuing me!' was the answer, 'because I +broke the head of Victoria's grandson by dashing it against the +cobble-stones; they want to kill me.' 'And they are right! You deserve +death!' replied Eustace indignantly. Saying this he overtook the +infamous murderer and ran his sword through him. The corpse was found +this morning on the beach with his cloak and hood."</p> + +<p>The soldier's death destroyed my last hope of unraveling the mystery +that hung over that fatal night.</p> + +<p>The remains of Ellen, Victorin and his son were placed<a name="page_232" id="page_232"></a> upon the pyres, +amidst the chants of the bards and druids. A sheet of flame rose +skyward. When the chants ceased only two heaps of ashes remained.</p> + +<p>The ashes of the pyre of Victorin and his son were piously gathered by +Victoria into a bronze urn, that she placed under a mural tablet bearing +the simple and touching inscription:</p> + +<p class="c"><small>HERE REST THE TWO VICTORINS.</small></p> + +<p>That same evening the two Bohemian girls left Mayence. Tetrik also took +his departure after having exchanged the most touching adieus with +Victoria. Captain Marion was presented to the troops by the Mother of +the Camps and was acclaimed Chief of Gaul and general of the army. The +choice evoked no surprise; moreover, being presented by Victoria, whose +influence had in a manner increased with the death of her son and +grandson, there was no question of his being accepted. The bravery, the +good judgment, the wisdom of Captain Marion were long known and +appreciated by the soldiers. After his acclamation, the new general +pronounced the following words, which I later found reproduced by a +contemporary historian:</p> + +<p>"Comrades, I know that the trade of my youth may be objected to in me. +Let him blame me who wills. Yes, people may twit me all they please with +having been a blacksmith, provided the enemy admits that I have forged +their ruin. But, as to you, my good comrades, never forget that the +chief whom you have just chosen never knew and never will know how to +hold anything but the sword."<a name="page_233" id="page_233"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.<br /><br /> +ASSASSINATION OF MARION.</h3> + +<p>Endowed with rare sagacity, a straightforward and firm nature, and ever +solicitous of the advice of Victoria, Marion's government was marked +with wisdom. The army grew ever more attached to him, and gave him +signal proof of its loyalty and admiration up to the day, exactly two +months after his acclamation, when he, in turn, fell the victim of +another horrible crime. I must narrate to you, my son, the circumstances +of this second crime. It is intimately connected, as you will discover, +with the bloody plot that drew in its vortex all whom I loved and +venerated, leaving you motherless, me a widower, and Victoria desolate.</p> + +<p>Two months had elapsed since the fatal night when my wife Ellen, +Victorin and his son lost their lives. The sight of my house became +insupportable to me; too many were the cruel recollections that +clustered around it. Victoria induced me to move to her house with +Sampso, who took your mother's place with you.</p> + +<p>"Here I am, all alone in the world, separated from my son and grandson +to the end of my days," said my foster-sister to me. "You know, +Schanvoch, all the affection of my life was centered upon those two +beings, so dear to my heart. Do not leave me alone. Come, you, your son +and Sampso, come<a name="page_234" id="page_234"></a> and stay with me. You will aid me thereby to bear the +burden of my grief."</p> + +<p>At first I hesitated to accept Victoria's offer. Due to a shocking +fatality, I was the slayer of her son. True enough, she knew that, +despite the enormity of Victorin's outrage, I would have spared his +life, had I recognized him. She was aware of and saw the grief that the +involuntary and yet legitimate homicide caused me. Nevertheless, and +horrid was the recollection thereof to her, I had killed her son. I +feared—despite all her protestations, and despite her warmly expressed +desire that I move to her house—that my presence, however much wished +for during the first loneliness of her bereavement, might become cruel +and burdensome to her. Finally I yielded. Often did Sampso, in later +years, say to me:</p> + +<p>"Alas, Schanvoch, it was only after I saw how tenderly you always spoke +of Victorin to his mother, who, in turn, spoke to you of my poor sister +Ellen in the touching terms that she did, that I, together with all +those who knew us, understood and admired what at first seemed +impossible—the intimacy of you and Victoria, the two survivors of those +victims of a cruel fatality!"</p> + +<p>Whenever Victoria sufficiently surmounted her grief to consider the +interests of the country, she applauded herself on having succeeded in +deciding Captain Marion to accept the eminent post of which he daily +proved himself more worthy. She wrote several times to Tetrik in that +sense. He had left the government of Gascony in order to retire with his +son, then about twenty years of age, to a house that he<a name="page_235" id="page_235"></a> owned near +Bordeaux, and where, as he said, he sought in poetry whatever solace he +could find for the death of Victorin and his son. He composed several +odes on those cruel events. Nothing, indeed, could be more touching than +an ode written by Tetrik on the subject of "The Two Victorins," and sent +by him to Victoria. Accordingly, the letters that he addressed to her +during the two months of Marion's administration were marked with +profound sadness. They expressed in a manner at once so simple, so +delicate and so tender the affection he entertained for her family, and +the sorrow that her bereavement caused him, that my foster-sister's +attachment for her relative increased by the day. Even I shared the +blind confidence that she reposed in him, and forgot the suspicions that +were twice awakened in my mind against the man. Moreover, my suspicions +vanished before the answer made to me by Eustace, when I questioned him +regarding the soldier, my mysterious traveling companion and perpetrator +of the assassination of Victoria's grandson.</p> + +<p>"Commissioned by Captain Marion to provide him with a reliable man for +your escort," Eustace answered me, "I picked out a horseman named +Bertal. He was ordered to wait for you at the city gate. After nightfall +I left the advanced post of the camp contrary to orders and went +secretly into the city. I was on my way thither when I met the soldier +on horseback. He was riding along the bank of the river, and was on the +way to meet you. I told him to say nothing of having met me, should he +run across any of our comrades on the road. He promised secrecy, and I +went my way. Early the next morning, as I was returning along the river +bank from Mayence, where I spent part of the night, I saw Bertal running +towards me. He was on foot; he was fleeing distractedly<a name="page_236" id="page_236"></a> before the just +rage of our comrades. When I learned from his own mouth the horrible +crime that he even dared to glory in, I killed him on the spot. That is +all I know of the wretch."</p> + +<p>So far from the information clearing up, it obscured still more the +mystery that brooded over that fatal night. The Bohemian girls had +disappeared; and all inquiries set on foot regarding Bertal, my +traveling companion and subsequent perpetrator of such a horrible deed +as the murder of a child, agreed in representing the man as a brave and +honest soldier, incapable of the monstrous deed imputed to him, and +explainable only on the theory of drunkenness or insane fury.</p> + +<p>Accordingly, my son, Marion governed Gaul for two months to the +satisfaction of all. One evening, shortly before sunset, seeking some +diversion from the grief that oppressed me, I took a walk into the woods +near Mayence. I had been walking ahead mechanically a long time, seeking +only silence and seclusion and thus penetrating deeper and deeper into +the wood, when my feet struck an object that I had not noticed. I +tripped and was thus drawn from my sad revery. At my feet lay a casque +the visor and gorget of which were turned up. I recognized on the spot +Marion's casque by those features peculiar to the casque that he wore. I +examined the ground more attentively by the last rays of the sun which +penetrated the foliage with difficulty. I detected traces of blood on +the grass; I followed them; they led to a thicket; I entered it.</p> + +<p>There, stretched upon some tree branches that were bent and broken with +his fall, I saw Marion, bareheaded and bathed in his own blood. I +thought he was dead, or at least unconscious. I was mistaken. As I +stooped to raise him and<a name="page_237" id="page_237"></a> to give him some aid, my eyes caught his; they +were fixed but still clear, despite approaching dissolution.</p> + +<p>"Go away, Schanvoch!" Marion said in a voice that though fainting +indicated anger. "I dragged myself to this spot in order to die in +peace—I threw myself into this thicket to escape detection. Go away, +Schanvoch! Leave me alone!"</p> + +<p>"Leave you!" I cried, looking at him in stupor and observing that his +blouse was red with blood just above the heart. "Leave you when your +blood is flowing over your clothes, and when your wound is perhaps +mortal!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, perhaps!" replied Marion with a sarcastic smile. "It is certainly +mortal, thanks to the gods!"</p> + +<p>"I shall run to town!" I cried without stopping to consider the distance +that I had just walked, absorbed as I was in my own sorrow. "I shall go +for help!"</p> + +<p>"Ha! Ha! Ha!—to run to the city—and we are two leagues away!" replied +Marion with a lugubrious peal of laughter. "I am not afraid of any help +that you may bring, Schanvoch. I shall be dead in less than a quarter of +an hour. But, in the name of heaven, go away!"</p> + +<p>"Are you resolved to die—did you smite yourself with your sword?"</p> + +<p>"You have said it."</p> + +<p>"No! You are trying to deceive me. Your sword is in its sheath."</p> + +<p>"What is that to you? Go away—"</p> + +<p>"You were struck by an assassin!" I exclaimed as I ran forward and +picked up a sword still bloody, that my eyes just fell upon and that lay +at a little distance. "This is the weapon that was used."</p> + +<p>"I fought in loyal combat—leave me—Schanvoch—"<a name="page_238" id="page_238"></a></p> + +<p>"You did not fight, and you did not wound yourself. Your sword lies +beside you in its sheath. No, no! You fell under the blows of some +cowardly assassin. Marion, let me examine your wound. Every soldier is +something of a surgeon—if the flow of blood is staunched it may be +enough to save your life—"</p> + +<p>"Stop the flow of blood!" cried Marion casting at me an angry look. +"Just you try to stop the flow of the blood from my wound, and you will +see how I will receive you—"</p> + +<p>"I shall endeavor to save you," I answered, "despite yourself."</p> + +<p>As I spoke I approached Marion who lay flat upon his back. Just as I +stooped over him he bent both his knees over his stomach and immediately +struck out violently with his feet. The kick took me in the chest and +threw me over upon the grass—so powerful was the expiring Hercules.</p> + +<p>"Will you still bring me help despite myself?" asked Marion as I rose +up, not angry but desolate over his brutality. If I should be overcome +in this sad struggle, it was clear that I would be compelled to give up +the hope of bringing help to the wounded man.</p> + +<p>"Very well! Die!" I said to him, "since such is your wish. Die, since +you forget that Gaul needs your services. But be sure of one thing—your +death will be avenged—we shall discover the name of your assassin—"</p> + +<p>"There has been no assassin—I gave myself the wound—"</p> + +<p>"This sword belongs to someone," I said picking up the weapon. As I +examined it I thought I could see through the blood that covered it that +its blade bore an inscription. To ascertain the fact, I wiped it with +some leaves. While I was engaged at this Marion cried in agony:<a name="page_239" id="page_239"></a></p> + +<p>"Will you leave that sword alone! Quit rubbing upon the blade! Oh! My +strength fails me, or I would rise and snatch the weapon from your +hands. A curse upon you, who have come to disturb my last moments! Oh! +It must be the devil who sent you!"</p> + +<p>"It is the gods who sent me!" I cried struck almost dumb with horror. +"It is Hesus who sent me for the punishment of the most horrible of +crimes! A friend slay his friend!"</p> + +<p>"You lie! You lie!"</p> + +<p>"It is Eustace who dealt you the wound!"</p> + +<p>"You lie! Oh! Why am I sinking so fast—I would smother those words in +your cursed throat!"</p> + +<p>"You were struck by this sword, the gift of your friendship to an +infamous murderer—"</p> + +<p>"It is false!"</p> + +<p>"'<i>Marion forged this sword for his dear friend Eustace</i>'—that is the +sentence engraved upon this blade," I replied to him pointing with my +finger at the inscription graven in the steel. "This is the sword that +you forged yourself."</p> + +<p>"The inscription proves nothing," observed Marion in great anguish. "The +man who struck me stole the sword from my friend Eustace—that's all."</p> + +<p>"You still seek to screen that man! Oh! There will be no punishment too +severe for the cowardly murderer!"</p> + +<p>"Listen, Schanvoch," replied Marion in a sinking and suppliant voice: "I +am about to die—nothing is denied to an expiring man—"</p> + +<p>"Oh! Speak! Speak, good and brave soldier. Seeing that, to the +misfortune of Gaul, fatality prevents me from saving you, speak! I shall +execute your last will—"<a name="page_240" id="page_240"></a></p> + +<p>"Schanvoch, the oath that soldiers give each other at the moment of +death—is sacred, is it not?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, my brave Marion."</p> + +<p>"Swear to me—that you will reveal to no one that you found here the +sword of my friend Eustace."</p> + +<p>"You, his victim—and you wish to save him!"</p> + +<p>"Promise me, Schanvoch, that you will do as I ask you—"</p> + +<p>"Save the monster from condign punishment! Never! No, a thousand times +no!"</p> + +<p>"Schanvoch, I implore you—"</p> + +<p>"Your murder shall be avenged—"</p> + +<p>"Be, then, yourself accursed! You who say 'No!' to the prayer of an +expiring man—to the prayer of an old soldier—who weeps—you see it. Is +it agony?—is it weakness?—I know not, but I weep—"</p> + +<p>And large drops of tears rolled down his face that gradually grew more +livid.</p> + +<p>"Good Marion, your kindheartedness distresses me! You, imploring mercy +for your murderer!"</p> + +<p>"Who else would take an interest in the unhappy fellow—if I did not?" +he answered with an expression of ineffable mercifulness.</p> + +<p>"Oh! Marion, those words are worthy of the young man of Nazareth, whom +my ancestress Genevieve saw put to death in Jerusalem!"</p> + +<p>"Friend Schanvoch—mercy—you will say nothing—I rely upon your +promise—"</p> + +<p>"No! No! Your celestial mercifulness only renders the crime more +atrocious. No pity for the monster who slew his friend!"</p> + +<p>"Go away from me!" feebly murmured Marion, sobbing.<a name="page_241" id="page_241"></a></p> + +<p>"It is you who harrow my last moments! Eustace only slew my body—but +you, pitiless before my agony, you torture my very soul!"</p> + +<p>"Your despair distresses me—and yet listen, Marion. It is not merely +the friend, the old friend that the assassin struck at—"</p> + +<p>"For twenty-three years we never left each other's side, Eustace and I," +Marion mumbled moaning.</p> + +<p>"No, it is not the friend only that the monster struck in striking you, +it was also, and perhaps especially, the Chief of Gaul and general of +the army that he aimed at. The mysterious cause of this crime may be of +deep interest to the country's future. The mystery must be fathomed, +uncovered—"</p> + +<p>"Schanvoch, you do not know Eustace. He cared little, I know, whether or +not I was Chief of Gaul or general of the army. Moreover, what does that +concern me—now, when I am about to live in yonder new worlds? All I ask +of you is that you grant me this last request—do not denounce my friend +Eustace. I implore you with clasped hands—"</p> + +<p>"Granted! I shall keep the secret, but under one condition, that you +inform me how the crime was committed."</p> + +<p>"How can you have the heart to drive such a bargain—the peace of +mind—a dying man—"</p> + +<p>"The welfare of Gaul may be at stake, I tell you! Everything points to +an infernal plot in this dark affair, the first victims of which were +Victorin and his son. That is why I insist upon learning from you the +details of this atrocious murder."</p> + +<p>"Schanvoch—a minute ago I could still distinguish your<a name="page_242" id="page_242"></a> face—the color +of your clothes—now I see before me only a vague shape. Make haste, +make haste!"</p> + +<p>"Answer—how was the crime committed? By Hesus, tell me, and I swear to +you I shall keep the secret—not otherwise."</p> + +<p>"Schanvoch—my good friend—"</p> + +<p>"Was Eustace acquainted with Tetrik?"</p> + +<p>"Eustace never as much as spoke to him—"</p> + +<p>"Are you certain?"</p> + +<p>"Eustace told me so—he ever felt—without knowing why—an aversion for +the governor—I was not surprised at that. Eustace loved only me—"</p> + +<p>"And he killed you! Speak, and I swear to you, by Hesus, that I shall +keep the secret—otherwise, not!"</p> + +<p>"I shall speak—but your silence on the matter will not suffice me. A +score of times I proposed to my friend Eustace to share my purse—he met +my tender with insults. Oh! his is not a venal soul—not his—he has no +money—he must surely be without any resources whatever—how will he be +able to flee?"</p> + +<p>"I shall help him to flee—I shall furnish him the money that he may +need—I shall be only too glad to rid the camp of such a monster with +all possible speed!"</p> + +<p>"A monster!" murmured Marion reproachfully. "You are very severe towards +Eustace."</p> + +<p>"How did he manage to inflict a mortal wound upon you, and what was his +reason? Answer my question."</p> + +<p>"Since I was acclaimed Chief of Gaul and general, my friend Eustace +became more peevish than ever before, and more sullen—than he usually +was—he feared, poor soul, that my elevation would make me proud—"<a name="page_243" id="page_243"></a></p> + +<p>Marion choked in his speech. Throwing his arms about at random, he +called out:</p> + +<p>"Schanvoch, where are you?"</p> + +<p>"Here I am, close to you—"</p> + +<p>"I see you no longer," he said in a sinking voice. "Lean my back against +a tree—I am—smothering—"</p> + +<p>With no little difficulty I did what Marion desired; his Herculean body +was heavy. Finally, however, I succeeded in drawing him up with his back +against the nearest tree. Reclined against it, Marion continued in a +voice that steadily grew feebler:</p> + +<p>"In the measure that—the ill temper of my friend Eustace increased—I +sought to show myself even more friendly than usual towards him. I could +understand his apprehensions. Already, when I was only a captain, he +could not bring himself to treat me as his former companion at the +anvil. When I became general and Chief of Gaul he took me for a +potentate. As to myself, certain that I esteemed him none the less—I +always laughed in his face at his rudeness—I laughed—I did wrong—the +poor fellow was suffering. To make it short—to-day he said to me: +'Marion, it is a long time since we took a walk together, shall we take +a stroll in the woods, near the city?' I had a conference with Victoria. +But fearing to displease my friend Eustace, I wrote to the Mother of the +Camps, excusing myself—and he and I started on our walk arm in arm. I +was reminded of the days of our apprenticeship in the forest of +Chartres—where we used to go to trap magpies. I felt buoyant—and +despite my grey beard—knowing that nobody saw us—I indulged in all +manner of boyish tricks in order to amuse Eustace. I mimicked, as in the +days of our boyhood, the cry of—the magpies—by blowing<a name="page_244" id="page_244"></a> upon a leaf +held close to my lips. I did other monkey tricks of the same nature—It +was singular—I never felt in better spirits than to-day—Eustace, on +the contrary did not move—a muscle of his face—not—a smile could be +extracted from him. We were a few steps from here, he behind me—he +called me—I turned around—and you will see, Schanvoch, that there +could not have been any wicked purpose on his part—only insanity—pure +insanity. The moment that I turned around he threw himself upon me sword +in hand—and—as he plunged the weapon into my side he cried: 'Do you +recognize this sword, you who forged it yourself?' I admit—I was not a +little surprised—I fell under the blow—I called out to my friend +Eustace: 'What ails you? Explain yourself at least. Have I offended you +in aught without knowing?' But I was only speaking—to the trees—the +poor crazy man had vanished—leaving his sword beside me—another +evidence of insanity—the weapon—you will notice—Schanvoch—the +weapon—bore on the blade the inscription: 'Marion forged this sword for +his dear friend Eustace.'"</p> + +<p>These were the last intelligible words of the good and brave soldier. He +expired a few minutes later uttering incoherent words, among which these +recurred with greatest frequency:</p> + +<p>"Eustace," "flee," "save yourself."</p> + +<p>After Marion had given up the ghost, I hastened back to Mayence in order +to notify Victoria of the occurrence, nor did I conceal from her that my +suspicions again pointed to Tetrik as having a hand in the plot. The +man, I explained, left again vacant the government of Gaul by the +removal of Marion, after Victorin and his son were gotten out of the +way. Although desolate by the death of Marion, my foster-sister<a name="page_245" id="page_245"></a> +combated my suspicions with regard to Tetrik. She reminded me that I +myself, more than two months before the murder of Marion, was so struck +by the expression of hatred and envy betrayed by the face and words of +the captain's old companion, that I said to her before Tetrik that +Marion must be very much blinded by his affection to fail to perceive +that his friend was devoured by implacable jealousy. Victoria shared the +opinion of the good Marion, that the crime to which he had fallen a +victim had no other cause than the envious hatred of Eustace, who was +driven to the point of insanity by the more recent elevation of his +friend. Besides, a singular coincidence, on that same day my +foster-sister received from Tetrik, then on his way to Italy, a letter +in which he informed her that seeing his health was daily declining, the +physicians saw but one chance of safety for him—a trip to some southern +country. For that reason he was on the way to Rome with his son.</p> + +<p>These facts, Tetrik's conduct since the death of Victorin, the touching +letters that he wrote, together with what seemed to be the irrefutable +arguments advanced by Victoria, once more overthrew my mistrust toward +the Governor of Gascony. I also arrived at the conclusion, which was +certainly justified on the face of the events, that, in view of the +previous behavior of Eustace, the atrocious murder committed by him had +no other motive than a savage jealousy, that was driven to the point of +insanity by the recent distinction that fell to the lot of his friend.</p> + +<p>I kept the promise that I made to the good and brave Marion at the hour +of his death. His assassination was attributed to some unknown murderer, +but not to Eustace. I took<a name="page_246" id="page_246"></a> the man's sword with me to Victoria; no +suspicion was drawn to the actual felon, who was never more seen either +at Mayence, or in the camp. Marion's remains, wept over by the whole +army, received the pompous military honors due to a general and a Chief +of Gaul.<a name="page_247" id="page_247"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.<br /><br /> +THE TRAITOR UNMASKED.</h3> + +<p>The direst day of my life since that on which I accompanied the remains +of Victorin, his son and my beloved wife Ellen to the funeral pyre that +was to consume them, was the day on which the following events took +place. They happened, my son, two hundred and sixty years after our +ancestress Genevieve saw the young man of Nazareth die upon the cross, +and five years after the assassination of Marion, the successor of +Victorin in the government of Gaul.</p> + +<p>Victoria no longer lived in Mayence, but in Treves, a large and +magnificent Gallic city situated on this side of the Rhine. I continued +to live with my foster-sister. Sampso, who served you as a mother since +the death of my never-to-be-forgotten Ellen, Sampso became my second +wife. On the evening of our marriage she admitted to me a fact of which +I never had any doubt—that having always felt a secret inclination for +me, she had decided never to marry, and to share her life with Ellen, +you, my child, and myself.</p> + +<p>My wife's death; the affection and profound esteem that Sampso inspired +in me; her virtues; the kindnesses that she heaped upon you; the love +with which you reciprocated her tenderness towards you—you loved her as +a mother, whose place she worthily filled; the requirements of your +education; finally also the urgent requests of Victoria, who valuing<a name="page_248" id="page_248"></a> +the qualities of Sampso, warmly urged the union;—all these +circumstances combined to induce me to propose marriage to your aunt. +She accepted. But for the distressing recollections of the death of +Victorin and Ellen, of whom not a day passed but we spoke with tears in +our eyes; but for the incurable grief of Victoria, whose mind ever +turned upon her son and grandson;—but for these circumstances I would, +after so many misfortunes, have re-embraced happiness when I embraced +Sampso as my wife.</p> + +<p>Accordingly, I shared Victoria's house in the city of Treves. The sun +had just risen; I was engaged with some writing for the Mother of the +Camps, seeing that I continued my offices near her. Her confidential +servant, called Mora, stepped into the room. The girl claimed to have +been born in Mauritania, whence her name of Mora. Like the inhabitants +of that region, her complexion was bronzed, almost black, like a +Negro's. Nevertheless, despite the somber hue of her face, she was +handsome and young. Since the four years (remember the date, my son), +since the four years that Mora served my foster-sister, she gained her +mistress's affection by her zeal, her reserve and her devotion that +seemed proof against all temptation to change her quarters. +Occasionally, seeking some diversion from her sorrows, Victoria would +ask Mora to sing, because the girl's voice was of remarkable sweetness +and sadness. One of the officers of the army who had been as far as the +Danube, said to us one day as he heard Mora sing, that he had heard +those peculiar songs in the mountains of Bohemia. Mora seemed startled, +and said that she learned the songs she was singing as a little child in +the country of Mauritania.<a name="page_249" id="page_249"></a></p> + +<p>"Schanvoch," said Mora to me, "my mistress wishes to speak to you."</p> + +<p>"I shall follow you, Mora."</p> + +<p>"But before you go, one word, I beg you."</p> + +<p>"Speak—what is it?"</p> + +<p>"You are the friend, the foster-brother of my mistress—what affects her +affects you—"</p> + +<p>"Undoubtedly—what are you driving at?"</p> + +<p>"You left my mistress last night after having spent the evening with +her, your wife and son—"</p> + +<p>"Yes—and Victoria withdrew to her room, as usual."</p> + +<p>"Now listen—a short time after your departure, I took to her room a man +wrapped in a cloak. After a conversation with the unknown man, that +lasted deep into the night, instead of going to bed, my mistress was so +agitated that she walked up and down the room until morning."</p> + +<p>"Who can that man be?" I asked myself aloud, yielding to my +astonishment. Victoria was not in the habit of keeping any secrets from +me. "What mystery is this?"</p> + +<p>Mora believed that I questioned her, an act of indiscretion on my part +that I would have carefully guarded against, out of respect for +Victoria. The girl answered:</p> + +<p>"After your departure, Schanvoch, my mistress said to me: 'Go out by the +garden gate. Wait at the little door. You will soon hear a rap. A man in +a cloak will present himself—bring him to me—and not a word upon this +to anyone whatever—'"</p> + +<p>"You should, then, have abstained from making the confidence to me."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps I am wrong in not keeping the secret, even from you, Schanvoch, +the devoted friend and brother of my mistress.<a name="page_250" id="page_250"></a> But she seemed to me so +agitated after the departure of the mysterious personage, that I thought +it my duty to tell you all. There is another reason why I decided to +speak to you. I led the man back to the garden gate—I walked a few +steps ahead of him—he seemed to be in a towering rage, and he dropped +terrible threats against my mistress. It was this that determined me to +reveal to you the secret of the interview."</p> + +<p>"Did you notify Victoria of the threats made against her?"</p> + +<p>"No—I was hardly back to her when she brusquely—she who is otherwise +so gentle towards me—ordered me to leave the room. I withdrew to a +contiguous apartment, and from there I could hear my mistress walk the +room all night in great agitation until dawn when she finally threw +herself upon her couch. A minute ago she called me in and ordered me to +bring you to her. Oh! If you had seen her! She looked so pale and +somber! I thought it best to reveal to you all that had happened—"</p> + +<p>I hastened to Victoria in a state of great alarm. The sight of her +struck me painfully. Mora had not exaggerated.</p> + +<p>Before proceeding with the thread of this narrative, and to the end of +helping you to understand it, my son, I must give you some details upon +the special arrangement of Victoria's chamber. In the rear of the +spacious apartment was a species of niche covered with heavy curtains. +In that niche, whither my foster-sister frequently retired in order to +think of those whom she had loved so much, hung the casques and swords +of her father, her husband and her son Victorin, over the symbols of our +druid faith. In the niche also stood—a dear and precious relic—the +cradle of the grandson of this woman, whom misfortune had so sorely +tried.<a name="page_251" id="page_251"></a></p> + +<p>Victoria stepped towards me, reached out her hand, and said in a +faltering voice:</p> + +<p>"Brother, for the first time in my life I have kept a secret from you; +brother, for the first time in my life I am about to resort to ruse and +dissimulation."</p> + +<p>She then took me by the hand, led me to the niche, drew back the heavy +curtain that closed it from sight, and added:</p> + +<p>"Every minute is precious; step into that niche; remain there silent, +motionless, and lose not a word of all that you shall hear. I hide you +in time in order to remove suspicion."</p> + +<p>The curtains of the niche closed upon me; I remained in the dark; for a +while I heard only Victoria's steps over the floor as she walked the +room in evident agitation. I was in my hiding place for over half an +hour when I heard the door of Victoria's room open and close. Someone +stepped in and said:</p> + +<p>"Greeting to Victoria the Great!"</p> + +<p>It was Tetrik's voice, the same mellifluous and insinuating voice. The +following conversation took place between him and Victoria. As she +recommended to me, I engraved every word in my memory, and that same day +I transcribed them, realizing the gravity of the dialogue. Another +circumstance which I shall presently inform you of dictated the +precaution to me.</p> + +<p>"Greeting to Victoria the Great," said the former Governor of Gascony.</p> + +<p>"Greeting to you, Tetrik."</p> + +<p>"Did the night bring counsel, Victoria?"</p> + +<p>"Tetrik," answered Victoria in a perfectly calm voice that was in strong +contrast with the agitation under which I had just seen her laboring, +"Tetrik, you are a poet?"<a name="page_252" id="page_252"></a></p> + +<p>"It is true—I sometimes seek in the cultivation of letters a little +recreation from the cares of state—especially from my undying sorrow +over the untimely departure of our glorious Victorin, whom, contrary to +my expectations, I have survived. I must repeat it to you, Victoria, let +us not speak of that young hero, whom I loved with the deep love of a +father. I had two sons; I have only one left to me.—I am a poet, say +you? Alas! Fain would I be one of those geniuses who render immortal the +heroes of their songs—Victorin would then live in all posterity as he +lives in the hearts of those who knew and mourn for him! But why do you +broach the subject of verses? Have they any connection with the subject +that brings me back to you this morning?"</p> + +<p>"Like all poets—you surely read your verses many times over in order to +correct them—and then you forget them, if the term can be used, to the +end that when you read them over anew, you may be struck all the more +forcibly by anything that may hurt your eyes or ears."</p> + +<p>"Certes, after having written some ode under the inspiration of the +moment, it has sometimes happened to me that, as the saying is, I let my +verses sleep for several months, and then, reading them over again, was +shocked at things that had at first escaped me. But poetry is not the +question before us."</p> + +<p>"There is, indeed, a great advantage in first letting thoughts sleep and +then taking them up again," answered my foster-sister with a phlegma +that surprised me more and more. "Yes, the method is a good one. That +which, under the heat of inspiration may not have at first wounded +us—sometimes shocks our senses when the inspiration has cooled down. If +the test is useful in the instance of frivolous matters like<a name="page_253" id="page_253"></a> verses, +should it not be all the more useful when grave matters affecting our +lives are concerned?"</p> + +<p>"Victoria, I do not grasp your meaning!"</p> + +<p>"I yesterday received from you a letter that ran thus: 'This evening I +shall be in Treves unknown to anybody. I conjure you, in the name of the +most vital interests of our beloved country, to receive me in secrecy, +and not to mention the matter to anyone, not even to your friend +Schanvoch. Towards midnight I shall await your answer. I shall be found +wrapped in my cloak near your garden gate.'"</p> + +<p>"And you granted me the interview, Victoria. Unfortunately for me it led +to no decisive results, and so, instead of my returning to Mayence, as I +should have done, I find myself compelled to remain at Treves, seeing +you demanded time until this morning to arrive at a conclusion."</p> + +<p>"I shall be unable to arrive at any conclusion before submitting your +proposition to the test that we just spoke of. Tetrik, I let your offers +sleep, or rather I slept with them. Repeat to me, now, what you said to +me last night. Mayhap what wounded me then may no longer seem so +objectionable—"</p> + +<p>"Victoria, can you joke at such a moment?"</p> + +<p>"She who, even before having had to weep over her father and her +husband, over her son and her grandson, rarely laughed—such a woman +will assuredly not choose the hour of eternal mourning to indulge in +jokes. Believe me, Tetrik, I repeat it, your last night's propositions +seemed so extraordinary to me, they have thrown my mind into such +perplexity, they have raised such strange thoughts, that instead of +uttering myself under the shock of my first impressions, I<a name="page_254" id="page_254"></a> prefer to +forget all that we said, and to listen to you once more, as if you +broached those matters for the first time."</p> + +<p>"Victoria, your eminent intellect, your powerful mind that has always +been prompt and unerring in taking a decision, did not, I must confess, +prepare me for such caution and hesitation."</p> + +<p>"Simply because never before in my life, now a long one, have I been +called upon to utter myself upon questions of such moment."</p> + +<p>"Pray, remember that yesterday—"</p> + +<p>"I wish to remember nothing. To me our last night's interview is as if +it had not been. Consider that it is now midnight, Mora has just let you +in by the garden gate, and has brought you to me. Speak—I listen."</p> + +<p>"Victoria—what is it that you have in mind?"</p> + +<p>"Be careful—if you refuse to broach the matter in full, I might give +you the answer that my first impressions dictated—and you know, Tetrik, +that when I once utter myself, I do so irrevocably."</p> + +<p>"Your first impression is, accordingly, unfavorable," cried Tetrik in an +accent of anguish. "Oh! It would be a misfortune, a great misfortune!"</p> + +<p>"Speak, then, if it is your desire to avert the misfortune."</p> + +<p>"Be it as you desire, Victoria, although such singular conduct on your +part disturbs me. You desire it? I shall satisfy you—our last night's +interview did not take place—I see you now for the first time after a +rather long absence, although a frequent exchange of correspondence kept +us in close touch with each other, and I say to you: It is now five +years ago since, struck at my very heart by the death of Victorin—a +fatal event, that carried away the hopes I entertained<a name="page_255" id="page_255"></a> for the glory of +Gaul—I lay almost dying in Italy, at Rome, whither my son accompanied +me. According to the opinion of the physicians, the trip was to restore +my health. They erred. My ailments increased. It pleased God that a +Christian priest, whom a recently converted friend secretly introduced +into my house, succeeded in reaching my bedside. The faith enlightened +me—and, while enlightening me, performed a miracle—it saved me from +death. I returned, so to speak, to a new life with a new religion. My +son abjured, as I did, only in secret, the false gods that we had until +then adored. At that stage I received a letter from you, Victoria. You +informed me of the assassination of Marion. Guided by you, and as I had +expected, he had governed Gaul wisely. I remained overwhelmed by such +tidings; they were as distressing as they were unexpected. You conjured +me in the name of the most sacred interests of our country to return to +Gaul. None, you said to me, was capable of replacing Marion except +myself. You even went further. I alone, in the new and peaceful era that +opened to our country, could promote her prosperity by taking the reins +of government. You made a vehement appeal to my old friendship for you, +to my devotion for our country. I left Rome with my son. A month later I +was near you at Mayence. You pledged me your far-reaching influence with +the army—you were what you still are, the Mother of the Camps. +Presented by you to the army I was acclaimed by it. Yes, thanks to you +alone, I, a civil governor, who in my life had never touched a sword, I +was acclaimed the sole Chief of Gaul, and you boldly and proudly +declared on that day to the Emperor that Gaul, strong and feared, and +henceforth independent, would render obedience only to a Gallic chief, +freely elected. Engaged at<a name="page_256" id="page_256"></a> the time in his disastrous war in the Orient +against Queen Zenobia, your heroic peer, the Emperor yielded. I alone +governed our country. Ruper, an old and tried general in the wars of the +Rhine, was placed in command of the troops. In its undying idolatry for +you, the army wished to keep you in its midst. I was engaged in +developing in Gaul the blessings of peace. Always faithful to the +Christian faith, I did not consider it politic to make a public +confession of my belief, and I concealed from even you, Victoria, my +conversion to a religion whose Pope is in Rome. Since the last five +years Gaul has been prospering at home, and is respected abroad. I +established the seat of my government and of the senate at Bordeaux, +while you remained with the army, which covers our frontier, and is ever +ready to repel either new invasions attempted by the Franks, or any +attack undertaken by the Romans, should the latter attempt to curtail +the complete independence that we enjoy and conquered so dearly. As you +know, Victoria, I always sought inspiration from your eminent wisdom, +either by visiting you in Treves, after you left Mayence, or through +correspondence with you upon the affairs of the country. But I indulge +in no delusions, Victoria; I am proud to admit the truth; it was only +your powerful hand that raised me to headship; it is only your hand that +keeps me there. Yes, from the seclusion of her modest retreat in Treves, +the Mother of the Camps is in fact the Empress of Gaul—despite the +power that I enjoy, I am only your first subject. That rapid glance over +the past was necessary in order to clearly formulate the present—"</p> + +<p>"Proceed, Tetrik, I am listening attentively."</p> + +<p>"The deplorable death of Victorin and his son, the assassination of +Marion, all these catastrophes tell you upon how<a name="page_257" id="page_257"></a> slender a thread +elective sovereignty hangs. Gaul is at peace; her brave army is more +devoted to you than it has ever been to any of its generals; it overawes +our enemies; all that our beautiful country now stands in need of, in +order to reach the highest pinnacle of prosperity, is stability. The +country needs an authority that will not be dependent upon the caprice +of an election, which, however intelligent to-day, may be stupid +to-morrow. We need a government that is not personified in a man, ever +at the mercy of those who elected him, or of the dagger of an assassin. +The monarchic institution, based as it is, not upon a man, but upon a +principle, existed in Gaul centuries ago. It alone could to-day impart +to the nation the vigor and prosperity that it lacks. Victoria, you +dispose of the army, I govern the country. Let us join our strength for +a common aim—the insurance of our glorious country's future; let us +join, not our bodies—I am old, while you are still handsome and young, +Victoria—but our souls before a priest of the new religion. Embrace +Christianity, become my wife before God—and proclaim us, yourself +Empress, me Emperor of the Gauls. The army will have but one voice in +favor of elevating you upon a throne—you will reign alone and without +sharing your power with anyone. As to me, you know it, I have no +ambition to subserve. Despite my idle title of Emperor, I shall continue +to be your first vassal. As to my son, we shall adopt him for our +successor to the throne. He is of marriageable age; we shall choose for +him some sovereign alliance—and the monarchy of Gaul will be +established for all time. That, Victoria, was the proposal that I made +to you last night—I repeat it to-day. I have again laid my projects +bare before you and in the interest of our country. Adopt the plan; it +is the<a name="page_258" id="page_258"></a> fruit of long years of meditation—and Gaul will march at the +head of the nations of the world."</p> + +<p>A long silence on the part of my foster-sister followed these words of +her relative. She then replied with the calmness that marked her words +since the entrance of Tetrik into the room:</p> + +<p>"It was a wise inspiration that caused me to wish to hear you a second +time, Tetrik. You abjured in favor of the new religion the ancient +religion of our fathers; but almost all Gaul is still loyal to the druid +faith."</p> + +<p>"Hence it is that I considered it politic to keep my abjuration a +secret, and in this I have acted in accord with the views of the Pope of +Rome. But if you should accept my offer, and should yourself abjure your +idolatry at our marriage, I shall then loudly proclaim my new belief, +and, according to the opinion of the bishops, our conversion will draw +in its wake the conversion of our people. Moreover I have the promise of +the bishops that they will glorify you as a saint with all the +magnificent pomp of the new Church. And, believe me, Victoria, a power +that is consecrated in the name of God by the Gallic prelates and by the +Pope of Rome, will be clothed in the eyes of the people with almost +divine authority."</p> + +<p>"Tell me, Tetrik; you abjured the belief of our fathers in favor of the +new, in favor of the gospel preached by the young man of Nazareth who +was crucified two centuries ago. I have read that gospel. An ancestress +of Schanvoch's witnessed the last days of Jesus, the friend of the slave +and the afflicted. Now, then, nowhere have I found in the gentle and +divine words of the young master of Nazareth aught but exhortations to +renounce wealth, to meekness, to equality<a name="page_259" id="page_259"></a> among men—and here are you, +a fervent and recent convert, dreaming of royalty! The young man of +Nazareth, so sweet, so tender of the sufferers, the sinners and the +oppressed as he was, nevertheless broke out at times into terrible +threats against the rich, the powerful, the worldly happy—above all and +always he thundered against the princes of the church whom he branded as +infamous hypocrites—and, here are you, a fervent and recent convert, +seeking to place the royalty that you are striving after under the +consecration of just such princes of the church, the bishops! The young +man of Nazareth said to his disciples: 'When you pray, enter into your +closet, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father which is +in secret, and your Father which sees in secret will reward you +openly'—and here are you, a fervent and recent convert, proposing to me +to render our abjuration and prayers in public, pompously and solemnly, +seeing that the bishops are to glorify my conversion in the face of the +world. Truly, my feeble intellect, still closed to the light of the new +faith, is unable to reconcile such shocking contradictions."</p> + +<p>"Nothing more simple. The gospel of our Lord—"</p> + +<p>"Of what 'Lord' do you speak, Tetrik?"</p> + +<p>"Of our Lord Jesus Christ, the son of God, or rather the incarnate God."</p> + +<p>"How the times have changed! During his life the young man of Nazareth +did not call himself 'Lord'—far from it; he called himself the son of +God, in the sense that our druid faith teaches us that we are all +children of the same God. And in line with the teachings of our druids +he declared that our spirit, emancipated of its terrestrial bonds, +proceeds to unknown worlds where it animates rejuvenated bodies."<a name="page_260" id="page_260"></a></p> + +<p>"The times have changed—you are right, Victoria. Taken in an absolute +sense, the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ would be but a weapon of +eternal rebellion in the hands of the poor against the rich, the servant +against his lord, the people against their chiefs—it would be the +negation of all authority. Creeds on the contrary have the mission to +strengthen authority."</p> + +<p>"I am aware of that. In the days of their primitive barbarism, and +before they became the sublimest of men, our druids rendered themselves +redoubtable to the ignorant, struck them with terror, and crushed them +under their yoke. But the young man of Nazareth smote the atrocious +knavery when he indignantly denounced the princes of the church saying: +'They bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's +shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their +fingers.' All the more, if he is God, should his words be held sacred. +You speak, Tetrik, very much after the fashion of the Pharisees of old, +who caused the young man of Nazareth to be crucified."</p> + +<p>"Those are only sentimental views. Cultured minds, like yours, will +understand the true meaning of those bitter criticisms, and the violent +attacks of our Lord against the rich, the powerful and the priests of +his days. His sermons in favor of community of property, his exaggerated +mercifulness towards women of ill fame, the debauched, the prodigals, +the vagabonds—in short, his preference for the dregs of the population +with which he surrounded himself are not the means of government and +authority. The priests and bishops of the new faith alone are able, by +means of their sermons, skilfully to turn off the dangerous current of +the thought of equality among men, of hatred against the mighty, of +dispossessment<a name="page_261" id="page_261"></a> against the rich, of liberty, of fraternity, of +community of goods, of tolerance for the guilty—a fatal current that +takes its source in certain passages of the gospel, which vulgar minds +wrongfully interpret."</p> + +<p>"And yet it is in the name of those generous thoughts that so many +martyrs have died in the past, and are still sacrificing their lives!"</p> + +<p>"Alas, yes! Jesus our Lord has remained for them the carpenter of +Nazareth, who was put to death for having defended the poor, the slaves, +the oppressed, the sinners, against those who then enjoyed power; he +promised the former the goods of the latter saying that the day would +come when 'the first would be the last.' It is for that reason that +these martyrs preach with unconquerable heroism the doctrines of Jesus, +the friend of the poor, the enemy of the mighty. The interests of both +the present and the future, accordingly, dictate to you that you accept +my offer. I resume: Take me for your husband; embrace the new faith, as +I did; have yourself and me proclaimed Emperor and Empress; adopt my son +and his posterity. All Gaul will follow our example and become +Christians; we shall heap privileges and wealth upon the bishops, and +they will consecrate in us the most sovereign and absolute authority +ever vested in any emperor or empress!"</p> + +<p>At this point, Victoria's voice, that until then was calm and collected, +broke out indignant and threatening:</p> + +<p>"Tetrik! The compact that you are proposing to me is +sacrilegious—infamous! Yesterday I thought you were demented—to-day, +when you repeat your proposition and expose to my gaze, even clearer +than you did before, the abysmal depths of your infernal soul, I see in +you a monster of ambition<a name="page_262" id="page_262"></a> and of felony! At this hour the past lights +up the present before me, and the present lights the future! Blessed be +you, Hesus! I was not alone when this plot was unrolled to my ears! You +inspired me, Oh, Hesus! I wished to have a witness, who, in case of +need, could verify the reality of this monstrous proposal—Victoria +herself would not be believed upon her unsupported testimony when she +uncovers such dark designs! Come, brother—come, Schanvoch!"</p> + +<p>At Victoria's call I presented myself, crying:</p> + +<p>"Sister, I no longer say as I once did: 'I suspect this man!' To-day I +accuse the criminal!"</p> + +<p>"Schanvoch!" answered Tetrik disdainfully, "your accusations are stale. +This is not the first time that such silly words have dropped before my +contempt—"</p> + +<p>"I formerly only suspected you, Tetrik," I said determinedly, "of having +by your machinations brought on the death of Victorin and his son, who +was still in his cradle. To-day I accuse you of that horrible plot. I +prefer against you the charge of murder!"</p> + +<p>"Take care!" Tetrik answered pale, somber and with a threatening +gesture. "Take care! My power is great—I can annihilate you—"</p> + +<p>"Brother," Victoria said to me, "your thought is mine—speak without +fear—I also have power."</p> + +<p>"Tetrik," I proceeded, "I once only suspected you of being at the bottom +of Marion's assassination—to-day I accuse you of that crime also!"</p> + +<p>"Crazy wretch! Where are the proofs of the charges that you have the +audacity to hurl at me?"</p> + +<p>"Oh! You are prudent and skilful as well as patient. You break your +tools in the dark after having used them—"<a name="page_263" id="page_263"></a></p> + +<p>"Those are idle words," answered Tetrik with icy coolness. "Your proofs, +where are they! I laugh at your impotent threats."</p> + +<p>"The proofs!" cried Victoria. "They are embodied in your sacrilegious +propositions. You conceived the project of being the hereditary emperor +of Gaul long before Victorin's death; your proposition of having my +grandson acclaimed the heir of his father's office was a lure meant at +once to lead me off the scent of your designs and to furnish the first +step of the ladder that you meant to climb."</p> + +<p>"Victoria, anger is blinding you! What a bungler would I have been—if, +indeed, the ambitious object that I pursued was a hereditary throne for +myself—to advise you to vest the power in your own stock—"</p> + +<p>"Aye! For one thing, the principle would have been accepted by the army. +For another, once hereditary power was established for the future, you +would have rid yourself of my son and grandson, in the manner that you +did—by assassination. It is all now clear before me. That cursed +Bohemian girl was your instrument; she was sent to Mayence in order to +seduce my son, in order to drive him with her refusals to the infamous +act that the creature demanded as the price of her favors. The crime +once committed, my son would either be killed by Schanvoch, who was +hastily called back to Mayence that very night, or he would be slain by +the army, which received timely notice and was lashed to fury by your +emissaries—"</p> + +<p>"Proofs—proofs—Victoria! Proofs!"</p> + +<p>"I have none, yet I state the facts! You managed to have my grandson +killed the same night—torn from my arms. My stock is extinguished. Your +first step towards empire was<a name="page_264" id="page_264"></a> marked in blood. You thereupon declined +power, and proposed the elevation of Marion. Oh! I admit it! Before that +prodigy of infernal cunning, my suspicions, which were for a moment +aroused, melted away. Two months after his acclamation as Chief of Gaul, +Marion fell under the sword of an execrable assassin, your instrument +again—"</p> + +<p>"Proofs!" broke in Tetrik impassibly. "Furnish the proofs!"</p> + +<p>"I have none, yet I state the facts. You remained the only available +candidate for the office—Victorin, his son and Marion were killed. +Thereupon, I unwittingly became your accomplice. I urged you to accept +the government of the country. You triumphed, but only in part; you +governed; but, you said it, you were but the first subject of the Mother +of the Camps. Oh! I perceive it clearly! The hour has come when my power +stands in your way. The army, Gaul, accepted Tetrik for their chief upon +my request. It was not they who chose you. With one word I can break +you, the same as I raised you to the place that you now are in. Blinded +by ambition you judged my heart after your own; you thought me capable +of wishing to exchange my influence over the army for the crown of an +empress, and of enthroning my stock. You have entered into a dark +compact with the Pope and bishops, looking to the eventual brutification +and enslavement of this proud Gallic people which freely chooses its +chiefs, and remains faithful to the religion of our fathers. Why, +centuries ago this people broke the yoke of kingship through the sacred +hands of Ritha-Gaur, and yet you now scheme to impose upon it a hated +domination by allying your self with the new Church! Very well, I, +Victoria, the Mother of the Camps, accuse you before the people in arms +of intriguing<a name="page_265" id="page_265"></a> for the subjugation of Gaul! I accuse you of having +denied the faith of our fathers! I accuse you of entering into a secret +alliance with the bishops! I accuse you of wishing to usurp the imperial +crown and to render it hereditary in your family! I shall bring these +charges against you before the people in arms, and shall pronounce you a +traitor, a renegade, a murderer, a usurper! I shall demand on the spot +that you be tried by the senate, and punished with death for your +crimes!"</p> + +<p>The vehemence of the accusations of my foster-sister notwithstanding, +Tetrik maintained his habitual composure. For a moment he had dropped +the mask and flown at me with threats. Now he was himself again. Raising +his hands heavenward, he answered with the most unctuous voice that he +could summon:</p> + +<p>"Victoria, I considered the project that I submitted to you advantageous +to Gaul—let us drop it. You accuse me; I am ready to answer for my acts +before the senate and the army. Should my death, decreed at your +instigation, be of any service to my country, I shall not refuse to you +the few days of life that are still left to me. I shall await the +decision of the senate. Adieu, Victoria. The future will tell which of +us two, you or I, understood the country's interests better, and loved +Gaul with the wiser love."</p> + +<p>Saying this he took a step toward the door. I dashed forward ahead of +him, barred his passage and said:</p> + +<p>"You shall not go out! You mean to flee from the punishment that is due +to your crimes—"</p> + +<p>Tetrik looked me from head to feet with icy haughtiness, and half +turning towards Victoria, said:<a name="page_266" id="page_266"></a></p> + +<p>"What! In your house, violence is attempted upon an old man! Upon a +relative who comes to you unsuspecting—"</p> + +<p>"I shall respect that which is considered sacred in all +countries—hospitality," answered the Mother of the Camps. "You came to +me freely, you shall go out freely."</p> + +<p>"Sister!" I cried. "Be careful! Your confidence has proved fatal once +before—"</p> + +<p>Victoria interrupted me with a gesture, and said bitterly:</p> + +<p>"You are right—my confidence has been fatal to the country; it weighs +upon my heart with remorse—but fear not this time."</p> + +<p>Saying this she rang the bell. Mora entered almost immediately. Her +mistress whispered a few words in her ear and the servant quickly went +out again.</p> + +<p>"Tetrik," Victoria proceeded, "I have sent for Captain Paul and several +officers. They will come here for you. They will accompany you to your +lodging—you shall not leave the place but to appear before your +judges."</p> + +<p>"My judges! Who are to be my judges?"</p> + +<p>"The army will appoint a tribunal—that tribunal will judge you."</p> + +<p>"I can be tried only by the senate."</p> + +<p>"If the military tribunal finds you guilty, you will then be sent before +the senate; if the military tribunal acquits you, you will be free. Only +divine vengeance will then be able to reach you."</p> + +<p>Mora re-entered the room to inform her mistress that her orders were +issued to Captain Paul. Afterwards I remembered, but, alas! too late, +that Mora exchanged a few words in a low voice with Tetrik who sat near +the door.<a name="page_267" id="page_267"></a></p> + +<p>"Schanvoch," Victoria said to me, "did you hear well the conversation +that I had with Tetrik?"</p> + +<p>"Perfectly. I lost not one word."</p> + +<p>"Transcribe it faithfully."</p> + +<p>And turning to the Chief of Gaul she said:</p> + +<p>"That will be the indictment that I shall bring against you. It shall be +read before the military tribunal that is to sit in judgment upon you."</p> + +<p>"Victoria," Tetrik replied calmly, "listen to the advice of an old man, +who once was and still is your best friend. It is an easy thing to +accuse a man, but to prove his crime is a more difficult affair—"</p> + +<p>"Hold your tongue, detestable hypocrite!" cried Victoria angrily. "Drive +me not to extremes—"</p> + +<p>And clasping her hands:</p> + +<p>"Hesus! Give me the strength to be equitable towards this man. Calm down +in me, Oh, Hesus! the ebullitions of anger that might unsettle my +judgment!"</p> + +<p>Having heard steps behind the door, Mora opened it, and returned to her +mistress, saying:</p> + +<p>"Captain Paul has arrived."</p> + +<p>Victoria made a sign to Tetrik to leave the room. He stepped out heaving +a profound sigh and saying in penetrating accents:</p> + +<p>"Lord! Lord! Dissipate the blindness of my enemies! Pardon them, as I +pardon them!"<a name="page_268" id="page_268"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.<br /><br /> +THE VISION OF VICTORIA.</h3> + +<p>When the room was cleared of the presence of Tetrik the Mother of the +Camps said to her servant, just as the latter was about to leave close +upon the heels of Tetrik:</p> + +<p>"Mora, my breast is afire. Bring me a cup of water with some honey, to +cool me and slake my thirst."</p> + +<p>The servant hurriedly nodded her head and vanished with Tetrik, who +lingered for a moment at the threshold.</p> + +<p>"Oh, my brother!" murmured Victoria despondently when we were again +alone. "My long struggle with that man has exhausted me—the sight of +evil lames my energies—I feel broken—"</p> + +<p>"Want of sleep, excitement, the horror that the sight of Tetrik inspired +you with—all this has rendered you feverish. Take a little rest, +sister; I shall instantly transcribe your conversation with the man. +This very evening justice will be done."</p> + +<p>"You are right; I think that if I could sleep a while I should feel +relieved. Go, brother, but do not leave the house."</p> + +<p>"Would you like Sampso to keep you company?"</p> + +<p>"No, I prefer to be alone."</p> + +<p>Mora re-entered. She carried a cup filled with the beverage that her +mistress had ordered. The latter took the cup and drained its contents +with avidity. Leaving my foster-sister<a name="page_269" id="page_269"></a> to the care of her servant, I +went back to my room in order to reproduce the words of Tetrik +accurately. I was just about finishing the task, which took me nearly +two hours, when Mora dashed in pale and frightened.</p> + +<p>"Schanvoch!" she cried panting for breath. "Come! Come quick! Drop your +writing! Hasten to my mistress!"</p> + +<p>"What is the matter! What has happened?"</p> + +<p>"My mistress. Oh! Woe! Woe! Come quick!"</p> + +<p>"Victoria! Does any danger threaten her?" I cried, hurrying to the +apartment of my foster-sister, while Mora followed me, saying:</p> + +<p>"She sent me out of the room—she wanted to be alone. A minute ago I +went in—and, woe is me! I saw my poor mistress—"</p> + +<p>"Finish speaking—you saw Victoria—"</p> + +<p>"I saw her lying on her bed—her eyes open—but they were fixed—she +seemed dead—"</p> + +<p>I shall never forget the frightful sight that struck my eyes as I +stepped into Victoria's chamber. As Mora said, she lay stretched upon +her bed motionless, livid, like a corpse. Her fixed, yet sparkling eyes, +seemed to have sunk into their orbits; her features, painfully +contracted, were of the cold whiteness of marble. A sinister thought +flashed through my mind like lightning—Victoria was dying of poison!</p> + +<p>"Mora!" I cried throwing myself upon my knees beside the couch of the +Mother of the Camps. "Send immediately for the druid physician, and run +and tell Sampso to come here!"<a name="page_270" id="page_270"></a></p> + +<p>The servant rushed out. I took one of Victoria's hands. It was limp and +icy.</p> + +<p>"Sister! It is I!" I cried—"Schanvoch!"</p> + +<p>"Brother," she murmured.</p> + +<p>As I heard her muffled, feeble voice, methought the answer proceeded +from the bottom of a tomb. A moment later, her eyes, that until then +were fixed, turned slowly towards me. The divine intelligence that +formerly illumined the beautiful, august and sweet look of my +foster-sister seemed extinguished. Nevertheless, by degrees, she +recovered consciousness, and said:</p> + +<p>"Is it you—brother? I am dying—"</p> + +<p>Tossing her head painfully from one side to the other as if seeking +something, she made an effort to raise her arm; it dropped immediately +beside her; she then proceeded to say:</p> + +<p>"See yonder large trunk—open it—you will find in it—a bronze +casket—bring it to me—"</p> + +<p>I did as I was bid, and deposited a rather heavy bronze casket near her +on the couch. At that moment Sampso, whom Mora notified of Victoria's +condition, came in.</p> + +<p>"Sampso," said Victoria, "take this casket—take it away with you—keep +it carefully locked—open it in three days—the key is tied to the lid."</p> + +<p>And addressing me:</p> + +<p>"Did you transcribe Tetrik's conversation with me?"</p> + +<p>"I was just finishing it when Mora ran in to me."</p> + +<p>"Sampso, take that casket away to your room immediately, and bring me +the parchment on which Schanvoch has just been writing. Go, we have not +a minute to spare!"</p> + +<p>Sampso obeyed and left the room distracted. I remained alone with +Victoria.<a name="page_271" id="page_271"></a></p> + +<p>"Brother," she said to me, "every minute is precious. Listen to what I +have to say to you without interrupting me. I feel that I am dying; I +think I know the hand that smote me, without her being herself aware of +what she was doing. This crime caps a long series of dark and felonious +deeds. My death is at this moment a grave danger to Gaul. We must avert +the danger. You are known in the army—my confidence in you is +known—call the officers and soldiers together—inform them of Tetrik's +schemes. The conversation that you transcribed will be signed by me, in +order to verify your words. My life is ebbing fast. Oh! If I but had the +time to gather here around my death-bed the officers of the army who +this very evening will surround my funeral pyre. Upon that pyre I wish +you to lay the arms of my father, my husband and Victorin, also the +cradle of my little grandson!"</p> + +<p>"Schanvoch!" cried Sampso precipitately entering the room, "The +parchments that you left upon the table—have disappeared. But I saw +them lying on your desk when Mora came in to call me. They must have +been taken away since."</p> + +<p>"The parchments were taken away! Oh! What a misfortune to Gaul!" +murmured Victoria. "What mysterious hand is it that can thus penetrate +my house? Woe, woe is Gaul! Hesus! Omnipotent god! You call me to the +unknown worlds, where, perhaps, we may hover over this world that we +leave for yonder ones. Hesus! Am I to leave this earth without the +assurance of the welfare of the country I love so much? The future +terrifies me! Oh, Omnipotent! Allow your spirit to enlighten me at this +supreme moment! Hesus, have you heard me?" added Victoria in a louder +voice, half rising on her couch; and with inspired eyes she proceeded:<a name="page_272" id="page_272"></a> +"What do I see? Is this the future that unveils itself before my eyes? +Who is that woman—so pale, lying prostrate? Her robe is +blood-bespattered. Also her chaplet of oaken leaves has drops of blood; +the sword, that her virile hand once held, lies broken at her side. One +of those savage Franks, his head ornamented with a crown, holds the +noble woman under his knees; he looks with mild and timid mien at a man +splendidly arrayed as a pontiff. Hesus! The bleeding woman—is Gaul! The +barbarian who kneels down upon her—is a Frankish king! The pontiff—is +the Bishop of Rome! Blood flows! a stream of blood! it carries in its +course, to the light of the flames of conflagrations, a mass of ruins, +thousands of corpses! Oh! the woman—Gaul, I see her again wan, worn, +clad in rags, the iron collar of servitude on her neck; she drags +herself on her knees; bending under a heavy burden! The Frankish king +and the Roman bishop quicken the march of enslaved Gaul with their +whips! Another torrent of blood; still the glamour of conflagration. Oh, +Hesus! Enough! Enough ruins and massacre! Heaven be praised!" cried +Victoria, whose face seemed for a moment to beam with divine splendor. +"The noble woman has risen to her feet! Behold her—more beautiful, +prouder than ever before! Her head is wreathed in a crown of fresh +oak-leaves! In one hand she holds a sheaf of grain, grapes and flowers; +in the other a red flag,<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> surmounted by the Gallic cock. Superbly she +tramples under foot the fragments of her collar of slavery, the crown of +the Frankish kings and that of the Roman pontiffs! Yes, that woman, free +at last, stately, glorious and fruitful—she is Gaul! Hesus! Hesus! Be +kind to her! Enable her to break the<a name="page_273" id="page_273"></a> yoke of Kings and Pontiffs! Lead +her to freedom, glorious and fruitful without being compelled to reach +the goal by wading from century to century through those seas of tears, +those seas of blood that affright me!"</p> + +<p>These last words wholly exhausted Victoria's strength. Still she made +one more effort in her divine exaltation. She raised her eyes to heaven, +crossed her arms over her breast, heaved a long sigh, and fell back upon +her couch.</p> + +<p>The Mother of the Camps, Victoria the Great, was dead!</p> + +<p>While she spoke I made superhuman efforts to control my despair. When, +however, I saw her expire, I became dizzy, my knees sank under me, my +strength, my thoughts fled. I lost consciousness, but I still recollect +the sound of many voices and a great tumult in the contiguous apartment +whence I heard distinctly the words:</p> + +<p>"Tetrik, the Chief of Gaul, is in his death agony—he is dying of +poison—"<a name="page_274" id="page_274"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.<br /><br /> +CRIME TRIUMPHANT.</h3> + +<p>For several days I lay at death's door, constantly attended, my son, by +your second mother. About two weeks passed after the death of Victoria, +before I was able to collect and co-ordinate my recollections, and speak +with Sampso of our irreparable loss. The last words that struck my ears +when, broken with grief, I wholly lost consciousness beside the +death-bed of my foster-sister were these:</p> + +<p>"Tetrik, the Chief of Gaul, is in his death agony—he is dying of +poison."</p> + +<p>Indeed Tetrik was, or rather seemed to have been, poisoned at the same +time as Victoria. He had hardly stepped into the house of the general of +the army, when he seemed seized with severe pangs. When two weeks later +I myself returned to life, the life of Tetrik was still despaired of.</p> + +<p>I must admit I was stupefied at the strange information; my reason +refused to believe the man guilty of a crime of which he was himself a +victim.</p> + +<p>Victoria's death threw the city of Treves, the army, and later the whole +nation into consternation. The funeral of the august Mother of the Camps +seemed to be the funeral of Gaul herself. In her sudden taking-off +people saw the presage of new evils to the country. The Gallic senate +decreed the apotheosis of Victoria. It was celebrated at Treves in the +midst<a name="page_275" id="page_275"></a> of universal sorrow and tears. The pompous solemnity of the druid +cult, the chant of the bards, imparted imposing splendor to the +ceremony. Embalmed and lying on an ivory couch covered with cloth of +gold, Victoria lay in state to the veneration of the citizens who +crowded in mass to the house of mourning. The place was constantly +invaded by that army of the Rhine of which Victoria was truly the +mother. Finally her remains were placed upon the pyre, agreeable to the +custom of our fathers. Incense rose along the streets of Treves, crossed +by the funeral procession, which was headed by the bards singing on +their golden harps the praises of the illustrious woman. The pyre was +then set on fire and disappeared in a sheet of flame.</p> + +<p>A medal, struck on the very day of the funeral ceremony, represents, on +its obverse, the head of the Gallic heroine, casqued as Minerva, and on +its reverse, an eagle with outstretched wings flying into space with its +eyes fixed upon the sun, the symbol of the druid faith—the soul leaving +this world and flying towards the unknown world where it is to be clad +in a new body. Under the symbol the ordinary formula was engraved: +"Consecration," followed below by these words:</p> + +<p class="c smcap">Victoria, Emperor.</p> + +<p>By that virile appellation Gaul immortalized in her enthusiasm the +glorious Mother of the Camps, and wreathed her memory in a title that +she had steadily declined during life—a life that was at once modest +and sublime, and wholly consecrated to her father, her husband, her son +and to the glory and welfare of her country.</p> + +<p>My perplexity was profound. The poisoning of Tetrik, who, as it was +claimed, still struggled with death, the disappearance<a name="page_276" id="page_276"></a> of the +parchments that contained the traitor's conversation with Victoria, and +which she was thereby prevented from signing before dying—all these +circumstances rendered the prosecution of the traitor difficult, if not +impossible. An accusation lodged by me, an obscure soldier, against +Tetrik, who survived as the supreme Chief of Gaul, and whose power was +now all the greater, seeing it was no longer counterbalanced by the vast +influence of the Mother of the Camps, could not lead to favorable +results. Before deciding upon a final course in the matter, I waited for +my shattered frame and mind to recover their former vigor.</p> + +<p>Three days after Victoria's death, and obedient to the last wishes of +the Mother of the Camps, Sampso opened the casket that Victoria gave +her. In it my wife found a last touching proof of the thoughtfulness of +my foster-sister. There was a parchment with these words inscribed in +her own hand:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"We shall never part until death," did we, my good brother +Schanvoch, often say to each other; it is your wish, it is mine; +but if I am called away before you to live in the unknown worlds, +where we shall one day meet again, I shall feel happy on the day +when we shall meet again elsewhere than here, at the thought that +you have gone back to Brittany, the cradle of your family.</p> + +<p>The Roman conquest plundered your family of its ancestral fields. +Free once more, Gaul should, in the name of right or by force, have +revanquished the heritage of your children from the descendants of +the Romans. I know not what will be our country's condition, at the +time of our separation. But, hap what hap may, there are three +means by which you will be able to revindicate your just +heritage—right, money or force. You have the right, you have the +force, you have the money—you will find in this casket the<a name="page_277" id="page_277"></a> +sufficient sum with which to buy back, if need be, the fields that +belonged to your family, and thenceforth live happy and free near +the sacred stones of Karnak, the witnesses of the heroic death of +your ancestress Hena, the Virgin of the Isle of Sen.</p> + +<p>You have often shown to me the pious relics of your family—I wish +to join to them a souvenir of my own. You will find in this casket +a bronze lark. I wore that ornament on my casque the day of the +battle of Riffenel, at which I saw my son Victorin flash his virgin +sword. I wish that you and your family may continue to keep this +memento of our fraternal friendship. It is left to you by your +foster-sister Victoria; she is of your family—did she not drink +the milk of your brave mother?</p> + +<p>When you read these lines, my good brother Schanvoch, I shall have +been re-born beyond, near those whom I have loved.</p> + +<p>Persevere in your fidelity to Gaul and the faith of our fathers. +You have approved yourself worthy of your family. May your +descendants approve themselves worthy of you, and write, without +having to blush, the history of their lives, as Joel, the brenn of +the tribe of Karnak, has desired them to do.</p> + +<p class="r smcap">Victoria.</p></div> + +<p>Need I tell you, my son, how deeply I was moved by such solicitude on +her part? I was at the time steeped in gloom and absorbed by the fear of +the grave events that might follow in the wake of Victoria's death. I +remained almost insensible to the hope of speedily returning to +Brittany, in order to end my days there, on the spot where my ancestors +lived. When my health was completely restored, I repaired to the general +who commanded the army of the Rhine. An old soldier himself, he was +certain to appreciate better than anyone else the serious dangers that +Gaul remained exposed to with Victoria's death. I frankly told him the +schemes that Tetrik was hatching; I also expressed to him my suspicions<a name="page_278" id="page_278"></a> +regarding the poisoning of my foster-sister. The general made me the +following answer:</p> + +<p>"The crimes and plots that you accuse Tetrik of are so monstrous, they +would bespeak so infernal a soul, that I would hardly believe them, even +if they were attested by Victoria herself, our august mother, whom we +can never forget. Schanvoch, you are a brave and honest soldier, but +your deposition will not suffice to bring the Chief of Gaul to the bar +of the senate and the army. Besides, Tetrik is himself about to die; +even his own poisoning proves to a certainty that he is innocent of +Victoria's death. You would be the only witness against the Chief of +Gaul, who has been loved and venerated up to now, seeing that he has +always conducted himself as the first subject of Victoria, the real +empress of the nation. Take my advice, Schanvoch, invigorate your +spirit, that the sudden death of this august woman has so severely +shaken. It may be that, shocked by the disaster, your judgment is led +astray, and mistakes vague apprehensions for facts. Until now, Tetrik +has governed Gaul wisely, thanks to the inspiration of our august +Mother. If he dies, he will be regretted by us; if he survives the +mysterious crime which he has himself narrowly escaped, we shall +continue to honor the man who was pointed out to us by Victoria herself +as the fit object of our choice."</p> + +<p>The general's answer proved to me that I would never succeed in causing +the senate and the army to share my suspicions and convictions, both +being so thoroughly prejudiced in favor of the Chief of Gaul.</p> + +<p>Tetrik did not die. Hearing of his father's predicament, his son hurried +to Treves, and took his father in charge. When he became convalescent, +Tetrik held lengthy interviews<a name="page_279" id="page_279"></a> with the senators and the chiefs of the +army. He manifested on the subject of Victoria's death so profound and, +to all appearance, sincere a grief; he honored her memory in so pious a +manner by a funeral ceremony at which he glorified the illustrious +woman, whose omnipotent hand, he said, had so long supported him, and to +whom he felt proud of owing his elevation; in short, he seemed so +heart-stricken when, pale, worn with his illness, frequently breaking +out into tears, and leaning on the arm of his son, he dragged himself +with unsteady step to the sad solemnity, that he conquered the affection +of the people and the army more completely than ever by the last homage +that he rendered to the memory of Victoria.</p> + +<p>I then realized how utterly futile it would be to press my accusations +against Tetrik. With my heart rent at seeing the fate of Gaul in the +hands of a man whom I knew for a traitor, I decided to leave Treves with +you, my son, and Sampso, your second mother, and repair to Brittany, the +country of our family's nativity, there to seek some consolation for my +sorrows.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless I felt bound to fulfil what I considered a sacred duty. By +dint of constantly interrogating my memory on the subject of the +conversation between Tetrik and Victoria, I succeeded in transcribing it +a second time, word for word. Of this I made a second copy, and on the +eve of my departure took the first draft to the general of the army.</p> + +<p>"You are of the opinion," I said to him, "that my reason wanders—keep +this narrative—I hope the future may not prove to you the truth of my +accusation."</p> + +<p>The general took the parchment, and dismissed me with the compassionate +mien that is bestowed upon people whose mind is deranged.<a name="page_280" id="page_280"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.<br /><br /> +KIDDA, THE BOHEMIAN GIRL.</h3> + +<p>On leaving the general of the army I walked home disconsolate. Crime was +triumphant. I returned home, to the house of my foster-sister, where I +remained until my departure for Brittany. I was engaged with Sampso +packing up the last articles needed on our journey, when the following +unlooked-for events happened on that night.</p> + +<p>Mora, the servant, had also remained in the house. The woman's grief at +her mistress's death touched my heart. On the night that I am writing +about, my son, while engaged with your second mother in the preparations +for our journey, we found that we needed another trunk. I went +downstairs in search of one into a room that was separated from Mora's +chamber by a rough wooden partition. It was past midnight. Upon entering +the room where the trunk was, I noticed, to my no slight astonishment, +that a bright light shone from the servant's room through the clefts of +the partition. Fearing that the woman's bed might have taken fire while +she slept, I hastened to peep through the clefts in the boards. I +bounded back with astonishment, but quickly returned to my place of +observation.</p> + +<p>Mora was contemplating herself in a little silver mirror by the light of +two lamps, the gleam of which had first attracted my attention. But it +was no longer Mora the Mauritanian;<a name="page_281" id="page_281"></a> at least, her bronze complexion had +disappeared! I now saw her a pale brunette, coiffed in a rich gold band +ornamented with precious stones. The woman smiled at herself in the +glass. She put a long pearl earring to one of her ears, and—strangest +of all—she wore a corsage of some silvery material and a scarlet skirt.</p> + +<p>I recognized Kidda, the Bohemian girl.</p> + +<p>Alas! I had seen the creature only once, and then only by the light of +the moon, on that fateful night, when, suddenly recalled to Mayence by +the mysterious notification given me by my traveling companion, I slew +Victorin in my house, together with my beloved wife Ellen.</p> + +<p>Rage followed close upon the heels of my stupor—a horrible suspicion +flashed through my mind. I bolted from the inside the room in which I +was; with a violent thrust of my shoulder—rage multiplied my strength a +hundredfold—I broke down one of the boards of the partition, and +suddenly I stood before the eyes of the startled Bohemian. With one hand +I seized her and threw her upon her knees, with the other I took one of +the two heavy iron lamps, and raising it over the woman's head I cried:</p> + +<p>"I shall shatter your skull if you do not immediately confess your +crimes!"</p> + +<p>Kidda believed she read the decree of her death in my face. She grew +livid and murmured:</p> + +<p>"Kill me not! I shall speak!"</p> + +<p>"You are Kidda, the Bohemian girl?"</p> + +<p>"Yes—I am Kidda."</p> + +<p>"You were formerly at Mayence—and, as the price of your<a name="page_282" id="page_282"></a> favors, you +exacted of Victorin that he dishonor my wife Ellen?"</p> + +<p>"Yes—that is so!"</p> + +<p>"You were acting under orders of Tetrik?"</p> + +<p>"No, I never spoke to him."</p> + +<p>"Whose orders were you, then, following?"</p> + +<p>"Of Tetrik's equerry."</p> + +<p>"The man is cautious," I thought to myself. "And the soldier who on that +fateful night announced to me that a heinous crime was being perpetrated +in my house—do you know who he was?"</p> + +<p>"It was Captain Marion's companion in arms, he was a former blacksmith, +like Marion."</p> + +<p>"Did Tetrik also know that soldier?"</p> + +<p>"No, it was Tetrik's equerry who had secret conferences with him at +Mayence."</p> + +<p>"And where is that soldier now?"</p> + +<p>"He died."</p> + +<p>"After Tetrik employed him to assassinate Captain Marion?"</p> + +<p>The girl looked puzzled.</p> + +<p>"Did Tetrik cause him to be put to death? Answer!"</p> + +<p>"I think so!"</p> + +<p>"And it is that same equerry who sent you to this house under the guise +of Mora, the Mauritanian? Was it in order to disguise yourself that you +painted your face?"</p> + +<p>"Yes—that is all so."</p> + +<p>"You were to spy upon your mistress, were you not?—and then poison her? +Speak! If you believe in a God—if your infernal soul dares at this +supreme moment to implore his help—you have but a minute to +live—Speak!"</p> + +<p>"Have pity upon me!"<a name="page_283" id="page_283"></a></p> + +<p>"Confess your crime—you committed it under orders of Tetrik? Speak!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I was ordered by Tetrik."</p> + +<p>"When—how did he give you the order to execute that crime?"</p> + +<p>"When I entered the room the second time—after I was sent to bring +Captain Paul, who was to arrest Tetrik."</p> + +<p>"And the poison—you poured it into the drink that you were to present +to your mistress?"</p> + +<p>"Yes—it happened that way."</p> + +<p>"And on that same day," I added, my recollections now thronging to my +mind, "when I sent you to my wife, you purloined a parchment that lay on +my table and that I had written upon?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Tetrik ordered me to—he heard Victoria refer to the parchment."</p> + +<p>"Why, after the crime was committed, did you stay in this house down to +to-day?"</p> + +<p>"So as to awaken no suspicions."</p> + +<p>"What induced you to poison your mistress?"</p> + +<p>"The gift of these jewels that I was entertaining myself with putting on +when you broke in upon me. I thought I was alone!"</p> + +<p>"Tetrik came himself near dying of the poison—do you believe his +equerry is guilty of that crime?"</p> + +<p>"Every poison has its counter-poison," answered the Bohemian with a +sinister smile. "He who poisons others, removes suspicion from himself +by drinking from the same cup, and he is safe through the +counter-poison."</p> + +<p>The woman's answer was a flash-light to me. By an infernal ruse, and +doubtlessly guaranteed against death, thanks<a name="page_284" id="page_284"></a> to an antidote, Tetrik had +swallowed enough poison to produce in him the identical symptoms that +marked Victoria's agony and thus seem to share her fate.</p> + +<p>To seize a scarf that lay upon the bed, and, despite the resistance that +she offered, to tie her hands firmly together and to lock her up in one +of the lower rooms, was the affair of but an instant. I ran back to the +general of the army. After finally succeeding in being admitted to his +presence—a difficult thing owing to the hour of the night—I repeated +to him the confession that Kidda had just made to me. He shrugged his +shoulders impatiently and said:</p> + +<p>"Ever this same, rooted, thought—your mind must be wholly deranged. The +idea of having me waked up to hear such crazy man's stories. Moreover, +you have chosen ill the hour to prefer such charges against the +venerable Tetrik. He left Treves last evening for Bordeaux."</p> + +<p>The departure of Tetrik was a heavy blow to my last hopes. Nevertheless, +I pressed the general with such insistence, I spoke to him with such +earnestness and coherence, that he consented to order one of his +officers to accompany me back to the house, and take the Bohemian girl's +confession in writing. He and I returned hurriedly to the house. I +opened the door of the chamber in which I had left Kidda with her hands +tied. She was gone! She must have gnawed at the scarf with her teeth, +and fled by one of the windows that now stood open and that looked into +the garden. In my hurry and the seething confusion of my brain I had +omitted to guard against the chances of the woman's escape by that +issue.</p> + +<p>"Poor Schanvoch!" said the officer to me with deep pity.<a name="page_285" id="page_285"></a> "Your grief +makes you see visions—be careful, or you will go crazy, altogether!"</p> + +<p>And without caring to listen to me any longer he left.</p> + +<p>The will of God be done! I now renounced all hope of uncovering the +crimes of Tetrik. The next day I left the city of Treves with you and +Sampso, and took the road for Brittany.</p> + +<p class="top5">You will read, alas! with no little grief and apprehension, my son, the +few lines with which I shall close this narrative. You will see how our +old Gaul, after having fully reacquired her freedom by dint of three +centuries of continuous struggle, after having become great and powerful +under the influence of Victoria, was again to fall, not, it is true, +completely under the yoke, but at least enfeoffed to the Roman Emperors +through the infamous treachery of Tetrik.</p> + +<p>Finding his projects of marriage and usurpation thwarted by the Mother +of the Camps, the monster had her poisoned. She alone, had she consented +to abjure her faith and contract a union with him, could have cleared +the path for him to reach the hereditary throne of Gaul. With Victoria +dead, he realized the futility of persevering along that route. +Moreover, he soon felt that, being no longer sustained by the wisdom and +sovereign influence of that august woman, the people's affection for him +was visibly ebbing. Seeing that with every day he lost some of his +former prestige, and foreseeing his speedy fall, he began to cast about +for the commission of one of the two acts of treason that I had long ago +suspected him of contemplating. He labored in the dark to reduce Gaul, +after the country had acquired its complete independence, back to the +level of a dependency of the Roman Emperors.<a name="page_286" id="page_286"></a> Long in advance, and by +means of a thousand and one covert schemes, he sowed the germs of civil +discord in the country. By these means Gaul's powers of resistance were +weakened. He succeeded in re-kindling the old jealousies between +province and province that had long been allayed. By means of +deliberately practiced acts of favoritism and of injustice, he incited +violent rivalries between the generals and also between the several army +corps. When matters were ripe for the deed of treason he secretly wrote +to Aurelian, the Roman Emperor:</p> + +<p>"The favorable moment for an attack upon Gaul has arrived. You will +prevail easily over a people that is weakened by internal dissensions, +and an army, one division of which is jealous of the other. I shall +notify you in advance of how the Gallic troops are distributed, and also +of their moves, in order to insure the prospects of your triumph."</p> + +<p>The two armies met on the banks of the Marne on the wide plain of +Chalon. Agreeable to his promise, and acting in concert with the Roman +general, Tetrik allowed the corps that he led to be cut off from the +rest of the army. The Gallic legions of the Rhine fought with their +wonted intrepidity, but it was of no avail. Their movements being known +in advance by the enemy and overpowered by numbers, they were finally +cut to pieces. Tetrik and his son took refuge in the enemy's camp. Our +army being out of the way, and our country divided against itself, as it +had never been before even during the darkest days of our history, +victory was rendered an easy matter to the Romans. After re-enjoying +absolute freedom for many a year, Gaul became a Roman province once +more. As Caesar had done before him, in order to glorify the great +event, the Emperor Aurelian made a solemn entry into the Roman capital. +All the captives, gathered by<a name="page_287" id="page_287"></a> that emperor in the course of his long +wars in Asia, marched before his chariot. Among these the queen of the +Orient was seen, the heroine who emulated Victoria—Zenobia. She was +loaded with golden chains riveted to the gold collar that she wore +around her neck. Behind Zenobia marched Tetrik, the last Chief of Gaul +before the country relapsed into a province of Rome. Tetrik and his son +marched free and with heads erect, despite their infamous treachery. +They wore long purple mantles over silk tunics and breeches. They +represented in the procession the recent submission of the Gauls to +Aurelian the Emperor.</p> + +<p>Alas! my son, the history of our fathers will teach you that one day, +three hundred years ago, another Gaul also marched before the triumphal +chariot of a Roman Emperor, Caesar. That Gaul did not march in brilliant +array, with audacious mien and with smiles for his vanquisher. That +captive was loaded with chains, he was clad in rags, and was hardly able +to walk; he was that day taken out of the dungeon where he had +languished four years after having defended the freedom of Gaul inch by +inch against the victorious armies of the great Caesar. That captive, +one of the most heroic martyrs of our country and our independence, was +called Vercingetorix, the Chief of the Hundred Valleys.</p> + +<p>After the triumphal march of Caesar, the head of the valiant defender of +Gaul was cut off.</p> + +<p>After the triumphal march of Aurelian, Tetrik, the renegade who +delivered his country to the foreigner, was led with pomp to a splendid +palace, the price of his sacrilegious treason.</p> + +<p>Let not the contrast cause you to despair of virtue, my son. The justice +of Hesus is eternal. Traitors will receive their punishment.<a name="page_288" id="page_288"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="EPILOGUE" id="EPILOGUE"></a>EPILOGUE.</h3> + +<p>The narrative of my father Amael's great-grandfather Schanvoch on the +events that transpired in Gaul—after the death of Victoria the Great, +during the time that, living retiredly in Brittany on the fields of our +ancestors that he bought back from a Roman colonist, he quietly spent +his life with his son Alguen and his second wife Sampso—ends here.</p> + +<p>While it is true that Gaul was again a province of Rome, nevertheless, +all the practical franchises, that we reconquered so dearly by +innumerable insurrections, and paid for with the blood of our fathers, +have remained to us. None has dared, none will dare to deprive us of +them. We shall preserve our laws and customs; we shall enjoy our full +rights as citizens. Our incorporation with the Empire, the impost that +we pay into the fisc, and our name of "Roman Gaul"—these are the only +evidences of our dependence. Such a chain may not be heavy; but, light +as it be, a chain it is. I doubt not that some day we shall be able to +break it. The apprehensions that weighed upon my great-great-grandfather +Schanvoch's mind and that continue to weigh upon mine do not arise from +that quarter. No! The dangers that we apprehend—if faith is to be +attached to the prediction made by Victoria upon her death-bed; the +danger, that has filled us with dread for the future, rises from the +once more swelling number of the Frankish hordes on the other side of +the<a name="page_289" id="page_289"></a> Rhine, and in the dark machinations of the bishops of the new +religion.</p> + +<p>My great-great-grandfather Schanvoch died peaceably in our house, +situated near the sacred stones of Karnak. He left the narrative that he +wrote, and the casque's lark, given him by Victoria, together with the +previous narratives of our family and the relics that accompany them, to +his son Alguen. After a long and peaceful life Alguen died, three +hundred and forty years after our ancestress Genevieve saw Jesus of +Nazareth perish on the cross. Alguen's son Roderik, my grandfather, +inherited from his father both our family records and relics, and a +quiet, peaceful and contented life, all of which he bequeathed to his +son, my father Amael, who in turn bequeathed them to me, Gildas.</p> + +<p>I then, Gildas, make this entry to-day in our family annals three +hundred and seventy-five years after the death of Jesus. I feel sad on +this occasion. My father had intended to add a few words to our family +annals. He postponed doing so from day to day, seeing there was nothing +that he desired to make particular mention of to our descendants, his +life being the uneventful one of a quiet, industrious and obscure +husbandman. Two days ago my father died. He died in our own house, near +the stones of Karnak, after a short illness.</p> + +<p>The frightful predictions of Victoria, the illustrious foster-sister of +my ancestor Schanvoch, have not been verified. May they never be! Gaul +continues a dependence of the Roman Emperors. Occasionally a traveler +reaches these parts, penetrating into these remote regions of our old +Armorica. From them we have learned that, in some of the other provinces +there have been several popular uprisings of considerable<a name="page_290" id="page_290"></a> strength and +generally called "Bagaudies." These uprisings must have taken place +shortly after the death of my ancestor Schanvoch. Brittany has remained +free from the revolts of the "Bagauders." The region enjoys profound +tranquility. The impost that we pay into the emperor's fisc is not too +heavy. We live peacefully and free.</p> + +<p>Several of our ancestors, during the darksome days of their enslavement +to Rome, and when they were steeped in ignorance and misery, recorded on +our family parchments that such was the leaden uniformity of their days, +spent by them from dawn to dusk, in oppressive labors, that they had +nothing to say except: "I was born, I have lived and I shall die in the +sorrows of slavery." May it please the gods that the happiness of the +generations that are to follow me be in turn, so uniform, that each of +my descendants may, as I do now, have nothing to add to our family +chronicles but these lines with which I shall close my narrative:</p> + +<p>"I have lived happy, peaceful and obscure in our Armorican Brittany +cultivating our ancestral fields with the help of my family. I shall +depart from this world without fear or regret when it will please Hesus +to call me away to live again in yonder unknown worlds."</p> + +<p>I am now aged eighteen years. The family relics in my possession consist +of Hena's gold sickle, Guilhern's little brass bell, Sylvest's iron +collar, Genevieve's silver cross, and the casque's lark of Schanvoch.</p> + +<p class="c"><small>THE END.</small></p> + +<div class="footnotes"> +<p class="c"><b>FOOTNOTES</b></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> The Frankish chiefs, at the time of the conquest, daubed +their hair with tallow mixed with crushed limestone, to make their hair +a glaring reddish-yellow. Such was the beauty of the period.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Ardent, or Fiery. See "The Brass Bell," the second work of +this series.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> For the source of these recollections, see the third volume +of this series, entitled "The Iron Collar."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> The color of the Gallic emblem was crimson red.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr class="full" /> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Casque's Lark, by Eugène Sue + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CASQUE'S LARK *** + +***** This file should be named 33868-h.htm or 33868-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/3/8/6/33868/ + +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. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +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 + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/33868-h/images/ill_mysteries.png b/33868-h/images/ill_mysteries.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a09dc36 --- /dev/null +++ b/33868-h/images/ill_mysteries.png diff --git a/33868.txt b/33868.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ee0f294 --- /dev/null +++ b/33868.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9501 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Casque's Lark, by Eugene 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 Casque's Lark + or Victoria, The Mother of The Camps + +Author: Eugene Sue + +Translator: Daniel De Leon + +Release Date: October 17, 2010 [EBook #33868] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CASQUE'S LARK *** + + + + +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 CASQUE'S LARK + + 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, _Faustina 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 CASQUE'S LARK + + :: OR :: + +VICTORIA, THE MOTHER OF THE CAMPS + +A Tale of the Frankish Invasion of Gaul + +By EUGENE SUE + +TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL FRENCH + +By DANIEL DE LEON + +NEW YORK LABOR NEWS COMPANY 1909 + +Copyright, 1909, by the + +NEW YORK LABOR NEWS CO. + + + + +INDEX + + + TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE v + INTRODUCTION 1 + + PART I--FOREIGN FOES. + I. SCHANVOCH AND SAMPSO 21 + II. ON THE RHINE 26 + III. THE HORDES OF THE FRANKS 46 + IV. THE PRIESTESS ELWIG 55 + V. NEROWEG THE TERRIBLE EAGLE 69 + VI. THE FLIGHT 83 + VII. SHADOWS ACROSS THE PATH 94 + VIII. CAPTAIN MARION 99 + IX. VICTORIA THE GREAT 107 + X. TETRIK 114 + XI. VICTORIN 127 + XII. TO BATTLE 143 + XIII. THE BATTLE OF THE RHINE 156 + XIV. THE HOMEWARD RIDE 173 + + PART II--DOMESTIC TRAITORS. + I. GATHERING SHADOWS 185 + II. THE CATASTROPHE 195 + III. THE MORTUARY CHAMBER 208 + IV. FUNERAL PYRES 229 + V. ASSASSINATION OF MARION 233 + VI. THE TRAITOR UNMASKED 247 + VII. THE VISION OF VICTORIA 268 + VIII. CRIME TRIUMPHANT 274 + IX. KIDDA, THE BOHEMIAN GIRL 280 + + EPILOGUE 288 + + + + +TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE + + +The first four stories of Eugene Sue's series of historic novels--_The +Mysteries of the People; or, History of a Proletarian Family Across the +Ages_--are properly introductory to the wondrous drama in which, as +indicated in the preface to the first story of the series, "one family, +the descendants of a Gallic chief named Joel, typifies the oppressed; +one family, the descendants of a Frankish chief named Neroweg, typifies +the oppressor; and across and adown the ages, the successive struggles +between oppressors and oppressed--the history of civilization--is thus +represented in a majestic allegory." That wondrous drama opens with +this, the fifth of the stories--_The Casque's Lark; or, Victoria, the +Mother of the Camps_. + +Here, for the first time, does a descendant of Joel, the Breton chief, +encounter a Neroweg, the representative of the conquering race. Here +they cross swords for the first time, their descendants meeting again +and again in the course of the subsequent narratives, almost always in +deadly encounter, each typical of the advancing stage of civilization in +which the succeeding encounters occur. + +In point of time, the scene of this story is about the third century of +the Christian era. The great historic epoch which it describes is that +in which, the star of the Roman Empire being in the decline and the +Empire's hold upon Gaul having been greatly relaxed, the flood of the +barbarian migration of nations flowed westward from the primeval +forests and frozen fields of Germania, attempting to cross the Rhine and +enter Gaul. Foremost among these hordes were the savage and warlike +Franks, led by a number of independent chiefs. The present story +describes the two forces--Franks and Gauls, the latter supported by the +Romans--facing each other, frequently crossing swords in bloody +encounters and holding each other in check. Out of this material, into +which the thin thread of the initial introduction of Christianity in +Gaul is woven in the woof, Sue constructed the present superb +narrative--a fit overture for the following and successive fourteen +acts. + +DANIEL DE LEON + +Milford, Conn. August, 1909. + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + +I, Schanvoch, a descendant of Joel, the brenn of the tribe of Karnak; I, +Schanvoch, now a freeman, thanks to the valor of my father Ralf and the +bold Gallic insurrections that continued unabated from century to +century; I, Schanvoch, write the following narrative two hundred and +sixty-four years after my ancestress Genevieve, the wife of Fergan, +witnessed in Judea the death of the poor carpenter Jesus of Nazareth. + +I write the following account thirty-four years after Gomer, the son of +Judicael and grandson of Fergan, who was a slave like his father and +grandfather, wrote to his son Mederik that he had nothing to add to the +family annals but the monotonous account of his life as a slave. + +Neither did my ancestor Mederik contribute aught to our family history, +and his son Justin contented himself with having a stranger's hand enter +these short lines: + +"My father Mederik died a slave, fighting as a Son of the Mistletoe for +the freedom of Gaul; he told me that he was driven to revolt against the +foreign oppression by the narrative of the bravery of our free ancestors +and by the description of the sufferance of our enslaved fathers. I, his +son Justin, a colonist, and no longer a slave of the fisc, have caused +this fact to be entered upon our family parchments, which I shall +faithfully transmit to my son Aurel, together with their accompanying +emblems, the gold sickle, the little brass bell, the fragment of the +iron collar and the little silver cross, all of which I have carefully +preserved." + +Aurel, Justin's son and a colonist like his father, was not any more +literate than the latter, and left no record whatever. After him, again +a stranger's hand inserted these lines in our family annals: + +"Ralf, the son of Aurel the colonist, fought for the freedom of his +country. Ralf having become absolutely free, thanks to the Gallic arms +and the holy war preached by our venerable druids, found himself obliged +to resort to a friend's help in order to enter the death of his father +Aurel upon our family parchments. Happier than myself, my son Schanvoch +will not be forced to avail himself of a stranger in order to enter in +our family's archives the death of myself, the first male descendant of +Joel, the brenn of the tribe of Karnak, who again regained complete +freedom. As several of my ancestors have done before me, I here declare +that it was the history of our ancestors' valor and martyrdom that +induced me to take up arms against the Romans, our masters and secular +oppressors." + +These family scrolls, together with their accompanying relics, I shall +leave to you, my dear little Alguen, the son of my beloved wife Ellen, +who gave you birth this day four years ago. + +I choose this day, the anniversary of your birth, as a day of happy +augury, in order to start, for your benefit and the benefit of our +descendants, the narrative of my life and my battles, my joys and my +sorrows, obedient to the last wishes of our ancestor Joel, the brenn of +the tribe of Karnak. + +You will grieve, my son, when you learn from these archives that, from +the death of Joel down to that of my great-grandfather Justin, seven +generations, aye, seven whole generations, were subjected to intolerable +slavery. But your heart will be cheered when you learn that my +great-grandfather had, from a slave, become a colonist or serf attached +to the glebe of Gaul--still a servile condition but greatly above that +of slavery. My own father, having regained his full freedom, thanks to +the formidable insurrections of the Sons of the Mistletoe that from +century to century were conjured up at the voice of the druids, the +tireless and heroic defenders of the freedom of oppressed Gaul, has +bequeathed to me freedom, that most precious of all wealth. I shall, in +turn, transmit it to you. + +By dint of constantly struggling for it, and also of stubborn +resistance, we Gauls have succeeded in successively reconquering almost +our full former freedom. A last and frail bond still holds us to Rome, +now our ally, after having formerly been our pitiless master. When that +last and frail bond will be snapped, we shall have regained our absolute +independence, and we shall resume our former place at the head of the +great nations of the world. + +Before acquainting you with the details of my life and time, my son, I +must fill certain voids that are left in the history of our family +through the omissions of those of our ancestors, who, either through +illiteracy or the hardness of the times, were prevented from joining +their respective accounts to our archives. Their lives must have been +the life of all the other Gauls, who, the fetters of slavery +notwithstanding, have, step by step and from century to century, +conquered through revolt and battle the deliverance of our country. + +You will find in the last lines written by our ancestor Fergan, the +husband of Genevieve, that despite the vows taken by the Sons of the +Mistletoe and despite innumerable uprisings, one of the most formidable +of which was chieftained by Sacrovir, the worthy emulator of the Chief +of the Hundred Valleys, the Roman yoke that Caesar imposed upon Gaul +remained unshaken. In vain did Jesus, the carpenter of Nazareth, +prophesy that the chains of the slave would be broken. The slaves still +dragged their blood-stained chains. Nevertheless, our old race, +weakened, mutilated, unnerved or corrupted though it was by slavery, +never once was submissive, and allowed only short intervals to pass +without endeavoring to shake off the yoke. The secret associations of +the Sons of the Mistletoe covered the country, and furnished intrepid +soldiers to each succeeding revolt against Rome. + +After the heroic attempt of Sacrovir, the account of whose sublime death +you will find in the narrative of our ancestor Fergan, the weak and +timid weaver-slave, other insurrections broke out during the reigns of +the Emperors Tiberius and Claudius; they increased in force during the +civil wars that rent Italy under the reign of Nero. At about that time, +one of our heroes, Vindex, as intrepid a patriot as Sacrovir or the +Chief of the Hundred Valleys, long held the Roman arms in check. +Civilis, another Gallic patriot, taking his stand upon the prophecies of +Velleda--one of our female druids, a virile woman, wise in council and +worthy compeer of our brave and wise mothers--roused almost all Gaul to +revolt and gave the first serious wound to the power of Rome. Finally, +during the reign of the Emperor Vitellius, a poor field slave like our +ancestor Guilhern set himself up as the messiah and liberator of Gaul, +just as Jesus of Nazareth proclaimed himself the Messiah of Judea, and +pursued with patriotic ardor the task of liberation that was started by +the Chief of the Hundred Valleys and continued after him by Sacrovir, +Vindex, Civilis and so many other heroes. That field slave's name was +Marik. He was then barely twenty-five years of age; robust, intelligent +and gifted with heroic bravery he joined the Sons of the Mistletoe. Our +venerable druids, always persecuted, had traversed Gaul inciting the +lukewarm, restraining the impatient, and preparing all for the hour of +the insurrection. It broke out. At the head of ten thousand slaves, +field laborers like himself and armed with their scythes and forks, +Marik engaged the Roman troops of Vitellius under the walls of Lyons. +That first attempt miscarried; the insurgents were cut to pieces by the +Roman army that greatly exceeded them in numbers. But so far from +feeling overwhelmed, this defeat intensified the ardor of the revolted +people. Whole populations rose in rebellion at the voice of the druids +that called them to the holy war. The combatants seemed to spring out of +the entrails of the earth, and Marik saw himself again at the head of a +numerous army. Endowed by the gods with a military instinct, he +disciplined his troops, inspired them with courage and a blind +confidence in him, and marched at their head towards the banks of the +Rhine, where, sheltered behind its trenches, lay the reserve of the +Roman army. Marik attacked it, beat it, and compelled whole legions that +he took prisoner to drop their own ensigns and substitute them with our +ancient Gallic cock. Those Roman legions had, due to their long sojourn +in our country, virtually become Gauls; carried away by the military +ascendency of Marik, they readily joined him, combatted under him +against the fresh Roman columns that were sent from Italy, and either +annihilated or dispersed them. The hour of Gaul's deliverance was about +to sound--but at that moment Marik fell through cowardly treason into +the hands of the monster Vespasian, then Emperor of Rome. Riddled with +wounds the hero of Gaul was delivered to the wild beasts in the circus, +like our own ancestor Sylvest. + +The martyr's death exasperated the population. Fresh insurrections broke +out forthwith all over Gaul. The words of Jesus of Nazareth, declaring +that the slave is the equal of his master, began to penetrate our own +country, filtering through on the lips of itinerant preachers. The +flames of hatred for the foreign domination shot up with renewed vigor. +Attacked from all sides in Gaul, harrassed on the other side of the +Rhine by innumerable hordes of Franks, barbarous warriors that issued +from the depths of the northern forests and seemed but to await the +propitious moment to pour into Gaul, the Romans finally capitulated to +us. At last we harvested the fruits of so many heroic sacrifices! The +blood shed by our fathers for the previous three centuries watered our +deliverance. Indeed, the words of the Chief of the Hundred Valleys were +prophetic: + + "Flow, flow thou blood of the captive! + Drop, drop thou dew of gore! + Germinate, sprout up, thou avenging harvest!" + +Yes, my son, those words were prophetic. It was with that refrain on +their lips that our fathers fought and overcame the foreign oppressor. +Rome, at last, yielded back to us a part of our ancient freedom. We +formed Gallic legions commanded by our own officers; our provinces were +once more governed by magistrates of our own choice. Rome reserved only +the right to appoint a "Principal" over Gaul, the suzerainty over which +she was to retain. We accepted, while waiting and striving for better +things--and these better things were not long in coming. Frightened by +our continual revolts, our tyrants had been slowly moderating the rigor +of our slavery. Terror was to force from them that which they +relentlessly refused as a matter of right and justice to the voice of +suppliant humanity. First the master was no longer allowed, as he was in +the days of Sylvest and several of his descendants, to dispose over the +life of his slaves as one disposes over the life of an animal. Later, as +their fear increased, the masters were forbidden from inflicting +corporal punishments upon their slaves, except with the express +authorization of a magistrate. Finally, my child, that horrible Roman +law, that, at the time of our ancestor Sylvest and of the five +generations that followed him, declared in its ferocious language that +the slave does not exist, that "he has no head" (_non caput habet_) that +shocking law was, thanks to the dread inspired by our unceasing revolts, +modified to the point that the Justinian code declared: + +"Freedom is a natural right; it is the statute law that has created +slavery; it has also created enfranchisement, which is the return to +natural freedom." + +Alack! It is distressing to notice that the sacred rights of humanity +can not triumph except at the cost of torrents of blood and of +unnumbered disasters! But who is to be cursed as the true cause of all +such evils? Is it not the oppressor, seeing that he bends his fellow-men +under the yoke of a frightful slavery, lives on the sweat of the brow of +his fellow-men, depraves, debases and martyrizes his fellow-beings, +kills them to satisfy a whim or out of sheer cruelty, and thus compels +them to reconquer by force the freedom that they have been deprived of? +Never forget this, my son, if, once subjugated, the whole Gallic race +had shown itself as patient, as timid, as resigned as did our poor +ancestor Fergan the weaver, our slavery never would have been abolished! +After vain appeals to the heart and reason of the oppressor, there is +but one means left to overthrow tyranny--revolt--energetic, stubborn, +unceasing revolt. Sooner or later right triumphs, as it triumphed with +us! Let the blood that our triumph has cost fall upon the heads of those +who enslaved us. + +Accordingly, my son, thanks to our innumerable insurrections, slavery +was at first replaced by the state of the colonist, or serfdom, the +regime under which my great-grandfather Justin and my grandfather Aurel +lived. Under that system, instead of being forced to cultivate under the +whip and for the exclusive benefit of the Roman masters the lands that +they had plundered us of by conquest, the colonist had a small share of +the harvest that he gathered. He could no longer be sold as a draft +horse, along with his children; he could no longer be submitted to the +torture or killed; but they were, from father to children, compelled to +remain attached to the same domain. If the domain was sold, the colonist +likewise changed hands under the identical conditions of toil. Later the +condition of the colonists was further improved; they were granted the +rights of citizenship. When the Gallic legions were formed, the soldiers +that composed them became completely free. My father Ralf, the son of a +colonist, gained his freedom in that manner; I, the son of a soldier, +brought up in camp, was born free; and I shall bequeath that freedom to +you, as my father bequeathed it to me together with the duty to +preserve it for your descendants. + +When you will read this narrative, my son, after you will have become +acquainted with the manifold sufferings of our ancestors, who were +slaves for so many generations, you will appreciate the wisdom of the +wish expressed by our ancestor Joel, the brenn of the tribe of Karnak. +You will admire his sagacity in expecting that, by piously preserving +the memory of its bravery and of the independence that it once enjoyed, +the Gallic race would be able to draw from the horror for Roman +oppression the strength to overthrow it. + +At this writing I am thirty-eight years of age. My parents are long +dead. Ralf, my father, a soldier in one of our Gallic legions, in which +he enrolled at the age of eighteen in the south of Gaul, came into this +region, near the western banks of the Rhine, along with the army. He was +in all the battles that were fought with the ferocious hordes of the +Franks, who, attracted by the fertility of our Gaul and by the wealth +contained in our borders, encamped on the opposite shore of the river, +ever ready to attempt a new invasion. + +About four years ago a descent of the insular population of England was +feared in Brittany. On that occasion several legions, the one in which +my father enlisted among them, were ordered into that province. During +several months he was quartered in the city of Vannes, not far from +Karnak, the cradle of our family. Having had one of his friends read to +him the narratives of our ancestors, Ralf visited with pious respect the +battle field of Vannes, the sacred stones of Karnak, and the lands that +we were plundered of in Caesar's time by the Roman conquerors. The lands +were held by a Roman family; colonists, sons of the Breton Gauls of our +tribe and who had formerly been in bondage, now cultivated the lands +that their ancestors one time owned. The daughter of one of those +colonists loved my father; her love was reciprocated; her name was +Madalene; she was one of those proud and virile Gallic women, that our +ancestress Margarid, the wife of Joel, was a type of. She followed my +father when his legion left Brittany to return to the banks of the +Rhine, where I was born in the fortified camp of Mayence, a military +city that our troops occupied. The chief of the legion to which my +father belonged was the son of a field laborer. His bravery won him the +post. On the day after my birth that chief's wife died in child-bed of a +baby girl--a girl who, some day perhaps, may yet, from the retreat of +her humble home, reign over the world as she reigns to-day over Gaul. +To-day, at the time that I write, Victoria, by virtue of her +distinguished wisdom, her eminent qualities, the benign influence that +she exercises over her son Victorin and over our whole army, is, in +point of fact, empress of Gaul. + +Victoria is my foster-sister. Prizing the solid qualities of mind and +heart that my mother was endowed with, when Victoria's father became a +widower, he requested my mother to nurse his little babe. Accordingly, +she and I grew up like brother and sister. We never since failed in the +fraternal affection of our childhood. From her earliest age Victoria was +serious and gentle, although she greatly delighted in the blare of +trumpets and the sight of arms. She gave promise to be some day of that +august beauty that mingles calmness, grace and energy, and that is +peculiar to certain women of Gaul. You will see medals that have been +struck in her honor when she was still a young maid. She is there +represented as Diana the huntress, with a bow in one hand and a torch +in the other. On a later medal, struck about two years ago, Victoria is +represented with her son Victorin in the guise of Minerva accompanied by +Mars. At the age of ten she was sent by her father to a college of +female druids. Being now again freed from Roman persecution, thanks to +the new birth of Gallic freedom, the druids, male and female, again +attended to the education of children as they did of yore. + +Victoria remained with these venerable women until her fifteenth year. +She drew from that patriotic and strict tuition an ardent love for her +country, and information on all subjects. She left the college equipped +with the secrets of former times, and, it is said, possessing, like +Velleda and other female druids, the power of seeing into the future. At +that period of her life the proud and virile beauty of Victoria was +sublime. When she met me again she was happy and she did not conceal her +joy. So far from declining through our long separation from each other, +her affection for me, her foster-brother, had increased. + +I must at this point make an admission to you, my son; I am free to make +it because you will not read these lines until after you will be a man. +You will find a good example of courage and abnegation in my confession. + +When Victoria returned in her dazzling beauty of fifteen years I was of +the same age and although hardly of the age of puberty myself, I fell +distractedly in love with her. I carefully concealed my feelings, out of +friendship as well as by reason of the respect that, despite the +fraternal attachment of which she every day gave me fresh proof, that +serious young maid, who brought with her from the college of the female +druids an indescribably imposing, pensive and mysterious appearance, +inspired in me. I then underwent a cruel trial. Ignorant of the feelings +of my heart, as she ever will be, at fifteen and a half Victoria gave +her hand to a young military chief. I came near dying of a slow +consuming illness caused by my secret despair. So long as my life seemed +in danger, Victoria did not leave the head of my couch. A tender sister +could not have attended me with more devoted and touching care. She +became a mother. Although a mother, she ever accompanied her husband, to +whom she was passionately devoted, whenever called to war. By force of +reflection I succeeded at last in overcoming, if not my love, at least +its violent manifestations, the pain it gave me, the senselessness of +the passion. But there remained in me a sense of boundless devotion +towards my foster-sister. She asked me to remain near her and her +husband as a horseman in the body of cavalrymen that ordinarily act as +escorts to the Gallic chiefs, and either take down in writing or convey +their military orders. My foster-sister was barely eighteen years of age +when, in a severe battle with the Franks, she lost on the same day both +her father and her husband. A widow with her son, for whom she foresaw a +glorious future, bravely verified by himself since then, Victoria never +left the camp. The soldiers, accustomed ever to see her in their midst, +with her child in her arms, and walking between her father and her +husband, knew that more than once her profoundly wise advice prevailed +in the councils of the chiefs as the advice of our mothers of old often +prevailed in the councils of our forefathers. They came to look as a +good omen upon the presence of this young woman, who was trained in the +mysterious science of the druids. At the death of her father and husband +they begged her not to leave the army, declaring to her with naive +affection that thenceforth her son Victorin should be "Son of the Camps" +and she the "Mother of the Camps." Touched by so much affection, +Victoria remained with the troops, preserving her influence over the +chiefs, directing them in the government of Gaul, sedulous in imparting +a manly education to her son, and living as modestly as the wife of an +officer. + +Shortly after her husband's death, my foster-sister told me that she +would never marry again, it being her intention to consecrate her life +entirely to Victorin. The last and insane hope that I nursed when I saw +her a widow and free again, was dashed. With time I recovered my senses. +I suppressed my ill-starred love and gave no thought but to the service +of Victoria and her son. A simple horseman in the army, I served my +foster-sister as her secretary. Often she confided important state +secrets to me. At times she even charged me with confidential embassies +to the military chiefs of Gaul. + +I taught Victorin to ride, to handle the lance and the sword. Soon I +came to love him as an own son. A kinder and more generous disposition +than that of the lad could not be imagined. Thus he grew up among the +soldiers, who became attached to him by a thousand bonds of habit and of +affection. At the age of fourteen he made his first campaign against the +franks, who were fast becoming as dangerous enemies to us as the Romans +once were. I accompanied him. Like a true Gallic woman his mother +remained on horseback and surrounded by the officers, on a hill from +which the battle field could be seen on which her son was engaged. He +comported himself bravely and was wounded. Being thus from early youth +habituated to the life of war, the youth developed great military +talents. Intrepid as the bravest of the soldiers, skilful and cautious +as a veteran captain, generous to the full extent that his purse allowed +it, of a joyful disposition, open and kind to all, he gained ever more +the attachment of the army that soon divided with him its adoration for +his mother. + +The day finally arrived when Gaul, already almost independent, demanded +to share with Rome the government of our country. The power was then +divided between a Gallic and a Roman chief. Rome appointed Posthumus, +and our troops unanimously acclaimed Victorin as the Gallic chief and +general of the army. Shortly after, he married a young girl by whom he +was dearly loved. Unfortunately she died within the year, leaving him a +son. Victoria, now a grandmother, devoted herself to her son's child as +she had done before to himself, and surrounded the babe with all the +cares that the tenderest solicitude could inspire. + +My early resolve was never to marry. I was nevertheless gradually +attracted by the modest graces and the virtue of the daughter of one of +the centurions of our army. She was your mother, Ellen, whom I married +five years ago. + +Such has been my life until this day, when I start the narrative that is +to follow. Certain remarks of Victoria decided me to write it both for +your benefit and the benefit of our descendants. If the expectations of +my foster-sister, concerning several incidents in this narrative, are +eventually realized, those of our relatives who in the centuries to come +may happen to read this story will discover that Victoria, the Mother of +the Camps, was gifted, like Hena, the Virgin of the Isle of Sen, and +Velleda, the female druid and companion of Civilis, with the holy gift +of prevision. + +What I am here about to narrate happened a week ago. In order to fix the +date with greater accuracy I certify that it is written in the city of +Mayence, defended by our fortified camp on the borders of the Rhine, on +the fifth day of the month of June, as the Romans reckon, of the seventh +year of the joint principality of Posthumus and Victorin in Gaul, two +hundred and sixty-four years after the death of Jesus of Nazareth, the +friend of the poor, who was crucified in Jerusalem under the eyes of our +ancestress Genevieve. + +The Gallic camp, composed of tents and light but solid barracks, is +massed around Mayence, which dominates it. Victoria lodges in the city; +I occupy a little house not far from the one that she inhabits. + + + + +PART I. + +FOREIGN FOES. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +SCHANVOCH AND SAMPSO. + + +The morning of the day that I am telling of, I quitted my bed with the +dawn, leaving my beloved wife Ellen soundly asleep. I contemplated her +for an instant. Her long loose hair partly covered her bosom; her sweet +and beautiful head rested upon one of her folded arms, while the other +reclined on your cradle, my son, as if to protect you even during her +sleep. I lightly kissed both your foreheads, fearing to awake you. It +required an effort on my part to refrain from tenderly embracing you +both again and again. I was bound upon a venturesome expedition; +perchance, the kiss that I hardly dared to give you was the last you +were ever to receive from me. I left the room where you slept and +repaired to the contiguous one to arm myself, to don my cuirass over my +blouse, and take my casque and sword. I then left the house. At our +threshold I met Sampso, my wife's sister, as gentle and beautiful as +herself. She held her apron filled with flowers of different colors; +they were still wet with the dew. She had just gathered them in our +little garden. Seeing me, she smiled and blushed surprised. + +"Up so early, Sampso?" I said to her. "I thought I was the first one +stirring. But what is the purpose of these flowers?" + +"Is it not to-day a year ago that I came to live with my sister Ellen +and you--you forgetful Schanvoch?" she answered with an affectionate +smile. "I wish to celebrate the day in our old Gallic fashion. I went +out for the flowers in order to garland the house-door, the cradle of +your little Alguen, and his mother's head. But you, where are you bound +to this morning in full armor?" + +At the thought that this holiday might turn into a day of mourning for +my family I suppressed a sigh, and answered my wife's sister with a +smile that was intended to allay suspicion. + +"Victoria and her son charged me yesterday with some military orders for +the chief of a detachment that lies encamped some two leagues from here. +It is the military custom to be armed when one has such orders in +charge." + +"Do you know, Schanvoch, that you must arouse jealousy in many a +breast?" + +"Because my foster-sister employs my soldier's sword during war and my +pen during truces?" + +"You forget to say that that foster-sister is Victoria the Great, and +that Victorin, her son, entertains for you the respect that he would +have for his mother's brother. Hardly a day goes by without Victoria's +calling upon you. These are favors that many should envy." + +"Have I ever sought to profit by these favors, Sampso? Have I not +remained a simple horseman, ever declining to be an officer, and +requesting the only favor of fighting at Victorin's side?" + +"Whose life you have already twice saved when he was at the point of +perishing under the blows of those barbarous Franks!" + +"I did but my duty as a soldier and a Gaul. Should I not sacrifice my +life to that of a man who is so necessary to our country?" + +"Schanvoch, we must not quarrel; you know how much I admire Victoria; +but--" + +"But I know your uncharitableness towards her son," I put in with a +smile, "you austere and severe Sampso!" + +"Is it any fault of mine if disorderly conduct finds no favor in my +eyes--if I even consider it disgraceful?" + +"Certes, you are right. Nevertheless I can not avoid being somewhat +indulgent towards the foibles of Victorin. A widower at twenty, should +he not be excused for yielding at times to the impulses of his age? Dear +but implacable Sampso, I let you read the narrative of my ancestress +Genevieve. You are gentle and good as Jesus of Nazareth, why do you not +imitate his charity towards sinners? He forgave Magdalen because she had +loved much. In the name of the same sentiment pardon Victorin!" + +"There is nothing more worthy of forgiveness than love, when it is +sincere. But debauchery has nothing in common with love. Schanvoch, it +is as if you were to say to me that my sister and I could be compared +with those Bohemian girls who recently arrived in Mayence." + +"In point of looks they might be compared with you or Ellen, seeing that +they are said to be ravishingly beautiful. But the comparison ends +there, Sampso. I trust but little the virtue of those strollers, however +charming, however brilliantly arrayed they may be, who travel from town +to town singing and dancing for public amusement--even if they indulge +not in worse practices." + +"And for all that, I make no doubt that, when you least expect it, you +will see Victorin the general of the army, one of the two Chiefs of +Gaul, accompany on horseback the chariot in which these Bohemian girls +promenade every evening along the borders of the Rhine. And if I should +feel indignant at the sight of the son of Victoria serving as escort to +such creatures, you would surely say to me: 'Forgive the sinner, just as +Jesus forgave Magdalen the sinner.' Go to, Schanvoch, the man who can +delight in unworthy amours is capable of--" + +But Sampso suddenly broke off. + +"Finish your sentence," I said to her, "express yourself in full, I pray +you." + +"No," she answered after reflecting a moment; "the time has not yet come +for that. I would not like to risk a hasty word." + +"See here," I said to her, "I am sure that what you have in mind is one +of those ridiculous stories about Victorin that for some time have been +floating about in the army, without its being possible to trace the +slanders to their source. Can you, Sampso, you, with all your good sense +and good heart, make yourself the echo of such gossip, such unworthy +calumnies?" + +"Adieu, Schanvoch; I told you I was not going to quarrel with you, dear +brother, on the subject of the hero whom you defend against all comers." + +"What would you have me do? It is my foible. I love his mother as an own +sister. I love her son as if he were my own. Are you not as guilty as +myself, Sampso? Is not my little Alguen, your sister's son, as dear to +you as if he were your own child? Take my word for it, when Alguen will +be twenty and you hear him accused of some youthful indiscretion, you +will, I feel quite sure, defend him with even more warmth than I defend +Victorin. But we need not wait so long, have you not begun your role of +pleader for him, already? When the rascal is guilty of some misconduct, +is it not his aunt Sampso whom he fetches to intercede in his behalf? He +knows how you love him!" + +"Is not my sister's son mine?" + +"Is that the reason you do not wish to marry?" + +"Surely, brother," she answered with a blush and a slight embarrassment. +After a moment's silence she resumed: + +"I hope you will be back home at noon to complete our little feast?" + +"The moment my mission is fulfilled I shall return. Adieu, Sampso!" + +"Adieu, Schanvoch!" + +And leaving his wife's sister engaged in her work of garlanding the +house-door, Schanvoch walked rapidly away, revolving in his mind the +topic of the conversation that Sampso had just broached. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +ON THE RHINE. + + +I had often asked myself why Sampso, who was a year older than Ellen, +and as beautiful and virtuous as my wife, had until then rejected +several offers of marriage. At times I suspected that she entertained +some secret love, other times I surmised she might belong to one of the +Christian societies that began to spread over Gaul and in which the +women took the vow of virginity, as did several of our female druids. I +also pondered the reason for Sampso's reticence when I asked her to be +more explicit concerning Victorin. Soon, however, I dropped all these +subjects and turned my mind upon the expedition that I had in charge. + +I wended my way towards the advance posts of the camp and addressed +myself to an officer under whose eyes I placed a scroll with a few lines +written by Victorin. The officer immediately put four picked soldiers at +my disposal. They were chosen from among a number whose special +department was to manoeuvre the craft of the military flotilla that was +used in ascending or descending the Rhine in order, whenever occasion +required, to defend the fortified camp. Upon my recommendation the four +soldiers left their arms behind. I alone was armed. As we passed a clump +of oak trees I cut down a few branches to be placed at the prow of the +bark that was to transport us. We soon arrived at the river bank, where +we found several boats that were reserved for the service of the army, +tied to their stakes. While two of the soldiers fastened on the prow of +the boat the oak branches that I had furnished them with, the other two +examined the oars with expert eyes in order to assure themselves that +they were in fit condition for use. I took the rudder, and we left the +shore. + +The four soldiers rowed in silence for a while. Presently the oldest of +them, a veteran with a grey moustache and white hair, said to me: + +"There is nothing like a Gallic song to make time pass quickly and the +oars strike in rhythm. I should say that some old national refrain, sung +in chorus, renders the sculls lighter and the water more easy to cleave +through. Are we allowed to sing, friend Schanvoch?" + +"You seem to know me, comrade?" + +"Who in the army does not know the foster-brother of the Mother of the +Camps?" + +"Being a simple horseman I thought my name was more obscure than it +seems to be." + +"You have remained a simple horseman despite our Victoria's friendship +for you. That is why, Schanvoch, everybody knows and esteems you." + +"You certainly make me feel happy by saying so. What is your name?" + +"Douarnek." + +"You must be a Breton!" + +"From the neighborhood of Vannes." + +"My family also comes from that neighborhood." + +"I thought as much, your name being a Breton name. Well, friend +Schanvoch, may we sing a song? Our officer gave us orders to obey you +as we would himself. I know not whither you are taking us, but a song is +heard far away, especially when it is struck up in chorus by vigorous +and broad-chested lads. Perhaps we must not draw attention upon our +bark?" + +"Just now you may sing--later not--we shall have to advance without +making any noise." + +"Well, boys, what shall we sing?" said the veteran without either +himself or his companions intermitting the regular strokes of their +oars, and only slightly turning his head towards them, seeing that, +seated as he was on the first bench, he sat opposite to me. "Come, make +your choice!" + +"The song of the mariners, will that suit you?" answered one of the +soldiers. + +"That is rather long," replied Douarnek. + +"The song of the Chief of the Hundred Valleys?" + +"That is very beautiful," again replied Douarnek, "but it is a song of +slaves who await their deliverance; by the bones of our fathers, we are +now free in old Gaul!" + +"Friend Douarnek," said I, "it was to the refrain of that slaves' +song--'Flow, flow, thou blood of the captive! Drop, drop, thou dew of +gore!' that our fathers, arms in hand, reconquered the freedom that we +enjoy to-day." + +"That is true, Schanvoch, but that song is very long, and you warned us +that we were soon to become silent as fishes." + +"Douarnek," one of the soldiers spoke up, "sing to us the song of Hena +the Virgin of the Isle of Sen. It always brings tears to my eyes. She is +my favorite saint, the beautiful and sweet Hena, who lived centuries and +centuries ago." + +"Yes, yes," said the other soldiers, "sing the song of Hena, Douarnek! +That song predicts the victory of Gaul--and Gaul is to-day triumphant!" + +Hearing these words I was greatly moved, I felt happy and, I confess it, +proud at seeing that the name of Hena, dead more than three hundred +years, had remained in Gaul as popular as it was at the time of Sylvest. + +"Very well, the song of Hena it shall be!" replied the veteran. "I also +love the sweet and saintly girl, who offered her blood to Hesus for the +deliverance of Gaul. And you, Schanvoch, do you know the song?" + +"Yes--quite well--I have heard it sung--" + +"You will know it enough to repeat the refrain with us." + +Saying this Douarnek struck up the song in a full and sonorous voice +that reached far over the waters of the Rhine: + + "She was young, she was fair, + And holy was she. + To Hesus her blood gave + That Gaul might be free. + Hena her name! + Hena, the Maid of the Island of Sen! + + "--Blessed be the gods, my sweet daughter,-- + Said her father Joel, + The brenn of the tribe of Karnak. + --Blessed be the gods, my sweet daughter, + Since you are at home this night + To celebrate the day of your birth!-- + + "--Blessed be the gods, my sweet girl,-- + Said Margarid, her mother. + --Blessed be your coming! + But why is your face so sad?-- + + "--My face is sad, my good mother; + My face is sad, my good father, + Because Hena your daughter + Comes to bid you Adieu, + Till we meet again.-- + + "--And where are you going, my sweet daughter? + Will your journey, then, be long? + Whither thus are you going?-- + + "--I go to those worlds + So mysterious, above, + That no one yet knows, + But that all will yet know. + Where living ne'er traveled, + Where all will yet travel, + To live there again + With those we have loved.--" + +And myself and the three other oarsmen replied in chorus: + + "She was young, she was fair, + And holy was she. + To Hesus her blood gave, + That Gaul might be free. + Hena her name! + Hena, the Maid of the Island of Sen!" + +Douarnek then proceeded with the song: + + "Hearing Hena speak these words, + Sadly gazed upon her her father + And her mother, aye, all the family, + Even the little children, + For Hena loved them very dearly. + + "--But why, dear daughter, + Why now quit this world, + And travel away beyond + Without the Angel of Death having called you?-- + + "--Good father, good mother, + Hesus is angry. + The stranger now threatens our Gaul so beloved. + The innocent blood of a virgin + Offered by her to the gods + May their anger well soften. + Adieu, then, till we meet again, + Good father, good mother, + Adieu till we meet again, + All, my dear ones and friends. + These collars preserve, and these rings + As mementoes of me. + Let me kiss for the last time your blonde heads, + Dear little ones. Good bye till we meet. + Remember your Hena, she waits for you yonder, + In the worlds yet unknown.--" + +And the other oarsmen and I replied in chorus to the rythmical sound of +the oars: + + "She was young, she was fair, + And holy was she. + To Hesus her blood gave + That Gaul might be free. + Hena her name. + Hena, the Maid of the Island of Sen!" + +Douarnek proceeded: + + "Bright is the moon, high is the pyre + Which rises near the sacred stones of Karnak; + Vast is the gathering of the tribes + Which presses 'round the funeral pile. + + "Behold her, it is she, it is Hena! + She mounts the pyre, her golden harp in hand, + And singeth thus: + + "--Take my blood, O Hesus, + And deliver my land from the stranger. + Take my blood, O Hesus, + Pity for Gaul! Victory to our arms!-- + And it flowed, the blood of Hena. + + "O, holy Virgin, in vain 'twill not have been, + The shedding of your innocent and generous blood. + Bowed beneath the yoke, Gaul will some day rise erect, + Free and proud, and crying, like thee, + --Victory and Freedom!" + +And Douarnek, along with the three other soldiers, repeated in a low +voice, vibrating with pious admiration, this last refrain: + + "So it was that she offered her blood to Hesus, + To Hesus for the deliverance of Gaul! + She was young, she was fair, + And holy was she, + Hena her name! + Hena, the Maid of the Island of Sen!" + +I alone did not join in the last refrain of the song. I was too deeply +moved! + +Noticing my emotion and my silence, Douarnek said to me surprised: + +"What, Schanvoch, have you lost your voice? You remain silent at the +close of so glorious a song?" + +"Your speech is sooth, Douarnek; it is just because that song is +particularly glorious to me--that you see me so deeply moved." + +"That song is particularly glorious to you? I do not understand you." + +"Hena was the daughter of one of my ancestors." + +"What say you!" + +"Hena was the daughter of Joel, the brenn of the tribe of Karnak, who +died, together with his wife and almost all his family, at the great +battle of Vannes--a battle that was fought on land and water nearly +three centuries ago. From father to son, I descend from Joel." + +"Do you know, Schanvoch," replied Douarnek, "that even kings would be +proud of such an ancestry?" + +"The blood shed for our country and for liberty by all of us Gauls is +our national patent of nobility," I said to him. "It is for that reason +that our old songs are so popular among us." + +"When one considers," put in one of the younger soldiers, "that it is +now more than three hundred years since Hena, the saintly maid, +surrendered her own life for the deliverance of the country, and that +her name still reaches us!" + +"Although it took the young virgin's voice more than two centuries to +rise to the ears of Hesus," replied Douarnek, "her voice did finally +reach him, seeing that to-day we can say--Victory to our arms! Victory +and freedom!" + +We had now arrived at about the middle of the river, where the stream is +very rapid. + +Raising his oar, Douarnek asked me: + +"Shall we enter the strong current? That would be a waste of strength, +unless we are either to ascend or descend the river a distance equal to +that that now separates us from the shore." + +"We are to cross the Rhine in its full breadth, friend Douarnek." + +"Cross it!" cried the veteran with amazement. "Cross the Rhine! And what +for?" + +"To land on the opposite shore." + +"Do you know what that means, Schanvoch? Is not the army of those +Frankish bandits, if one can honor those savage hordes with the name of +army, encamped on the opposite shore?" + +"It is to those very barbarians that I am bound." + +For a few moments all the four oars rested motionless in their oarlocks. +The soldiers looked at one another speechless, as if they could not +believe what they heard me say. + +Douarnek was the first to break the silence. With a soldier's unconcern +he said to me: + +"Is it, then, a sacrifice that we are to offer to Hesus by delivering +our hides to those hide-tanners? If such be the orders, forward! Bend to +your oars, my lads!" + +"Have you forgotten, Douarnek, that we have a truce of eight days with +the Franks?" + +"There is no such thing as a truce to those brigands." + +"As you will notice, I have made the signal of peace by ornamenting the +prow of our bark with green boughs. I shall proceed alone into the +enemy's camp, with an oak branch in my hand." + +"And they will slay you despite all your oak branches, as they have +slain other envoys during previous truces." + +"That may happen, Douarnek; but when the chief commands, the soldier +obeys. Victoria and her son have ordered me to proceed to the Frankish +camp. So thither I go!" + +"It surely was not out of fear that I spoke, Schanvoch, when I said that +those savages would not leave our heads on our shoulders, nor our skins +on our bodies. I only spoke from the old habit of sincerity. Well, then, +my lads, fall to with a will! Bend to your oars! We have the order from +our mother--the Mother of the Camps--and we obey. Forward! even if we +are to be flayed alive by the barbarians, a cruel sport that they often +indulge in at the expense of their prisoners." + +"And it is also said," put in the young soldier with a less unperturbed +voice than Douarnek's, "it is also said that the priestesses of the +nether world who follow the Frankish hordes drop their prisoners into +large brass caldrons, and boil them alive with certain magic herbs." + +"Ha! Ha!" replied Douarnek merrily, "the one of us who may be boiled in +that way will at least enjoy the advantage of being the first to taste +his own soup--that's some consolation. Forward! Ply your oars! We are +obeying orders from the Mother of the Camps." + +"Oh! We would row straight into an abyss, if Victoria so ordered!" + +"She has been well named, the Mother of the Camps and of the soldiers. +It is a treat to see her visiting the wounded after each battle." + +"And addressing them with her kind words, that almost make the whole +ones regret that they have not been wounded, too." + +"And then she is so beautiful. Oh, so beautiful!" + +"Oh! When she rides through the camp, mounted on her white steed, clad +in her long black robe, her bold face looking out from under her casque, +and yet her eyes shining with so much mildness, and her smile so +motherly! It is like a vision!" + +"It is said for certain that our Victoria knows the future as well as +she knows the present." + +"She must have some charm about her. Who would believe, seeing her, that +she is the mother of a son of twenty-two?" + +"Oh! If the son had only fulfilled the promise that his younger years +gave!" + +"Victorin will always be loved as he has been." + +"Yes, but it is a great pity!" remarked Douarnek shaking his head sadly, +after the other soldiers had thus given vent to their thoughts and +feelings. "Yes, it is a great pity! Oh! Victorin is no longer the child +of the camps that we, old soldiers with grey moustaches, knew as a baby, +rode on our knees, and, down to only recently, looked upon with pride +and friendship!" + +The words of these soldiers struck me with deeper apprehension than +Sampso's words did a few hours before. Not only did I often have to +defend Victorin with the severe Sampso, but I had latterly noticed in +the army a silent feeling of resentment towards my foster-sister's son, +who until then, was the idol of the soldiers. + +"What have you to reproach Victorin with?" I asked Douarnek and his +companions. "Is he not brave among the bravest? Have you not watched his +conduct in war?" + +"Oh! If a battle is on, he fights bravely, as bravely as yourself, +Schanvoch, when you are at his side, on your large bay horse, and more +intent upon defending the son of your foster-sister than upon defending +yourself. '_Your scars would declare it, if they could speak through the +mouths of your wounds_,' as our old proverb says!" + +"I fight as a soldier; Victorin fights as a captain. And has not that +young captain of only twenty-two years already won five great battles +against the Germans and the Franks?" + +"His mother, well named Victoria, must have contributed with her counsel +towards his victories. He confers with her upon his plans of campaign. +But, anyhow, it is true, Victorin is a brave soldier and good captain." + +"And is not his purse open to all, so long as there is anything in it? +Do you know of any invalid who ever vainly applied to him?" + +"Victorin is generous--that also is true." + +"Is he not the friend and comrade of the soldiers? Is he ever haughty?" + +"No, he is a good comrade, and always cheerful. Besides, what should he +be proud about? Are not his father, his glorious mother and himself from +the Gallic plebs, like the rest of us?" + +"Do you not know, Douarnek, that often it happens that the proudest +people are the very ones who have risen from the lowest ranks?" + +"Victorin is not proud!" + +"Does he not, during war, sleep unsheltered with his head upon the +saddle of his horse, like the rest of us horsemen?" + +"Brought up by so virile a mother as his, he was bound to grow up a +rough soldier, as he is." + +"Are you not aware that in council he displays a maturity of judgment +that many men of our age do not possess? In short, is it not his +bravery, his kindness, his good judgment, his rare military qualities as +a soldier and captain that caused him to be acclaimed general by the +army, and one of the two Chiefs of Gaul?" + +"Yes, but in electing him, all of us knew that his mother Victoria would +always be near him, guiding him, instructing him, schooling him in the +art of governing men, without neglecting, worthy matron that she is, to +sew her linen near the cradle of her grandson, as is her thrifty habit." + +"No one knows better than I how precious the advices of Victoria to her +son are to our country. But what is it, then, that has changed? Is she +not always there, watching over Victorin and Gaul that she loves with +equal and paternal devotion? Come, now, Douarnek, answer me with a +soldier's frankness. Whence comes the hostility that, I fear, is ever +spreading and deepening against Victorin, our young and brave general?" + +"Listen, Schanvoch. I am, like yourself, a seasoned soldier. Your +moustache, although younger than mine, begins to show grey streaks. Do +you want to know the truth? Here it is: We are all aware that the life +of the camp does not make people chaste and reserved like young girls +who are brought up by our venerated female druids. We also know, +because we have emptied many a cup, that our Gallic wines throw us into +a merry and riotous humor. We know, furthermore, that when he is in a +garrison, the young soldier who proudly carries a cockade on his casque +and caresses his brown or blonde moustache, does not long preserve the +friendship of fathers who have handsome daughters, or of husbands who +have handsome wives. But, for all that, you will have to admit, +Schanvoch, that a soldier who is habitually intoxicated like a brute, +and takes cowardly advantage of women, would deserve to be treated to a +hundred or more stripes laid on well upon his back, and to be +ignominiously driven from camp. Is not that so?" + +"That is all very true, but what connection has it with Victorin?" + +"Listen, friend Schanvoch, and then answer me. If an obscure soldier +deserves such treatment for his shameful conduct, what should be done to +an army chief who disgraces himself in such fashion?" + +"Do you venture to say that Victorin has offered violence to women and +that he is daily drunk?" I cried indignantly. "I say that you lie, or +those who carried such tales to you lied. So, these are the unworthy +rumors that circulate in the camp against Victorin! And can you be +credulous enough to attach faith to them?" + +"Soldiers are not quite so credulous, friend Schanvoch, but they are +aware of the old Gallic proverb--'The lost sheep are charged to the +shepherd.' Now, for instance, you know Captain Marion, the old +blacksmith?" + +"Yes, I know the brave fellow to be one of the best officers in the +army." + +"The famous Captain Marion, who can carry an ox on his shoulders," put +in one of the soldiers, "and who can knock down the same ox with a blow +of his fist--his arm is as heavy as the iron mace of a butcher." + +"And Captain Marion," added another oarsman, "is a good comrade, for all +that, despite his strength and military renown. He took a simple +soldier, a former fellow blacksmith, for his 'friend in war,' or, as +they used to say in olden times, took the 'pledge of brotherhood' with +him." + +"I am aware of the bravery, modesty, good judgment and austerity of +Captain Marion," I answered him, "but why do you now bring in his name?" + +"Have a little patience, friend Schanvoch, I shall satisfy you in a +minute. Did you see the two Bohemian girls enter Mayence a few days ago +in a wagon drawn by mules covered with tinkling bells and led by a Negro +lad?" + +"I did not see the women, but have heard them mentioned. But I must +insist upon it, what has all this got to do with Victorin?" + +"I have reminded you of the proverb--'The lost sheep are charged to the +shepherd.' It would be idle to attribute habits of drunkenness and +incontinence to Captain Marion, would it not? Despite all his +simpleness, the soldier would not believe a word of such slanders; not +so? While, on the other hand, the soldier would be ready to believe any +story of debauchery about the said Bohemian strollers, and he would +trust the narrator of the tale, do you understand?" + +"I understand you, Douarnek, and I shall be frank in turn. Yes, Victorin +loves wine and indulges in it with some of his companions in arms. Yes, +having been left a widower at the age of twenty, only a few months +after his marriage, Victorin has occasionally yielded to the headlong +impulses of youth. Often did his mother, as well as myself, regret that +he was not endowed with greater austerity in morals, a virtue, however, +that is extremely rare at his age. But, by the anger of the gods! I, who +have never been from Victorin's side since his earliest childhood, deny +that drunkenness is habitual with him; above all I deny that he ever was +base enough to do violence to a woman!" + +"Schanvoch, you defend the son of your foster-sister out of the goodness +of your heart, although you know him to be guilty--unless you really are +ignorant of what you deny--" + +"What am I ignorant of?" + +"An adventure that has raised a great scandal, and that everybody in +camp knows." + +"What adventure?" + +"A short time ago Victorin and several officers of the army went to a +tavern on one of the isles near the border of the Rhine to drink and +make merry. In the evening, being by that time drunk as usual, Victorin +violated the tavern-keeper's wife, who, in her despair, threw herself +into the river and was drowned." + +"The soldier who misdemeaned himself in that manner," remarked one of +the oarsmen, "would speedily have his head cut off by a strict chief." + +"And he would have deserved the punishment," added another oarsman. "As +much as the next man, I would find pleasure in bantering with the +tavern-keeper's wife. But to offer her violence, that is an act of +savagery worthy only of those Frankish butchers, whose priestesses, +veritable devil's cooks, boil their prisoners alive in their caldrons." + +I was so stupefied by the accusation made against Victorin that I +remained silent for a moment. But my voice soon came to me and I cried: + +"Calumny! A calumny as infamous as the act would have been. Who is it +dares accuse Victoria's son of such a crime?" + +"A well informed man," Douarnek answered me. + +"His name! Give me the liar's name!" + +"His name is Morix. He was the secretary of one of Victoria's relatives. +He came to the camp about a month ago to confer upon grave matters." + +"The relative is Tetrik, the Governor of Gascony," I said with increased +stupefaction. "The man is the incarnation of kindness and loyalty; he is +one of Victoria's oldest and most faithful friends." + +"All of which renders the man's testimony all the more reliable." + +"What! He, Tetrik! Did Tetrik confirm what you have just said?" + +"He communicated it to his secretary, and confirmed the occurrence, +while deploring the shocking excesses of Victorin's dissoluteness." + +"Calumny! Tetrik has only words of kindness and esteem for Victoria's +son." + +"Schanvoch, I have served in the army for the last twenty-five years. +Ask my officers whether Douarnek is a liar." + +"I believe you to be sincere; only you have been shamefully imposed +upon." + +"Morix, the secretary of Tetrik, narrated the occurrence not to me only +but to other soldiers in the camp for whose wine he was paying. We all +placed confidence in his words, because more than once did I myself and +several others of my companions see Victorin and his friends heated with +wine and indulging in crazy feats of arms." + +"Does not the ardor of courage heat up young heads as much as wine?" + +"Listen, Schanvoch, I have seen--with my own eyes--Victorin drive his +steed into the Rhine saying that he would cross the river on horseback; +and he would certainly have been drowned had not another soldier and I +rushed into a boat and fished him half drunk out of the water, while the +current carried his horse away. And do you know what Victorin then said +to us? 'You should have let me drink; the white wine of Beziers runs in +this stream.' What I am telling you now is no calumny, Schanvoch, I saw +it with my own eyes, heard it with my own ears." + +Despite my attachment to Victorin I could not but reply to the soldier's +testimony, saying: "I knew him to be incapable of an act of cowardice +and infamy; but I also knew him to be capable of certain acts of +extravagance and hotheadedness." + +"As to myself," replied another soldier, "more than once, as I mounted +guard near Victorin's house which is separated from Victoria's by a +little plot of flowers, have I seen veiled women leave his place at +early dawn. They were of all colors and sizes, blondes and brunettes, +tall and short, some robust and stout, others slender and thin. At +least, that was the impression that the women left upon me, unless the +gloaming deceived my sight, and it was always the same woman." + +"I notice that you are too sincere to make any answer to that, friend +Schanvoch," Douarnek said to me; indeed, I could raise no objection +against the latter accusation. "You must, therefore, not feel surprised +at our trust in the words of Tetrik's secretary. You must admit that the +man who in a drunken fit takes the Rhine for a stream of Bezier's wine, +and from whose house a procession of women is seen to issue in the +morning, is quite capable, in a fit of inebriety, of doing violence to a +tavern-keeper's wife." + +"No!" I cried. "A man may be afflicted with the faults of his years in +an aggravated degree, without therefore being an infamous fellow, a +criminal!" + +"See here, Schanvoch, you are the personal friend of our mother +Victoria. You love Victorin as if he were your own son. Say to him--'The +soldiers, even the grossest and most dissolute among them, do not like +to see their own vices reproduced in the chief whom they have chosen. By +your conduct, the army's affection is daily withdrawn more and more from +you and is centering wholly upon Victoria.'" + +"Yes," I answered thoughtfully, "and the process started since Tetrik, +the Governor of Gascony, the relative and friend of Victoria, made his +last visit to our camp. Until then our young chief was generally +beloved, despite his little foibles." + +"That is true. He is so good, so brave, so kind to all! He sat his horse +so well! He had so bold a military bearing! We loved the young captain +as an own child! We knew him as a babe, and rode him on our knees when +still a little fellow, during the watches in the camp! Later we shut our +eyes to his foibles, because parents are ever indulgent! But there can +be no room for indulgence towards baseness!" + +"And of this baseness," I replied, now more and more forcibly struck by +the circumstance, which, recalling certain incidents to my mind, +awakened a vague suspicion in me, "and of these acts of baseness there +is no evidence other than the word of Tetrik's secretary?" + +"The secretary repeated to us his own master's words." + +During this conversation, to which I lent increasing attention, our +bark, ever moving forward under the vigorous strokes of the four +oarsmen, had traversed the Rhine and reached the opposite shore. The +soldier's backs were turned to the bank on which we were about to land. +I was so wholly absorbed in what I had just learned regarding the army's +increasing disaffection towards Victorin, that I never once thought of +casting my eyes upon the shore to which we were drawing near. Suddenly a +sharp whizz struck our ears. I cried out: "Throw yourselves down flat +upon your benches!" + +It was too late. A volley of long arrows flew over our boat. One of the +oarsmen was instantly killed, while Douarnek, whose back was still +turned to the shore received one of the arrows in the back. + +"This is the way the Franks receive parliamentarians during a truce," +remarked the veteran without dropping his oar, and even without turning +around. "This is the first time I have been hit in the back. An arrow in +the back does not become a soldier. Pull it out quick, comrade," he +added, addressing the oarsman who sat behind him. + +But despite his intrepidity, Douarnek managed his oar with less vigor. +Although the wound that he received was not serious, his face betrayed +the pain that he felt; the blood flowed copiously. + +"I told you so, Schanvoch," he proceeded to say. "I told you that your +foliage of peace would prove a poor rampart against the treachery of the +Frankish barbarians. Fall to, my lads! We must now row all the harder, +seeing we are only three left. Our comrade yonder, who is bumping his +nose against his bench, with his limbs stiffened, can no longer count as +an oarsman!" + +Douarnek had not finished his sentence before I dashed forward to the +prow of the bark, and passing over the corpse of the soldier who lay +dead across his bench seized one of the oak branches and waved it over +my head as a signal of peace. + +A second volley of arrows, that came flying from behind an embankment of +the river, was the only answer to my appeal. One of the missiles grazed +my arm, another broke off its point against my iron casque; but none of +the soldiers was hit. We were then only a short distance from the shore. +I threw myself into the water, swam a little distance, and as soon as my +feet struck ground called out to Douarnek: + +"Pull the bark safely beyond the reach of the arrows and drop anchor, +then wait for me. If I am not back after sunset, return to camp and +inform Victoria that I have either been made prisoner or killed by the +Franks. She will take my wife Ellen and my son Alguen under her +protection." + +"I do not at all like the idea of leaving you alone in the hands of +those barbarians, friend Schanvoch," answered Douarnek; "but to stay +where we can be killed would be to deprive you of all possible means of +return to our camp, should you be lucky enough to escape with your life. +Courage, Schanvoch! We shall await the evening!" + +And the bark pulled away, while I clambered up the embankment. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE HORDES OF THE FRANKS. + + +I had hardly reached the shore, always holding the green oak branch +aloft, when I saw a large number of Franks, belonging to the hordes of +their army, rush forward from behind the rocks where they had lain in +ambush. They carried black bucklers and wore casques made of black +calves' skin. Their arms, legs and faces were dyed black in order to +escape detection when they march in the shadow of the forests or +contemplate an attack in the night. Their appearance was rendered all +the more hideous and strange, seeing that their chiefs were tattooed +with a bright red on their foreheads, their cheeks and around their +eyes. My long sojourn along the Rhine enabled me to speak the Frankish +tongue with sufficient fluency. + +The black warriors emitted savage yells, surrounded me from all sides +and threatened me with their long knives, the blades of which also were +blackened in the fire. + +"A truce has been concluded, several days ago," I cried out to them; "I +have come in the name of the chief of the Gallic army with a message to +the chiefs of your hordes. Lead me to them. You surely will not kill an +unarmed man?" + +Saying this I drew my sword and threw it away. The barbarians +immediately precipitated themselves upon me, redoubling their cries for +my blood. Some of them unwound the cords of their bows, and, despite +all my remonstrances, threw me to the ground and bound me fast. + +"Let us flay him," said one. "We shall carry his skin to the chief +Neroweg, the Terrible Eagle. It will serve him as a bandage to wrap his +legs in." + +I was well aware that the Franks often skinned their enemies alive with +great dexterity, and that the chiefs of their hordes decked themselves +triumphantly with such human spoils. The proposition that I be skinned +alive was received with shouts of approval; those who held me down began +to cast about for a convenient place to perform the operation; others +started to sharpen their knives upon the pebbles. + +At this juncture, the warrior in command of the band approached me. The +man was horrible to behold. A bright red tattoo encircled his eyes and +streaked his cheeks. The marks looked like bleeding wounds, standing off +strongly against his blackened face. His hair, raised after the Frankish +style over his forehead and tied in a knot on top of his head, fell back +like the plume of a helmet over his shoulders, and was of a coppery +yellow, due to the lime-water that those barbarians used in order to +impart a warm bright color to their hair and beard.[1] Around his neck +and his wrists he wore a necklace and bracelets of rough wrought tin. +His raiment consisted of a casque of black calfskin; strips of black +calfskin fastened with criss-cross bandelets, covered his thighs and +lower extremities. A sword and a long knife hung from his belt. After +fixedly looking at me for a moment, he raised his hand and letting it +down on my shoulder said: + +"I shall take and keep this Gaul for Elwig. He is my prisoner." + +Muffled growls from several of the other black warriors greeted these +words of their chief, who, raising his voice, proceeded to say: + +"I, Riowag, will take this Gaul to the priestess Elwig. Elwig needs a +prisoner for her auguries." + +The chief's decision was acquiesced in by the majority of the black +warriors; the growls ceased; and a mob of voices repeated in chorus: + +"Yes, yes; the Gaul must be kept for Elwig!" + +"He must be taken to Elwig!" + +"It is many days since she consulted our tutelary deities!" + +"And we," cried one of the black warriors who had bound me, "we object +to having the prisoner delivered to Elwig. We want to flay him and +present his skin in token of homage to the chief Neroweg, the Terrible +Eagle; he will reward us with some present." + +There is small choice between being skinned alive and being boiled in a +brass caldron. I did not feel called upon to manifest my preferences, +and took no part whatever in the debate. Already those who wished to +flay me cast savage glances at those who insisted that I be boiled, and +carried their hands to their knives, when one of the black warriors +proposed a compromise to the chief: + +"Riowag, do you want to deliver the Gaul to the priestess Elwig?" + +"Yes," answered the chief; "yes, I want to, and it shall be done as I +order!" + +"And the rest of you," proceeded the conciliatory black warrior, "you +wish to offer the Gaul's skin to the chief Neroweg?" + +"That is what we propose to do!" + +"Very well, you can be accommodated, both." + +A profound silence fell all around at these conciliatory words. The +black warrior proceeded: + +"First, flay him alive, you will then have his skin; after that Elwig +will boil his body in her caldron." + +The compromise seemed at first to satisfy both parties, but Riowag, the +captain of the band, objected: + +"Do you not know that Elwig needs a living prisoner to render her +auguries certain? You would be giving her only a corpse if you first +flay the Gaul." + +And he added in a terrific voice: + +"Would you expose yourselves to the anger of the gods of the nether +world by depriving them of a victim?" + +At this threat a shudder ran through the surrounding black warriors, and +the party that demanded my skin seemed about to yield to a superstitious +terror. + +The peacemaker, the warrior who had proposed that I be first flayed and +then boiled, now spoke again: + +"Some of you wish to present the Gaul as an offering to the great +Neroweg, others of you wish to present him to the priestess Elwig. Now +do you not see that to give to the one is to give to the other also? Is +not Elwig Neroweg's sister?" + +"And he would be the first to surrender the Gaul to the gods of the +nether world, in order to render them propitious to our arms!" put in +Riowag. + +The captain of the black warriors pointed thereupon at me, and added +imperiously: + +"Take the Gaul on your shoulders and follow me!" + +"We want to have his spoils," said one of the black warriors who were +the first to seize me. "We want his casque, his cuirass, his blouse, his +belt, his shirt. We want everything, down to his shoes!" + +"The booty belongs to you," answered Riowag. "You will have it so soon +as Elwig will have stripped the Gaul preparatorily to throwing him into +her caldron." + +"We shall go with you, Riowag," replied the black warriors who made the +arrest, "otherwise others than ourselves will take possession of the +plunder from the Gaul." + +My perplexity was now at an end. I knew my fate. I was to be boiled +alive. I would have gladly looked a useful or brave death in the face; +but the death that awaited me seemed so barren and absurd, that I +decided to make one more effort to save my life. Addressing the captain +of the black warriors, I said: + +"Your conduct is unjust. Frankish warriors have often come to the Gallic +camp to solicit an exchange of prisoners. Those Franks have always been +respected. A truce is now in force between us, during a truce only spies +who furtively enter the camp are put to death. I have come in open +daylight, with a green bough in my hand, and in the name of Victorin, +the son of Victoria. I am the carrier of a message from them for the +chiefs of the Frankish army. Take care! If you act without orders from +them, they will be sorry for not having heard me, and they may make you +pay dearly for your treachery towards a soldier, who comes unarmed, +during a truce, and in broad daylight, with the bough of peace in his +hand." + +Riowag's answer to my words was a sign to his band. I was immediately +raised up by four black warriors who placed me on their shoulders and +carried me off in the tracks of their captain, who marched with a solemn +air in the direction of the Frankish camp. + +At the moment when the barbarians raised me on their shoulders, I +overheard one of those who wished to flay me alive say to one of his +companions in a mocking tone: + +"Riowag is Elwig's lover; he wishes to make a present of the prisoner to +his mistress." + +These words enabled me to realize that Riowag, the captain of the band +of black warriors, being the lover of the priestess Elwig, gallantly +made her a present of my person, just as in our country bridegrooms +offer a dove or a sheep to the young girl whom they love. + +You will be astonished, my child, to find in this narrative that I have +used words that sound almost droll in describing events that were so +threatening to my life. Do not imagine that this is due to the +circumstance that at the hour when I write these lines, I had escaped +all danger. No. Even when the danger was most imminent--a danger from +which I was almost miraculously delivered--I had full control of my +spirit, and the old Gallic sense of humor, a thing so natural to our +race, however long it lay torpid under the weight of the shame and the +trials of slavery, revived in me as it did with so many others when we +once more tasted the boon of freedom. The observations that you will +encounter, and which I have reproduced as they occurred to me at times +when death seemed inevitable, were sincere, they proceeded from my faith +in that belief of our fathers that man never dies, that when he leaves +this world he enters others in which he proceeds to live. + +Carried upon the shoulders of the four black warriors, I traversed a +section of the Frankish camp. The vast bivouac which was arranged +without order, consisted of huts for the chiefs and tents for the +soldiers. It was a sort of gigantic village of savages. Here and there +lay their innumerable war chariots sheltered under rude sheds made of +the trunks of trees. Their indefatigable small, lean, rough-coated and +shaggy-maned horses, that they managed with a halter of cord for only +bridle, were, as is the custom with these barbarians, tied to the wheels +of the chariots or to the trunks of trees, the bark of which they gnawed +at. The Franks themselves, barely clad in skins of animals, their hair +and beard greasy with suet, presented an aspect that was repulsive, +stupid and ferocious. Some of them were stretched out at full length in +the warm rays of that sun that they started in search of from the depths +of their dark northern forests. Others found amusement in the hunt for +vermin over their hairy bodies; these barbarians lived in such filth +that, although they were in the open air, their encampment exhaled a +fetid odor. + +At the sight of these undisciplined hordes, ill armed but innumerable, +and whose forces were incessantly recruited by fresh migrations that +poured down in mass from the glacial regions of the north to swoop upon +the fertile and laughing fields of our Gaul as upon a prey, certain +words of sinister omen that escaped the lips of Victoria came to my +mind. Nevertheless supreme contempt speedily filled me for those +barbarians, who, three or four times superior to our own armies in point +of numbers, never had been able, despite many a bloody battle delivered +for a number of years, to invade our soil, but found themselves every +time driven back to the other side of the Rhine, our natural frontier. + +While crossing a section of the encampment on the shoulders of the four +black warriors who carried me, I was pursued by insults, threats and +cries for my blood from the Franks who saw me pass. Several times was +the escort that accompanied me obliged, upon orders from Riowag, to use +their arms in order to prevent my being slain on the spot. + +Thus we arrived at last near a thick wood. I observed in passing a large +and more carefully constructed hut than the others, before which a +yellow and red banner was planted. A large number of horsemen clad in +bearskins, some in the saddle, others on foot near their mounts and +leaning on their long lances, were posted around the habitation, thereby +indicating clearly enough that it was occupied by one of the leading +chiefs of their hordes. Again I sought to persuade Riowag, who now +marched beside me, but still grave, silent and solemn, to conduct me +first to that one of the chiefs whose banner I saw, after which, I said +to him, they might kill me if they so pleased. My requests were vain. We +entered the thick wood, and arrived at a large clearing, to the center +of which I was taken. At a little distance I noticed a natural grotto, +formed of large blocks of grey rock, from between which saplings and +stately chestnut trees shot upwards. A stream of living water that +trickled over the ledges of rock fell into a sort of natural basin. Not +far from the cavern stood a brass pan, rather narrow and of about the +length of a man. The opening or mouth of the infernal caldron was +furnished with a net of iron chains. The latter was undoubtedly meant to +keep the victim, who was thrown in to be boiled alive, from jumping out. +Four large boulders supported the pan, under which a bundle of large +logs of kindling wood lay ready. Human bones, bleached and strewn +hither and thither over the ground, imparted to the spot the appearance +of a charnel house. Finally, in the center of the clearing, rose a +colossal statue; it was surmounted with three heads rudely carved with +axes and adjusted to the enormous tree-trunk that, though shapeless, was +intended to represent a gigantic body. The aspect of the statue was +grotesque and repulsive. + +Riowag made a sign to the four black warriors who carried me to stop and +deposit me at the foot of the statue. He thereupon entered the grotto +alone while the warriors of the escort called out aloud: + +"Elwig! Elwig!" + +"Elwig! Priestess of the underground gods!" + +"Rejoice, Elwig, we bring you a prisoner for your caldron!" + +"You will now be able to prophesy to us!" + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE PRIESTESS ELWIG. + + +I expected to see some hideous old hag; I was mistaken. Elwig was young, +tall and endowed with savage beauty. Her grey eyes, shielded under a +pair of naturally reddish eyebrows of the same color as her hair, +glistened like the steel of the long knife that she was armed with. Her +eagle-beaked nose and high forehead imparted to her an aspect at once +savage and imposing. She was clad in a long tunic of a somber hue. Her +bare neck and arms were heavily laden with copper necklaces and +bracelets, that clinked upon one another as she walked, and upon which +she cast coquettish glances as she approached me. On her thick reddish +hair, that fell upon and parted on both sides of her shoulders, she wore +a scarlet coif that was a ridiculous imitation of the charming headgear +used by the women of Gaul. In short, I thought I noticed in the strange +creature the evidence of that mixture of puerile pride and vanity so +peculiar to barbarous peoples. + +Standing a few paces from her, Riowag seemed to contemplate the +priestess with profound admiration. Despite his black dye and the red +tattoo under which his face disappeared, his features seemed to me to +betoken a violent love, and his eyes sparkled with joy when, twice in +succession, pointing at me, Elwig turned her face to her lover with a +smile upon her lips, in token, no doubt, of thankfulness for the +offering that he brought her. I also noticed on the bare arms of the +infernal priestess two tattoo marks that brought back to my mind some +reminiscences of the war we had been waging with the Franks. + +One of the two marks represented two talons of a bird of prey; the +other, a red serpent. + +With her knife in her hand, Elwig again turned towards me and fastened +her large grey eyes upon me with ferocious satisfaction, while the black +warriors contemplated her with looks of fear and superstition. + +"Woman," I said to the priestess, "I came here unarmed, an oak branch in +my hand, and bearing a message of peace to the grand chiefs of your +hordes.--I was fallen upon and bound fast.--I am in your power--you can +kill me--if such be your pleasure--but before you do, have me presented +to one of your chiefs.--The interview that I request is of as much +importance to the Franks as to the Gauls. It is Victorin himself and his +mother Victoria the Great who have sent me hither." + +"You are sent by Victoria?" cried the priestess with a singular air. +"Victoria, who is said to be so very beautiful?" + +"Yes, I am sent by her who is called the Mother of the Camps." + +Elwig reflected, and after a long silence she raised her hands over her +head, brandished her knife, and pronounced some mysterious words in a +voice that sounded at once threatening and inspired. Thereupon she +motioned to the black warriors to retire. + +They all obeyed, walking slowly back towards the thicket that surrounded +the clearing. + +Only Riowag remained a few steps from the priestess. Turning towards him +she pointed with an imperious gesture towards the wood in which the +other black warriors had disappeared. Seeing that the captain did not +obey her summons, she raised her voice, and again pointed to the wood. + +Riowag then obeyed and left in turn. + +I remained alone with the priestess. I was left bound, lying at the foot +of the statue of the under gods. Elwig squatted down upon her haunches +near me and asked: + +"You were sent by Victoria to speak with the Frankish chiefs?" + +"I said so before." + +"You are one of Victoria's officers?" + +"I am one of her soldiers." + +"Does she cherish you?" + +"She is my foster-sister, I am as a brother to her." + +These words seemed to cause Elwig to reflect anew. She remained silent +for a while, and then resumed: + +"Would Victoria weep over your death?" + +"As one would weep over the death of a faithful servant." + +"She surely would give much to save your life?" + +"Is it ransom you want?" + +Elwig again relapsed into silence, and resumed with a mixture of +embarrassment and cunning that struck me forcibly: + +"Let Victoria come and ask my brother for your life. He will grant it to +her.--But listen, Victoria has a great reputation for beauty; handsome +women love to deck themselves with the Gallic jewelry that is so +celebrated.--Victoria must have superb ornaments, seeing she is the +mother of the chief of your country.--Tell her to cover herself with her +richest jewelry; it will please my brother's eyes.--He will be all the +more gracious, and will grant your life to her." + +I immediately surmised the snare that the priestess of hell was laying +for me with the clumsy cunning natural to barbarians. Wishing to make +certain, I observed without referring to her last words: + +"It seems that your brother is a powerful chief." + +"He is more than a chief," Elwig answered proudly; "he is a king." + +"We also, in the days of our barbarism, had kings. What is your +brother's name?" + +"Neroweg, surnamed the Terrible Eagle." + +"You carry on your arms two figures, one representing a red serpent, the +other the talons of a bird of prey. What do those emblems mean?" + +"The fathers of our fathers in our royal family have always worn these +signs of valor and subtlety. The eagle's talons denote valor; the +serpent subtlety. But let us drop my brother," added Elwig with somber +impatience. My digression seemed to displease her. "Will you induce +Victoria to come here?" + +"One word more on your royal brother.--Does he not carry on his forehead +the identical symbols that you carry on your arms?" + +"Yes," she replied with increasing impatience. "Yes, my brother carries +an eagle's talon over each eye-brow, and the red serpent on a head-band +over his forehead. Kings wear a head-band. But we have spoken enough of +Neroweg--quite enough--" + +I thought I noticed on Elwig's features an ill dissembled sentiment of +hatred when she pronounced his name. She proceeded: + +"If you do not wish to die, write to Victoria to come to our camp +ornamented with her most precious jewels. She shall repair alone to a +place that I shall designate to you--a secluded spot that I know--I +shall come for her and shall lead her to my brother to solicit your life +from him--" + +"Victoria to come alone to this camp?--I have come hither, relying upon +the sacredness of the truce;--I carried the bough of peace in my hand, +and yet one of my companions was killed, another was wounded, and to cap +the climax of treachery, I am delivered to you bound hand and foot to be +put to death--" + +"Victoria may bring a small escort with her." + +"Which would be unquestionably massacred by your men!--The scheme is too +transparent!" + +"You, then, wish to die!" cried the priestess gnashing her teeth in +actual or simulated rage, and threatening me with her knife. "The fire +will be shortly kindled under the caldron.--I shall have you plunged +alive into the magic water, and you shall boil in it until you are +dead.--Once more, and for the last time, make your choice.--Either you +shall die in tortures, or you will write to Victoria to repair to our +camp decked in her richest ornaments!--Choose!" she added with redoubled +fury and again threatening me with her knife. "Choose--or you die!" + +I knew there was no more thievish, covetous or vainglorious race than +this breed of Franks. I noticed that Elwig's large grey eyes glistened +with cupidity every time she mentioned the magnificent ornaments, that, +as she imagined, the Mother of the Camps surely possessed. The +ridiculous accoutrement of the priestess; the profusion of valueless +gewgaws that she wore with a savage woman's coquetry, in order, no +doubt, to appear pleasing to the eye of Riowag, the captain of the black +warriors; above all, her persistence in demanding of me that Victoria +come to the Frankish camp covered with rich jewels;--everything +justified the conclusion that Elwig aimed at drawing my foster-sister +into an ambush in order to slay her and rob her of her jewels. The +clumsy scheme did not do credit to the ingenuity of the priestess of the +nether regions. Nevertheless, her cupidity might be turned to my +service. I answered her in a tone of indifference: + +"Woman, you mean to kill me if I do not induce Victoria to come here? +You are free to kill me--boil my flesh and bones--you will thereby lose +more than you think for, seeing that you are the sister of Neroweg, the +Terrible Eagle, one of the greatest kings of all your hordes!" + +"What would I lose?--" + +"Magnificent Gallic ornaments!" + +"Ornaments!--What ornaments?" cried Elwig doubtfully, although her eyes +snapped with greed. + +"Do you imagine that, in sending her foster-brother to convey a message +to the kings of the Franks, Victoria the Great did not prepare, as a +pledge of truce, rich presents for the wives and sisters who accompany +them, and for those whom they left behind in Germany?" + +Elwig leaped to her feet with one bound, hurled her knife away, clapped +her hands, and emitted loud peals of laughter that sounded like a crazy +woman's transports. Thereupon she crouched down again beside me, and +said in a voice broken with childish breathlessness: + +"Presents? You bring presents with you?--Where are they?" + +"Yes, I bring with me presents fit to dazzle an empress--gold necklaces +studded with carbuncles, ear pendants of pearls and rubies, gold +bracelets, belts and crowns that are so loaded with precious stones +that they glitter in all the colors of the rainbow.--All these +masterpieces of our most skilled Gallic goldsmiths I have brought with +me for presents.--And seeing that your brother Neroweg, the Terrible +Eagle, is the most powerful king of all your hordes, the bulk of all +those riches--those bracelets, those necklaces and other jewels--would +have fallen to you." + +Elwig listened to me open-mouthed, her hands clasped together, without +endeavoring to hide either the admiration or unbridled greed that the +enumeration of such treasures kindled in her breast. Suddenly, however, +her features assumed an expression of mingled doubt and anger. She rose, +ran to her knife, and returning with it in her hands, raised it over me +crying: + +"You either lie, or you are mocking me!--Where are those treasures?" + +"In a safe place.--I foresaw that I might be killed and plundered before +I was able to fulfil the orders of Victoria and her son." + +"Where did you put that treasure in safety?" + +"It remained in the bark that brought me to this side of the river.--My +companions rowed back from the shore and cast anchor beyond the reach of +the arrows of your hordes." + +"We also have barks moored at the other end of the camp. I shall order +your companions to be pursued--I shall have the treasures!" + +"You deceive yourself!--As soon as my companions see the enemy's barks +approach from a distance, they will suspect foul play. Seeing that they +have a long lead, they will be able to regain the opposite shore of the +Rhine without any danger whatever.--Such will be the only fruit of the +treachery practiced by your people upon me.--Come, woman! Have me +boiled for your infernal auguries! Perhaps my bones, bleached in your +caldron, may be transformed into magnificent ornaments!" + +"I want the treasures!" replied Elwig struggling against her lingering +suspicions. "Since you did not carry the jewels about you, when would +you have given them to the kings of our hordes?" + +"When I left the jewels in the bark I expected I would be received as an +envoy of peace, and that as such I would be escorted back to the river +bank. My companions would then have returned to the shore to receive me, +and I would have taken the presents out of the bark and distributed them +among the kings in the name of Victoria and her son." + +The priestess looked upon me for a while with darkling eyes. She seemed +to yield alternately to mistrust and to the promptings of cupidity. +Finally, however, the latter sentiment evidently prevailed. She took a +few steps away, and with a strong voice pronounced the bizarre name of a +person who was not until then upon the scene. + +Almost instantly a hideous old hag with grey hair and clad in a +blood-bespattered robe issued from the cavern. She was, no doubt, the +active priestess at the inhuman sacrifices. She exchanged a few words in +a low voice with Elwig and forthwith vanished in the surrounding wood, +in the direction that the black warriors had followed. + +Again dropping on her haunches beside me, the priestess said in a low +and muffled voice: + +"Since you wish to speak with my brother, King Neroweg, I have sent for +him.--He will soon be here--but you shall not mention a word to him +concerning the jewels." + +"Why keep him in the dark concerning them?" + +"Because he would keep them to himself." + +"What!--He!--Your own brother!--Would he not share the jewels with you, +his sister?" + +A bitter smile contracted Elwig's lips. She resumed: + +"My brother came near cutting off my arm with a blow of his axe a few +weeks ago, simply because I merely wished to touch part of his booty." + +"Is that the way brothers and sisters behave towards one another among +the Franks?" + +"Among the Franks," Elwig answered with a face of deepening rancor, "the +mother, sister and wives of a warrior are his first slaves." + +"His wives!--Has he, then, several?" + +"As many as he can capture and feed--the same as he has as many horses +as he can buy." + +"What! Does not a sacred and eternal union join the husband to the +mother of his children, as with us Gauls?--What! Sisters, wives and +mothers--all are slaves? Blessed of the gods is Gaul, my own country, +where our mothers and wives, venerated by all, proudly take their seat +in the nation's councils and where their advice, often wiser than that +of their husbands and sons, not infrequently prevails." + +Palpitating with cupidity, Elwig made no answer to me, and resumed the +thread of her dominant thoughts. + +"You will, accordingly, not mention the jewels to Neroweg. He would keep +them all for himself. You will wait until it is dark to leave the camp. +I shall accompany you. You will give me the jewels, all the presents--to +me alone!" + +And again bursting into almost insane peals of laughter, she added: + +"Gold bracelets! Necklaces of pearls! Ear pendants studded with rubies! +Diadems full of precious stones! I shall look grand as an empress! Oh, +how beautiful I shall be in the eye of Riowag!" + +Elwig thereupon cast disdainful glances at the copper bracelets that she +rattled as she shook her arms, and repeated: + +"I shall look very beautiful to Riowag!" + +"Woman," I said to her, "your advice is prudent. We shall have to wait +until it is night for us to leave the camp together and regain the river +bank." + +And, to the end of still further enlisting Elwig's confidence in me by +seeming to take an interest in her vainglorious greed, I added: + +"But if your brother sees you decked with such magnificent ornaments, +will he not take them away from you?" + +"No," she promptly answered with a strange and sinister look. "No, he +will not take them!" + +"If Neroweg the Terrible Eagle is of as violent a temperament as you +claim, if he came near cutting off your arm for having wished merely to +touch part of his booty," I suggested, surprised at her answer, and +anxious to fathom her thoughts, "what will prevent your brother from +seizing the jewels?" + +Elwig held up to me her large knife with an expression of calm ferocity +that made me shiver, as she answered: + +"When I shall have the treasure--to-night, I shall enter my brother's +hut--I shall share his bed, as usual--and when he is asleep I shall kill +him--" + +"Your own brother!" I cried with a shudder and hardly believing what I +heard, although the insight that the priestess gave into the shocking +immorality prevalent among the Franks was nothing new to me. "How! You +share your own brother's bed?" + +The priestess seemed no wise disconcerted by my question, and answered +with a somber mien: + +"I have shared my brother's bed since the day that he violated me. It is +the fate of almost all the sisters of the Frankish kings who follow them +in war. Did I not tell you that their wives, their sisters and their +mothers are the first slaves of the warriors? What female slave is there +who, willingly or unwillingly, does not share her master's bed?" + +"Hold your tongue, woman!" I cried interrupting her. "Hold your tongue! +Your monstrous words might draw a thunderbolt upon our heads!" + +And without being able to add another word I contemplated the creature +with horror. Such a mixture of debauchery, greed, barbarism and, withal, +stupid frankness, seeing that Elwig unbosomed herself to me, a man whom +she then saw for the first time in her life, upon her fratricidal +intentions--that fratricide, preceded by incest, which this priestess of +a sanguinary cult was subjected to and who shared her brother's bed +while she at the same time surrendered herself to another man--all that +filled me with horror, notwithstanding I had often heard accounts of the +abominable morals of the barbarians beyond the Rhine. + +Elwig seemed not to concern herself about the cause of my silence nor of +the evident disgust that she filled me with. She mumbled some +unintelligible words, and counted the copper bracelets that her arms +were loaded with. She presently said to me pensively: + +"Do you think I shall have nine fine bracelets studded with precious +stones to replace these? Could they all go into a little bag that I +shall keep concealed under my robe when I return to the hut of the king, +my brother? Why do you not answer my questions?" + +The cold, I should almost say naive, ferocity of the woman redoubled the +disgust that the monster inspired in me. Again I remained silent, and +she cried aloud: + +"Why do you not answer me? You promised me the jewels!" + +But seeming to be suddenly struck by a new thought she added with +terror: + +"I told him all! Suppose he tells it all again to Neroweg! My brother +would kill us both, me and Riowag! The thought of the treasure bereft me +of my senses!" + +And again she started to call, turning her face towards the cavern. + +A second old hag, no less hideous than the first, hobbled out holding in +her hand the bone of an ox from which hung a partly boiled shred of meat +at which she gnawed with her toothless gums. + +"Come quick to me," the priestess said to her, "and leave your bone +there." + +The old hag obeyed unwillingly, grumbling like a dog whose meat is taken +away from him. She laid the bone on one of the projecting rocks at the +entrance of the grotto, and drew near, wiping her lips. + +"Gather some dry, good branches and roots of trees and kindle a fire +with them under the brass caldron," the priestess said to the old woman. + +The latter returned into the cavern, and brought out all the things that +she was ordered. Soon a bright fire burned under the caldron. + +"Now," Elwig said to the old woman, pointing her finger at me as I lay +stretched out upon the earth at the feet of the statue of the +subterranean deity, with my hands pinioned behind my back and my feet +bound fast, "kneel down upon him." + +I could make not the slightest motion. The old hag planted herself on +her knees upon my breast-plate, and said to the priestess: + +"What must I do next?" + +"Make him put out his tongue." + +I then understood that, carried away at first by her savage greed into +making dangerous confidences to me, Elwig now reproached herself for +having heedlessly mentioned her amours and her fratricidal intentions, +and could think of no better way to compel my silence on these subjects +towards her brother than to cut off my tongue. The project was more +easily conceived than it could be executed. I clenched my teeth with all +my might. + +"Tighten your fingers on his throat!" Elwig commanded the hag. "He will +then open his mouth and stick his tongue out. I shall then cut it off." + +With her knees firmly planted upon my cuirass, the hag leaned forward so +close to me that her hideous face almost touched mine. I shut my eyes +with disgust. Presently I felt the crooked yet nervous fingers of the +priestess' assistant tighten at my throat. For a while I struggled +against suffocation and did not unlock my teeth; but, as Elwig had +foreseen, I soon felt almost smothered and unconsciously opened my +mouth. Elwig immediately thrust in her fingers in order to seize my +tongue. I bit her so savagely that she withdrew her hand screaming with +pain. At that moment I saw the black warriors and Riowag reissue from +the wood whither they had withdrawn at the priestess' orders. Riowag +approached on a run, but he stopped undecided what to do at the sight of +a troop of Franks who arrived from the opposite side and stepped into +the clearing. One of these called out in a hoarse and imperious voice: + +"Elwig! Elwig!" + +"The king, my brother!" gasped the priestess, who was on her knees +beside me. + +It seemed to me that she looked for the knife that she had dropped +during her struggle with me. + +"Fear not! I shall be dumb. You shall have the treasure all for +yourself," I whispered to Elwig, fearing lest, in her terror, the woman +plunge the knife into my throat. I sought to secure her support at all +hazard, and to contrive a means of escape by inciting her cupidity. + +Whether Elwig trusted my word, or whether her brother's presence stayed +her hand, she cast a significant glance at me, and remained on her knees +at my side, with her head drooping upon her chest as if absorbed in +revery. The old hag having risen to her feet, my breast-plate was +relieved of her weight; I could again breathe freely; and I saw the +Terrible Eagle standing before me, escorted by several other Frankish +kings, as the chiefs of those marauding hordes styled themselves. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +NEROWEG THE TERRIBLE EAGLE. + + +The Frankish chief who stood before me was a man of colossal stature. +Due to the use of lime-water, his beard as well as his greasy hair, that +rose in a knot over his forehead, had turned coppery red. His hair, tied +with a leather thong on the top of his head, fell behind his shoulders +like the flowing crest of a casque. Above each of his bushy red eyebrows +I saw an eagle's talon tattooed in blue, while another scarlet tattoo +mark, representing the undulations of a serpent, spanned his forehead. +His left cheek was also ornamented with a red and blue tattoo that +consisted of transverse rays. On his right cheek, however, the savage +ornament disappeared almost wholly in the cavity of a deep scar that +began below the eye and was finally lost under his shaggy beard. Heavy +and coarsely-wrought gold medals, that hung from and distended his ears, +dropped upon his shoulders. A heavy silver chain, wound three times +around his neck, reached down to his semi-bare breast. Above his cloth +tunic he wore a jacket of some animal's hide. His hose, of the same +quality and as soiled as his tunic, were fastened by a leather belt from +which, on one side, hung a long sword, on the other an axe of sharp +stone. Wide strips of tanned skin criss-crossed upward over his hose, +from the ankle to the knees. He leaned upon a short pike that ended in a +sharp point. The other kings who accompanied Neroweg were tattooed, +clad and armed more or less after the same fashion. The features of all +bore the stamp of savage gravity. + +Elwig, who remained on her knees at my side, sought to conceal her face +from Neroweg. He rudely touched his sister's shoulder with the point of +his pike, and addressed her harshly: + +"Why did you send for me before boiling the Gallic dog for your +auguries? My flayers have promised me his skin." + +"The hour is not favorable," answered the priestess abruptly with a +mysterious air. "The hour of night--of dark night is preferable to +sacrifice to the gods of the nether world. The Gaul, moreover, says, oh +mighty king, that he has a message from Victoria and her son." + +Neroweg drew nearer and looked at me. At first his mien was one of +disdainful indifference; presently, however, as he examined me more +attentively, his features assumed an expression of hatred and of +triumphant rage; at last he cried as if he could not believe his own +eyes: + +"It is he! He is the horseman of the bay steed! It is himself!" + +"Do you know him?" Elwig asked her brother. "Do you know this prisoner?" + +"Off with you!" was Neroweg's brusque answer. "Get you gone!" + +He then proceeded to contemplate me with renewed interest and repeated: + +"Yes, it is he; the horseman of the bay steed!" + +"Did you ever meet him in battle?" again asked Elwig. "Answer me. Do +answer me!" + +"Will you be gone!" repeated Neroweg now raising his pike over the head +of the priestess. "I told you before, be gone!" + +My eyes at that moment caught sight of the group of black warriors. I +saw that their captain Riowag could hardly be restrained by his men from +drawing his sword, and revenging the insult offered to Elwig by Neroweg. + +But so far from obeying her brother, and no doubt fearing that in her +absence I might reveal to the Terrible Eagle both her own fratricidal +projects and the secret of Victoria's presents which she coveted, Elwig +cried: + +"No! No! I remain here! The prisoner belongs to me for my auguries. I +shall not go away. I shall keep him--" + +The only answer that Neroweg vouchsafed his sister were several blows +with the handle of his pike, delivered over her back. He thereupon made +a sign, and several of the warriors who accompanied him violently drove +the priestess, together with the haggish old assistant, back into the +cavern at the mouth of which they posted themselves on guard, sword in +hand. + +The black warriors who surrounded Riowag were put to their mettle in +order to prevent their captain from precipitating himself with drawn +sword upon the Terrible Eagle. The latter, thinking only of me, failed +to notice the fury of his rival, and addressed me in a voice trembling +with rage, while he kicked me with his feet: + +"Do you recognize me, dog?" + +"I recognize you, rapacious wolf." + +"This wound," resumed Neroweg carrying his finger to the deep scar that +furrowed his cheek, "do you know who made this wound?" + +"Yes, it is my handiwork. I fought you as a soldier." + +"You lie! You fought me like a coward! You were two against one!" + +"You were making a furious onset on the son of Victoria the Great. He +was wounded--his hand could hardly hold his sword--I dashed to his +help--and struck in Gallic fashion." + +"You marked my face with your Gallic sword--dog!" + +Saying this Neroweg struck me repeatedly with the handle of his pike, to +the great amusement of the other kings. + +I remembered my ancestor Guilhern, chained like a slave and supporting +with dignity the cruel treatment of the Romans after the battle of +Vannes. I emulated his example. I merely said to Neroweg: + +"You are striking an unarmed soldier who is bound fast and who, relying +upon the truce, came to you on an errand of peace--that is a coward's +act. You would not dare to raise your stick at me if I stood on my feet +and sword in hand." + +The Frankish chief laughed, struck me again and said: + +"He is a fool who, able to kill his enemy disarmed, does not exterminate +him. I would like to kill you twice over. You are doubly my enemy. I +hate you because you are a Gaul, I hate you because your race holds +Gaul, the country of sunshine, of good wine and beautiful women; then +also I hate you because you marked my face with a wound that is my +eternal shame. I shall therefore make you suffer so much that your pain +will be equal to two deaths, a thousand deaths, if I only could--you +Gallic dog!" + +"The Gallic dog is a noble animal for war and for the hunt," I replied +to him; "the Frankish wolf, however, is an animal of rapine and carnage. +But it will not be long before the brave Gallic dogs will have chased +from their frontiers this pack of voracious wolves that have come +prowling from the northern forests. Be careful! If you refuse to listen +to the message that I have for you from Victoria and her valiant son--be +careful! Our army is numerous. It will be a war to the death that will +be waged between the Gallic dog and the Frankish wolf--a war of +extermination--and the Frankish wolf will be devoured by the Gallic +dog." + +Grinding his teeth with rage, Neroweg seized the axe that hung from his +belt, and raising it in both hands was about to let it come crashing +down upon my head. I believed my last hour had come, but two of the +other kings held the arm of Elwig's brother, into whose ears they +whispered a few words that seemed to calm him. He held a short +conference with his companions and returned to me: + +"What is the message that you bring from Victoria for the Frankish +kings?" + +"The messenger of Victorin and Victoria can only speak on his feet, +unfettered, his head high--not stretched down on the ground, and bound +fast like the ox that expects the butcher's knife. Order my bonds to be +removed, and I shall speak--if not, not. You have heard me, brute that +you are!" + +"Speak on the spot--unconditionally, you Gallic dog!--or tremble before +my anger!" + +"No; I shall not speak!" + +"I shall know how to make you speak!" + +"Try it! You will find me unshakeable!" + +Neroweg ordered one of the other kings to fetch a firebrand from under +the brass caldron. I was held down by the shoulders and feet, so as to +prevent me from making the slightest motion, while the Terrible Eagle +placed the firebrand upon my iron cuirass and heaped up others about it. +The brasier that he thus built upon my body seemed to amuse him greatly. +He laughed out aloud and said to me: + +"You shall speak, or be broiled like a tortoise in its shell." + +The iron of my cuirass soon began to heat under the coals which two of +the Frankish kings kept alive by blowing upon them. I suffered greatly +and cried: + +"Oh! Neroweg! Neroweg! Cowardly assassin! I would gladly endure these +tortures, if I only could see myself once more sword in hand before you, +and put my mark upon your other cheek. Oh! You have said it--there is +room only for hatred and death between our two races!" + +"What is Victoria's message?" the Terrible Eagle asked again. + +I remained silent, despite the intense pain that I suffered. The iron of +my cuirass was growing hot all around. + +"Will you speak?" the Frankish chief cried anew, evidently astonished at +my resistance. + +"Victoria's messenger speaks erect and free," I answered. "If not, not!" + +Whether the Frankish chief considered it desirable to know the message +that I brought, or whether he only yielded to the suggestions of his +companions, who were less ferocious than himself, one of them unbuckled +my casque, raised it off my head, took it to the stream that rippled +down the rocks at the mouth of the cavern, filled it and poured the cold +water upon my heated cuirass. By degrees it cooled off. + +"Free him of his bonds," said Neroweg, "but surround him; and let him +instantly fall under your blows should he try to escape." + +I slowly regained my strength while I was being unbound; the torture I +had just undergone almost caused me to faint. I drank some of the water +that remained in my casque, and stood up in the midst of the kings, who +surrounded me so as to cut off my retreat. + +"Give us now your message," said Neroweg. + +"A truce has been concluded between our two armies," I proceeded. +"Victoria and her son send to tell you: Since you issued from your +northern forests you have taken possession of the whole territory of +Germany on the right bank of the Rhine. That soil is as fertile as +Gaul's. Before your invasion it produced an abundance of everything. +Your acts of violence and cruelty have driven almost all its inhabitants +to flight. The soil, nevertheless, remains, ready and willing for the +husbandman. Why do you not cultivate it, instead of waging incessant war +against us and living on rapine? Is it the love for war that sways you? +We Gauls, better than anyone else, understand and appreciate the love +for martial display. We appreciate it, and make this proposition to you. +At each new moon, send one or two thousand of your picked warriors to +one of the large islands in the Rhine, which is our joint frontier. We +shall expedite thither an equal number of our warriors. The two sets +will be free to fight it out at their heart's content. But then, at +least, you Franks, on one side of the river, and we Gauls on the other +shall be able to cultivate our respective fields in peace, we shall be +able to work, to manufacture and to enrich our countries, without being +forever compelled to keep an eye upon the frontier, and a sword hanging +from the plow handle. If you refuse our proposition we shall then wage a +war of extermination against you, drive you from our frontiers, and +chase you back into your forests. When two nations are separated only by +a river they should be friends, or one of the two must destroy the +other. Choose! I await your answer." + +Neroweg consulted with several of the kings who stood near him, and +presently answered me with marked insolence: + +"The Frank is not one of those races, like the Gallic, who work by +cultivating the soil. The Frank loves war; but above all he loves the +warmth of the sun, good wine, fine weapons, brilliant clothes, gold and +silver goblets, rich necklaces, large and well built cities, superb +palaces after the fashion of the Romans, the beautiful Gallic women, +industrious slaves who mind the whip and work for their masters while +these drink, sing, sleep and make love or war. In their gloomy country +of the north, however, the Franks find neither sunshine nor good wine, +nor fine weapons, nor brilliant clothes, nor gold and silver goblets, +nor large and well built cities, nor superb palaces, nor beautiful +Gallic women--all these things are to be found among you, Gallic dogs! +We purpose and mean to take all that from you--we purpose and mean to +establish ourselves in your fertile country, and enjoy all the good +things that it contains, while the males of you will work for us under +the whip and the sharp sword that we shall hold over you, and the +females--your wives, sisters and daughters--will lie in our beds, will +weave our shirts and will wash our clothes. Do you understand, Gallic +dog?" + +The other kings applauded Neroweg and accentuated their approval with +loud laughter and clatter of arms, joined to cries of: + +"Yes--that is what we want--do you understand, Gallic dog?" + +"I understand," I replied, unable to refrain from indulging in raillery +against such savage insolence. "I understand that you wish to conquer +and subjugate us as did the Romans for a time, after our own race +dominated and conquered the whole world for centuries in succession. But +you who so much love the sunshine, the goods, the country and the women +of other peoples, you seem to forget that, despite the universal power +that they acquired and despite their innumerable armies, even the Romans +were compelled to return to us one by one the rights that we enjoyed, so +that, at this hour, the Romans are no longer our conquerors, but our +allies. Now, then, seeing that you so much love the sunshine, the +country, the goods and wives of others, listen to my words: We, the +Gauls, alone and unaided by the Romans, will chase you from our +frontiers, or we shall exterminate you to the last man if you persist in +being bad neighbors and in proposing to plunder us of our old Gaul." + +"Yes, we are plunderers!" cried Neroweg. "And, by the snows of Germany +we shall plunder you of your old Gaul! Our army is four times as large +as yours; you have your palaces, your cities, your wealth, your women, +your sun, your fertile earth to defend--we have nothing to defend and +everything to gain. We camp in our huts and sleep on the backs of our +horses; our only wealth is our sword; we have nothing to lose, +everything to gain. And we will gain everything, and we will subjugate +your race, you Gallic dog! It will be the end of Gaul!" + +"Go and ask the Romans, whose army was even larger than yours, how many +foreign cohorts the sod of old Gaul has devoured! Even the greatest +battles that they, the conquerors of the world delivered, did not cost +them one-quarter the number of soldiers that our fathers, as insurgent +slaves, exterminated with their scythes and forks. Take care! Strong and +sharp is the sword of the Gallic soldier; trenchant is the scythe, heavy +the fork of the Gallic husbandman in the defense of hearth, family and +freedom! Take care! If you persist in remaining bad neighbors, the +Gallic scythe and fork will be enough to drive you back into your +snow-bound wilderness, ye people of sloth, of rapine and of carnage, who +desire to enjoy the fruits of the labors of others, who covet their +soil, their wives and their sunshine, and strive after these by means of +theft and massacre!" + +"Dare you, Gallic dog, hold such language to us!" cried Neroweg grinding +his teeth. "You, a prisoner! You, under the points of our swords! under +the edge of the Frankish battle axe!" + +"The moment seems to me opportune to say the truth to the enemies of +Gaul!" + +"And I think the moment is opportune to put you through a thousand +deaths!" cried the Frankish king in a passion as towering as that of his +fellows. "Yes, you shall undergo a thousand deaths--and after that, my +sole answer to the audacious message of your Victoria will be to return +your head to her with the announcement in the name of Neroweg the +Terrible Eagle, that, before the sun shall have risen six times, I shall +capture herself in the midst of her own camp, shall take her to my bed, +and shall then pass her over to my men, that they may, in turn, enjoy +Victoria, the proud Gallic woman!" + +I lost all control over myself at the ribald and ferocious insolence +flung at the woman whom I venerated above all others. I was unarmed, but +I picked up one of the now extinguished firebrands that lay at my feet +and which the Franks had used to torture me with; I seized the heavy +log, and swift as lightning struck Neroweg so sound a blow with it over +his head that he reeled back, stumbled and fell to the ground +unconscious. + +Ten swords struck me almost simultaneously. But my casque and cuirass +protected me. In their blind rage the Frankish chiefs struck at random, +and cried: + +"Death! Death to the dog of a Gaul!" + +Only Riowag, the captain of the black warriors, did not join in the +attempt to avenge upon my person the blow I dealt to his rival, Neroweg. +On the contrary, he profited by the tumult to enter the cavern into +which Elwig had been driven back, the entrance of which was now left +free, seeing that the two kings, who, sword in hand, mounted guard +before it, rushed to the assistance of the Terrible Eagle, who lay +prostrate at a distance from them. + +Immediately after Riowag entered the grotto, the priestess and her two +assistant hags rushed out. With streaming hair, haggard looks, and hands +raised heavenward they cried: + +"The hour has come--the sun is setting--night approaches--death, death +to the Gaul! He struck the Terrible Eagle--death, death to the Gaul! +Bind him fast. We shall consult the subterranean gods in the magic water +in which he is to boil!" + +"Yes--death!" cried the Franks rushing upon me and binding me fast +again. "He shall die under a prolonged agony! Death to the dog of a +Gaul!" + +"We are the priestesses of the sacrifice!" Elwig and the two hags +protested in chorus, while they redoubled their bizarre contortions that +by degrees imposed the Frankish warriors with terror. + +"Oh! you who struck my brother, the blood of my blood," Elwig screamed, +writhing her arms, and howling furiously she threw herself upon me in a +real or feigned transport of rage; "the gods of the nether world have +delivered you into my hands! Come--come--let us drag him into the +cavern," she added addressing the old hags, "we must season him for his +death with the proper tortures. Vengeance! Let our vengeance be +merciless!" + +The confusion into which the Franks were thrown by the blow that I dealt +Neroweg kept them from interfering with Elwig and her two female +assistants. Several of the kings even joined her in dragging me into the +cavern, while the others were hurrying hither and thither or gathered +anxiously around the Terrible Eagle who lay prone upon the ground, pale, +motionless and his head bleeding. + +"Our grand chief is not dead," said some; "his hands are warm and his +heart beats." + +"Let us transport him to his hut." + +"If he die we shall draw lots for his five black horses, his fine Gallic +sword with the gold handle, and also for his necklace and silver +bracelets." + +"The horses and arms of Neroweg belong to the oldest chief!" cried one +of those who were holding up the head of the Terrible Eagle. "I am the +oldest. To me belong both horses and arms! To me also his tent and +chariots! To me his gold necklaces and silver bracelets!" + +"You lie!" came from one of the chiefs at the feet of Neroweg. "His +horses, his tent and his arms belong to me as his war companion." + +"No!" cried the others. "No! Everything that belongs to Neroweg must be +drawn lots for." + +From the threshold of the cavern where I then was, I could see and hear +the dispute wax hot and the swords glisten, while Neroweg, who still +remained unconscious, was almost trampled under the feet of the enraged +disputants, as they leaped over his body to get at closer quarters with +one another. The conflict threatened to take a bloody turn when, leaving +me where I was, Elwig threw herself between the combatants, whom she +sought to separate, and shouted aloud: + +"Shame and ill luck to those who contend over the spoils of a king who +is neither dead nor revenged! Shame and ill luck to those who contend +over the spoils of a brother before the very eyes of his sister! Shame +and ill luck to the impious men who disturb the quiet of a place that is +consecrated to the gods of the nether world!" + +And with an inspired and dreadful mien, the priestess drew herself to +her full length, and throwing up her clenched fists above her head, +cried: + +"My two hands are full of fearful misfortunes. Tremble!" + +At these threats, the frightened barbarians involuntarily lowered their +heads, as if afraid of being struck with the mysterious ills that the +priestess held in her closed hands. They put their swords back into +their scabbards. Profound silence ensued. + +"Carry the Terrible Eagle to his hut!" Elwig thereupon commanded. "The +sister will accompany her wounded brother. The Gallic prisoner will be +watched by Map and Mob who assist me at the sacrifices. Two of you will +remain at the mouth of the cavern, with your swords in your hands. Night +is drawing near. Elwig will presently return with Neroweg. The execution +of the prisoner will then begin, and I shall consult the auguries in the +magic waters in which he is to boil until death supervenes!" + +My last hope was dashed. In contemplating to return with her brother, +Elwig must have doubtlessly renounced the project that her greed had +caused her to hatch. I had pinned my safety on that project. I was +bound firmly, hands and feet. My arms were pinioned behind my back; a +belt was strapped around my legs. I could hardly move a step. I slowly +followed the two hags into the grotto, at the entrance of which several +of the kings posted themselves, sword in hand. The deeper I penetrated +the cave, all the darker it grew. After having proceeded a little way, +one of the two hags said to me: + +"You may lie down on the ground if you wish; the sun has gone down. +While waiting for Elwig's return, my companion and I shall keep the fire +alive under the caldron." + +Saying this both the hags left me. I remained alone. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE FLIGHT. + + +From the solitude and darkness in which I was left at the departure of +Elwig's sacrificial assistants, I could see the mouth of the cavern at +some distance. The opening grew darker and darker as dusk yielded to +night. Presently the gloom became complete, relieved only, from time to +time, by the flickering light that the flames of the fire, kept alive +under the huge brass caldron by the two hags, occasionally cast upon the +grotto's mouth. + +I tried to snap my bonds. With my hands and feet free, I would have +endeavored to disarm one of the Franks who guarded the issue, and, sword +in hand, and protected by the darkness of the night, I would have +reached the river bank guided by the sound of the rushing waves. Perhaps +and notwithstanding the orders I gave him, Douarnek might not yet have +rowed back to camp. But all my efforts proved futile against the +bow-strings and the belt that held me fast. A muffled but increasing +rumbling of feet and voices began to announce to me the arrival and +assembling of a large number of people in the neighborhood of the cave. +They must he doubtlessly gathering to witness my execution and listen to +the auguries of the priestess. + +I believed there was nothing left to me but to resign myself to my fate. +I turned my last thoughts to my wife and child. + +Suddenly, from the thickest of the surrounding darkness I heard the +voice of Elwig two steps behind me. I started with surprise. I was +certain she did not enter by the mouth of the cavern. + +"Follow me," she said. + +At the same moment her feverish hand seized mine and held it firmly. + +"How came you here?" I asked her stupefied, with hope re-rising in my +breast, and endeavoring to walk. + +"The cavern has two issues," Elwig answered. "One of them is secret and +known to me only. It is by that entrance that I came in, while the kings +are waiting for me at the other entrance near the caldron. Come! Come! +Take me to the bark where the treasure lies, where you left the +necklaces, bracelets, diadems and other jewels!" + +"My legs are tied," I said. "I can hardly put one foot before the +other." + +Elwig did not answer, but I could feel that she was cutting with her +knife the leather strap and the bow-strings that bound my arms and legs. +I was free! + +"And your brother," I inquired, following close upon her footsteps, "has +he regained consciousness?" + +"Neroweg is still dazed, like a bull whom the butcher did not kill +outright. He awaits in his hut the hour of your execution. I am to +notify him in time. He wishes to see you suffer and die. Come, come!" + +"The darkness is so intense that I can not see before me." + +"Give me your hand." + +"Should your brother tire of waiting," I observed as she almost dragged +me along through the windings of the secret issue, "and should he enter +the sacred wood with the other chieftains and not find either you or me +in the cavern, what will happen? Will they not immediately start in +pursuit of us?" + +"Only I know this secret issue. When they miss both you and me from the +cave, my brother and the chiefs will believe that I made you descend to +the gods of the nether world. They will be all the more afraid of me. +Come! Come quick!" + +While Elwig thus spoke I was following her through so narrow a passage +that I felt myself grazing the rocks on either side. The passage seemed +at first to dip down towards the bowels of the earth, but presently its +ascent became so steep and difficult for my legs, still numb from their +recent ligatures, that it was with difficulty I kept step with the +hurrying priestess. We had been for some time in the maze of the +underground cave when at last I felt the fresh air strike my face. I +imagined we were about to step into the open. + +"To-night, after I shall have killed my brother in revenge for his +outrages upon me," Elwig explained to me in abrupt words, "I shall flee +with a king whom I love. He is waiting for us outside. He is strong, +brave and well armed. He will accompany us to your bark. If you deceived +me, Riowag will kill you--do you hear me, Gaul? You will fall under his +axe." + +I was little affected by the threat--my hands were free--my only +uneasiness was whether Douarnek and the bark still waited for me. + +A moment later we issued out of the cavern. The stars shone so brilliant +in the sky that once out of the wood in which we still were, I was +certain I would be able to see my way before me. + +The priestess stopped for a moment and called: + +"Riowag!" + +"Riowag is here," answered a voice so close to me that I realized the +chief of the black warriors was near enough to be able to touch me. +Nevertheless, it was in vain that I sought to distinguish his black +shape in the dark. It became clearer to me than ever before how, by +rendering themselves undistinguishable in the dark, these men could not +choose but be dangerous foes in a night assault or ambuscade. + +"Is it far from here to the river bank?" I asked Riowag. "You must know +the spot where I landed; you were the chief of the band that greeted me +with a volley of arrows." + +"No, we have not far to go," Riowag answered. + +"Shall we have to cross the camp?" I inquired, perceiving the lights of +the Frankish encampment at a little distance. + +Neither of my two guides made any answer. They exchanged a few words in +a low voice, each took me by an arm, and they struck into a path that +led away from the camp. Soon the roar of the rushing waters of the Rhine +reached our ears. We drew rapidly near the shore. Finally from the +height of the embankment on which we stood, I could distinguish a bluish +sheet of water across the darkness--it was the river! + +"We shall now ascend the beach about two hundred feet," said Riowag; "we +shall then be at the spot where you reached land under our arrows. Your +bark must be only a little distance from there. If you deceived us your +blood will redden the beach, and the waters of the Rhine will wash away +your corpse." + +"Can we call out from the bank without being heard by the outposts of +the camp?" I asked the Frank. + +"The wind blows off shore," Riowag answered with the sagacity of a +savage. "You can freely raise your voice and call; you will not be heard +at the camp, and your voice will surely travel to the middle of the +stream." + +Riowag walked a few steps further and then stopped. + +"It is here," he said, "where you reached land; your bark must be +anchored near by. I am a professional night warrior, and am able to see +through the dark, but I can not distinguish your bark." + +"Oh! You deceived us! You deceived us!" murmured Elwig in a subdued +voice. "You will die for it!" + +"It may be," I observed, "that, after having waited for me in vain, the +bark may have just left its anchorage. The wind will carry my voice far; +I shall call." + +Saying this I raised our battle cry of rally, well known to Douarnek. + +Only the sound of the waves made answer. + +Doubtlessly Douarnek had followed my orders and rowed back to camp at +sunset. + +I uttered our war cry a second time and louder than the first. + +Again the only response was the rushing of the waves. + +Meaning to gain time and prepare myself for defense, I said to Elwig: +"The wind blows off shore; it carries my voice to the river; but it +blows back the voices that may have answered my signal. Let us listen!" + +While I spoke I strained my eyes to peer through the dark and discover +the weapons that Riowag was armed with. In his belt he carried a dagger; +in his hand his short, broad sword. Although he and his beloved were +close to me, one on each side, I could elude them with a bound, plunge +into the river, and escape by swimming. I was watching for my +opportunity when suddenly the distant and rhythmic sound of oars reached +my ears. My call was heard by Douarnek. + +In the measure that the decisive instant approached, the suspense and +uneasiness of Elwig and her companion increased. To kill me would be to +renounce the possession of the treasure, which, I had clearly told them, +my soldiers would deliver only at my orders. But again, to allow the +latter to disembark would be to furnish me with auxiliaries and render +mine the stronger side. Elwig no doubt began to realize that her greed +had carried her too far. Seeing the bark draw nearer she said to me in +great excitement: + +"The sacredness of the Gallic word is proverbial. You owe your life to +me. I hope you did not deceive me with a false promise." + +That priestess of the nether world, the incestuous and blood-thirsty +monster, who had meant to cut out my tongue in order to make sure of my +silence, and who calmly contemplated adding fratricide to her other +crimes, had saved my life moved thereto only by base greed. +Nevertheless, I could not remain insensible to her appeal to Gallic +faith. I almost regretted the lie I had uttered, however excusable it +might be in view of the treachery that the Frankish warriors had +practiced towards me. At that critical moment I was, however, bound to +consider my own safety only. I jumped at Riowag, and after a violent +struggle in which Elwig did not venture to take a hand, out of fear that +she might wound her lover while seeking to strike me, I succeeded in +disarming the warrior. Soon as that was done I threw myself into a +posture of defense with the sword in my hand and cried: + +"No, I have no treasure for you, Elwig, but if you fear to return to +your brother, follow me. Victoria will treat you kindly; you will not be +a prisoner; I give you my word; you may rely upon the faith of a Gaul." + +Both the priestess and Riowag refused to listen; breaking out into wild +imprecations they made a furious rush at me. In the tussle that ensued I +killed the black warrior at the moment when he sought to stab me with +his dagger, and I was wounded in the hand in the attempt to wrench the +knife from Elwig's grasp. I had just succeeded and thrown the weapon +into the water when, attracted by the noise of the struggle, Douarnek +and one of the soldiers leaped upon the shore to hasten to my help. + +"Schanvoch," Douarnek said quickly to me, "we did not follow your orders +and row back at sunset. We remained at our anchorage, resolved to wait +for you until morning. But thinking that you might issue at some other +spot than where you landed, we rowed up and down along the shore. When +we saw you this morning surrounded by those black devils, our first +impulse was to row straight to the bank and suffer death beside you. But +I recalled your orders, and we considered that for us to be killed was +to cut off your retreat. But here you are, hale and sound. Now take my +advice and let us return quickly to camp. These skinners of human bodies +are ill neighbors to dwell among." + +While Douarnek was speaking to me, Elwig threw herself upon the corpse +of Riowag and rent the air with roars of rage interspersed with sobs. +However detestable the creature was, her paroxysm of grief touched my +heart. I was about to address her when Douarnek cried: + +"Schanvoch, look at the torches approaching yonder!" + +Saying this Douarnek pointed in the direction of the Frankish camp. +Luminous streaks were seen rapidly approaching through the dark. + +"Your flight has been discovered, Elwig," I said to her, and sought to +tear her from her lover's corpse, which she held clasped in a close +embrace and over which she moaned piteously. "Your brother has started +in your pursuit--you have not a minute to lose--come!--come!--or you are +lost!" + +"Schanvoch," Douarnek said to me as I vainly sought to drag away Elwig, +who seemed not to hear me and sobbed aloud, "the torches are carried by +armed horsemen! Listen to the clanging of their weapons! Listen to the +tramp of their horses! They cannot be further than six bow shots! I +beached the bark in order to reach you all the quicker! We shall have +barely time to put it afloat! Would you have us all killed? If that is +your purpose, say so, and we shall die like brave men; but if you mean +to flee, it is high time that you move!" + +"It is your brother! It is death that is approaching!" I once more cried +to Elwig, whom I could not bring myself to abandon without one more +effort to save her. After all, she did save my life. A minute later and +she would be lost. + +Seeing, however, that the priestess did not answer me, I cried to +Douarnek: + +"Give me a hand--let us take her away by force!" + +It was impossible to tear Elwig from the corpse of Riowag; she held it +in a convulsive embrace; the only alternative left was to carry off +both bodies. We tried it, but soon gave up the attempt. + +In the meantime the Frankish horsemen were approaching so rapidly that +the light of their resinous torches projected itself as far as the +beach. It was too late to save Elwig. Our bark was with difficulty +pushed off; I took the rudder; Douarnek and the two remaining soldiers +bent vigorously to their oars. + +We were still within easy bowshot from the shore when, by the light of +the torches that the troops carried, we saw the first hurrying Frankish +horsemen ride up. At their head I recognized Neroweg, the Terrible +Eagle, distinguishable by his colossal stature. He was closely followed +by several other horsemen, all shouting with concentrated rage. Neroweg +drove his horse up to the animal's neck into the river. His companions +did the same, while they brandished their long lances with one hand and +with the other their torches, whose ruddy reflections lighted far the +waters of the river and fell upon our swiftly speeding bark. + +Seated near the rudder, my back was turned to the bank and I remarked +sadly to Douarnek: + +"The miserable creature is killed by this time." + +And propelled by the three vigorous oarsmen, our bark shot through the +water. + +"Is that a man, a woman, or a demon that is following us?" cried +Douarnek a moment later, dropping his oar and rising on his feet in +order to look at the track that our bark left behind, and that was +lighted by the glimmer of the distant torches that the Frankish horsemen +continued to brandish even after they gave up the pursuit. + +I also rose to my feet and looked in the same direction. A second later +I cried: + +"Stop! Do not row! It is she! It is Elwig! Douarnek, hand me an oar! I +shall reach it to her! She seems to be exhausted!" + +So said, so done. Fleeing from her brother and certain death, the +priestess had thrown herself into the water and must have swam after us +with extraordinary vigor. She seized the extremity of the oar with a +convulsive grasp; two strokes of the oars backed the bark to her; and +aided by one of the soldiers I was able to draw Elwig on board. + +"Blessed be the gods!" I cried. "I would always have reproached myself +for your death." + +The priestess made no answer; she let herself down on the bench of one +of the oarsmen, and shrinking into a heap with her face between her +knees, remained ominously silent. The oarsmen rowed vigorously on, and +from time to time I looked back at the receding river bank. The torches +of the Frankish horsemen glimmered fitfully, luminous spots through the +haze of the night and the vapors that rose from the river. The end of +our passage drew near; we began to distinguish the lights of our own +encampment on the opposite bank. Several times I addressed Elwig, but +received no answer. I threw over her shoulders and her clothes, wet with +the chilly waters of the Rhine, the thick night cloak of one of the +soldiers. In doing this I touched one of her arms; it was feverishly +warm. A stranger to all that happened in the bark, the woman did not +emerge from her savage silence. As I jumped ashore I said to Neroweg's +sister: + +"I shall take you to-morrow to Victoria. Until then I tender you the +hospitality of my house. My wife and her sister will treat you like a +friend." + +She made me a sign to lead the way, and she followed. Douarnek then +approached me and said in a low voice: + +"If you take my advice, Schanvoch, after the she-devil, who I know not +for what reason swam after you, has dried and warmed herself at your +hearth, you will lock her up safely until morning. She might otherwise +strangle your wife and child during the night. There is nothing more +wily and ferocious than these Frankish women." + +"It will be a wise precaution to take," I answered Douarnek. + +And accompanied by Elwig, who, somber and silent, followed me like a +specter, I proceeded homeward. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +SHADOWS ACROSS THE PATH. + + +The night was far advanced. I had reached within a few steps from my +house when I saw through the dark a man crouching on the sill of one of +the windows. He seemed to be peeping through the shutters. I gave a +start. It was the window of my wife's room. + +I seized Elwig's arm and said to her in a low voice: + +"Do not budge--wait--" + +She stopped and stood motionless. Controlling my emotion I advanced +cautiously, seeking to avoid making the sand crunch under my feet. I +failed. My steps were heard; the man jumped down from the window sill +and fled. I rushed after him. Thinking that I meant to leave her in the +lurch, Elwig ran after me, overtook me and seized me by the arm, crying +with terror: + +"If I am found alone in the Gallic camp I shall be killed!" + +Despite all I could do, I could not disengage myself of Elwig's hold +until after the man had vanished from sight. He had too long a lead and +the night was too dark for me to endeavor to catch him. Surprised and +uneasy at the incident, I retraced my steps, and knocked at the door of +my house. + +I could hear from within the voices of my wife and her sister, who +seemed uneasy at my prolonged absence. Although they knew not that I +had gone to the Frankish camp, they had not yet retired. + +"It is I!" I cried to them. "It is I, Schanvoch!" + +The door was no sooner opened than my wife, seeing me by the light that +Sampso held in her hand, threw herself into my arms, saying in a tone of +sweet and tender reproach: + +"At last you are back! We began to feel alarmed about you, seeing you +were gone since early morning." + +"And we, who counted upon you for our little feast," put in Sampso; "but +I suppose you met with old comrades in arms, and time passed quickly in +their company." + +"Yes, I suppose the conversation was strung out over battles," added +Ellen still hanging on my neck, "and my dear Schanvoch forgot his wife, +just a little--" + +Ellen was interrupted by a cry from Sampso. She did not at first notice +Elwig, who had remained in shadow near the door. At the sight, however, +of the savage creature--pale, sinister and motionless--my wife's sister +could not repress her surprise and involuntary fear. Ellen quickly +stepped back, noticed the presence of the priestess, and gazing at me as +much surprised as her sister, said: + +"Schanvoch, who is that woman?" + +"Why, sister," cried Sampso forgetting the presence of Elwig and looking +at me more closely, "look, the sleeves of Schanvoch's blouse are red +with blood--he is wounded!" + +My wife grew pale, stepped quickly back to me and anxiously scanned my +face. + +"Calm yourself," I answered; "my wounds are slight. I concealed from you +both the mission on which I was bound. I went to the camp of the Franks, +our savage foes. I carried a message from Victoria." + +"To the camp of the Franks!" Ellen and Sampso cried terrified. "That +meant death!" + +"And this is the being who saved my life," I said to my wife, pointing +at Elwig, who stood motionless at the door. "I must bespeak the +attention of you both in her behalf until to-morrow." + +When they learned that I owed my life to the Frankish woman my wife and +her sister hastened toward Elwig, moved by a simultaneous impulse of +gratitude; but they almost immediately stopped short, intimidated and +even frightened by the sinister and impassive countenance of Elwig, the +priestess, who seemed not to see them, and whose mind probably hovered +over scenes far away. + +"Give her some dry clothes, those that she has on are wet," I said to my +wife and her sister. "She does not understand Gallic; your thanks will +be lost upon her." + +"Had she not saved your life," Ellen said to me, "I would think the +woman's face looks somber and threatening." + +"She is a savage like the rest of her people. Get her some dry clothes, +and I shall take her to the little side room, where I shall lock her up +as a matter of precaution." + +Sampso went into a contiguous room to fetch a tunic and mantle for +Elwig, while I said to my wife: + +"Did you hear any noise at the window of your room to-night, shortly +before I came in?" + +"None whatever--neither did Sampso; she did not leave me since evening; +we both felt uneasy at your absence. But why do you ask?" + +I did not then answer my wife, seeing that Sampso at that moment +returned with the clothes that she had gone after. I took them, passed +them over to Elwig and said to her: + +"My wife and her sister offer you these clothes. Yours are wet. Is there +anything else that you wish? Are you hungry, or thirsty? What would you +have?" + +"I want solitude," was Elwig's answer, rejecting the proffered clothes +with a gesture; "I want the black night. Only that will suit me at +present." + +"Very well--follow me," I said to her. + +Leading the way, I opened the door of a little chamber, and raising the +lamp in order to light its interior, I said to the priestess: + +"You see yonder couch--rest yourself, and may the gods render peaceful +to you the night that you are to pass under my roof." + +Elwig made no answer; she threw herself upon the couch and covered her +face with her hands. + +"And now," I said to my wife as I closed and locked the door, "these +duties of hospitality being attended to, I burn with the desire to +embrace my little Alguen." + +I found you, my child, sleeping peacefully in your cradle. I covered you +with kisses, that were all the sweeter to me seeing I had that very day +feared never to see you again. Your mother and her sister examined and +bandaged my wounds. They were slight. + +While Ellen and Sampso were attending to me, I spoke to them of the man +whom I had caught sight of on the window sill, and who seemed to be +peeping through the shutters. They were greatly astonished at my words; +they had heard no sound; they had been together since evening. While +talking over the matter, Ellen said to me: + +"Did you hear the news?" + +"No." + +"Tetrik, the Governor of Gascony and relative of Victoria, arrived this +evening. The Mother of the Camps rode out on horseback to meet him. We +saw him go by." + +"And did Victorin accompany his mother?" + +"He rode beside her. That must be the reason that we did not see him +during the day." + +The arrival of Tetrik gave me food for reflection. + +Sampso left me alone with Ellen. It was late. Early the next morning I +was to report to Victoria and her son the result of my mission to the +camp of the Franks. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +CAPTAIN MARION. + + +Early in the morning I repaired to Victoria's residence. The humble +house of the Mother of the Camps was reached through a long narrow path, +skirted on either side by high ramparts that constituted the outer +fortifications of one of the gates of Mayence. I was about twenty paces +from the house when I heard behind me the following cries uttered in +terror: + +"Save yourself! Save yourself!" + +Looking back, I saw with no little fright a two-wheeled cart dashing +rapidly towards me. The cart was drawn by two horses whose driver had +lost control over them. + +I could jump off neither to the right nor the left of the narrow path to +let the cart pass; its wheels almost grazed the opposite walls; I was +still too far from Victoria's residence to hope for escape in that +direction; however swiftly I might run, I would be overtaken by the +horses and trampled under their hoofs long before I could have reached +the door. There was nothing left for me to do but to face the runaways, +and, however hopeless the prospect, to seize them by the bit and attempt +to stop them. Accordingly, I rushed forward upon the animals with my +hands raised. Oh! A prodigy! Hardly did I touch the horses' reins when +they suddenly reared upon their haunches. It was almost as if my mere +gesture had sufficed to check their impetuous course. Happy at having +escaped what seemed certain death, but aware that I was not a magician, +endowed with the power to arrest a runaway team with a mere motion of my +hand, I asked myself while leaping back what the cause might be of the +extraordinary spectacle. I noticed that the horses still made violent +efforts to proceed on their career; they reared, tugged forward and +stretched out their necks, but were unable to advance, as if the cart's +wheels were locked, or some superior power restrained them. + +My curiosity stirred to a high pitch, I drew near, and gliding between +the horses and the wall, succeeded in climbing over the dashboard of the +cart whose driver I found crouching under the seat, looking more dead +than alive. As the mystery seemed to deepen, my curiosity was pricked +still more. I ran to the rear of the vehicle and noticed with no slight +amazement that a large sized man, robust as a Hercules, was clinging to +two ornamental pieces that projected from the rear of the cart. It was +thanks to his weight, and to the superhuman resistance that his great +strength enabled him to offer, that the team was held back. + +"Captain Marion!" I cried. "I should have known as much! There is none +other in the whole Gallic army able to hold back a cart going at full +speed." + +"Tell that fool of a driver to pull in the reins. My wrists begin to +tire." + +I was transmitting the orders to the driver who was beginning to recover +his senses, when I saw several soldiers, on guard at Victoria's +dwelling, pour out of the house attracted by the noise. They opened the +yard gate and thus offered a safe exit to the cart. + +"There is no longer any danger," I said to the driver; "lead your horses +on. But whom does this conveyance belong to?" + +"To Tetrik, the Governor of Gascony, who arrived yesterday at Mayence. +He stops at Victoria's house," answered the driver, while calming down +his horses. + +While the cart proceeded into the yard of Victoria's residence, I walked +back towards the captain to thank him for his timely aid. + +Marion had left his blacksmith's anvil for the army many years previous. +He was well known and generally beloved among the soldiers, as much for +his heroic courage and extraordinary strength, as for his exceptional +good judgment, his sound reasoning powers, the austerity of his morals, +and his extreme good fellowship. He now stood on the road, and with his +casque in his hand wiped the sweat off his brow. He wore a cuirass of +steel scales over his Gallic blouse, and a long sword at his side. His +dusty boots told of a recent and long ride on horseback. His large +sunburnt face, partly covered by a thick beard that began to be streaked +with grey, was open and pleasing. + +"Captain Marion," I said to him, "I must thank you for having saved me +from being ground under the wheels of that cart." + +"I did not know it was you who ran the risk of being trampled under the +hoofs of those horses like a dog! A stupid sort of a death for a brave +soldier like you, Schanvoch! But when I heard that devil of a driver +crying: 'Save yourself!' I surmised he was about to kill somebody and I +tried to hold the cart back. Fortunately my mother endowed me with a +good pair of wrists. But where is my dear friend Eustace?" added the +captain looking around. + +"Whom do you refer to?" + +"To a brave fellow, the old companion of my blacksmith days. Like me, he +left the hammer for the lance. The fortune of war served me better than +it did him. Despite his bravery, my friend Eustace has remained a simple +horseman, while I have been promoted to captain. But there he is, +yonder, with his arms crossed, and motionless as a signpost. Ho! +Eustace! Eustace!" + +At the call, the companion of Captain Marion approached slowly, with his +arms crossed over his breast. He was a man of middle size and vigorous +frame. His pale blonde hair and beard, his bilious complexion, his harsh +and sullen physiognomy offered a striking contrast to the pleasant +exterior of the captain. I asked myself what singular affinity could +draw two men of such different appearance, and doubtless also such +dissimilar characters, into close and constant friendship. + +"How is that, friend Eustace," the captain jokingly remarked to him, +"you remain yonder looking at me with crossed arms, while I am engaged +in holding back a runaway team?" + +"You are strong," Eustace answered; "what aid can the flesh-worm bring +to the bull?" + +"That man is certainly consumed with jealousy and hatred," I thought to +myself at hearing the answer and observing the sullen looks of the +captain's friend. + +"There is no flesh-worm nor bull in the case, my friend Eustace," +answered the captain with his habitual joviality and looking rather +flattered by the comparison; "but when the flesh-worm and the bull are +comrades, then, however strong the latter may be, or small the former, +the one does not forsake the other--union makes strength, says the +proverb." + +"Captain," answered the soldier with a bitter smile, "did I ever forsake +you in the hour of danger? Have I not always fought at your side, since +we left the forge together?" + +"I bear witness to the truth of that," cried Marion cordially, taking +Eustace by the hand. "As true as the sword you carry is the last weapon +I forged in order to give you a token of friendship, as it is engraved +on the blade, you have ever in battle 'marched in my shadow,' as the +saying goes in my country." + +"What is there strange about that?" replied the soldier. "Beside you, so +brave and robust, I was what the shadow is to the body." + +"By the devil! Look at the shadow! My friend Eustace!" the captain +exclaimed and laughed, and addressing me he added pointing at his +companion Eustace: + +"Let me have two or three thousand shadows like that, and the first +battle that we fight on the other side of the Rhine, I shall bring back +a herd of Frankish prisoners." + +"You are a captain of renown! I, like so many other poor waifs, are good +only to obey, to fight and to be killed. We are only meat for battles," +replied the old blacksmith with an envious look and his lips slightly +losing their color. + +"Captain," I said to Marion, "I presume you wish to see Victorin and his +mother?" + +"Yes, I have a report to render to Victorin of a journey that my friend +and I have just made." + +"I followed you as a soldier," Eustace said; "the name of an obscure +horseman must not be remembered before Victoria the Great." + +The captain shrugged his shoulders with impatience and jokingly shook +his enormous fist at his friend. + +"Captain," I insisted, addressing Marion, "let us hasten to Victoria. I +should have been with her since dawn. I am late." + +"Friend Eustace," Marion said, starting to walk with me toward +Victoria's residence, "will you stay here, or wait for me at our +lodging?" + +"I shall wait here at the door--that is a subaltern's place." + +"Would you believe it, Schanvoch," Marion replied laughing, "would you +believe that it is nearly twenty years that lad and I live together and +quarrel like two brothers? He will not forget that I am a captain, and +will not treat me as a simple anvil-beater, as he formerly used to." + +"I am not the only one, Marion, to realize the difference there is +between us," Eustace answered. "You are one of the most renowned +captains in the army--I am only one of the least of its soldiers." + +Saying this Eustace sat down on a stone near the door, and bit his +nails. + +"He is incorrigible," the captain remarked to me; and we two entered the +house of Victoria. + +"Captain Marion must be strangely blinded by friendship," I thought to +myself, "to fail to perceive that his companion is consumed with +malevolent jealousy." + +The residence of the Mother of the Camps was extremely simple. Captain +Marion having asked one of the soldiers on guard whether Victorin could +receive him, the soldier answered that he could give him no information +on that head, seeing that the young general had not spent the night in +the house. + +Despite the camp life, Marion preserved great austerity of morals. He +seemed shocked to learn that Victorin had not yet returned home, and he +cast a dissatisfied look at me. I wished to excuse Victoria's son, and +said to him: + +"Let us not be hasty in believing evil. Tetrik, the Governor of Gascony, +arrived yesterday at the camp. It may be that Victorin spent the night +in conference with him." + +"So much the better. I would like to see that young man, who to-day is +chief of the Gauls, free himself from the claws of that pest of +profligacy that drives so many of us to evil deeds. As to myself, the +moment I see a woman's bonnet or a short skirt, I turn my head away as +if I saw the devil in person." + +"Victorin improves, and he will improve still more with ripening years," +I replied to the captain. "But what can we do--he is young--he loves +pleasure--and pretty girls." + +"I also love pleasure, and furiously, too!" exclaimed the good captain. +"There is nothing that I delight more in, when my duties are done, than +to enter my lodging and empty a pot of cool beer with my friend Eustace, +while we chat over our old trade, or entertain ourselves furbishing our +weapons and good armor. Those are real pleasures! And notwithstanding +all the excitement that one finds in them, they are absolutely +honorable. Let us hope, Schanvoch, that Victorin may some day prefer +them to his immodest and diabolical orgies with the pretty girls, that +scandalize us." + +"I am of your opinion, captain; hope is better than despair. But in the +absence of Victorin you may confer with his mother. I shall notify her +of your arrival." + +Saying this I left Marion alone, and passing into a neighboring +apartment, encountered a serving-girl who led me to Victoria, the Mother +of the Camps, my foster-sister. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +VICTORIA THE GREAT. + + +I wish, my son, for your benefit and the benefit of our descendants, to +trace here the portrait of that illustrious Gallic woman, one of the +purest glories of our country. + +I found Victoria seated beside the cradle of her grandson Victorinin, a +handsome boy of two who lay profoundly asleep. Victoria had some +needlework in her hands, and was busy sewing, agreeable to her custom as +a good housekeeper. She was then, like myself, thirty-eight years of +age, but she would have been hardly taken for thirty. In her youth she +was appropriately compared to Diana, the huntress. In her mature years +she was no less appropriately compared to the antique Minerva. Tall, +well built, and virile, without thereby forfeiting the chaste graces of +womanhood, she was magnificently shaped. Her beautiful face, instinct +with a grave yet gentle expression, bore the impress of majesty under +the crown of black hair which she wore in two braids coiled over her +august forehead. Sent when still a little girl to a college of our +venerated female druids, and having taken at the age of fifteen the +mysterious vows that bound her indissolubly to the sacred religion of +our fathers, she ever since, and although married, preserved the black +garb of the female druids, which was also the habitual garb of the +matrons of old Gaul. Her long wide sleeves, open up to the elbows, +exposed a pair of arms as white and as strong as those of the valiant +Gallic women, who, as you will see in our family narratives, my son, +heroically fought the Romans at the battle of Vannes under the eyes of +our grandmother Margarid, and preferred death to the disgraces of +slavery. + +In the middle of the chamber, and not far from the seat occupied by the +Mother of the Camps near her grandson's cradle, several rolls of +parchment, together with all that was necessary for writing, lay upon a +table. From the wall hung the two casques and swords of Victoria's +father and husband, both killed in the same battle. One of the two +casques was surmounted by the Gallic cock of gilt bronze, with his wings +partly spread, and holding under his feet a lark that he menaced with +his beak. The emblem was adopted by Victoria's father as a military +ornament after a heroic combat in which, at the head of only a handful +of men, he exterminated a Roman legion that bore a lark on its ensign. +Under the weapons stood a little brass vase in which seven twigs of +mistletoe were arranged. Gaul, you must remember, my son, reconquered +her religious liberty in recovering her independence. Close to the brass +vase and the twigs of mistletoe, a druid symbol, was a wooden cross, in +commemoration of the death of Jesus of Nazareth, for whom the Mother of +the Camps, without being a Christian, professed profound admiration. She +looked upon him as one of the sages who shed luster upon humanity. + +Such, my son, was Victoria the Great, the illustrious Gallic woman whose +name our descendants will ever pronounce with pride. + +When the Mother of the Camps saw me come in, she rose quickly and +approached me with gladness, saying in her sonorous and sweet voice: + +"Welcome, brother! The mission was a dangerous one. Not seeing you back +before sunset, I did not wish to send any message to your house, lest I +alarm your wife by showing uneasiness at your prolonged absence. But +here you are; I feel happy to see you back again." + +Saying this Victoria pressed my hand tenderly in hers. + +The words that we spoke must have disturbed the slumber of Victoria's +grandson; he moved in his cradle and made a slight sound. Victoria +stepped quickly to him, and kissed the child on the forehead. She then +sat down, and placing the tip of her foot on a treadle below the cradle, +rocked it gently, while she continued her conversation with me. + +"And the message?" she asked, "how did the barbarians receive it? Are +they ready for peace? Do they want war? Did they accept our +proposition?" + +I was just about to begin giving my foster-sister a complete account of +my mission, when she interrupted me with a gesture, and, reflecting a +second, proceeded to say: + +"Do you know that my dear relative Tetrik has been here since +yesterday?" + +"I know it, sister." + +"He is due here any moment. I prefer that you make the report to me +before him only." + +"I shall do so. Can you receive Captain Marion? He came for a conference +with Victorin." + +"Schanvoch, my son again spent the night out of the house!" remarked +Victoria plying her needle more quickly, an action that, with her, +always denoted deep annoyance. + +"Having heard of your relative's arrival, I surmised that, possibly, +grave questions kept Victorin closeted with Tetrik during the night. +That is the theory I threw out to Captain Marion, and told him that +perhaps you would be ready to hear the report he has for your son." + +Victoria remained silent for a moment; she then dropped her needlework +on her lap, raised her head and resumed in a tone of suppressed grief: + +"Victorin has vices--his vices are smothering his good parts. Moths +destroy the best of grain." + +"Have confidence and hope--age will mature him." + +"During the last two years his vices grow upon him, his good parts +decline." + +"His bravery, his generosity, his frankness have not degenerated." + +"His bravery no longer is the calm and provident bravery that becomes a +general--it is becoming blind--headless. His generosity no longer +distinguishes between the worthy and the unworthy. His reasoning powers +decline--wine and debauchery are killing him. By Hesus! A drunkard and a +debauche! He, my son! One of the chiefs of Gaul, free to-day and, +perhaps, to-morrow, matchless among nations. Schanvoch, I am an +unfortunate mother!" + +"Victorin loves me--I shall reprove him severely." + +"Do you imagine that your remonstrances will accomplish what the prayers +of his own mother have failed to do? Of the mother who never left his +side all his life, following him with the army, often even into battle? +Schanvoch, Hesus punishes me--I have been too proud of my son!" + +"And what mother would not have been proud of him the day when a whole +valiant army, of its own free choice, acclaimed as its chief the +general of twenty years of age, behind whom they saw--you, his mother!" + +"What does it matter, if he dishonors me! And yet, my only ambition was +to make of my son a citizen, a man worthy of our fathers! Did I not, +when nourishing him with my milk, also nourish him with an ardent and +holy love for our Gaul that was coming to life again--and to freedom! +What was it that I asked; what was it that I always desired? To live an +obscure life and ignored, but devote my night-watches and my days, my +intelligence, my knowledge of the past, which enables me to understand +the present, and at times to peer into the future--in short, to devote +all the energies of my soul and of my mind to rendering my son brave, +wise, enlightened, worthy at all points of guiding the free men who +chose him their chief. And then, Hesus is my witness, proud as a Gallic +woman, happy as a mother of having given birth to such a man, I would +have enjoyed his glory and my country's prosperity in the seclusion of +my humble home. But to have a drunkard and debauche for a son! Oh, wrath +of heaven! Does not the giddy-headed boy understand that every excess +that he indulges in is a slap that he gives his mother in the face? If +he does not understand it, our soldiers do. Yesterday, as I crossed the +camp, three old horsemen rode towards me. Do you know what they said to +me? 'Mother, we pity you!'--and they rode off dejectedly. Schanvoch, I +tell you, I am an unhappy mother!" + +"Listen to me. For some time since, our soldiers have been growing +dissatisfied with Victorin. I admit it, I understand it. The warrior +whom free men have chosen for their chief must be above excesses, and +must even be able to control the impulses of his age. That is true, +sister; and have I not often chided your son in your presence?" + +"You have." + +"Well, at this moment I take up his defense. These soldiers, whom we see +to-day so full of scruples on the score of slips that are frequent with +young chiefs, act, not so much in obedience to their own scruples, as in +obedience to perfidious incitements that emanate from some secret +enemy." + +"What do you mean?" + +"There are people who envy your son; they envy his influence over the +troops. In order to undo him, his defects are being exploited so as to +furnish a foundation for infamous calumnies." + +"Who is jealous of Victorin? Who would have an interest in spreading +such calumnies?" + +"It is especially during the last month, not so, that this hostility to +your son has manifested itself and has been on the increase?" + +"Yes, yes; but whom do you suspect of inciting it?" + +"Sister, what I am about to tell you is serious. It is a month ago that +one of your relatives, the Governor of Gascony, came to Mayence--" + +"Tetrik!" + +"Yes; he departed after a stay of a few days! Almost immediately after +Tetrik's departure the silent hostility towards your son began, and has +since steadily grown!" + +Victoria looked at me in silence, as if she did not quite grasp the +bearing of my words. But a sudden thought seeming to flash through her +mind, she cried in a tone of reproach: + +"What! You suspect Tetrik! My own relative and best friend, the wisest +of men, one of the most enlightened citizens of our age, a man who seeks +his delight in letters and displays no mean poetic talents! One of the +most useful men in the defense of Gaul, although he is not a man of war! +Tetrik, who in his government of Gascony repairs by dint of wisdom the +evils that civil war inflicted upon the province! Oh, brother, I +expected better things from your loyal heart and your good sense!" + +"I suspect that man!" + +"Oh, you iron-headed, inflexible nature! Why should you suspect Tetrik? +By what right? What has he done? By Hesus! If you were not my +brother--if I did not know your heart--I would think you are jealous of +my esteem for my relative!" + +Victoria had barely uttered these last words, when she seemed to regret +having allowed them to escape her. She said: + +"Forget these words!" + +"They would greatly grieve me, sister, if the unjust doubt that they +express could blind you to the truth." + +At this moment the servant entered and asked whether Tetrik could be +admitted. + +"Let him in," answered Victoria, "let him in immediately." + +Tetrik stepped into the room. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +TETRIK. + + +The personage who now entered the apartment was an undersized man of +middle age. His face was refined and gentle; an affable smile played +permanently around his lips. In short, his exterior bespoke so fully the +man of honor that, seeing him enter, Victoria could not refrain from +casting at me a look that still seemed to reproach me for my suspicions. + +Tetrik walked straight to Victoria, kissed her on the forehead with +paternal familiarity and said: + +"Greeting to you, Victoria!" + +And approaching the cradle in which the grandson of the Mother of the +Camps still slept, the Governor of Gascony contemplated the child with +tenderness, and added, in a low voice, as if afraid to awaken him: + +"Sleep, poor little one! You are smiling in your infantine dreams, and +you know not that, perhaps, the future of our beloved Gaul may rest upon +your head. Sleep, little fellow, predestined, no doubt, to carry out the +task that your glorious father has undertaken! A noble task that will +engage his efforts for many long years under the inspiration of your +august grandmother! Sleep, poor little one," Tetrik added, with eyes +dimmed with tears of tenderness, "the gods that are propitious to Gaul +will watch over you--you will grow up for the welfare of your country!" + +While her relative wiped his moist eyes, Victoria again interrogated me +with her looks, as if asking me whether such was the language and the +physiognomy of a traitor, of a cowardly hypocrite, of a man who was a +perfidious enemy of the child's father. + +Turning then to me, Tetrik said affectionately: + +"Greeting to the best, the most faithful friend of the woman whom I most +love and venerate in the world; greeting to Victoria's foster-brother." + +"Your speech is true. I am the obscurest but also the most devoted +friend of Victoria," I answered looking fixedly at Tetrik, "and it is +the duty of a friend to unmask scamps and traitors." + +"I am of your opinion, friend Schanvoch," Tetrik answered with +simplicity. "A friend's first duty is to unmask scamps and traitors. I +fear the roaring lion with its jaws wide open less than the serpent that +creeps in the dark." + +"Now, then, I, Schanvoch, have this to say to you, Tetrik. You are one +of the dangerous reptile that you have just mentioned. I consider you a +traitor! And I purpose to unmask your treason!" + +"Schanvoch!" cried Victoria interrupting me in a reproachful tone. + +"I perceive that the old Gallic love for raillery, one of our +franchises, has returned with our gods and our freedom," replied the +governor smiling. + +And turning to Victoria he added: + +"Our friend Schanvoch possesses the art of dry humor--the most amusing +of all--" + +"My brother speaks seriously and out of an honorable impulse," the +Mother of the Camps broke in saying. "And I grieve thereat, since I +know that he is mistaken; but he is sincere in his error--" + +Tetrik let his eyes wander alternately from Victoria to me with no +little amazement; for a moment he was silent; thereupon he said in a +serious and penetrating voice: + +"All faithful friends are quick to suspect. Good Schanvoch, your +distrust is inexplicable to me; but it must have its reason. The attack +was frank, frank shall be the answer. Let us settle the question. What +is your charge against me?" + +"About a month ago you came to Mayence. A man of your retinue, your +secretary, Morix by name and well supplied with money, gave the soldiers +to drink and at the same time endeavored to irritate them against +Victorin, saying to them that it was disgraceful that their general, one +of the two chiefs of regenerated Gaul, should be a drunkard and a +profligate. Did your secretary hold such language, yes or no? I wait for +your answer." + +"Proceed, friend Schanvoch, proceed--" + +"Your secretary told a story that, being subsequently spread through the +camp, has greatly irritated the soldiers against Victorin. This was the +story: A few months ago, Victorin and several officers went to a tavern +on one of the isles in the Rhine; after having drunk copiously, +Victorin, excited by the wine, violated the innkeeper's wife, and she +thereupon killed herself in despair--" + +"Calumny!" cried Victoria. "I know and condemn my son's faults--but he +is incapable of such an infamous act!" + +The governor listened to me without betraying the slightest emotion. +Presently he said with a smile and his habitual placidity of +countenance: + +"So, then, good Schanvoch, it is your opinion that, obedient to orders +received from me, my secretary spread unworthy calumnies in the camp?" + +"Yes. It is all done with your knowledge and consent." + +"And what could be my motive?" + +"You are ambitious--" + +"And in what manner could such calumnies subserve my ambition?" + +"If the dissatisfaction of the soldiers with Victorin, whom they +elected, continues, you would then use your influence with Victoria to +the end of inducing her to propose you to the soldiers as Victorin's +successor in the government of Gaul." + +"A mother! Did you stop to consider that, good Schanvoch?" Tetrik +answered looking at Victoria. "A mother sacrifice a son to a friend!" + +"In the greatness of her love for her country, Victoria would certainly +sacrifice her son to your elevation if the measure became necessary to +the welfare of Gaul. Am I mistaken, sister?" + +"No," Victoria answered me evidently grieved at my accusations against +her relative; "in that you say the truth, but as to the inferences that +you draw therefrom, I reject them." + +"And that heroic sacrifice, good Schanvoch," resumed the governor, +"Victoria is expected to make knowing that it was through my underground +calumnies that her son's reputation was blasted with the soldiers?" + +"My sister would not have been aware of your intrigues had I not +unmasked them. Besides, more than once did I hear her say, and justly +say, that in case peace was established, it would be better for the +country if its chief, instead of being ever prone to battle, gave +serious thought to the healing of the wounds inflicted by the past +wars. She often mentioned you as one of the men who wisely prefer peace +to war." + +"It is true, I hold that the sword, good to destroy, is impotent to +reconstruct," remarked Victoria; "and the freedom of Gaul once firmly +established, I would prefer to see my son give more thought to peace +than to war. It was, therefore, Schanvoch, that I commissioned you with +one last attempt with the Franks, looking to the restoration of peace." + +"Allow that I interrupt you, Victoria," put in Tetrik, "and that I ask +our friend Schanvoch whether he has any other charges against me." + +"I charge you with being either the secret agent of the Roman Emperor +Galien, or the agent of the chief of the new creed, Roman Catholicism." + +"I!" cried the governor. "I the agent of the Christians!" + +"I said the agent of the chief of the new creed. I refer to the Bishop +of Rome, who entitles himself 'Sovereign Pontiff.'" + +"I the agent of Etienne, the Bishop of Rome, and fourteenth Pope of the +new church?--of that Pope, of whom Firmilien, the Bishop of Caesarea, +wrote to Cyprian, the presiding officer of the Spanish council, composed +of twenty-eight bishops: 'Would one believe that that man (Pope Etienne) +had a soul in his body? Evidently his body is but ill conducted, and his +soul is in a disordered condition. Etienne does not stick at calling his +brother Cyprian a false Christ, a false apostle, a fraudulent artisan; +in order to forestall having these things said of himself, he has the +audacity to make the accusation against others.' And can I be the agent +of that ambitious pontiff! Of that simoniacal bishop, who is given over +to all manner of vices!" + +"Yes--unless that, deceiving at once both the Roman Emperor and the Pope +of Rome, you are serving both, ready to sacrifice the one or the other, +according as your ambition may require." + +"That I serve the Romans is a thing that I am ready to admit," Tetrik +answered with his unalterable placidity. "However unjust your suspicion +towards me, it may be understood, as an instance of extreme patriotism. +We are well aware that, although we have succeeded, by force of arms, to +reconquer during nearly three centuries, inch by inch the full freedom +once enjoyed by old Gaul, the Roman Emperors have seen with sorrow our +country slip from their dominion. Accordingly, I can understand, +Schanvoch, how you might accuse me of desiring to arrive at power in +Gaul, with the end in view of sooner or later restoring the country to +the Romans, although in doing so I would be betraying it most +infamously. But is it imaginable that I act in the interest of the Pope +of the Christians, of those unhappy people who are everywhere persecuted +and martyrized? It is not a sane thought! What could I do for them? What +could they do for me?" + +Schanvoch was about to answer. Victoria interrupted him with a gesture +and said to Tetrik while she pointed to the cross of black wood, the +emblem of the death of Jesus, that was placed near the brass vase with +the seven twigs of mistletoe, a druid symbol much in use among the +Gauls: + +"Look at that cross, Tetrik, it tells you that, without infidelity to +our own gods, I nevertheless venerate him who said that no man has the +right to oppress his fellows; that the guilty merit pity and +consolation, not contempt and severity; and that the irons of the slave +should be stricken off. Blessed be these maxims, Tetrik; the wisest of +our druids have accepted them as holy; accordingly, you may judge how +dearly I love the gentle and pure morality of that young man of +Nazareth. But listen, Tetrik," Victoria added pensively, "there is +something unexplainable, strange and mysterious that makes me shudder. +Yes, many a time and oft, during my long watches beside the cradle of my +grandson, and when I pondered the present and the past, tormenting +thoughts crowded upon my mind concerning the future of our well-beloved +Gaul." + +"And whence does your terror proceed?" Tetrik asked. "What is its +cause?" + +"That for three successive centuries Rome was the implacable foe of +Gaul," Victoria answered; "that for so many centuries Rome was the +merciless scourge of the world!" + +"Rome?" replied the governor. "Pagan Rome?" + +"Yes. The tyranny that weighed down upon the world had its seat in +Rome," rejoined Victoria. "Now, then, I ask myself, by what strange +fatality have the bishops, the Popes of the new creed, who aspire to +reign over the universe by ruling the sovereigns of the world, been led +to establish the seat of their empire in Rome? Jesus of Nazareth branded +the high priests as liars and hypocrites. He preached above all, +humility, forgiveness, equality, fraternity among men, and lo! in his +apotheosized name, we now see a new hierarchy of high priests arising, +pretending to be the rulers of the world, and already, as Pope Etienne, +meriting the charges of ambition, deception and intolerance, even from +their fellow Christian bishops!" + +"Is it you, Victoria, who hold such language?" Tetrik interrupted her +saying: "You so wise, so enlightened--can you fear the future of Gaul +to be endangered by those unhappy people who bear witness to their faith +by their martyrdom?" + +"Oh!" cried the Mother of the Camps with exaltation. "I love, I admire +those poor Christians who die in torture while proclaiming the equality +of man before God, the liberation of the slaves, the community of goods, +love and forgiveness for the guilty! I love, I admire those poor +Christians who die on the scaffold and proclaim in the name of Jesus: +'Those are monsters of iniquity who hold their brothers in bondage, who +leave them to suffer in cold and hunger, instead of sharing with them +their bread and their cloak.' Oh! pity and veneration for those heroic +martyrs! But I stand in dread of those people who call themselves the +chiefs, the Popes of the Christians. Yes, I stand in dread of those high +priests who have fixed upon Rome as the seat of their mysterious +empire!--in that city, the center of the most frightful tyranny that has +ever crushed down the human race! I fear for the future of Gaul from +that quarter." + +"Victoria," again Tetrik interrupted, saying: "You exaggerate the power +of those Christian pontiffs. Have not large numbers of them, persecuted +by the Roman Emperors, undergone martyrdom, like any other neophytes?" + +"Every battle has its dead, and the Popes struggle with the Emperors in +order to wrench from these the dominion over the world! Among those +bishops there have been many who have spoken and died like Jesus. But if +there are some worthy pontiffs among them, and they are few, the +domination of the priests is not, for that, any the less dread a +visitation upon the people. Has not the government of our own priests +been despotic and merciless? Did not the druids leave the people for +over ten centuries steeped in crassest ignorance, governing them with +the instruments of barbarism--superstition and terror? Did not those +days of oppression and debasement last until the glorious and prosperous +epoch when, merged in the body of the nation as citizens, fathers and +soldiers, our druids took part in the common life of the people, in the +joys of the family, and in the national wars against the foreigner? What +I apprehend for the future of the nations is that some day there may be +established in Rome a murky alliance between the Pope and the most +powerful Emperors and Kings of the world! Unhappy will that day be for +the peoples! From such an alliance a frightful political and religious +tyranny will be born, and it will be watered with the blood of fresh +martyrs! Woe, then, to the peoples! They will once more be made to bend +under a pitiless theocratic yoke!" + +As she uttered these words, Victoria seemed inspired by the prophetic +genius of the female druids of olden times. Tetrik listened to her in +silence, but instead of answering, he resumed with a smile: + +"See how far we have wandered from the charges that our friend Schanvoch +has preferred against me--and yet, Victoria, your words, regarding the +apprehension that the Christian high priests, as you style them, fill +you with for the future, in a manner bring us back to the charges. So, +then, Schanvoch, the purpose of the perfidies that you charge me with is +to arrive at power in Gaul, to the end of betraying the country to pagan +or to Catholic Rome?" + +"Yes, that is my opinion." + +"Schanvoch, I shall not need many words for my defense. One of my +secretaries did seek to arouse the hostility of our soldiers against +Victorin. Your revelation comes rather late--" + +"I learned the facts only yesterday." + +"That is of no consequence," he replied, "that secretary was dismissed +by me just because I learned that, irritated at Victorin for having +railed at him several times, he sought to revenge himself by spreading +against the general calumnies that were even more ridiculous and odious. +But let us drop these petty matters. I am ambitious, you say, friend +Schanvoch! I aim at the government of Gaul, even if, in order to +accomplish my purpose, I should have to resort to unworthy intrigues! +Now, ask Victoria what errand brings me back to Mayence." + +"Tetrik believes that the peace and prosperity of Gaul require that the +soldiers be induced to proclaim my son's son the heir of his father's +office. Tetrik believes he can count upon the consent of Emperor +Galien." + +"Tetrik must, then, anticipate the speedy death of Victorin," I answered +looking fixedly at the governor. + +He, however, whose eyes were rarely met, seeing he kept them habitually +lowered, answered: + +"The Franks are on the other side of the Rhine--and Victorin is of +temerarious bravery. My ardent wish is that he may live many more years; +but death has no respect even for the most valuable life. It is my +opinion that Gaul would find a pledge of security for the future if it +knew that after Victorin the power would remain with the son of him whom +the army acclaimed its chief, especially seeing that the child would +have for his instructress Victoria, the Mother of the Camps." + +"But in case Victoria were to die, who tells me, Tetrik, that you would +not have yourself appointed the child's tutor, exercise the power in his +name, and in that manner arrive at the government of Gaul?" + +"Are you speaking seriously, Schanvoch?" Tetrik replied. "Ask Victoria +whether she needs my help in order to render her grandson worthy of her +and of the country? Do you imagine she is one of those weak women who +feel forced to share a glorious task with others? Is not the idolatry +that the soldiers entertain for her a sufficient guarantee that, in the +event of Victorin's premature death, she could preserve alone the +wardship of her grandson and govern in his name?" + +Victoria shook her head thoughtfully and sadly, and said: + +"I do not like your project of transmitting the office by inheritance, +Tetrik. What! Shall a child, still in his cradle, be designated to the +soldiers for their choice! Who knows what may become of this child?" + +"Has he not you for his teacher?" asked Tetrik. + +"Have I not been the teacher and instructress of Victorin also?" the +Mother of the Camps answered sadly. "And yet, despite all my vigilant +cares, my son has defects that serve as the basis for frightful +calumnies. But of these, I sincerely assure you, Tetrik, I hold you +guiltless; and I now hope that my brother Schanvoch will join me in +doing justice to your loyalty." + +"I said so before, I repeat it now--I suspect this man!" I answered +Victoria. + +She replied with impatience: "And I said so before and repeat it +now--you are a head of iron, a genuine Breton head, rebellious to all +reason, the moment a notion takes root in your brain." + +Instinctively convinced of Tetrik's perfidy, but having no more proofs +against him, I said nothing more. + +But Tetrik resumed with a smile, and without betraying the slightest +perturbation: + +"Neither you nor I, Victoria, could convince our good Schanvoch of his +error. Let us leave that to an irresistible seductress--Truth. It will +with time furnish the evidence of my loyalty. We shall return later, +Victoria, to your repugnance in the matter of causing the army to +acclaim your grandson the heir of his father's office. I still expect to +overcome your scruples. But as I came in I saw one of your officers who +seemed to await his turn for an audience. Do you not think it well to +let him come in? It is Captain Marion, the old blacksmith, whom you +introduced to me at my first trip to the camp as one of the bravest men +in the army." + +"His valor matches his disposition and good judgment," replied the +Mother of the Camps. "The man has a noble heart and is a faithful +friend. Despite his promotion, he has continued to love as a brother one +of the old companions of his trade, who remained a simple soldier." + +"Even at the risk of being again taken for an iron head, I am of the +opinion that in the matter of this affection the good heart of Captain +Marion misleads his judgment. I can only hope, Victoria, that your +blindness may not be as complete as Captain Marion's." + +"Do you mean that the faithful companion of Captain Marion is his +enemy?" queried Victoria. "You are singularly mistrustful to-day, +brother!" + +When I alluded to Captain Marion and his friend I again sought to catch +the eyes of the Governor of Gascony, but in vain. Nevertheless it was +with no slight surprise that I noticed him slightly start with joy when +I asserted that Captain Marion had a secret foe in his camp companion. +Ever master over himself, Tetrik doubtlessly feared that slight as was +his manifestation of joy it might not have escaped me. He said: + +"Envy is so revolting a feeling that I can never hear it mentioned +without it makes a painful impression upon me. I feel positively grieved +at what Schanvoch, who in this respect also, I hope, may be mistaken, +tells us of the comrade of Captain Marion. But, should my presence +prevent you from receiving the captain, Victoria, I shall withdraw." + +"On the contrary, I wish you to be present at the interview that I am to +have with Marion and my brother Schanvoch. They were given important +commissions by my son, and yet," she added with a sigh, "the morning is +passing, and my son is not yet home!" + +At that very moment the door of the room was thrown open, and Victorin +entered accompanied by Captain Marion. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +VICTORIN. + + +The son of Victoria the Great was then in his twenty-third year. I told +you, my son, that several medals were struck on which he figured in the +guise of the god Mars beside his mother, who wore on her head a casque +resembling that of the antique Minerva. Indeed, Victorin could have +served as a model for a statue of the god of war. Tall, supple, robust, +with a shape at once elegant and martial, he pleased all eyes. His +features, imprinted with the rare beauty of his mother's, differed from +them by an expression of mirthfulness and daring. The openness and +generosity of his character was clearly visible on his face. On seeing +him, one forgot, despite himself, the defects that marred that manly +being, too vivacious and too fiery to curb the impulses of his age. +Victorin doubtlessly came from a night of pleasure; yet his face looked +as fresh as if he had just left his bed. A felt coif, ornamented with a +little brooch, half covered his black hair, that fell in luxuriant +ringlets around his virile and browned face. His Gallic blouse, made of +silken fabric striped white and purple, was held around his waist by a +silver-embroidered leather belt, from which hung his curiously chiseled +gold hilted sword--a veritable masterpiece of Autun goldsmithing. Upon +entering his mother's room followed by Captain Marion, Victorin +proceeded straight to her with a mixture of tenderness and respect. He +dropped upon one knee, took and kissed one of her hands, removed his +head-cover, and, reaching up his forehead for her to kiss, said: + +"Greeting to my mother!" + +There was so touching a charm in the young general's features and +posture, there on his knee before his mother, that I noticed her +hesitate for a second between the desire to embrace the son whom she +adored and the inclination to express her dissatisfaction with him. She +gently pushed Victorin's head back with her hand, and said in a grave +voice while pointing at the cradle that stood near: + +"Embrace your son--you have not seen him since yesterday." + +The young general understood the indirect reproach; he rose sadly, +approached the cradle, took up the child in his arms, and embraced him +effusively while his eyes wandered over to his mother, as if to tell her +that he was indemnifying himself for her maternal severity. + +Captain Marion had drawn close to me and said in a low voice: + +"After all, Victorin has a good heart. How he does love his mother! How +he cherishes his child! He surely is as much attached to them as I am to +my friend Eustace, who constitutes my whole family. What a pity that +that pest of profligacy" (the good captain hardly ever spoke without +throwing in those words) "so frequently has the young man fast in its +claws!" + +"It is a misfortune! But do you believe Victorin capable of the infamous +act that he is charged with in camp?" I inquired from the captain loud +enough to be heard by Tetrik, who, speaking with Victoria in a low +voice, seemed to be reproaching her for her severity towards her son. + +"No, by the devil!" was Marion's quick answer. "I do not believe +Victorin capable of such indignities--least way when I see him there +between his mother and child." + +After carefully placing his child back into the cradle and kissing its +outstretched hands, the young general said affectionately to the +Governor of Gascony: + +"Greeting to Tetrik! I always love to see among us my mother's wise and +faithful friend." + +And turning towards me: + +"I knew that you had returned, Schanvoch. When I heard the news my heart +filled with joy--with as much joy as I felt apprehension during your +absence. These Frankish bandits have often shown us how little they +respect truces and parliamentarians." + +But doubtlessly noticing the sadness that still marked the visage of +Victoria, her son approached her and said with as much frankness as +tender deference: + +"Listen, mother--before you broach the matter of Captain Marion's and +Schanvoch's messages, let me tell you what I have upon my heart; it +might unwrinkle your brow, and I might no longer read on it the +displeasure that afflicts me. Tetrik is a kind relative, Captain Marion +is our friend, Schanvoch your brother--I can here speak freely. Admit +it, mother, you are annoyed that I spent the night out of the house, are +you not?" + +"Your disorderly conduct grieves me, Victorin--and it grieves me still +more to see that my voice is no longer heard by you." + +"Mother, I shall make a full confession to you; but I swear that I have +upbraided myself more severely for my weakness than you could have done +yourself. Last evening, faithful to my promise of discussing fully with +you the grave matters that we have in hand, I went home betimes; I had +declined--Oh! heroically declined an invitation to take supper with +three of the captains of the legions that recently arrived at Mayence +from Beziers. Vain were all their praises of the kegs of fine old wines, +of that country of wine _par excellence_, that they brought with them +carefully stowed away in their war chariots to celebrate their safe +arrival. I remained unmoved. They then tried to win me over by speaking +of two strolling Bohemian songstresses, Kidda and Flora--pardon me, +mother, for pronouncing the names of such women before you, but +truthfulness compels me to do so. These Bohemian girls, my tempters said +to me, had recently arrived in Mayence; they described them as +wondrously beautiful, frisky as demons, magnificent dancers, and singers +like nightingales! Certes, there was enough to tempt me in such a +description." + +"Ah! I see it--I see it clearly approaching, that pest of profligacy--I +see it creeping towards him on its velvet feet, like a wily and hungry +tigress!" Marion cried. "How I would like to make those brazen Bohemian +she-devils dance on sheets of red-hot iron! It is only then they would +sing tunes to suit my ears--" + +"I was even wiser than you, brave Marion," Victorin proceeded to say; "I +did not wish to see and hear them dance and sing in any way; I ran +precipitately away from my tempters to come here--" + +"It is easy to say that; run away?--that pest of profligacy has legs as +long as its arms and teeth!" the captain said. "It surely overtook you, +Victorin!" + +"Deign to listen to me, mother," Victorin resumed, seeing my +foster-sister make a gesture of disgust and impatience. "I was only two +hundred paces from the house--the night was dark--a woman wrapped in a +hooded cloak accosted me." + +"Now they are three!" cried the good captain clasping his hands. "We now +have the two Bohemian girls reinforced by a hooded woman. Oh, +unfortunate Victorin! You have no idea what diabolical snares lie hidden +under those hoods--my friend Eustace would surely succumb and wind up by +being hooded himself--but I would flee!" + +"'My father is an old soldier,' the woman said to me," proceeded +Victorin with his narrative. "'One of his old wounds opened, he is +dying; he knew you as a child, Victorin; he does not wish to die without +once more pressing the hand of his young general; you will not refuse +such a favor to my dying father, will you?' Such was the tale of the +unknown woman; she spoke in accents that went straight to my heart. What +would you have done, mother?" + +"Despite my dread of women's hoods, I would have gone and seen the poor +old soldier," answered the captain. "Certes, I would have gone, seeing +that my presence would render death sweeter to him." + +"Well, I did what you would have done, Marion. I followed the unknown +woman; we arrived at a rickety house; it was dark; the door opened; my +female guide seized my hand; led by her, I took a few steps in the +darkness. Suddenly the glare of lights fell upon my eyes and dazed me. +The three captains of the Beziers legions and other officers surrounded +me. The veiled woman dropped her wraps, and I recognized--" + +"One of the cursed Bohemian girls!" cried the captain. "Ha! I told you +so, Victorin! Women's hoods hide frightful things!" + +"Frightful? Alas, no, Marion! I had not the courage to shut my eyes. I +was immediately surrounded from all sides; the other Bohemian girl ran +out of a room and joined my captors. The doors were locked. I was +dragged to a seat of honor at a banquet table. Kidda placed herself at +my right, Flora at my left; and before me, upon a table loaded with +eatables, rose one of the kegs of old and divine nectar, as the accursed +fellows informed me; and--" + +"And day surprised you in that fresh orgy," said Victoria interrupting +her son. "You thus forgot amidst the pleasures of the table and +debauchery the hour that summoned you to me! Is that an excuse?" + +"No, dear mother, it is a confession--I was weak--but as truly as Gaul +is free, I would have come dutifully home to you, but for the ruse by +which I was misled and kept away. Will you not be indulgent towards me, +mother, this once? I pray you!" saying which Victorin again knelt down +before my foster-sister. "Be not so severe! I know my faults! Age will +cure me! I am still too young, and my blood is still too warm. The ardor +of pleasure often carries me away, despite myself--and yet, you know, +mother, I would give my life for you--" + +"I believe you--but yet you will not sacrifice to me your insensate and +evil passions--" + +"When one sees Victorin so respectful and repentant at his mother's +feet," I whispered to Marion, "would one think he is the celebrated +general, so dreaded by the enemies of Gaul--the general, who, at the age +of twenty-two already has won five great battles?" + +"Victoria," said Tetrik in his kind and insinuating voice, "I also am a +father and inclined to indulgence. Besides, in my hours of recreation, I +am a poet, and I wrote an ode to Youth. How could I be severe? I love +Victorin's brilliant qualities so much, that I find it hard to censure +him! Could you be insensible to the tender words of your son? His only +crime is his youth. As he said, years will cure that--and his affection +for you, his deference to your wishes will hasten the cure--" + +As the Governor of Gascony was saying these words, a great noise was +heard outside of the house, and the cry was soon heard: + +"To arms! To arms!" + +Victoria, who was seated, quickly rose to her feet, together with +Victorin. + +"They cry to arms!" repeated Captain Marion anxiously, and listened. + +"The Franks must have broken the truce!" I cried in turn. "Yesterday one +of their chiefs threatened me with a speedy attack upon our camp; I did +not believe they would put their threat so quickly into action." + +"A truce is never broken before its expiration, without notice is given +in advance," observed Tetrik. + +"The Franks are barbarians; they are capable of any act of treachery," +cried Victoria rushing to the door. + +It opened before an officer covered with dust, and so breathless that he +could not at first utter a word. + +"Do you not belong to the post of the camp's vanguard, four leagues +from here?" the young general asked the officer; he knew personally all +the officers of the army. "What has happened?" + +"A large number of rafts, loaded with troops and towed by barks, hove in +sight towards the middle of the Rhine, when, upon orders of the +commander of the post, I rode hither at full speed to bring the news to +you, Victorin. By this hour the Frankish hordes must have disembarked. +The post that I left is too weak to resist a whole army, and must have +fallen back upon the camp. While crossing the camp I cried to arms! The +legions and cohorts are forming in all haste." + +"It is the barbarians' answer to the message that Schanvoch took to +them," said the Mother of the Camps to Victorin. + +"What answer did the Franks give you?" the young general asked me. + +"Neroweg, one of the principal kings of their army, rejected all idea of +peace," I said to Victorin. "The barbarians are set upon invading Gaul +and subjugating us. I threatened their chief with a war of +extermination. He answered me insolently that the sun would not rise six +times before he would fall upon our camp, set fire to our tents, pillage +our baggage and carry off Victoria the Great--" + +"If they are on the march upon us, we have not a minute to spare!" cried +Tetrik in a fright addressing the young general, who, calm and +collected, with his arms crossed over his chest, was reflecting in +silence. "We must act, and act quickly!" + +"Before acting," answered Victorin, "we must reflect." + +"But," replied the governor, "suppose the Franks move with forced +marches upon the camp?" + +"So much the better!" Victorin said impatiently. "So much the better! We +shall let them draw near to us!" + +Victorin's answer astonished Tetrik, and I must admit, I would myself +have been astonished and even alarmed at hearing the young general speak +of temporizing in the presence of an imminent attack, had I not had +innumerable proofs of his unerring judgment. His mother made a sign to +the governor not to disturb her son in his meditation upon the plan of +battle, which, undoubtedly, he was revolving in his mind, and said to +Marion: + +"You arrived this morning from your trip to the inhabitants on the other +side of the Rhine, who are so often pillaged by these barbarians. What +is the plan of those tribes?" + +"Too weak to act single-handed, they are ready to join us at the first +call. Fires, that we are to light either by day or night on the hill of +Berak, will give them the signal. There will be men on the watch for +them. The moment the signal is given they will start on the march. One +of our best captains shall head a troop of picked soldiers across the +river and effect a junction with them, while the bulk of our army shall +simultaneously operate upon this side." + +"The plan is excellent, Captain Marion," observed Victoria approvingly. +"Especially at this juncture, such an alliance is of great service to +us. Your eyes have, as usual, seen rightly." + +"If one has good eyes, he must seek to put them to the best use +possible," the captain answered with his wonted affability. "That is +what I said to my friend Eustace." + +"What friend is that?" asked Victoria. "Whom do you refer to?" + +"I refer to a soldier--my old companion at the anvil. I took him with +me on the journey that I am now back from. Thus, instead of ruminating +over my little projects all to myself, I uttered them aloud to my friend +Eustace. He is discreet; by no means a fool; true enough, he is as +peevish as the devil, and he often grumbles at me, whereat I profit not +a little." + +"I am aware of your friendship for that soldier," replied Victoria. +"Your affection does you honor." + +"To love an old friend is a simple and natural matter. I said to him: +'Do you see, Eustace, one day or other those Frankish skinners will +undertake a decisive attack upon us. In order to protect their retreat, +they will leave a body of reserve to protect their camp and wagons. That +reserve will not be too large a morsel for our allied tribes to swallow, +especially if they are reinforced by a picked legion in command of one +of our own captains. So that if those skinners are beaten on this side +of the Rhine, their retreat will be cut off on the other side of the +river.' What I then foresaw is coming about to-day. The Franks are +attacking us; I think we should forthwith send word to the allied +tribes, and follow that with some picked troops, commanded by a captain +of energy, prudence and skill--" + +"That captain will be yourself, Marion," Victoria quickly put in +interrupting the captain. + +"I? Very well! I know the country. My plan is quite simple. While the +Franks are marching upon us, I shall cross the Rhine, and there burn +their wagons and cut the reserve to pieces. Let Victorin deliver battle +on our side of the river; the Franks will then try to re-cross the +Rhine; there they will find me and my friend Eustace ready to meet them +with something else than a glad hand to help them disembark. And their +hopes will be dashed when they learn that camp, reserves and wagons have +all gone up in flames." + +"Marion," replied my foster-sister after having carefully listened to +the captain, "victory is certain if you carry out the plan with your +customary bravery and coolness." + +"I have great good hopes. My friend Eustace said to me in a more than +usually querulous voice: 'Your plan is not so very stupid; it is not so +very stupid.' I know from experience that the approval of Eustace has +always brought me good luck." + +"Victoria," Tetrik approached saying in a low voice and no longer able +to control his uneasiness, "I am not a man of war. I repose complete +confidence in the military genius of your son. But an enemy twice as +strong as ourselves is drawing nearer by the minute--and Victorin, still +absorbed in his meditations, decides nothing, orders nothing!" + +"He told you rightly that before acting, one must think," answered +Victoria. "The power of calm reflection, at the moment of danger, is the +sign of a wise and prudent captain. Would it not be folly to run blindly +ahead of danger?" + +Suddenly Victorin clapped his hands, leaped to his mother's neck, +embraced her and cried: + +"Mother--Hesus inspires me. Not one of the barbarians who crossed the +river will escape, and the peace of Gaul will be assured for many years. +Your project is excellent, Captain Marion; it fits in with my own plan +of battle, as if we had jointly conceived it!" + +"What! Did you hear me?" asked the astonished captain. "I thought you +were wrapped up in your own thoughts!" + +"However absorbed a lover may seem to be, he always overhears what is +said of his sweetheart, my brave Marion," was Victorin's mirthful +answer. "My sovereign mistress is war!" + +"Again that pest of profligacy!" Captain Marion whispered to me. "Alack! +It pursues him even in his thoughts of battle!" + +"Marion," remarked Victorin, "we have on this side of the Rhine two +hundred and ten barks of war propelled by six oars--have we?" + +"About that number, and well equipped!" + +"Fifty of them will suffice for you to transport the reinforcement of +picked troops that you are to take to our allies. The remaining hundred +and sixty, manned by ten soldier oarsmen provided with axes, besides +twenty picked archers, will hold themselves ready to descend the Rhine +as far as the promontory of Herfel, where they will wait for further +instructions. Issue this order to the captain of the flotilla before you +embark." + +"It shall be done--rely upon me!" + +"Carry out your plan, brave Marion, from point to point. Cut the +Frankish reserve to pieces, burn their camp and wagons. Ours is the day +if I succeed in forcing the barbarians to retreat," said Victorin. + +"And you will, Victorin! I shall run for my friend, Eustace, and carry +out your orders." + +Before leaving the room Captain Marion drew his sword, presented the +hilt to the Mother of the Camps and making the military salute, said: + +"Touch this sword with your hand if you please, Victoria--it will be a +good augury for the day." + +"Go, brave and good Marion," answered the Mother of the Camps returning +the weapon after she had clasped the hilt with a virile hand; "go, Hesus +is with Gaul!" + +"Our battle cry shall be, 'Victoria!' and it will resound from one bank +of the river to the other," Marion exclaimed with exaltation; and +leaving precipitately he added: "I shall run for my friend Eustace, and +then to our barks! to our barks!" + +As Marion was rushing out of the room, several chiefs of legions and +cohorts, having learned of the landing of the Franks from the officer +who brought the tidings to the camp--tidings that rapidly spread among +the soldiers--hastened to Victorin in order to receive the orders of +their general. + +"Place yourselves at the head of your detachments," he said to them, +"and march to the parade ground. I shall join you there and assign you +your posts in battle. I wish first to confer with my mother." + +"We well know your valor and military genius," answered the oldest of +the chiefs of the cohorts, a robust old man with a white beard. "Your +mother, the angel of Gaul, watches by your side; we shall await your +orders confident of victory." + +"Mother," said the young general in touching accents, "your pardon, here +before all, and a kiss from you will give me the needed courage for this +day of bloody battle!" + +"The excesses of my son have often saddened my heart, as they have the +hearts of you all who have known him since his earliest days," said +Victoria to the chiefs of the cohorts; "I hope you will forgive him as I +do." + +Saying this she clasped her son passionately to her heart. + +"Infamous calumnies against Victorin have floated about the camp," the +old captain proceeded to say. "We gave them no credence; but, less +enlightened than ourselves, the soldier is ever hasty in censure as he +is in praise. Follow the instructions of your august mother, Victorin, +and no longer offer a handle to calumny. We shall wait for your orders +on the parade ground; rely upon us, as we do upon you." + +"You speak to me like a father," answered Victorin deeply moved by the +simple and dignified words of the old captain. "I shall hearken to your +words as a son; your old experience guided me on the field of battle +when I was still a child; your example made me the soldier that I am; +to-day and always I shall strive to approve myself worthy of you and of +my mother--worthy of Gaul--" + +"It is your duty, seeing that we glory in you and her," rejoined the old +captain; and addressing Victoria: "Will the army not see you before we +march to battle? To the soldiers and to us your presence always is a +good omen--and your good words fire our courage." + +"I shall accompany my son as far as the parade ground--let the battle +and triumph follow! Once the Roman eagles circled over our enslaved +nation! The Gallic cock drove them away! And it will again drive away +this cloud of birds of prey that seek to swoop down upon our Gaul!" +cried the Mother of the Camps in so proud and superb a transport that, +at the moment, I believed I saw before me the goddess of our land and of +liberty. "By Hesus, shall the barbarous Franks conquer us? Before that +happens neither a lance, nor a sword, nor a scythe, nor a club, nor a +stone can have been left in Gaul! By Hesus! We shall triumph over the +barbarian Franks!" + +At these brave words, the chiefs of the legions, sharing the enthusiasm +of Victoria, spontaneously drew their swords, struck them against one +another, and cried in chorus the war cry that they had more than once +intoned: + +"By the iron of our swords, Victoria, we swear to you that Gaul shall +remain free!--or you will never see us again!" + +"Yes, by your beloved and august name, Victoria, we shall fight to the +last drop of our blood." + +And all left the room crying: + +"To arms, our legions!" + +"To arms, our cohorts!" + +During the whole scene, in which the military genius of Victorin, his +tender deference for his mother, the controlling influence that both she +and he exercised over the chiefs of the army were displayed, I more than +once cast a covert look at the Governor of Gascony, who had withdrawn +into a corner of the room. Was it fear at the approach of the Franks? +Was it secret rage at witnessing how idle were his calumnies against +Victorin?--because, despite the blandness and skilfulness of his +defense, my suspicions were not lulled to sleep--I know not; but his +livid and disturbed face grew by degrees more horrid to behold. +Doubtlessly, evil thoughts and impulses, that he meant to keep +concealed, came to the surface in that moment. Immediately after the +departure of the chiefs, and as the Mother of the Camps turned to speak +with the governor, the latter strove to resume his customary mask of +mildness. Making an effort to smile he said to Victoria: + +"You and your son are endowed with a sort of magic power. According to +my feeble understanding nothing can be more alarming than this march of +the Frankish army upon our camp, while neither of you seem to be +particularly concerned, and you deliberate as calmly as if the battle +was to be to-morrow. And yet, I must confess, the tranquility that you +display under such circumstances inspires me with blind confidence." + +"There is nothing more natural than our tranquility," replied Victorin. +"I have calculated the time that it will take the Franks to cross the +Rhine and disembark their troops, form their columns and arrive at a +place that they are forced to cross. To hasten my movements would be a +mistake, a grave strategic error. Delay serves my purposes well." + +Victorin thereupon turned to me: + +"Schanvoch, go and put on your armor; I shall have orders for you after +I shall have conferred with my mother." + +"You will join me here, before proceeding to the parade ground," +Victoria said to me. "I also have some recommendations to make to you." + +"I almost forgot to notify you of an important thing," said I. "The +sister of one of the Frankish kings feared that her brother would put +her to death, and fled the camp of the barbarians. She accompanied me to +ours." + +"The woman can serve as a hostage," remarked Tetrik. "It is a valuable +capture. She should be kept a prisoner." + +"No," I answered the governor. "I promised the woman that she would be +free in the Gallic camp, and I assured her of Victoria's protection." + +"I shall keep the promise that you made," replied my foster-sister. +"Where is the woman?" + +"At my house." + +"Have her sent to me after the departure of our troops. I wish to see +her." + +I left the room together with the Governor of Gascony. As I stepped out +several bards and druids, who, adhering to our ancient custom, always +marched at the head of the armies in order to encourage the troops with +their songs, stepped in to confer with Victoria and Victorin. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +TO BATTLE! + + +Upon leaving Victoria's house I hastened home to arm myself and take my +horse. From all parts of the camp trumpets and clarions were heard +blowing signals. When I entered my house I found Sampso and my wife, +whom the tidings of the landing of the Franks had speedily reached, +busily engaged getting my arms ready. Ellen was vigorously furbishing my +steel cuirass, the polish of which was soiled by the fire that was +kindled upon it the day before by order of Neroweg, the Terrible Eagle +and powerful king of the Franks. + +"You are truly a soldier's wife," I said smiling to Ellen, seeing her +provoked at not being able to restore the tarnished spot to the +brilliancy of the rest of the cuirass. "The brilliancy of your husband's +armor is your own greatest ornament." + +"If we were not so much pressed for time," Ellen answered, "we would +have succeeded in furbishing off this black spot. Sampso and I have for +the last hour been wondering how you managed to blacken and tarnish your +armor in this manner." + +"They look like traces of fire," said Sampso, who was actively engaged +polishing my casque with a piece of smooth skin. "Only fire can tarnish +the polish of steel in that way." + +"You have guessed right, Sampso," I answered her laughing and taking up +my sword, my battle axe and my dagger; "there was a big fire in the camp +of the Franks; those hospitable folks insisted that I draw near to the +brasier; the evening was cool, and I hugged the fire a little too +closely." + +"I perceive that the announcement of battle throws you into a mirthful +mood, my Schanvoch," put in my wife. "That is like you, I have long +noticed it." + +"And the announcement of battle does not sadden you, my Ellen, because +you have a stout heart." + +"I draw my strength from the faith of our fathers, my Schanvoch. It +teaches me that we proceed to live in other worlds in the company of +those whom we have loved in this," Ellen sweetly answered me while she +and Sampso helped to buckle on my cuirass. "That is why I put into +practice our mothers' maxim that the Gallic woman never grows pale when +her brave husband departs for battle, and that she reddens with joy at +his return. And if he does not return, she is proud at the knowledge +that he died as a brave man, and every evening she says to herself: 'One +more day has passed, one more step is taken towards those unknown +worlds, where we shall meet our dear ones again.'" + +"Let us not talk of absence but of return," said Sampso, offering me my +casque, which she had so carefully polished with her own hands that she +could have seen her sweet face in the burnished steel. "You have always +been so lucky in war, Schanvoch, that I feel sure you will return to +us." + +"I rely on your faith, dear Sampso. I depart happy in the knowledge of +your sisterly affection, and of Ellen's love. I shall return happy, +above all if I shall have been able to leave a fresh mark on the face of +a certain king of those Frankish skinners of human bodies, as a token +of acknowledgment for the loyalty of the hospitality that he yesterday +bestowed upon me. But here I am armed. A kiss to my little Alguen, and +then to horse!" + +As I was about to proceed to my wife's room, Sampso held me back, +saying: + +"Brother--what of the strange woman?" + +"You are right, Sampso; I forgot all about her." + +As a matter of precaution I had locked Elwig's room. I knocked at the +door and called out to her: + +"Shall I come in?" + +I received no answer. Alarmed at the silence I opened the door. Elwig +sat on the edge of the couch with her head in her hands, in the +identical posture that I saw her last. + +"Did sleep bring you rest?" + +"There is no more sleep for me!" she answered brusquely. "Riowag is +dead! I weep for my lover!" + +"My wife and sister will take you at noon to Victoria the Great. She +will treat you as a friend. I announced to her your arrival in our +camp." + +The sister of Neroweg, the Terrible Eagle, shrugged her shoulders with +indifference. + +"Do you need anything?" I asked her. "Would you eat or drink?" + +"I want water--I am thirsty--" + +Despite the priestess' refusal to eat, Sampso went for some +provisions--a pitcher of water, some bread and fruits--and placed them +near Elwig, who remained motionless and mute. I again locked the door +and gave the key to my wife, saying: + +"You and Sampso will take the poor woman to Victoria at noon. But be +careful that she is not left alone with our child--" + +"Do you fear anything?" + +"Everything is to be feared from those barbarian women; they are as wily +as they are ferocious. I killed her lover in defending myself against +him; she is quite capable of strangling my child out of vengeance." + +You came running in at that moment, my child. Hearing my voice from your +mother's room, you left your bed and came half naked to me with your +little arms outstretched, smiling with pleasure at the sight of my +armor, the brilliancy of which pleased your eyes. Time pressed; I +embraced you, your mother and aunt tenderly. I then proceeded to saddle +my horse, my good and strong Tom-Bras,[2] whom I named in remembrance of +our ancestor Joel, who also gave the name of Tom-Bras to the spirited +stallion that he rode at the battle of Vannes. Sampso and your mother, +the latter of whom took you in her arms, accompanied me to the stable. +Your aunt helped me to put on the bridle, and, caressing his sinewy +neck, said to the war steed: + +"Tom-Bras, do not leave your master in danger; save him with your +swiftness, if need be; defend him like the brave Tom-Bras of old who, as +he bore the brenn of the tribe of Karnak, attacked the Romans with his +hoofs and teeth." + +"Dear Sampso," I answered smiling as I leaped into the saddle, "do not +give Tom-Bras bad advice by urging him to save me with his swiftness. A +good war horse is rapid in pursuit, slow in flight. As to plying his +teeth and hoofs, he does that to perfection; the Frankish horse that I +captured, and that he almost tore to shreds in the stable, can testify +to that. Tom-Bras is like his master; he abhors the Franks. Adieu, dear +Sampso! Adieu, my beloved Ellen! Adieu, my little Alguen!" + +Casting one more look at your mother who held you in her arms, I +departed at a gallop to the parade ground, where the army was +assembling. + +The distant sound of the clarions, and the neighing of the horses, to +which he responded, enlivened Tom-Bras. He bounded with vigor. I calmed +him with my voice, I patted his neck so as to control his buoyant +spirits and reserve his energy for the hard day's work ahead. When I was +near the parade ground I perceived Victoria about a hundred paces ahead +of me. She rode with an escort of several mounted officers. I quickly +joined them. Mounted on a palfrey, Tetrik rode to the left of the Mother +of the Camps; at her right rode a druid bard named Rolla, whom she +greatly esteemed for his bravery, his noble character and his poetic +talents. Several other druids were scattered among the various army +corps, and were to march beside the chiefs at the head of their several +detachments. + +Coifed in the light brass helmet of the antique Minerva, which was +surmounted with the Gallic cock in gilt bronze holding an expiring lark +under his spurs, Victoria sat with proud ease her beautiful steed, whose +satin coat shimmered like silver. The housings of the prancing animal +were, like its bridle, of scarlet color, they almost reached the ground +and were partially covered by the long black robe of the Mother of the +Camps, who seemed to inspire her mount with her own self-restraint and +confidence. Her beautiful and virile visage seemed animated with martial +ardor. A light flush suffused her cheeks; her bosom heaved; her large +blue eyes shone with matchless brilliancy, under their long black +lashes. Without being noticed by her, I joined the riders of her escort. +With their banners to the breeze and their platoons of trumpeters at +their head, the cohorts passed by us one after the other on their way to +the parade ground. The officers saluted Victoria with their swords, the +banners dipped before her, and soldiers, captains and chiefs, in short, +the whole armed force cried in enthusiastic chorus: + +"Greeting to Victoria the Great!" + +"Greeting to the Mother of the Camps!" + +Among the first soldiers of one of the cohorts that passed us, I +recognized Douarnek, one of the four oarsmen of the day before who was +wounded in the back by an arrow. Despite his recent wound, the brave +Breton marched in his place. I pricked my horse, drew near him and said: + +"Douarnek, the gods send a propitious opportunity to Victorin to prove +to the army that, unworthy calumnies to the contrary notwithstanding, he +is still worthy of his post." + +"You are right, Schanvoch," the Breton answered. "Let Victorin win this +battle, as he won the others, and in the joy of their triumph the +soldiers will acclaim their general and forget many a disagreeable +thing. We shall meet again, Schanvoch!" + +Some Roman legions, our then allies, shared the enthusiasm of our own +troops. As they passed under the eyes of Victoria their acclamations +also greeted her. The whole army, the cavalry on the two wings, the +infantry in the center, was soon gathered on the parade ground, a vast +field that lay without the camp. It was bounded by the Rhine on one +side, on the other by the slopes of a high hill. A wide road was seen at +a distance. It wound its way and disappeared behind some woody slopes. +The casques, the arms, the banners, all of which were surmounted by the +Gallic cock wrought in gilt copper, glistened in the rays of the sun, +and presented the bright and cheerful sight that does so much to raise +the soldier's spirits. From the moment that she entered the parade +ground Victoria put her horse to a gallop in order to join her son, who, +surrounded by a group of chiefs to whom he was issuing orders, was +conspicuous in the very center of the field. No sooner had the Mother of +the Camps, whose brass helmet, black robe and white steed pointed her +out to all eyes, appeared before the front ranks of the army, than one +loud, vast, ringing cry from fifty thousand soldiers' breasts saluted +Victoria the Great! + +"May that cry be heard of Hesus," my foster-sister said to the druid +bard with deep emotion. "May the gods grant Gaul a new victory! Justice +and right are on our side! We are not after conquest; we only defend our +own soil, our hearths, our families, and our freedom!" + +"Our cause is holy among holy causes!" answered Rolla, the druid bard. +"Hesus will render our arms invincible!" + +We rode up to Victorin. It seems to me I never saw him handsomer, or of +a more martial bearing than on that morning, clad in his brilliant steel +armor and with his casque, ornamented, like his mother's, by the Gallic +cock and the expiring lark. Victoria herself, as she approached her son, +could not keep from turning towards me and betraying her maternal pride +with a look that, perhaps, only I understood. Several officers, the +bearers of the young general's orders to the different army corps, left +at a gallop in different directions. I drew near my foster-sister and +said to her in a low voice: + +"You reproach your son with no longer displaying that cool bravery that +must distinguish the general of an army. And yet, watch and see how cool +and collected he is. Do you not read in his masculine face the wise and +cautious cast of mind of the general who will not rashly risk his +soldiers' lives, or the fate of his country?" + +"Your speech is sooth, Schanvoch; I saw him just as cool and collected +at the great battle of Offenbach--one of his finest, one of his most +fruitful victories. It was that victory that restored to us the Rhine +for our frontier. It drove the accursed Franks to the other bank of the +river." + +"And to-day's battle will supplement the victory won at Offenbach, if, +as I expect we shall, we drive off the barbarians for all time from our +frontier." + +"Brother," replied my foster-sister, "as always, you will not leave +Victorin's side?" + +"I promise you." + +"He is now calm. But once the action is engaged, I fear the ardor of his +blood, and his passion for battle. You know, Schanvoch, I do not fear +peril for Victorin, I am the daughter, wife and mother of soldiers; all +I fear is that, carried away by the heat of action, and anxious, even at +the risk of his life, to achieve great deeds, he put the success of this +day in jeopardy, and by his death endanger the safety of Gaul, that may +otherwise be firmly established by to-day's action." + +"I shall use my full powers to convince Victorin that a general must +preserve himself for his army." + +"Schanvoch," my foster-sister remarked with a tremulous voice, "you +always are the best of brothers!" + +And looking towards her son, evidently anxious that none but myself be +made aware of the anxious thoughts that struggled in her maternal +breast, and her doubts concerning the firmness of his character, she +added again, in a low voice: + +"You will watch over him?" + +"As over my own son." + +After the young general issued his last orders, he alighted from his +horse the moment he saw his mother, walked over to where she was, and +said: + +"The hour has come, mother. I have taken with the other captains the +last dispositions on the plan of battle that I submitted to you and +which you approved. I have reserved ten thousand men under the command +of Robert, one of the most experienced chiefs, for the protection of the +camp. He is to receive orders from you. May the gods look down favorably +upon our arms. Adieu, mother. I shall do my best--" + +Saying this he bent his knee. + +"Adieu, my son. Come not back, unless you come back victorious over the +barbarians!" + +As she said these words, the Mother of the Camps stooped down from her +horse and reached her hand to Victorin, who kissed it and rose. + +"Be brave, my young Caesar!" the Governor of Gascony called out to my +foster-sister's son. "The fate of Gaul is in your hands--and, thanks to +the gods, your hands are powerful. Furnish me the opportunity to write +an ode on this fresh victory." + +Victorin remounted his horse. A moment later our army set itself upon +the march, with the scouts on horseback riding ahead of the vanguard. +Victorin placed himself at the head of the army. We had the bank of the +Rhine on our right. A few light bodies of mounted archers rode forward +as scouts, to the end of guarding our left wing against a surprise. +Victorin called me to his side; I drove my horse abreast his own, and as +he hastened the step of his mount we were soon beyond the escort that +accompanied him. + +"Schanvoch," he said to me, "you are an old and experienced soldier. I +wish to explain my plans to you. I confided the plan to the chief who is +to take my place in the event of my being killed. I wish you also to be +posted on it. You will be all the better able to help in its execution." + +"I listen. Speak, Victorin." + +"It is now nearly three hours since the rafts of the Franks were seen by +our scouts at about the middle of the river. Those rafts, towed by barks +and loaded with troops navigate slowly. It must have taken them fully an +hour to reach the bank and disembark on this side of the Rhine--" + +"Your calculation is correct. But why did you not hasten the march of +the army in order to arrive at the spot before the Franks disembarked? +Landing forces are always in disorder. Their disorder would have favored +our attack." + +"Two reasons kept me from doing so. I shall tell them to you. How long, +do you calculate, did it take the officer, who notified us of the +enemy's approach, to ride in all haste from our advanced posts to +Mayence?" + +"About an hour and a half. It is nearly five leagues from there to +Mayence." + +"And how long will it take an army to cover the same distance, even at +forced marches, but not rapid enough to be tired out and breathless when +it reaches the spot and offers battle?" + +"It would take about three hours and a half." + +"Accordingly, you will perceive, Schanvoch, that it would have been +impossible for us to have arrived in time to attack the Franks at the +moment of their landing. Those barbarians' lack of discipline is +surprising. They must have consumed considerable time in forming their +ranks. This will enable us to arrive before and wait for them at the +defile of Armstadt--the only military route open to them in order to +attack our camp, unless they throw themselves across the marsh and the +forests, where their cavalry, their principal arm, could not deploy." + +"That is true." + +"I temporized in order to give the Franks time to approach the defile." + +"If they undertake the passage, they are lost." + +"I hope so. With our swords in their loins we shall drive them back +towards the river bank. Our hundred and sixty well armed barks, that +left port under my orders and at the same time that we started on the +march, will scatter the barbarians' rafts and cut off their retreat. +Besides that, Captain Marion crossed the river with a picked body of +men; he will effect a juncture with the friendly tribes on the other +bank, and will march straight upon the Frankish camp, where the enemy +must have left a strong reserve force together with all their wagons. +These will all be destroyed!" + +Victorin was thus engaged in unfolding to me his ably conceived plan of +battle, when we saw several of the scouts, who were sent forward, +running back to us at full gallop. One of these reined in his foaming +steed and cried out to Victorin: + +"The army of the Franks is advancing. It can be seen at a distance from +the top of the hills. Their scouts approached the defile; they were all +shot down by the arrows of our archers who were ambushed behind the +shrubs. Not one of the Frankish scouts escaped with his life." + +"Well done," replied Victorin. "Those scouts would have ridden back and +warned the Frankish army of our approach. It might not then have entered +the defile. But I shall ride forward and judge the enemy's position +myself. Follow me, Schanvoch!" + +Victorin put his horse to a gallop; I did likewise. The escort followed +us; we quickly overtook and passed our vanguard, to whom Victorin gave +the order to halt. We arrived at a place that dominated the defile of +Armstadt. The rather broad road lay at our feet, hemmed in by two steep +escarpments. The one to the right seemed cut with the pick, it rose so +perpendicular over the road and formed a sort of promontory on the side +of the Rhine. The escarpment to the left consisted of a rocky series of +shelves, and served, so to speak, as the basis to the vast plateau +through the heart of which the deep and wide gully was cut. The gully or +road dipped gently till it ran out into a vast plain, bordered to the +east and north by the curve of the river, to the west by woods and +marshes, and behind us by the elevated plateau where our troops were +ordered to halt. We presently distinguished at a great distance from +where we stood and down in the direction of the plain, a large and +confused black mass. It was the army of the Franks. + +Victorin remained silent for a few seconds; he attentively examined the +disposition of the enemy's forces and the field at our feet. + +"My calculation and expectation did not deceive me," he observed. "The +Frankish army is twice as large as ours. If their tactics were less +savage, instead of entering the defile, as they will surely do, they +would, despite the difficulty that accompanies that sort of assault, +climb the plateau at several places simultaneously, and thereby compel +me to divide my much inferior forces in order to attack them at a large +number of places. Nevertheless, for greater certainty, and so as to lure +the enemy into the defile, I shall resort to a ruse of war. Let us +return to our vanguard; Schanvoch, the hour of battle has sounded!" + +"And such an hour," I answered, "is always solemn!" + +"Yes," he replied melancholically, "such an hour is always solemn, +especially for the general, who, at this bloody game of war, plays with +the lives of his soldiers and has his country's fate for stake. Come, +let us ride back, Schanvoch--and may my mother's star protect me!" + +I rode back with Victorin to our troops, asking myself due to what +singular contradiction that young man, always so firm and so calculating +at the great crises of his life, showed himself below mediocrity in the +power to combat his foibles. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +THE BATTLE OF THE RHINE. + + +The young general was not long in rejoining the vanguard. After a +hurried conference with the officers, the troops took their posts of +battle. Three cohorts of infantry, each one thousand strong, received +orders to march through the defile into the open plain, engage the +vanguard of the Franks, and draw the bulk of the enemy's army into the +dangerous passage. Victorin, several officers and myself stood grouped +upon one of the highest bluffs that dominated the field on which the +scrimmage was to take place. From where we stood we had a complete view +of the immense Frankish army. Massed in a compact body, the bulk of +their forces was still far away. A swarm of horsemen rode in advance and +extended beyond the two wings. Our three cohorts had barely emerged from +the pass into the plain when the Frankish horsemen rushed like a swarm +of hornets towards them from all sides and sought to envelop them. +Intent only upon taking the lead of one another, these horsemen gave the +rein to their mounts, and tumultuously, without any order whatever, +galloped towards our troops. When the former had drawn near enough, the +latter formed themselves into a wedge in order to sustain the first +shock of the cavalry; they were thereupon to feign a retreat back into +the defile. The Frankish horsemen emitted such loud yells that, despite +the considerable distance that separated us from the plain and the +elevation of the plateau, their savage cries reached us like a muffled +roar pierced from time to time by the distant notes of their wind +instruments. As ordered, our soldiers did not yield to the first +impetuous attack. In an instant we could see through the thick cloud of +dust, raised by the Frankish horse, only a confused mass, in the midst +of which our soldiers could be distinguished by their brilliant armor. +Presently our troops began to operate their retreat towards the defile, +yielding the ground before them foot by foot to the swarm of Frankish +assailants, who received every moment fresh accessions from the cavalry +of their vanguard, while their main body began to move at a quickened +step. + +"By heaven!" cried Victorin, his fiery eyes fixed upon the field, "our +brave Firmian who commands those three cohorts seems to have forgotten +in his ardor for the fray that he was steadily to fall back into the +defile so as to draw the enemy in after him. Firmian is no longer +retreating; he has stopped and does not budge back an inch--he will +cause his troops to be uselessly sacrificed--" + +And addressing one of the officers: + +"Ride quick to Ruper, and order him to proceed with his three veteran +cohorts to the support of Firmian's retreat. Ruper is to order the +retreat to be made rapidly. The bulk of the Frankish army is now only a +hundred bow-shots from the entrance of the defile." + +The officer departed at a gallop. Obedient to the orders that he +carried, the three veteran cohorts speedily emerged from the defile at +the double quick; they hastened to join and sustain Firmian's troops; a +little later the feigned retreat was effected in good order. Seeing the +Gauls yield, the Franks set up a shout of savage joy, and charged +impetuously upon our cohorts. The Frankish vanguard was soon close to +the mouth of the defile. Suddenly Victorin grew pale. Anxiety was +depicted on his face as he cried: + +"By my father's sword! Can I have been mistaken as to the barbarians' +plans? Do you perceive their movement?" + +"Yes," I said, "instead of following their vanguard into the defile, the +Frankish army has halted; it is forming into numerous separate columns +of attack, and these are marching towards the plateau! Malediction! They +are resorting to the skilful manoeuvre that you feared. Oh, we have +taught the barbarians the art of war!" + +Victorin did not reply. He seemed to be counting the enemy's columns of +attack. Thereupon he galloped back to our main army and cried: + +"My boys! It is not now in the defile that we are to await these +barbarians--we shall have to fight them in the open field. Fall upon +them from the height of the plateau that they are seeking to +climb--drive their hordes into the Rhine! They are three to our one--so +much the better! This evening, when we shall be back in camp, our +mother, Victoria, will say to us: 'Children, you were brave!'" + +At these words, Rolla, the druid bard, improvised the following war +song, which he struck up with a powerful, resonant voice: + + "This morning we say:-- + 'How many are there of these barbarous hordes, + Who thievishly aspire to rob us of land. + Of homes, of wives, and of sunshine? + Yes, how many are there of these Franks?' + + "This evening we'll say:-- + 'Make answer, thou sod, red drenched + In the blood of the stranger; + Make answer, ye deep-rolling waves of the Rhine; + Make answer, ye crows that flutter for carrion, + Make answer--make answer! + How many were they, + These robbers of land, of homes, of wives and of sunshine? + Aye, how many were there, + Of these blood-thirsty, ravenous Franks?'" + +And the several detachments of our troops ran up the plateau at the +double quick to the refrain of the chant that flew from mouth to mouth +until it reached the rearmost ranks. + +Our army was promptly deployed on the crest of the plateau that +dominated the vast plain whose edge was bordered by the curve of the +Rhine in the distant horizon. Instead of awaiting the attack from that +advantageous position, Victorin wished, by sheer audacity, to terrify +the enemy. Despite our numerical inferiority, he issued the orders to +pounce down upon the Franks from the crest of our elevated position. At +the same moment, the enemy's column, which, deceived by the feigned +retreat of our cohorts, had allowed itself to be lured into the defile, +was being hurled back into the plain by the Gallic troops which +confronted them. Our whole army thereupon reassumed the offensive, and +not unlike an avalanche our full forces poured down from the summit of +the plateau. The battle began; it was engaged all along the line. + +I promised Victoria not to leave the side of her son. Nevertheless, such +was the impetuosity with which, from the very start of the action, he +dashed upon the enemy at the head of a legion of cavalry, that the flux +and reflux of the melee at first separated me from him. We were at the +time engaged hand to hand with a picked, well mounted and well armed +body of Franks. Their soldiers wore neither casque nor cuirass; but +their double jackets of hides covered with long hair and their +iron-lined fur caps, were the equivalent of our own armor. These Franks +fought with fury, often with stupid ferocity. I saw several allow +themselves to be killed like animals while, at the hottest of the +battle, they madly sought to hack off the head of some fallen Gaul with +their axes in order to make to themselves a trophy of the gory spoils. I +was defending myself against two of these horsemen, and my hands were +full; a third barbarian, a warrior who had been unhorsed and disarmed, +clinched my leg and sought to pull me off the saddle, and as he found +his efforts vain bit me with such rage in the ankle that his teeth cut +through the leather of my gaiter and penetrated to the very bone. +Without neglecting my two mounted adversaries, I found time to deal a +blow with my mace upon this third Frank's skull. Freed from him, I was +vainly endeavoring to discover and join Victorin, when I descried +Neroweg, the Terrible Eagle, only a few paces from me, in the melee +which his gigantic stature overtowered. At the sight of that man, there +thronged to my mind the recollection of the outrageous insults heaped +upon me only the day before, which I had only partly avenged by smiting +him over the head with a firebrand; my blood, already warm with the +ardor of the fray, now seethed. Over and above the anger that Neroweg +inspired in me by reason of his cowardly insults of the previous day, I +experienced for the man an unexplainable, mysterious, profound hatred. +It was as if I saw in him the incarnation of that thievish and ferocious +race that sought to subjugate us. It was to me, strange and +unaccountable as it may seem, as if I abhorred Neroweg by reason of the +future as much as of the present; as if that hatred was to perpetuate +itself not only between our two races of Franks and Gauls, but also +between our families, individually. What shall I say to you, my child! I +even forgot the promise I made to my foster-sister of watching over her +son. Instead of any longer striving to find and join Victorin, I now +only strove to draw close to Neroweg. I was bent upon having that +Frank's life--he alone, among so many other enemies, incited in me +personally the thirst for blood. I happened at the time to find myself +surrounded by several horsemen of the legion at the head of which +Victorin had just charged the Frankish army with such impetuosity. Our +troops were steadily pushing forward at that point, the enemy was being +crowded towards the Rhine. Two of the soldiers in front of me fell under +the heavy francisque of the Terrible Eagle. I now saw him across that +human breach. + +Clad in a Gallic armor, the spoils of one of our captains who was killed +at one of the previous battles, Neroweg wore a casque of gilded bronze, +the visor of which partly covered his face, tattooed in blue and +scarlet. His long copper colored beard reached down to the iron corselet +that he had donned over his jacket of hides. Thick fleeces of sheep, +held fast by criss-crossing strips of cloth, covered his legs from the +thighs down to the feet. He rode a savage stallion from the forests of +Germany, whose pale yellow coat was spotted with black. The tufts of the +animal's thick mane fell below his square chest; his long tail, that +streamed in the wind, lashed his sinewy haunches when he reared +impatient under the restraint of his bit and silver-wrought reins, also +the proceeds of some Gallic spoils. A wooden buckler ribbed with iron +and roughly painted in yellow and red stripes, the colors of Neroweg's +banner, covered the left arm of the Terrible Eagle. In his right hand he +wielded his heavy francisque that now dripped blood. From his belt hung +a sort of large butcher's knife with a wooden handle, together with a +magnificent Roman sword with a hilt of chased gold, doubtlessly the +fruit of some raid. Neroweg emitted a roar of rage as he recognized me. +Rising in his stirrups he cried out: + +"The man of the bay horse!" + +Thereupon, striking the flank of his courser with the flat of his axe, +he caused the animal to clear with an enormous leap both the bodies and +mounts of the fallen horsemen who lay between us. The leap was so +violent that when his horse touched ground again, the animal's head and +chest struck the head and chest of my own mount. At the heavy shock the +two animals were thrown upon their haunches and both fell over. Dazed at +first by my fall, I quickly disengaged myself, took my stand firmly upon +my feet and drew my sword, my mace having slipped from my hands with my +fall. On his part, having had to disentangle himself from under his +horse, as I was forced to do, Neroweg also rose to his feet and +precipitated himself upon me. The chin-band of his casque had snapped +with his fall, his head was bare, his thick red hair, tied over his +head, floated behind him like the mane of a horse. + +"Ha! This time, you Gallic dog," he cried out as he ground his teeth and +aimed at me with his axe a furious blow that I parried, "this time I +shall have your life and your skin!" + +"And I, Frankish wolf, I shall once more put my mark on your face, +whether dead or alive, so that the devil will recognize you!" + +For a long time we fought with maddening fury, all the while exchanging +insults that redoubled our rage. + +"Dog!" cried Neroweg. "You carried off my sister!" + +"I took her from your infamous love! In the bestiality of your unclean +race it couples like animals--brother with sister!" + +"Dare you insult my race, you bastard dog! Half Roman, half Gallic! My +race will subjugate yours, vile revolted slaves! We shall clap the yoke +back upon your necks--and we shall take possession of your goods, your +lands, and your wives!" + +"Just look yonder at your routed army, Oh, great king! Just take a look +at your packs of Frankish wolves, as cowardly as they are +ferocious--just look at them, fleeing from the fangs of the Gallic +dogs!" + +It was in the midst of such torrents of invectives that we fought with +heightening rage without either being able to wound the other. Many a +furiously aimed blow had glided harmlessly down our cuirasses; we seemed +to manage our swords with equal dexterity. Suddenly and despite all the +maddened rage of our duel, a strange spectacle drew away our attention +for an instant. After our horses had rolled to the ground under the +shock that they both received, they also rose to their feet. +Immediately, as is usually the case with stallions, they rushed at each +other neighing wildly, and with flashing eyes sought to tear each other +to pieces. My brave Tom-Bras had raised himself on his haunches, and, +holding the other steed by the neck between his teeth, was frantically +battering his belly with his hoofs. Nettled at seeing his horse at the +mercy of mine, Neroweg cried out without either he or I intermitting our +battle: + +"Folg! Will you allow that Gallic swine to vanquish you? Defend yourself +with your hoofs and teeth! Tear him to pieces!" + +"Steady, Tom-Bras!" I cried out in turn. "Disfigure and kill that horse, +as I shall disfigure and kill his master." + +I had hardly uttered these words when the Frank's sword penetrated my +thigh between skin and flesh, and it did so at the very moment when I +dealt him a blow over the head that would have been mortal but for the +backward move that Neroweg made in withdrawing his sword from my thigh. +My weapon thus missed its full aim, but struck him over the eye, and, by +a singular accident, plowed his face on the side opposite the one which +already bore my mark. + +"I told you so! Dead or living the other side of your face would be also +marked by me!" I cried at the moment when Neroweg, whose eye was put out +by my blow and whose face was bathed in blood, precipitated himself upon +me, roaring with pain and rage like an infuriated lion. Having calmly +made up my mind to kill the man, I did not allow myself to be carried +away with elation, but met his wrathful onset by throwing myself on the +defensive, and watched for the opportunity to deal him a certain and +mortal wound. + +We were thus engaged when Neroweg's stallion rolled to the ground under +the feet of Tom-Bras, whose rage seemed to increase with his success. +The animal almost fell upon us. Half a foot nearer, and we would both +have been thrown off our feet. + +At the same instant, a legion of our reserve cavalry, the muffled sound +of whose approaching tramp had struck my oars shortly before, hove in +sight. In the impetuosity of its headlong dash, the heavily armed +cavalry legion rode rough-shod and trampled over everything that lay in +its path. The legion was three ranks deep, and approached with the +swiftness of a gale. Both Neroweg and myself were doomed to be crushed +to dust; the legion's line of battle was two hundred paces long; even if +I had time to leap upon my horse, it would have been next to impossible +to get in time out of the way of that long line of cavalry by +endeavoring to ride, however swiftly, beyond the reach of either of its +wings. Escape seemed impossible from the threatened shock. Nevertheless, +I undertook it, despite my chagrin at not having been allowed time to +despatch the Frankish king--so inveterate was my hatred of him! I took +quick advantage of the accident, that, due to the fall of Neroweg's +horse, interrupted our battle a second before, and I leaped upon the +back of Tom-Bras that was near me. It required a rude handling of the +reins and of the flat of my sword before I could cause my courser to +desist from his infuriated assault upon the other stallion that he held +under and kicked and bit unmercifully. Finally I succeeded. The long +line of cavalry reaching far to my right and left was now only a few +paces from me. I rushed ahead of it, adding with my voice and my spurs +to the speed of Tom-Bras's rapid gallop; I rode on, keeping well in the +lead of the legion, and from time to time casting a look behind to see +the Frankish king, and what became of him. With his visage streaming +blood he sought distractedly to run after me and wildly brandished his +sword. Suddenly I saw him vanish in the cloud of dust raised by the +rapid gallop of the legion of cavalry. + +"Hesus hearkened to my prayer!" I cried out. "Neroweg must be dead. The +legion has trampled over his body." + +Thanks to Tom-Bras's exceptional swiftness, I was soon far enough in +advance of the cavalry line that followed me to think of imparting to my +course a direction that enabled me to take my place to the right of the +legion's line. I immediately addressed one of the officers, inquiring +after Victorin and the turn of the battle. He answered: + +"Victorin is fighting like a hero. A rider who brought to our reserve +the orders to advance said to us that never before did the general +reveal such consummate skill in his manoeuvres. Being more than twice +our numbers, and above all displaying unwonted military skill, the +Franks fought stubbornly. All the indications are that the day is ours, +but it shall have been paid for dearly. Thousands of Gauls will have +bitten the dust." + +The officer's report was correct. Victorin again fought with a soldier's +intrepidity and the consummate skill of an experienced general. I found +him, his heart overflowing with joy, in the midst of the melee. +Miraculously enough, he had received only a slight wound. His reserve +forces, skilfully managed by him, decided the fate of the battle. The +routed Franks, rolled back three leagues with our triumphant forces +pressing close upon their heels, were being crowded towards the Rhine +despite the stubbornness of their retreat. After enormous losses a +portion of their hordes were hurled headlong into the river, others +succeeded in regaining their rafts in disorder, and in towing them with +their barks from the shore. But at that moment the flotilla of a hundred +and sixty large vessels fell upon the fleeing Franks on the river. Upon +orders from Victorin, the flotilla had sped forward, doubled a tongue +of land behind which it had kept itself concealed until then, and came +into action. After a number of volleys of arrows that threw the Franks +on the rafts into utter demoralization, our barks boarded the rafts from +all sides. The episode that took place on the floating battlefield was +the last, but not the least bloody of that day. The barks that towed the +Frankish rafts were sunk under the blows of battle axes; the small +number of Franks who survived this supreme struggle gave themselves over +to the mercy of the river; clinging to some of the planks that were +loosened from their rafts, they were carried helplessly down stream. + +Although cruelly decimated, still our army thrilled with the ardor of +the fray as, massed along the bluffs of the river, it witnessed the +enemy's disastrous rout, upon which the rays of the westering sun shed +their parting light. At that sublime moment, the soldiers struck up in +chorus the heroic chant of the bard to the words and melody of which +they had stepped to battle in the morning: + + "This morning we say:-- + 'How many are there of these barbarous hordes, + Who thievishly aspire to rob us of land, + Of homes, of wives, and of sunshine? + Yea, how many are there of these Franks?' + + "This evening we'll say:-- + 'Make answer, thou sod, red drenched + In the blood of the stranger; + Make answer, ye deep-rolling waves of the Rhine; + Make answer, ye crows that flutter for carrion, + Make answer--make answer! + How many were they, + These robbers of land, of homes, of wives and of sunshine? + Aye, how many were there, + Of these blood-thirsty, ravenous Franks?'" + +The last strophes of the refrain were falling from the lips of our +soldiers when, from the other side of the river--which was so wide at +that place that the opposite bank could hardly be distinguished, veiled +moreover, as it was by the rising evening haze--I noticed a gleam that, +rapidly gaining in brightness and extent, soon spanned the horizon like +the reflection of a gigantic conflagration. + +Victorin immediately cried: + +"Our brave Marion has carried out his plans at the head of his picked +men and the allied tribes on the other side of the Rhine. He marched +with them upon the camp of the Franks. The last reserve force of the +barbarians must have been cut to pieces, and their huts and wagons given +over to the flames! By Hesus! Rid at last of the neighborhood of those +savage marauders, Gaul will now enjoy the sweets of a friendly peace! +Oh, my mother! Your prayers have been heard!" + +Victorin had just uttered these words with a face beaming with bliss, +when I saw a considerable body of our soldiers belonging to different +cavalry and infantry corps of the army marching slowly towards him. All +of these soldiers were old men. Douarnek marched at their head. When the +body had drawn near, Douarnek advanced alone a few steps and said in a +grave and firm voice: + +"Listen, Victorin! Each legion of cavalry, each cohort of infantry, +chose its oldest soldier. They are the comrades who accompany me yonder. +Like myself, they have known you from the day of your birth; like myself +they have seen you as a baby in the arms of Victoria, the Mother of the +Camps, the august mother of the soldiers. We long have loved you out of +love both for her and yourself. We acclaimed you our general and one of +the two Chiefs of Gaul. We, veterans in war, have loved you as our son +while we obeyed you as our father. And then came the day when, ever +obeying you as our general and a Chief of Gaul, our love for you was +less--" + +"And why did your love for me decline?" Victorin interrupted, struck by +the solemn tone of the old soldier. "Why, pray, did your love for me +decline?" + +"Because we respected you less. But if you have faults, we also have +ours; to-day's battle proves it to us. We have come to make the +admission to you." + +"Let us hear it," replied Victorin affectionately; "let us hear what are +my faults and which are yours!" + +"Your faults, Victorin, are these--you love too much, much more than is +meet, both wine and pretty girls!" + +"By all the sweethearts that you have had, my old Douarnek, by all the +cups that you have emptied and that you will still empty, why such words +on the evening of a battle that we have won?" merrily answered Victorin, +who was slowly returning to his natural weakness, now no longer held +under by concern for the battle. "In truth! There was no need for you +and your comrades to put yourselves to the trouble of reproaching me +with my peccadillos. Speak up frankly, are these reproaches that are +usual from soldier to soldier?" + +"From soldier to soldier, no, Victorin!" resumed Douarnek with severity, +"but from soldier to general, yes! We freely chose you our chief; we +must speak freely to you! The more we have loved you, you, young man, +the more we have honored you, all the more are we entitled to say to +you: Keep yourself at the height of your mission!" + +"I endeavor to, brave Douarnek, by fighting at my best, by leading our +legions in the hottest of the fray." + +"All is not said when one has done his duty in battle. You are not a +captain only, you are also a Chief of Gaul!" + +"Be it so! But why, in the name of all the devils, do you imagine, my +brave Douarnek, that as a general and a Chief of Gaul I should be less +sensitive than a soldier to the splendor of two beautiful black or blue +eyes, or to the bouquet of good old white or red wine?" + +"The man chosen by free men should, even in matters that appertain to +his private life, observe wise moderation if he wishes to be beloved, +obeyed and respected. Have you observed such moderation? No! And +accordingly, having seen you swallow a pea, we have believed you capable +of gulping down an ox. It is in that that we did wrong!" + +"What! My boys!" the young general replied smiling. "Did you really +think I had such a maw as to be able to swallow a whole ox?" + +"We often saw you in your cups--we knew you to be a runner after girls. +We were told that on one occasion, being intoxicated, you violated a +woman, a tavern-keeper's wife on one of the isles of the Rhine, who +thereupon killed herself in despair. We believed the story. Were we +perhaps mistaken in that?" + +"Malediction!" cried Victorin indignantly and with grief depicted on his +face. "And you believed such a thing of my mother's son!" + +"Yes," answered the veteran, "yes--in that lay the wrong that we did. So +that we each did wrong--you and we. We have come to notify you that we +are ready to forget the past, and that our hearts remain loyal to you. +We wish you, in turn, to forgive us, so that we may love you and you us +as in the past. Is it agreed, Victorin?" + +"Yes," answered Victorin, deeply moved by the veteran's loyal and +touching words; "it is agreed." + +"Your hand!" replied Douarnek, "in the name of our comrades." + +"Here it is," said the young general, stooping down over his horse's +neck in order cordially to clasp the veteran's hand. "I thank you for +your frankness, my children. I shall be to you as you are to me for the +glory and peace of Gaul. Without you I can do nothing; although it is +the general who carries the triumphal chaplet, it is the soldier's +bravery that weaves it, and imparts to it the purple of his own blood!" + +"It is, then, agreed, Victorin," Douarnek replied with moistening eyes. +"Our blood belongs to you, to the last drop--and to our beloved Gaul--to +your glory!" + +"And to my mother who made me what I am," interrupted Victorin with +increasing emotion; "and to my mother our respect, our love, our +devotion, my children!" + +"Long live the Mother of the Camps!" cried Douarnek in a resonant voice. +"Long live Victorin, her glorious son!" + +Douarnek's companions, the rest of the soldiers and officers, in short, +all of us present at this scene joined in the cheers of Douarnek: + +"Long live the Mother of the Camps! Long live Victorin, her glorious +son!" + +The whole army thereupon set itself in march back to the camp while, +under the protection of a legion that was ordered to watch our +prisoners, the medical druids and their aides remained on the field of +battle to gather the dead, and tend the wounded, both Frank and Gallic. + +It was a superb summer's night, that in which the army struck the road +to Mayence. As it marched, the banks of the Rhine re-echoed to the chant +of the bard: + + "This morning we say:-- + 'How many are there of these barbarous hordes, + Who thievishly aspire to rob us of land, + Of homes, of wires and of sunshine? + Yes, how many are there of these Franks?' + + "This evening we'll say:-- + 'Make answer, thou sod, red drenched + In the blood of the stranger; + Make answer, ye deep-rolling waves of the Rhine; + Make answer, ye crows that flutter for carrion, + Make answer--make answer! + How many were they, + These robbers of land, of homes, of wives and of sunshine? + Aye, how many were there, + Of these blood-thirsty, ravenous Franks?'" + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +THE HOMEWARD RIDE. + + +In his haste to inform his mother of our splendid victory, Victorin +passed the command of the troops to one of the oldest chiefs. We changed +our tired horses for two fresh ones which were always led by the reins +ready for Victorin's use, and he and I rode rapidly towards Mayence. + +The night was serene; the moon shone superbly among myriads of +stars--those unknown worlds where we shall proceed to live when we leave +this world. Strange! In the very midst of the ineffable bliss that I +experienced at the triumph of our army, a triumph that insured the peace +and prosperity of Gaul; in the very midst of the pleasurable thoughts of +soon again seeing your mother and you, my son, after a hard day's +fighting; in the very midst of all these pleasing emotions a sudden fit +of profound melancholy came over me, a painful presentiment saddened my +heart. + +In the fulness of my gratitude to the gods, I had raised my eyes to +heaven in order to thank them for our success. The moon shed its +brilliant light upon our path. I know not for what reason, but that +moment my thoughts traveled back to our ancestors, and I recalled with +sad piety all the glorious, the touching and the terrible deeds that +they had done, and upon which also the sacred luminary of Gaul shed its +never-ceasing light generations and generations ago. The sacrifice of +Hena; the journey of Albinik the mariner and his wife Meroe to Caesar's +camp, across a region that was heroically given up to the flames by our +fathers during their war with the Romans; the nocturnal expeditions of +Sylvest the slave to the secret meetings of the Sons of the Mistletoe +and to the palace of Faustina, his escape and flight from the circus of +Orange where he came near being devoured by ferocious beasts; and +finally the bold insurrections, the formidable revolts, the signal for +which was ever given by the courses of the moon, as prearranged by our +venerable druids; all these events that lay in the distant past rose at +that moment before my mind like pale phantoms of the past. + +The merry voice of Victorin drew me from my meditations: + +"What are you dreaming about? How can you, one of the vanquishers in +this fair day's battle, be as mute as one of the vanquished?" + +"Victorin, I was thinking of days that are no more--of events that took +place during the centuries that have rolled by--" + +"A curious thought!" replied the young general; and giving a loose to +his exuberant feelings he proceeded to say: "Let us leave the past to +the empty cups and the departed sweethearts! As for me, I am thinking +first of all of my mother's joy when she will learn of our victory; +next, my thoughts run, and they run strongly, upon the burning black +eyes of Kidda the Bohemian girl, who is waiting for me. When I left her +this morning, at the close of the protracted banquet to which she drew +me by a ruse, she made an appointment with me for this evening. This +will be a well rounded day, Schanvoch! A battle in the morning, and, in +the evening, a festive supper with a charming sweetheart on my knees! +Ah! It is pleasurable to be a soldier and twenty years of age!" + +"Listen, Victorin. So long as the cares of battle lay upon your mind, I +saw you wise, thoughtful and grave, as becomes a Chief of Gaul, and at +all points worthy of your mother and yourself--" + +"And by the beautiful eyes of Kidda, am I not still worthy of myself +when my thoughts turn to her after battle?" + +"Do you know, Victorin, that Douarnek's mission to you in the name of +the whole army is an evidence of the proud independence that animates +our soldiers, whose free will alone made you a general? Do you realize +that such words, pronounced by such men, are not, and will not be +vain--and that it will be fatal to forget them?" + +"Why, Schanvoch! It was a whim of veterans who grieve over their lost +youth--old men's words, censuring pleasures that their age can no longer +taste." + +"Victorin, you affect an indifference that your heart does not share. I +saw you touched, deeply affected by the language of that old +soldier--and also by the attitude of his comrades." + +"One feels so happy on the evening of a battle won, that everything +pleases. Besides, although his words were peevish enough, did they not +betoken the army's affection for me?" + +"Do not deceive yourself, Victorin! The army's affection for you +ebbed--it returned at floodtide with to-day's great victory. But, be +careful! Fresh acts of imprudence will furnish the basis for fresh +calumnies, started by those who would wish to undo you--" + +"And who wishes to undo me?" + +"A chief always has rivals who envy him secretly; and you will not have +every day a triumph on the battle field to confound those envious souls +with. Thanks to the gods, the utter annihilation of these barbarous +hordes insures the peace of our beloved Gaul for many a year to come!" + +"All the better, Schanvoch! All the better! Becoming again one of Gaul's +most obscure citizens, and hanging my sword, that will have become +useless, beside that of my father, I shall then be free to empty +innumerable cups without restraint, and to make love to all the Bohemian +girls of the universe!" + +"Victorin! Be careful, I repeat! Remember the words of the old soldier!" + +"The devil take the old soldier and his foolish harangue! At this hour I +think only of Kidda! Ah! Schanvoch, if you only saw her dance with her +short skirt and her silvery corsage!" + +"Be careful! Both the camp and the town have their eyes upon those +Bohemian dancers! Your friendly relations with them will make a scandal! +Take my advice! Be reserved in your conduct; at any rate, veil your +amours in secrecy and obscurity!" + +"Obscurity? Secrecy? No hypocrisy! I love to display to the eyes of all, +the sweethearts that I am proud of! And I am even prouder of Kidda than +of to-day's victory!" + +"Victorin! Victorin! Be careful, or that woman will be fatal to you!" + +"Oh! Schanvoch! If you heard Kidda sing and dance, accompanying herself +with a tambourine--Oh! If you heard and saw her you would become as +crazily in love with her as I am! But," added the young general breaking +off the thread of his delighted description, and pointing ahead of him, +"look at yonder torches! Heaven be praised! It is my mother! In her +anxiety to know the issue of the day she must have ridden out towards +the battle field! Oh, Schanvoch! I am young, impetuous, ardent after +pleasures, that never leave me. I enjoy them with the delight of +intoxication--and yet, I swear to you by my father's sword, I would +exchange all my future pleasures for the happiness that I am about to +experience when my mother will press me to her heart!" + +Saying this, the young general gave the reins to his horse and without +waiting for me rode forward to meet Victoria, who was, indeed, +approaching. When I reached the group, they had both alighted. Victoria +held Victorin in a close embrace, and was saying to him in accents +impossible to describe: + +"My son, I am a happy mother!" + +It was only then that I perceived by the light of the torches of +Victoria's escort that her right hand was bandaged. Victorin inquired +with anxiety: + +"Are you wounded, mother?" + +"Only slightly," answered Victoria. And addressing me she extended her +hand affectionately, saying: + +"Brother, you are with us! My heart overflows with joy!" + +"But who gave you the wound?" + +"The Frankish woman whom Ellen and Sampso brought to my house after your +departure--" + +"Elwig!" I cried horrified. "Oh! The accursed creature! She has approved +herself worthy of her race!" + +"Schanvoch," Victoria said to me gravely, "we must not curse the dead. +She whom you call Elwig lives no more--" + +"Mother!" cried Victorin with increased anxiety. "Dear mother! Are you +certain the wound is slight?" + +"Here, my son; I shall let you see it!" + +And in order to reassure Victorin, she unwound the bandage in which her +right hand was wrapped. + +"You can see for yourself," she added. "I cut myself only in two places +in the palm of my hand as I sought to disarm the woman." + +Indeed, the wounds that my foster-sister exhibited were two long but by +no means deep cuts. They were in no respect serious. + +"And Elwig was armed?" I inquired, seeking to recollect the events of +the previous evening. "Where could she have found a weapon? Unless last +evening, before starting to swim after us, she picked up her knife from +the beach and hid it under her clothes." + +"And how and when did the woman try to stab you, mother? Were you alone +with her?" + +"I asked Schanvoch to have Elwig brought to me at noon; I wanted to see +her and give her my help. Ellen and Sampso brought her to me. I happened +to be speaking with Robert, the chief of our reserves; we were +considering measures for the defense of the camp and town in the event +of our army's defeat. Elwig was taken to a contiguous apartment, and +Schanvoch's wife and sister-in-law left the stranger alone while I sent +for an interpreter to help us understand each other. At the close of my +conversation with Robert on military matters, he asked me for some help +for the widow of an old soldier. That took me to the chamber where Elwig +was waiting for me. I went in for some silver pieces which I kept in a +little casket in which were also several Gallic jewels, necklaces and +bracelets that I inherited from my mother--" + +"If the casket was open," I cried, the savage cupidity of Neroweg's +sister flashing through my mind, "Elwig, like the true daughter of a +race of thieves, must have wished to seize some of the precious +articles." + +"And that was how it happened, Schanvoch. When I entered, the young +Frankish woman was holding in her hand a gold necklace of exquisite +workmanship. She was contemplating it greedily. The moment she saw me +she dropped the necklace at her feet, and crossing her arms over her +breast she looked at me for a moment in silence and with a savage +expression. Her pale face became red with shame and rage. She then gave +me a somber look, and pronounced my name. I supposed she asked whether I +was Victoria. I nodded my head affirmatively and said: 'Yes, I am +Victoria.' I had hardly uttered the words when Elwig threw herself at my +feet. Her forehead almost touched the floor, as if she humbly implored +my protection. The woman must doubtlessly have profited by the movement +to draw her knife from under her clothes without my perceiving it. I +stooped down to raise her, when she suddenly leaped up, and with eyes +that shot fire sought to stab me, while saying 'Victoria!' 'Victoria!' +in a tone of rooted hatred." + +Although the danger was over, Victorin shuddered at the report that his +mother was making; he approached her, gently took the wounded hand +between his own, and kissed it tenderly and lovingly. + +"When I saw Elwig's knife raised over me," added Victoria, "my first and +involuntary movement was to parry the blow and try to seize the knife, +while I cried aloud to Robert for help. Robert rushed in and saw me +struggling with Elwig. I was cut in the hand and my blood flowed. Robert +believed me dangerously wounded, drew his sword, seized Elwig by the +throat, and despatched her before I had time to stay his hand. I deplore +the death of the Frankish woman--she came voluntarily to my house." + +"You pity her, mother!" cried Victorin. "That creature thievish and +savage like the rest of her kith! You pity her! I feel certain that she +followed Schanvoch only in order to find an opportunity to introduce +herself into your house, cut your throat and then rob you!" + +"I pity her for being born of such a stock," answered Victoria sadly. "I +pity her for having harbored murder in her heart." + +"Believe me," I said to my foster-sister. "That woman's death is a just +punishment; besides it puts an end to a life that was soiled with crimes +at which nature shudders. May it have pleased the gods that, like Elwig, +her brother Neroweg lost his life to-day, and that his stock may be +extinguished in him. I will otherwise regret all my life that I did not +finish the man when I had a chance. I have a presentiment that his +descendants will be fatal to mine." + +Victoria gave me a look of astonishment at hearing me utter these words, +the sense of which she could not comprehend. + +But Victorin turned her thoughts and mine into other channels, +exclaiming: + +"Hesus be blessed, mother! This was a happy day for Gaul! You escaped a +grave danger, and our arms are victorious! The Franks are driven from +our frontier!--" + +Victorin broke off; he seemed to listen to a sound in the distance; with +flashing eyes he resumed: + +"Do you hear, mother? Do you hear the song that the wind carries to our +ears?" + +We all remained silent; and repeated in chorus by thousands of voices +tremulous with the joy of triumph, the following refrain reached us +across the stillness of the night: + + "This morning we said:-- + 'How many are there of these barbarians?' + This evening we say:-- + 'How many were there of these blood-thirsty Franks!'" + + + + +PART II. + +DOMESTIC TRAITORS. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +GATHERING SHADOWS. + + +Several years have elapsed since I wrote for you, my child, the account +that closed with the great battle of the Rhine. + +The utter annihilation of the Frankish hordes and the simultaneous +destruction of their establishment on the other side of the river, freed +Gaul of the perpetual fear that she stood in, of a threatened invasion +of barbarians. Perhaps from their retreat in the woods of northern +Germany the Franks are now only awaiting a favorable opportunity to +swoop down again upon Gaul. But for all the joy of this deliverance, I +now resume my narrative after having experienced years of bitter sorrow. +Great misfortunes have befallen me across this interval. I have seen a +frightful intrigue of hypocrisy and malice unfold before my eyes. Since +then an incurable sadness has taken possession of my soul. I left the +borders of the Rhine for Brittany; here I established myself with your +second mother and you, my son, at the identical place that long ago was +the cradle of our family--near the sacred stones of Karnak, the +witnesses of the heroic sacrifice of our ancestress Hena. + +Only yesterday, as I was returning from the fields with you--from a +soldier I have become a field laborer like our fathers in the days of +their independence--only yesterday I pointed out to you, on the border +of the stream, two hollow willow trees; they were old. Their age must +now be more than three hundred years. They are so very, very old that +they no longer put forth but a few straggling leaves. You asked me to +tie a rope between the two trees for you to swing yourself. You noticed +with surprise that I grew sad at your request, and that I suddenly +became pensive. + +It occurred to me how, nearly three hundred years ago, by a strange +coincidence it occurred to Sylvest and his sister Syomara to tie a rope +between those identical trees in order to disport themselves. Nor were, +alas! those recollections the only ones that those two centenarian +trunks brought back to my mind. I said to you: + +"Look at those two trees with sadness and veneration, my son. One of our +ancestors, Guilhern, the son of Joel, the brenn of the tribe of Karnak, +died an atrocious death bound to one of them; Guilhern's son, a lad a +little older than yourself and named Sylvest, was tied to the other +willow to die the same death as his father. An unexpected accident +snatched him from the frightful fate."[3] + +"And what was their crime?" you asked me. + +"The crime of the father and of his son was to have tried to escape from +bondage, so as not to be forced to cultivate under a master's whip, with +the slave's collar on their necks and chains to their feet, the fields +that were their own patrimony. They wished to escape cultivating those +fields for the benefit of the Romans who had robbed them of them." + +My answer astonished you still more, my child--you who always lived +happy and free, who until now have known no other grief than that of the +loss of your dear mother, of whom you have preserved only a vague +memory. You were barely four years and two months old a short time after +the victory that Gaul won over the Franks on the border of the Rhine. + +You will remember that I broke off our conversation, and that I relapsed +into one of those fits of melancholy that I find it impossible to +overcome every time I recall the terrible domestic catastrophes that +befell us on the Rhine. But I always regain courage when I remember the +duty imposed upon me by our ancestor Joel, who lived nearly three +hundred years ago in the same place where we are now again established +after our family's having experienced innumerable vicissitudes. + +When you will be old enough to read these pages, my son, you will +understand the cause of these mortal fits of sadness in which you have +often seen me steeped, despite your second mother's tenderness, whom I +could not cherish too dearly. Yes, when you will have read the last and +solemn words of Victoria, the Mother of the Camps, dreadful words, you +will then understand that, however painful may be to me the past that +will throw a shadow over my path until death, the future that is perhaps +in store for Gaul by the mysterious will of Hesus, must fill me with +still greater anguish--and you will share my anguish, my son, when you +reflect over the wise and profound observation of our ancestor Sylvest: + +"Alas, every time the nation is wounded the family bleeds." + +Aye, if Victoria was endowed with the science of foreseeing the future, +as so many of our venerable female druids have been before her; if ever +her redoubtable prophecies are verified--then, woe is Gaul! Woe is our +race! Woe is our family! A longer period of even more cruel sufferings +will lie before our country under the yoke of the Rome of the Bishops +than it experienced under the yoke of the Rome of the Caesars and the +Emperors! + +As I said before, I now resume the thread of my narrative where I +dropped it several years ago. + +After an extensive conversation on the events of the day, Victorin and +his mother returned to Mayence, where they arrived late in the evening. +Pretending great fatigue and some pain from the light wound that he +received, the young general retired. The moment he reached his house he +threw off his armor, and wrapping himself in his cloak repaired to the +Bohemian girls. + +"That woman will be fatal to you," were my words to the young general on +our way from the battle field. Alas! My foresight was destined to prove +true. By the way of these creatures, keep in mind, my son, a +circumstance with which I later became acquainted; you will presently +appreciate its importance--those Bohemian girls came to Mayence two days +after the arrival of Tetrik in the same town, and they arrived from +Gascony, the department that he governed. + +This discovery, together with many others, imparted to me such accurate +information on certain facts that I am enabled to describe them the same +as if I had been present. + +As I said, Victorin left his house at night to keep his assignation with +Kidda, the Bohemian girl. He had met her only the previous evening for +the first time. She made a deep impression upon him. He was young, +handsome, bright and generous. That very day he had won a glorious +battle. He was well aware of the easy morals of those strolling singers, +who, in effect, were nothing but courtesans. He felt certain that he +would possess the object of this latest whim. How great must his +surprise have been when Kidda said to him with well simulated firmness, +sadness and repressed passion: + +"Victorin, I shall not speak to you of my virtue; you will laugh at the +virtue of a strolling Bohemian singer. But you may believe me when I say +that long before I saw you, your glorious name had reached me. Your +renown for valor and goodness made my heart beat, unworthy of you as +that heart is, seeing that I am a poor, degraded creature. Believe me, +Victorin," she added with tears in her eyes, "if I were pure, you would +have my love and my life; but I am soiled; I do not deserve your +attention. I love you too passionately, I honor you too much ever to +offer to you the remains of an existence debased by men, who are not +worthy of being compared with you." + +So far from cooling, the hypocritical language fired the ardor of +Victorin; it exalted him beyond measure. His sensual whim for the woman +was speedily transformed into a consuming and mad passion. Despite his +protestations of devotion, despite his entreaties, despite his tears--he +actually wept at the feet of the execrable woman--the Bohemian remained +inexorable. Victorin's nature underwent thereupon a marked change. From +mirthful, pleasant and open, it became retired and morose. He grew +somber and taciturn. Both his mother and I were ignorant at the time of +the cause of the change. To our pressing questions the young general +would answer that, being struck by the manifestations of displeasure +that the army had shown towards him, he did not wish to expose himself +to a recurrence of their anger; thenceforth his life was to be austere +and retired. With the exception of a few hours that he consecrated every +day to his mother, Victorin now rarely left his house, and he avoided +the company of his former boon companions. Struck, on their part, by his +sudden change of deportment, the soldiers saw in it only the salutary +effect of the remonstrances made to their young general in their name by +Douarnek. They cherished him more than ever before. I later learned +that, in his self-imposed solitude, the unhappy man habitually drank +himself into utter stupor in order to forget his fatal passion, and that +every evening he repaired to the Bohemian dancer's, only, however, to +find her pitiless as ever. + +About a month passed in this manner. Tetrik remained in Mayence in order +to overcome Victoria's repugnance to the idea of having her grandson +acclaimed the heir of his father's office. But Victoria ever answered +the Governor of Gascony, saying: + +"Ritha-Gaur, who made himself a blouse of the beard of the kings whom he +shaved, overthrew royalty in Gaul about ten centuries ago. He held that, +under royalty, it is the people and their descendants who are +transmitted by hereditary right, to kings, and that these are rarely +good, and generally bad. More and more enlightened by our venerable +druids, the Gauls have wisely preferred to elect the chief whom they +consider worthiest to govern them. They thus constituted themselves into +a Republic. My grandson is still a child in his cradle; no one can know +whether he will later have the qualities that are necessary for the +government of a great people like ours. To acknowledge this child to-day +as the heir of his father's office is tantamount to restoring the +royalty that we have wisely overthrown. I hate royalty as much as did +Ritha-Gaur." + +Still hoping to overcome the resolution of the Mother of the Camps by +his persistence, Tetrik prolonged his stay in Mayence--at least I was +long under the impression that such was the only reason for his +postponing his departure. Nor did Tetrik seem to be less surprised at +the unaccountable change that came over Victorin. The latter, although +plunged in brooding sadness, still preserved his affection for me. I +even thought that more than once he was on the point of opening his +heart to me and of confiding to me what he there kept hidden. Later, +however, he ceased calling at my house as he formerly used to, and +seemed even to avoid meeting me. His features, once so handsome and +open, were no longer the same. Pale with suffering, worn by excessive +and solitary indulgence in wine, their expression gradually assumed a +sinister aspect. At times a sort of dementia seemed to speak out of his +alternately fixed and wandering gaze. + +About five weeks after the great battle of the Rhine, Victorin resumed +his visits to my house. The turn was marked, both in point of suddenness +and assiduity. Noticeable was the circumstance that the hours which he +chose for his visits were those during which Sampso and my wife were +home alone, I being at Victoria's writing the letters which she +dictated. Ellen received the son of my foster-sister with her wonted +affability. At first I imagined that, sorry at having kept himself away +from me without cause and by a mere whim, he sought to bring about a +reconciliation by means of my wife. I believed this all the more seeing +that, despite his persistence in seeking to avoid me, he never spoke of +me to Ellen except in terms of deep affection. Sampso was usually +present at the conversations between her sister and Victorin. Only once +did she leave them alone, and then, when she returned she was struck by +the painful expression on my wife's face and the visible embarrassment +shown by Victorin, who speedily took his departure. + +"What is the matter, Ellen?" asked Sampso. + +"Sister, I conjure you, never again leave me alone with Victoria's son. +May it please the gods that I am mistaken! But to judge from some broken +words that Victorin let drop, to judge by the expression of his face, I +imagine that he is moved by a guilty love for me--and yet he is aware of +my devotion to Schanvoch!" + +"Sister!" exclaimed Sampso, "Victorin's excesses have ever shocked me, +but latterly he seems to have changed. The sacrifice of his unregulated +pleasures doubtlessly costs him much; notwithstanding the young +general's changed conduct is praised by everyone, they all comment on +his profound sadness. I can not believe him capable of thinking of +dishonoring your husband, who loves Victorin as if he were his own +child, and who even saved his life in battle. You must be mistaken, +Ellen! No! Such baseness is not possible!" + +"I only hope you are right, Sampso; nevertheless, I must conjure you not +to leave me alone with Victorin if he comes again. At any rate, I mean +to tell all to Schanvoch." + +"Be careful, Ellen. If, as I believe, you are mistaken, you would but +raise a frightful and unjustified suspicion in your husband's breast. +You know how attached he is to Victoria and her son. Only imagine +Schanvoch's despair at such a revelation! Ellen, follow my advice, +receive Victorin once more alone. Should your suspicions grow into +certainty, then, hesitate no longer--reveal Victorin's treachery to +Schanvoch. It would otherwise be imprudent on your part to awaken in him +suspicions that may be wholly baseless. An infamous hypocrite, however, +should be unmasked, when there is no longer any doubt as to his +purpose." + +Ellen promised her sister to follow her advice. But Victorin never +returned. I learned all these details only later. This happened in the +course of the fifth or sixth week after the great battle of the Rhine, +and exactly eight days before the catastrophe that it is my duty, my +son, to relate to you. + +On that fateful day I spent the early part of the evening near Victoria +conferring with her upon an urgent mission on which I was to depart on +that very evening, and which might keep me several days from home. +Although Victorin promised his mother to be present at the conference, +the purpose of which was known to him, he remained away. I did not +wonder at his absence. For some time, and without it being possible for +me to fathom his whimsical conduct, he had avoided all opportunity of +encountering me. Victoria said to me pathetically when I left her at the +usual hour: + +"Private feelings must be hushed before interests of state. I have +spoken to you fully on the subject of the mission that I have charged +you with, Schanvoch. And now the mother will unbosom her private grief. +I had this morning a sad conversation with my son. I vainly implored him +to confide to me the cause of the secret sorrow that is consuming him. +He answered me with a distressful smile: + +"'Mother, one time you reproached me with my levity and my too strong +taste for pleasures--those days are now far behind--I now live in +solitude and meditation. My lodging, where formerly the joyful din of +song and revelry by torch light used to keep the night astir, is now +lonely, silent and somber--like myself. Our scrupulous soldiers feel +edified at my conversion, and now no longer reproach me with too much +love for joy, wine and women! What more do you want, mother?' + +"'I want much more,' I replied to him, unable to restrain my tears. 'I +want to see you happy as in the past. You suffer, my son; you suffer a +pain that you conceal from me. The consciousness of a wise and +thoughtful life, as becomes the chief of a great people, imparts to his +face a grave yet serene expression. Your face, however, is haggard, +sinister, pale, like that of a man distracted and in despair--'" + +"And what did Victorin say to that?" + +"Nothing. He relapsed into the gloomy brooding in which I find him so +often plunged, and from which he emerges only to cast wandering looks +about. I then showed him his child, whom I held in my arms. He took it, +kissed it several times with great tenderness, put it back into its +cradle, and left abruptly without saying a word. I believe he wished to +hide his tears from me. I saw that he wept. Oh! Schanvoch, my heart +breaks when I think of the future that seemed to me so rosy for Gaul, +for my son and for me!" + +I sought to console Victoria by joining her in conjecturing the cause of +her son's mysterious grief. The hour grew late. I was to travel all that +night in order to fulfil my mission as promptly as possible. I left my +foster-sister's and proceeded home in order to embrace your mother and +you, my son, before starting on my journey. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE CATASTROPHE. + + +When I reached home, my son, I found your mother Ellen and her sister +Sampso seated near your cradle. The moment Sampso saw me she cried: + +"You arrive in time, Schanvoch, to help me convince Ellen that her fears +are groundless--she is weeping--" + +"What ails you, Ellen? What afflicts you?" + +She dropped her head, made no answer, and continued weeping. + +"She does not dare to admit to you the cause of her affliction, +Schanvoch; my sister weeps because you are about to depart." + +"What?" I asked Ellen in a tone of tender reproach, "you who are always +so brave even when I leave for battle, are now timorous and tearful when +I am only going on a peaceful journey that will not keep me away more +than a few days--a journey into Gaul, where peace reigns! Ellen, your +apprehensions are groundless." + +"That is exactly what I have been repeating to my sister. Your journey +does not expose you to any danger; and if you depart to-night it is +because the matter is urgent." + +"Yes, indeed! Why, it must be a positive pleasure to journey in the +manner that I am about to do--on a mild summer's night, across the +smiling fields of our own beautiful country that is to-day so calm and +peaceful!" + +"I know all that," said Ellen in a tremulous voice. "My alarm is +senseless; and yet this journey fills me with dread." + +And stretching her arms towards me imploringly: + +"Schanvoch, my beloved husband, do not depart; I conjure you--do not +depart--" + +"Ellen," I replied sadly, "for the first time in my life I am compelled +to answer you with a refusal--" + +"I beg you, stay near me!" + +"I would sacrifice everything to you, my duty excepted. The mission with +which I am charged by Victoria is important--I promised to fulfil it. I +must keep my word." + +"Well, then, go," answered my wife amid a paroxysm of sobs, "and let my +fate come upon me; it is your will!" + +"Sampso, what fate does she mean?" + +"Alas! Since this morning my sister has been a prey to gloomy +presentiments. She admitted them to be as unaccountable as I considered +them myself, and yet she is unable to overcome them. She says she feels +certain that she will never see you again--or that some grave peril +threatens you during your journey." + +"Ellen, my beloved wife," I said, clasping her to my heart, "need I tell +you that, short as our separation may be, it is always hard for me to be +away from you? Would you add to that sorrow, the even greater one of +having to leave you in such a desolate state?" + +"Pardon me," answered Ellen making a strong effort over herself. "You +are right; such weakness is unworthy of the wife of a soldier. See; I +have stopped weeping. I am calm; your words have reassured me; I am +ashamed of my timorous terrors; but in the name of our child who is now +asleep in his cradle, do not go away annoyed at me. Let your good-bye +caresses be tender as ever; I shall need that; yes, I shall need that in +order to recover the courage that I am deficient in to-day." + +Despite her apparent resignation, my wife seemed to suffer so much under +the restraint that she imposed upon herself, that for a moment I thought +of requesting Victoria to transfer the commission to Captain Marion, to +the end that I might remain at home. One consideration held me back from +putting the thought into execution; the time was too short. Seeing that +the journey had to be undertaken that same night, Captain Marion could +not possibly start on the spot. It would take hours in order to post the +captain upon a matter of which he knew absolutely nothing, and which +demanded promptness for success. Yielding to my duty, and, I must also +say, convinced of the idleness of Ellen's fears, I decided to depart. I +clasped her in my arms, and recommending her to the tender care of +Sampso, I mounted my horse and rode off. + +It was ten o'clock at night. A rider was to serve as my escort and +messenger in case I had occasion to write to Victoria on the road. The +rider was chosen for me by Captain Marion, to whom I applied for a +reliable man; I found him ready, waiting for me at one of the gates of +Mayence, and we trotted forth together. Although the moon was not to +rise until late, the night was luminous by the light of the stars. I +noticed, although without attaching at the time any importance to the +circumstance, that, despite the mildness of the season, my traveling +companion had on a heavy coat the hood of which fell down deep over his +casque, so that even in full daylight it would have been difficult for +me to see the man's face. Although a simple soldier like myself, instead +of riding beside me, he allowed me to ride ahead of him without +exchanging a word. On any other occasion, and being like all Gauls of a +chatty disposition, I would not have accepted this mark of exaggerated +deference; it would have deprived me of the conversation of a companion +during a long ride. But I was saddened by the condition in which I had +left my wife, and as despite myself, my mind insisted upon turning upon +the sad forebodings that alarmed her, the sense of sadness grew upon me +in the measure that the distance separating us increased; consequently I +did not regret being left to my reflections during a part of the night. +Thus, the rider following me, we traveled away from the town. + +We had ridden about two hours without exchanging a word; the moon due in +the sky towards midnight began to show her disk behind a hill that +bounded the horizon. We had arrived at a crossing where four highways, +built by the Romans, met. I slackened Tom-Bras's pace in order to +ascertain the road I was to take, when suddenly my traveling companion +raised his voice behind me and cried: + +"Schanvoch, ride back home at full tilt--a horrible crime is being +committed at this hour in your house!" + +At these words I quickly turned in my saddle. By the glamour of the +rising moon I could see the rider give a stupendous bound with his +horse, clear the hedge that lined the road, and vanish in the shadow of +the forest that we had been skirting for some time. Struck dumb with +terror, I remained motionless for a moment; when, yielding to an impulse +of curiosity and anguish, I thought of dashing after the rider and +compelling an explanation of his words, it was too late. The moon was +not yet far up enough to justify my pursuing the fugitive through the +wood, which, moreover, was unknown to me. Besides, the rider had too +much the lead of me. I listened intently for a moment, and I could hear +in the profound stillness of the night the rapid gallop of the man's +horse. He was far away. It seemed to me that he resumed the road to +Mayence through the forest, consequently by a shorter route. For a +moment I hesitated what to do. But recalling my wife's unaccountable +forebodings and comparing them with the rider's words, I turned my +horse's head and dashed back to the city. + +"If," I thought to myself, "by some unconceivable accident the +announcement to which I hearkened was as ill founded as Ellen's +forebodings, with which, however, it strangely coincided; if my alarm +turns out to be vain, I shall take a fresh horse at the camp and +immediately resume my journey, which will have been delayed by three +hours." + +With voice and heels I urged on the rapid course of my horse Tom-Bras, +and I rode headlong towards Mayence. In the measure that I approached +the place where I left my wife and child, the gloomiest thoughts crowded +upon me. What crime could it be that was being committed in my house? +Was it to a friend, or was it to an enemy that I owed the revelation? At +times I imagined the rider's voice was not unknown to me, yet I could +not remember where I had heard it before. That which, above all, added +fuel to my anxiety was the mysterious accord between the announcement +just made to me and the presentiments that alarmed Ellen. The rising +moon aided the swiftness of my course as it lighted the road. Trees, +fields, houses vanished behind me with giddy swiftness. I consumed less +than an hour in covering the same route that I had just spent two hours +over. At last I reached the gates of Mayence. I felt Tom-Bras trembling +under me, not for want of ardor or courage, but because his strength was +spent. Seeing a soldier mounting guard, I said: + +"Did you see a rider enter town this night?" + +"About a quarter of an hour ago," the soldier answered, "a rider wrapped +in a hooded mantle went by at a gallop. He rode towards the camp." + +"It is he," I said to myself, and resumed my course at the risk of +seeing Tom-Bras expire under me. There could be no doubt; my traveling +companion made a short cut through the forest, but why did he proceed to +the camp, instead of entering the town? A few moments later I arrived +before my house. I leaped down from my horse that neighed gladly as he +recognized the place. I ran to the door and knocked hard. No one opened +to me, but I heard muffled cries within. Again I knocked with the handle +of my sword, but in vain. The cries grew louder; I thought I heard +Sampso's voice--I tried to break down the door--impossible. Suddenly the +window of my wife's room was thrown open. I ran thither sword in hand. +At the instant when I arrived at the casement, the shutters were pulled +open from within. I rushed through the passage and found myself face to +face with a man. The darkness prevented me from recognizing him. He was +in the act of fleeing from Ellen's room, whose heartrending cries then +reached my ears. To seize the man by the throat at the moment when he +put his foot upon the window sill in order to escape, to throw him back +into the pitch dark room, and to strike him several times with my sword +while I cried: 'Ellen, here I am!'--all this happened with the +swiftness of thought. I drew my sword from the body that lay at my feet +and was about to plunge it again into the carcass--my rage was +uncontrollable--when I felt two arms clasp me convulsively. I thought +myself attacked by a second adversary and forthwith ran the other body +through. The arms that had been thrown around my neck immediately +loosened their hold, and at the same time I heard these words pronounced +by an expiring voice: + +"Schanvoch--you have killed me--thanks, my friend--it is sweet to me to +die at your hands--I would not have been able to survive my shame--" + +It was Ellen's voice. + +My wife had run, dumb with terror, to place herself under my protection. +It was her arms that had clasped me. I heard her fall upon the floor. I +remained thunder-struck. My sword dropped from my hand; for several +seconds the silence of death reigned in the room that was perfectly dark +except for a beam of pale light that fell from the moon through the +lattice of one of the shutters that the wind had blown to. The shutter +was suddenly thrown open again from without, and by the light of the +moon I saw a tall and slender woman, clad in a short red skirt and a +silvery corsage, resting with her knee upon the outer window sill and +leaning her head into the room say: + +"Victorin, handsome Tarquin of a new Lucretia, quit the house; the night +is far advanced. I saw you enter the door at midnight, the hour agreed +upon, the husband being away. You shall now leave your charmer's house +by the window, the passage of lovers. You kept your promise--now I am +yours. Come, my cart awaits us. Venus will protect us!" + +"Victorin!" I cried horrified, believing myself the sport of a frightful +nightmare. "It was he--I killed him!" + +"The husband!" exclaimed Kidda, the Bohemian, leaping back. "It must be +the devil that brought him back!" + +And she vanished. + +Immediately afterwards I heard the sound of a cart's wheels and the +clinking of the bell of the mule that drew it rapidly away, while from +another direction, from the quarter of the camp, I heard a distant roar +that drew steadily nearer and resembled the hubbub of a tumultuous mob. +My stupor was followed by a distressful agony lighted by a faint ray of +hope--perhaps Ellen was not dead. I ran to the inside chamber; it was +closed from within. I knocked and called Sampso at the top of my voice. +She answered me from another room, in which she had been locked up. I +set her free, crying aloud: + +"I struck Ellen with my sword in the dark--the wound may not be +mortal;--run for the druid Omer--" + +"I shall run to him on the spot," answered Sampso without asking me any +questions. + +She rushed to the house door which was bolted from within. As she opened +it I saw a mob of soldiers advancing over the square where my house was +situated and which was close to the entrance of the camp. Several +soldiers carried torches; all uttered loud and threatening cries in +which the name of Victorin constantly recurred. + +I recognized the veteran Douarnek at the head of the mob. He was +brandishing his sword. + +"Schanvoch," he cried the moment he recognized me, "the rumor has just +run over the camp that a shocking crime was committed in your house!" + +"And the criminal is Victorin!" cried several voices drowning mine. +"Death to the infamous fellow!" + +"Death to the infamous fellow, who violated the wife of his friend!" + +"Just as he violated the wife of the tavern-keeper on the Rhine, who +killed herself in despair." + +"The cowardly hypocrite pretended to have mended his ways!" + +"To dishonor a soldier's wife! The wife of Schanvoch, who loved the +debauche as if he were his own son!" + +"And who, moreover, saved his life in battle!" + +"Death! Death to the wretch!" + +I found it impossible to dominate the furious cries with my voice; +Sampso vainly sought to cross the crowd. + +"For pity's sake, let me pass!" Sampso implored them. "I wish to fetch a +physician druid. Ellen still breathes; her wound may not be mortal! Let +me bring her help!" + +Her words only served to redouble the indignation and fury of the +soldiers. Instead of opening a passage for my wife's sister, they drove +her back as they crowded towards the door. A compact and enraged mass +stood there brandishing their swords, shaking their fists and +vociferating: + +"Death! Death to Victorin!" + +"He slew Schanvoch's wife after doing violence to her!" + +"She has died as the tavern-keeper's wife on the Rhine!" + +"Victorin!" thundered Douarnek. "You will not this time escape +punishment for your crimes!" + +"We shall be your executioners!" + +"Death! Death to Victorin!" + +"It is impossible to break through the crowd and fetch a physician for +my sister--she is lost!" Sampso cried out to me wringing her hands, +while I vainly strove to make myself heard by the delirious crowd. + +"I shall try to get out by the window," said Sampso. + +Saying this the distracted girl rushed into the mortuary chamber, and I, +making superhuman efforts to prevent the infuriated soldiers from +invading my house in search of the general, for whose blood they +thirsted, cried out to them: + +"Withdraw! Leave me alone in this house of mourning! Justice has been +done! Withdraw, comrades, withdraw!" + +An ever heightening tumult drowned my words. I saw Sampso issuing from +your mother's room carrying you, my son, in her arms. She was sobbing +aloud and said: + +"Brother, there is no hope! Ellen is rigid--her heart has stopped +beating--she is dead!" + +"Dead! Oh, dead! Hesus, have pity upon me!" I moaned and leaned against +the wall of the vestibule; I felt my strength leaving me. Suddenly, +however, a thrill ran through my frame. From mouth to mouth these words +began to circulate among the soldiers: + +"Here is Victoria! Here comes our mother!" + +As the words were uttered the crowd swayed back from the entrance of my +house to make room for my foster-sister. Such was the respect that the +august woman inspired in the army, that silence speedily succeeded the +tumultuous clamors of the soldiers. They realized the terrible position +of that mother, who, attracted by the cries for justice and vengeance +uttered against her own son, accused of an infamous crime, approached +the scene in all the majesty of her maternal grief. + +As to me, my heart felt like breaking. Victoria, my foster-sister, the +woman in whose behalf my life had been but one continuous day of +devotion--Victoria was about to find in my house the corpse of her son, +slain by me--by me who knew him since his birth, and who loved him like +my own! The thought of fleeing flashed through my mind--I lacked the +physical strength. I remained where I was, supporting myself against the +wall--distracted--vaguely looking before me, unable to stir. + +The crowd of soldiers parted; they formed a long passage; and by the +light of the moon and the torches I saw Victoria, clad in her long black +robe and her little grandson in her arms, advancing slowly. She +doubtlessly hoped to soothe the exasperation of the soldiers by +presenting the innocent creature to their sight. Tetrik, Captain Marion +and several other officers, who had notified Victoria of the tumult and +its cause, followed behind her. They seemed to succeed in calming the +seething fury of the troops. The silence grew solemn. The Mother of the +Camps was only a few steps from my house when Douarnek approached her, +and bending his knee said: + +"Mother, your son has committed a great crime--we pity you from the +bottom of our hearts. But you will see to it that justice is rendered +us--we demand justice--" + +"Yes, yes, justice!" cried the soldiers, whose irritation, after being +checked for a moment, now broke out with renewed violence. The cry broke +forth from all parts: "Justice! Or we will do justice ourselves!" + +"Death to the infamous wretch!" + +"Death to the man who dishonored his friend's wife!" + +"Cursed be the name of Victorin!" + +"Yes, cursed--cursed!" repeated a thousand threatening voices. "Cursed +be his name forever!" + +Pale, calm and imposing, Victoria stopped for a moment before Douarnek, +who bent his knee as he addressed her. But when the cries of: "Death to +Victorin!" "Cursed be his name!" exploded anew, my foster-sister, whose +virile and beautiful countenance betrayed mortal anguish, stretched out +her arms with the little child in them, as if the innocent creature +implored mercy for its father. + +It was then that the cries broke forth with fiercest violence: + +"Death to Victorin! Cursed be his name!" + +And immediately I perceived my recent traveling companion, recognizable +by his cloak and hood, in which he still kept himself closely wrapped, +push himself with a menacing air toward Victoria, and shaking his fist +at her, cry: + +"Yes, cursed be the name of Victorin! Let his stock be uprooted!" + +Saying this the man violently tore the child from Victoria's arms, took +it by the two feet, and dashed it with such fury upon the cobble-stones +that its head was instantly shattered. The deed of ferocity was done +with such brutality and swiftness that, although it aroused instant +indignation, neither Douarnek nor any of the soldiers who precipitated +themselves upon the hooded man to save the child were in time. The +innocent child lay dead and bleeding upon the ground. I heard a +heartrending cry escape Victoria, but immediately lost sight of her; +fearing that some sort of danger threatened her life, the soldiers +speedily surrounded and built with their breasts a wall around their +mother. The rumor also reached my ears that, thanks to the tumult which +ensued, the perpetrator of the horrible murder had succeeded in making +his escape. Presently the ranks of the soldiers opened anew amid +mournful silence, and again I perceived Victoria, her face bathed in +tears, holding in her arms the now lifeless and bleeding body of +Victorin's son. At the sight, I cried out from the threshold of my +house to the crowd that was now dumb and in consternation: + +"You demand justice? Justice has been done. I, Schanvoch, I have killed +Victorin myself. He is innocent of my wife's death. Now, withdraw. Allow +the Mother of the Camps to enter my house that she may weep over the +bodies of her son and grandson." + +Victoria thereupon said to me in a firm voice as she stood at the +threshold of my house: + +"You killed my son; you were right to avenge the outrage done to you." + +"Yes," I answered her in a hollow voice, "yes, and in the dark I also +killed my wife." + +"Come, Schanvoch, join me in closing the eyelids of Ellen and +Victorin." + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE MORTUARY CHAMBER. + + +Victoria entered the house amidst the religious silence of the soldiers +who stood grouped without. Captain Marion and Tetrik followed her in. +She motioned to them to remain outside of the death room, where she +wished to be left alone with me and Sampso. + +At the sight of my wife, lying dead upon the floor, I fell upon my knees +sobbing beside her. I raised her beautiful head, now pale and cold; +closed her eyes; and taking the beloved body in my arms I laid it on my +bed. Again I knelt down, and with my head resting upon the pillow on +which hers reclined, I could no longer restrain my grief. I sobbed and +moaned. I remained there long weeping and disconsolate; I could hear the +suppressed sobs of Victoria. + +Finally her voice recalled me to myself; I thought of what she must be +suffering; I looked around. She was seated on the floor near the corpse +of Victorin, whose head rested on her maternal knees. + +"Schanvoch," said my foster-sister as she gently brushed back with her +hands the hair that fell over Victorin's forehead, "my son is no more; I +may weep over him, despite his crime. Here he lies dead--dead--dead and +not yet twenty-three years old!" + +"Dead--and killed by me--who loved him as my son!" + +"Brother, you avenged your honor--you have my pardon and pity--" + +"Alas! I struck Victorin in the dark--I struck him in a fit of blind +rage--I struck him without knowing that it was he! Hesus is my witness! +Had I recognized your son, Oh, sister! I would have cursed him, but my +sword would have dropped at my feet--" + +Victoria gazed at me in silence. My words seemed to lift a heavy weight +from her heart. She looked relieved at learning that I had killed her +son without knowing him. She reached out her hand to me feelingly, and I +carried it respectfully to my lips. For several minutes we remained +silent. She then said to Ellen's sister: + +"Sampso, were you here this fatal night? Speak, I pray you. What +happened?" + +"It was midnight," Sampso answered in a voice broken with sobs. +"Schanvoch had left the house two hours before on his journey. I was +lying here beside my sister--I heard a rap at the house door--I threw a +cloak over my shoulders and went to the door to ask who it was. A +woman's voice with a foreign accent answered--" + +"A woman's voice?" I asked in a tone of surprise shared by Victoria. +"Are you sure it was a woman's voice that answered you, Sampso?" + +"Yes; that was the snare. The voice said to me: 'I come from Victoria +with a very important message for Ellen, the wife of Schanvoch, who left +on a journey two hours ago.'" + +At these words of Sampso's, Victoria and I exchanged looks of increasing +astonishment. Sampso proceeded: + +"As I could in no way suspect a messenger from Victoria, I opened the +door. Immediately, instead of a woman, a man rushed at me; he violently +pushed me back--and immediately bolted the street door. By the light of +the lamp, which I had placed on the floor, I recognized Victorin. He was +pale--frightful to behold--he seemed to be intoxicated, and could hardly +stand on his feet--" + +"Oh! The unhappy boy! The unhappy boy!" I cried. "He was not in his +senses! Only so! Oh, only so! He never could otherwise have attempted +such a crime!" + +"Proceed, Sampso," said Victoria with a profound sigh; "proceed with +your account--" + +"Without saying a word to me, Victorin pointed to the door of my own +room, the room I always occupied when I did not share my sister's room +during the absence of Schanvoch. In my terror I guessed all. I cried to +Ellen: 'Sister, lock your door!' and I began to call for help as loud as +I could. My cries exasperated Victorin. He seized and threw me into my +room. Just as he was about to lock me in I saw Ellen hurrying out of her +room. She looked pale and frightened; she was almost naked. I afterwards +heard the distressing cries of my sister calling for help--I heard them +struggle--I fainted away. I know not how long I remained in that state. +I regained consciousness when someone knocked at my door and called me +by name. It was Schanvoch. I answered him. He must have opened it for +me--I saw him--" + +"And you," Victoria said, turning to me. "How was it that you returned +so suddenly?" + +"At about four leagues from Mayence, I was notified that a crime was +being committed in my house." + +"And who could have notified you?" + +"A soldier; my escort." + +"And who was that soldier?" asked Victoria with heightening intensity. +"How did he know of the crime?" + +"I know not--he vanished across the forest the instant that he gave me +the sinister information. That soldier got back to town before me--he +was the same man who tore your grandchild from your arms and killed it +at your feet--" + +"Schanvoch," resumed Victoria with a shudder and carrying both her hands +to her forehead, "my son is dead--I shall neither accuse nor excuse +him--but a horrible mystery underlies this crime--" + +"Listen," I replied, as several circumstances that had slipped my memory +at the first pangs of my grief now came back to my mind. "When I arrived +before the door of my house, I knocked; only the distant sound of +Sampso's cries answered me. A moment later the lower window of my wife's +room was opened. I ran thither. The shutters were being pushed aside to +give passage to a man, while Ellen cried for help. I pushed the man back +into the room, which was dark as a tomb--in the darkness I struck and +killed your son. Almost immediately after I felt two arms thrown around +my neck--I imagined myself attacked by a new assailant--I made another +thrust in the dark--it was Ellen, my beloved wife, whom I killed--" + +And my sobs choked me. + +"Brother--brother," said Victoria to me, "this has been a fatal night to +us all--" + +"Listen further--above all to this," I said to my foster-sister, +controlling my emotion: "At the very moment when I recognized the voice +of my expiring wife, I saw by the light of the moon a woman perched on +the casement of the window--" + +"A woman!" cried Victoria. + +"It is she probably whose voice deceived me," observed Sampso, "by +announcing to me a message from Victoria." + +"I think so too," I replied; "and that woman, doubtlessly the accomplice +of Victorin's crime, called to him, saying it was time to flee, and that +she now was his, seeing he had kept the promise that he made to her." + +"A promise?" Again Victoria pondered. "What promise could he have made +to her?" + +"To dishonor Ellen--" + +My foster-sister shuddered and said: + +"I repeat it, Schanvoch, this crime is wrapped in some horrible mystery. +But who may that woman have been?" + +"One of the two Bohemian dancers who recently arrived at Mayence. +Listen. Seeing that she received no answer from Victorin, and hearing +the distant but approaching clamors of the soldiers who were angrily +hastening to my house, she leaped down and vanished. A second after the +rumbling of her cart informed me of her flight. In my despair it never +occurred to me to pursue her. I knew I had just killed Ellen near the +cradle of our son--Ellen, my dearly beloved wife!" + +I could not continue. Tears and sobs deprived me of speech. Sampso and +Victoria remained silent. + +"This is a veritable abyss!" resumed the Mother of the Camps. "An abyss +that my mind can not fathom. My son's crime is great--his intoxication, +so far from excusing, only serves to render the deed all the more +shameful. And yet, Schanvoch, you know not what love this poor child had +for you--" + +"Say not so, Victoria," I murmured, hiding my face in my hands. "Say not +so--my despair becomes only more distressing!" + +"It is not a reproach that I make, brother," replied Victoria. "Had I +been a witness of my son's crime, I would have killed him with my own +hands, to the end that he cease to dishonor his mother, and Gaul, that +chose him chief. I refer to Victorin's love for you because I believe +that, without his being in a state of inebriety and without some dark +machination, he never would have committed such a misdeed--" + +"As for me, sister, I believe I see through this infernal plot--" + +"You do? Speak!" + +"Before the great battle of the Rhine an infamous calumny was spread +over the camp against Victorin. The army's affection for him was being +withdrawn. Your son's victory regained for him the soldiers' affection. +See how that old calumny becomes to-day a frightful reality. Victorin's +crime cost him his life--and also his son's. His stock is extinct. A new +chief must now be chosen for Gaul. Is this not so?" + +"Yes, brother, all that is true." + +"Did not that unknown soldier, my traveling companion, know when he +revealed to me that a crime was being committed in my house--did he not +know that unless I arrived in time to kill Victorin myself in the first +access of my rage, your son would certainly be slaughtered by the troops +who would undoubtedly rise in revolt at the first tidings of the +felony?" + +"But how," put in Sampso, "was the army apprised so soon of the felony, +seeing that no one left the house?" + +Struck by Sampso's observation the Mother of the Camps started and +looked at me. I proceeded: + +"Who is the man, Victoria, who tore your grandson from your arms and +dashed his life against the ground? The same unknown soldier! Did he +yield to an impulse of blind rage against the child? Not at all! +Accordingly, he was but the instrument of some ambition that is as +concealed as it is ferocious. Only one man had an interest in the double +murder that has just extinguished your stock--because, once your stock +is extinguished Gaul must choose a new chief--and the man whom I +suspect, the man whom I accuse has long wished to govern Gaul!" + +"His name!" cried Victoria, fixing upon me a look of intense agony. "The +name of the man whom you suspect--" + +"His name is Tetrik, your relative, the Governor of Gascony." + +For the first time since I first expressed my suspicions of her +relative, did Victoria seem to share them. She cast her eyes upon the +corpse of her son with an expression of pitiful sorrow, kissed his icy +forehead several times, and after a moment of profound reflection she +seemed to take a supreme resolution. She rose and said to me in a firm +voice: + +"Where is Tetrik?" + +"He awaits your orders in the next room, I presume, with Captain Marion. +What are your orders?" + +"I wish them both to come in, immediately." + +"In this chamber of death?" + +"Yes, in this chamber of death. Yes, here, Schanvoch, before the +inanimate remains of your wife, my son and his child. If it was that man +who wove this dark and horrible plot, then, even if he were a demon of +hypocrisy and bloodthirstiness, he can not choose but betray himself at +the sight of his victims--at the sight of a mother between the corpses +of her son and grandson; at the sight of a husband beside the corpse of +his wife. Go, brother. Order them in! Order them in! Then also, we must +at all cost find that unknown soldier, your traveling companion!" + +"I have thought of that--" and struck with a sudden thought, I added: +"It was Captain Marion who chose the rider that was to escort me." + +"We shall question the captain. Go, brother. Order them in! Order them +in!" + +I obeyed Victoria and called in Tetrik and Marion. Both hastened to +answer to the summons. + +Despite the grief that rent my heart I had the fortitude to watch +attentively the face of the Governor of Gascony. The moment he stepped +into the room, the first object he seemed to notice was the corpse of +Victorin. Tetrik's features immediately assumed the appearance of +unspeakable anguish; tears flowed copiously down his cheeks; clasping +his hands he dropped on his knees near the body and cried in a voice +that seemed rent with grief: + +"Dead at the prime of his age--dead--he, so brave--so generous! The +hope, the strong sword of Gaul. Ah! I forget the foibles of this unhappy +youth before the frightful misfortune that has befallen my country!" + +Tetrik could not proceed. Sobs smothered his voice. On his knees and +cowering in a heap, his face hidden in his hands and dropping scalding +tears he remained as if crushed with pain near Victorin's body. + +Standing motionless at the door, Captain Marion was the prey of profound +internal sorrow. He indulged in no outbursts of moans; he shed no tears; +but he ceased not to contemplate the corpse of Victoria's grandson with +a pathetic expression, as the little body lay in my son's cradle; and +presently I heard him say in a low voice looking from Victoria to the +innocent victim: + +"What a calamity! Ah! poor child! Poor mother!" + +Captain Marion then took a few steps forward and said in short and +broken words: + +"Victoria--you are to be pitied--I pity you. Victorin loved you--he was +a worthy son--I also loved him. My beard has turned grey, and yet I +found a delight in serving under that young man. He was the first +captain of our age. None of us can replace him. He had but two +vices--the taste for wine and, above all, the pest of profligacy. I +often quarreled with him on that. I was right, you see it! Well, we must +not quarrel with him now. He had a brave heart. I can say no more to +you, Victoria. And what would it boot? A mother can not be consoled. Do +not think me unfeeling because I do not weep. One weeps only when he +can; but I assure you that you have my sympathy from the bottom of my +heart. I could not be sadder or more cast down had I lost my friend +Eustace--" + +And taking a few steps, Marion again looked from Victoria to her little +grandson, repeating as his eyes wandered from the one to the other: + +"Oh! the poor child! Oh! the poor mother!" + +Still upon his knees beside Victorin, Tetrik did not cease sobbing and +moaning. While his grief was as demonstrative as Captain Marion's was +reserved, it seemed sincere. Nevertheless, my suspicions still resisted +the test, and I saw that my foster-sister shared my doubts. Again she +made a violent effort over herself and said: + +"Tetrik, listen to me!" + +The Governor of Gascony did not seem to hear the voice of his relative. + +"Tetrik," Victoria repeated, leaning over to touch the man's shoulder, +"I am speaking to you; answer me." + +"Who speaks?" cried the governor as if his mind wandered. "What do they +want? Where am I?" + +A moment later he raised his eyes to my foster-sister and cried +surprised: + +"You here--here, Victoria? Oh, yes! I was with you shortly ago--I had +forgotten. Excuse me. My head swims. Alas! I am a father--I have a son +almost of the age of this unfortunate boy. More than anyone else, I pity +you!" + +"Time presses and the occasion is grave," replied my foster-sister +solemnly while she fastened a penetrating look upon Tetrik in order to +fathom the man's most hidden thoughts. "Private sorrow is hushed before +the public interest. I have my whole life left to weep my son and +grandson; but we have only a few hours to consider the succession of the +Chief of Gaul and of the general of the army--" + +"What!" exclaimed Tetrik. "At such a moment as this--" + +"I wish that before daylight breaks upon us, I, Captain Marion and you, +Tetrik, my relative, one of my most faithful friends, you, who are so +devoted to Gaul, you, who grieve so bitterly over Victorin--I wish that +we three revolve in our wisdom what man we shall to-morrow propose to +the army as my son's successor." + +"Victoria, you are a heroic woman!" cried Tetrik clasping his hands in +admiration. "You match with your courage and patriotism the most august +women who have honored the world!" + +"What is your opinion, Tetrik, as to the successor of Victorin? Captain +Marion and myself will speak after you," the Mother of the Camps +proceeded to say without noticing the praises of the Governor of +Gascony. "Yes, whom do you think capable of replacing my son--to the +glory and advantage of Gaul?" + +"How can I give you my opinion?" Tetrik replied dejectedly. "How can I +give you advice upon a matter of such gravity, when my heart is racked +with pain--it is impossible!" + +"It is possible, since you see me here--between the corpses of my son +and my grandson--ready to give my opinion--" + +"If you insist, Victoria, I shall speak, provided I can collect my +thoughts. I am of the opinion that Gaul needs for her chief a wise, firm +and enlightened man, a man who inclines to peace rather than to +war--especially now when we no longer have the neighborhood of the +Franks to fear, thanks to the sword of this young hero, whom I loved and +will eternally mourn--" + +At this moment the governor interrupted himself to give renewed vent to +his grief. + +"We shall weep later," said Victoria. "Life is long enough, but the +night is short. It will soon be morning." + +Tetrik wiped his eyes and proceeded: + +"As I was saying, the successor of our Victorin should, above all, be a +man of good judgment, and of long and approved devotion in the service +of our beloved Gaul. Now, then, if I am not mistaken, the only one whom +I can think of who unites these virtues, is Captain Marion, whom we see +here." + +"I!" cried the captain raising his two enormous hands heavenward. "I, +the Chief of Gaul! Grief makes you talk like a fool! I, Chief of Gaul!" + +"Captain Marion," Tetrik resumed in a dismal accent, "I know that the +shocking death of Victorin and his innocent child has thrown my mind +into disorder and desolation. And yet I believe that at this moment I +speak not like a fool but like a sage--and Victoria will herself be of +my opinion. Although you do not enjoy the brilliant military reputation +of our Victorin, whom we shall never be able to mourn sufficiently, you +have deserved, Captain Marion, the confidence and affection of our +troops by your good and numerous services. Once a blacksmith, you +exchanged the hammer for the sword; the soldiers will see in you one of +their own rank rise to the dignity of chief through his valor and their +own free choice. They will esteem you all the more knowing, above all, +that, although you reached distinction, you never lost your friendship +for your old comrade of the anvil." + +"Forget my friend Eustace!" said Marion. "Oh! Never!" + +"The austerity of your morals is known," Tetrik proceeded to say; "your +excellent judgment, your straightforwardness, your calmness, are, +according to my poor judgment, a guarantee for the future. You have put +into practice Victoria's wise thought that now the days of barren war +are ended, and the hour has come to think of fruitful peace. The task is +arduous, I admit; it can not choose but startle your modesty. But this +heroic woman, who, even at this terrible moment, forgets her maternal +despair in order to turn her thoughts upon our beloved country, +Victoria, I feel certain, in presenting you to the soldiers as her son's +successor, will pledge herself to assist you with her precious counsel. +And now, Captain Marion, if you will hearken to my feeble voice, I +implore you, I beg you in the name of Gaul to accept the reins of +office. Victoria joins me in demanding of you this fresh proof of +self-sacrificing devotion to our common country!" + +"Tetrik," answered Marion in a grave voice, "you have ably described the +man who is needed to govern Gaul. There is only one thing to change in +the picture that you have drawn, and that is its name. In the place of +my name, insert your own--it will then be complete--" + +"I!" cried Tetrik. "I, Chief of Gaul! I, who in all my life never have +held a sword in my hand!" + +"Victoria said it," replied Marion. "The season for war is over, the +season for peace has come. In times of war we need warriors--in times of +peace we need men of peace. You belong to the latter category, Tetrik; +it is your place to govern--do you not think so, Victoria?" + +"By the manner in which he has governed Gascony, Tetrik has shown how he +would govern Gaul," answered my foster-sister; "I join you, captain, in +requesting--my relative--to replace my son--" + +"What did I tell you?" broke in Captain Marion, addressing Tetrik. +"Would you still refuse?" + +"Listen to me, Victoria; listen to me, Captain Marion; listen to me, +Schanvoch," replied the governor turning towards me. "Yes, you also, +Schanvoch, listen to me, you who are as stricken as Victoria. You, who, +in your nervous friendship for this august woman, suspected my +sincerity; I wish you all to believe me. I have received an incurable +wound here, in my heart, by the occurrences of this fatal night; they +have bereft us at once, in the person of our unfortunate Victorin and in +that of his innocent son, of the present and the future support of Gaul. +It was for the purpose of securing and rendering the future certain that +I sought to induce Victoria to propose her grandson to the army as the +heir of Victorin, and that I have made this journey to Mayence. My hopes +are dashed--an eternal sorrow takes their place--" + +After stopping for a moment in order to allow his inexhaustible tears to +flow, the governor proceeded: + +"My resolution is formed. Not only do I decline the power that is +offered me, but I shall also give up the government of Gascony. The few +years of life left to me shall henceforth be spent with my son in +seclusion and sorrow. At another time I might have been able to render +some service to our country, but that is now past with me. I shall carry +into my retirement a grief that will be rendered less unbearable by the +knowledge that my country's future is in such worthy hands as yours, +Captain Marion, and that Victoria, the divine genius of Gaul, will +continue to watch over our land. And now, Schanvoch," added the Governor +of Gascony turning once more towards me, "have I put an end to your +suspicions? Do you still think me ambitious? Is my language, are my +actions those of a perfidious or treacherous man? Alas! Alas! I never +thought that the frightful misfortunes of this night would so soon +afford me the opportunity to justify myself--" + +"Tetrik," said Victoria extending her hand to her relative, "if ever I +could have doubted the loyalty of your heart, I would at this hour +perceive my error--" + +"And I admit it freely, my suspicions were groundless," I added in turn. +After all that I had seen and heard, I was, as Victoria, convinced of +her relative's innocence. And still, as my mind ever returned to the +mysterious circumstances that surrounded the events of that night, I +said to Marion, who, silent and pensive, seemed overwhelmed with the +tender that was made to him: + +"Captain, yesterday I asked you for a discreet and safe man to serve me +as escort." + +"You did." + +"Do you know the name of the soldier whom you picked out for me?" + +"It was not I who chose him--I do not know his name." + +"And who chose him?" asked Victoria. + +"My friend Eustace is better acquainted with the soldiers than I am. I +commissioned him to find me a safe man, and to order him to repair after +dark to the town gate, where he was to wait for the rider whom he was to +accompany on the journey." + +"And after that," I asked the captain, "did you see your friend Eustace +again?" + +"No; he has been mounting guard at the outposts of the camp since last +evening, and he was not to be relieved until this morning." + +"But at any rate we could learn from him the name of the rider who +escorted Schanvoch," observed Victoria. "I shall let you know later, +Tetrik, the importance that I attach to that information, and you will +be able to counsel me." + +"You must excuse me, Victoria, if I do not acceed to your wishes," the +governor replied with a sigh. "Within an hour, at earliest dawn, I shall +leave Mayence--the sight of this place is too harrowing to me. I have a +humble retreat in Gascony; I shall bury my life there in the company of +my son; he is to-day the only consolation left to me." + +"My friend," said Victoria reproachfully, "do you leave me at such a +moment as this? The sight of this place is harrowing to you, you +say--and what about myself? Does not this place recall at every turn +memories that must distress me? And yet I shall leave Mayence only when +Captain Marion will no longer stand in need of whatever counsel he may +think that he may be in need of from me at the start of his government." + +"Victoria," put in Captain Marion in a resolute tone, "I have said +nothing during this conversation in which you and Tetrik have disposed +of me. I am not fluent in words, moreover, my heart is too heavy +to-night. I have said little, but I have reflected a good deal. These +are my thoughts: I love the profession of arms; I know how to execute a +general's orders, and I am not altogether unskilful in the management of +troops confided to me. At a pinch I can plan an attack like the one +which completed Victorin's great victory by the destruction of the camp +and reserve forces of the Franks. This is to say, Victoria, that I do +not consider myself more of a fool than others--wherefore I have sense +enough to understand that I am not fit for the government of Gaul--" + +"Nevertheless, Captain Marion," Tetrik broke in, "Victoria will agree +with me that the task is not beyond your strength." + +"Oh! As to my strength, that is well known," replied Captain Marion +soberly. "Fetch me an ox, and I'll carry him on my back, or fell him +with a blow of my fist. But square shoulders are not all that is wanted +for the chief of a great people. No--no. I am robust--granted. But the +burden of state is too heavy. Therefore, Victoria, do not put such a +weight upon me. I would break down under it--and Gaul will, in turn, +break down under the weight of my weakness. And, moreover, it might as +well be said, I love, after service hours, to go home and empty a pot +of beer in the company of my friend Eustace, and chat with him over our +old blacksmith's trade, or entertain ourselves with furbishing our arms +like skilful armorers. Such am I, Victoria--such have I ever been--and +such I wish to remain." + +"And these call themselves men! Oh, Hesus!" cried the Mother of the +Camps indignantly. "I, a woman--I, a mother--I saw my son and grandson +die this very night--and yet I have the necessary fortitude to repress +my grief--and this soldier, to whom the most glorious post that can shed +luster upon a man is offered, dares to answer with a refusal, giving his +love for beer and the polishing of armor as an excuse! Oh! Woe is Gaul, +if the very ones whom she regards as her bravest sons thus cowardly +forsake her!" + +The reproach of the Mother of the Camps impressed Captain Marion. He +dropped his head in confusion, remained silent for a moment, and then +spoke: + +"Victoria, there is but one strong soul here--it is yours. You make me +ashamed of myself. Well, then," he added with a sigh, "be it as you +will--I accept. But the gods are my witnesses--I accept as a duty and +under protest. If I should commit any asininities as Chief of Gaul, none +will have a right to reproach me. Very well, I accept, Victoria, but +under two imperative conditions." + +"What are they?" asked Tetrik. + +"This is the first," replied Marion: "The Mother of the Camps shall +remain in Mayence to help me with her advice. I am as new a hand at my +new work as a blacksmith's apprentice who for the first time dips the +iron into the brasier." + +"I promised you that I would, Marion," answered my foster-sister. "I +shall remain here as long as you may need my services." + +"Victoria, if your spirit should withdraw from me, I would be like a +body without a soul--accordingly, I thank you from the bottom of my +heart. I know that that promise must cost you a good deal, poor woman. +And yet," added the captain with his habitual good nature, "do not run +away with the idea that I am so foolishly vainglorious as to imagine +that it is to the strong bull of a warrior, named Marion, that Victoria +the Great makes the sacrifice of burying her grief in order to guide +him. No--no. It is to our old Gaul that she renders the sacrifice. As a +good son of my country, I am as thankful for the kind act done to my +mother, as if it were done to myself." + +"Nobly thought and nobly said, Marion," replied Victoria deeply touched +by these words of the captain. "Nevertheless, your straightforwardness +and sound judgment will soon enable you to dispense with my advice; +then," added she with an expression of profound pain that she strove to +repress, "I shall be able, like you, Tetrik, to retire and bury myself +in some secluded spot with my sorrows." + +"Alas," replied the governor, "to weep in peace is the only consolation +for irreparable losses." "But," he proceeded, addressing the captain, +"you referred to two conditions. Victoria has accepted the first; which +is the second?" + +"Oh! As to the second, it is as important to me as the first," and the +captain shook his head. "Aye, it is as important as the first--" + +"And what is it?" asked my foster-sister. "Explain yourself, Marion." + +"I know not," replied the good captain with a naive and embarrassed +mien, "I know not whether I ever spoke to you of my friend Eustace." + +"Yes, and more than once," replied Tetrik. "But what has your friend +Eustace to do with your new functions?" + +"What!" cried Captain Marion, "you ask me what my friend Eustace has to +do with me--you might as well ask what has the sheath of the sword to do +with the blade, the hammer with the handle, the bellows with the forge." + +"You are, in short, bound together by an old and close friendship; we +know it," said Victoria. "Would you desire, captain, to accord some +favor to your friend?" + +"I shall never consent to be separated from him. True enough, he is not +of a gay disposition; he is habitually sullen, often peevish. Still, he +loves me as I do him, and we can not do without each other. Now, then, +it may be considered surprising that the Chief of Gaul should have a +common soldier, a former blacksmith, for his intimate friend and chum. +But as I said to you, Victoria, if I must be separated from my friend +Eustace, the plan falls through--I decline. Only his friendship can +render the burden supportable to me." + +"Is not Schanvoch, my foster-brother, who remained a simple horseman in +the army, a close friend of mine?" observed Victoria. "No one is +astonished at a friendship that does honor to us both. It will be so, +Captain Marion, with you and your old blacksmith friend." + +"And your elevation, Captain Marion, will redouble your mutual +affection," put in Tetrik. "In his tender affection your friend will +rejoice over your elevation perhaps more than yourself." + +"I doubt whether my friend Eustace will greatly rejoice over my +elevation," replied Marion. "Eustace is not ambitious after glory. Far +from it. He loves me, his old companion at the anvil, and not the +captain. But, Victoria, always keep this in mind: The same as to-day you +say to me: 'Marion, you are needed,' never be backward in saying: +'Marion, be gone; you are of no further use; someone else will fill the +place better than you.' I shall understand the slightest hint, and shall +gladly return arm in arm with my friend Eustace to our pot of beer and +our armor. So long, however, as you will say to me: 'Marion, you are +needed,' I shall remain Chief of Gaul"--and smothering a last sigh, +"seeing that you insist that I fill the place." + +"And chief you will long remain to the glory of Gaul," put in Tetrik. +"Believe me, captain, you do not know yourself; your modesty blinds you. +But a few hours hence, when Victoria will propose you to the soldiers as +their general, the acclamation of the whole army will inform you of the +high opinion that is entertained for your merits." + +"The one who will be most astonished at my merits will be myself," +replied the good captain naively. "Well, I have made the promise; it is +promised; count with me, Victoria, you have my word. I shall withdraw--I +shall go to my lodging and wait for my good friend Eustace. It is now +dawn; he is due from the advanced posts, where he has been on guard +since yesterday. He will be uneasy if he does not find me in." + +"Forget not, captain," I said to him, "to ask your friend for the name +of the soldier whom he chose to escort me." + +"I shall remember." + +"And now, adieu," said the Governor of Gascony with a smothered voice to +Victoria. "Adieu; the sun will soon be up. Every minute that I spend +here is torture to me--" + +"Would you not stay in Mayence at least until the ashes of my two +children are returned to the earth?" Victoria asked the governor. "Will +you not accord that religious homage to the memory of those who have +just preceded us to those unknown worlds, where we shall one day meet +them again? Oh! May it please Hesus that that day be soon!" + +"Oh! Our druid faith will always be the consolation of strong souls and +the support of the weak!" answered Tetrik. "Alas! But for the certainty +of meeting again the beings whom we have loved in this world, how much +more dreadful would not their departure in death be to us! Believe me, +Victoria, I shall see long before you, these dear beings whom to-day we +weep. Agreeable to your wishes, I shall render to them to-day, before my +departure, the last homage that is due to them." + +Tetrik and Captain Marion withdrew, leaving Victoria, Sampso and myself +alone. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +FUNERAL PYRES. + + +Left all alone to ourselves, we no longer repressed our tears. In silent +and pious meditation we clad Ellen in her wedding gown, while you, my +child, still slept peacefully. + +In order to attend to the supreme interests of Gaul, Victoria had +heroically curbed her grief. After the departure of Tetrik and Marion +she gave way to the overpowering sorrow that heaved her bosom. She +wished to wash the wounds of her son and grandson with her own hands; +with her maternal hands she wrapped them in the same winding cloth. Two +funeral pyres were raised on the border of the Rhine, one destined for +Victorin and his son, the other for my wife Ellen. + +Towards noon, two war chariots covered with green and accompanied by +several of our venerated female druids proceeded to my house. The body +of my wife Ellen was deposited on one of the two chariots, on the other +the remains of Victorin and his son. + +"Schanvoch," said Victoria to me, "I shall follow on foot the chariot on +which your beloved wife lies. Be merciful, brother, follow on foot the +chariot on which lie the remains of my son and grandson. Before the eyes +of all, you, the outraged husband, will thus be giving a token of pardon +to the memory of Victorin. And I also, will, before the eyes of all, +give token, as a mother, of pardon for the death that, alas! my son but +too fully merited!" + +I understood the touching appeal that lay in that thought of mutual +mercy and pardon. It was so done. A deputation of the cohorts and +legions preceded the funeral procession. I followed the hearses +accompanied by Victoria, Sampso, Tetrik and Marion. The chief officers +of the camp joined us. We marched amidst lugubrious silence. The first +outburst of rage against Victorin having spent itself, the army now only +remembered his bravery, his kindness, his openheartedness. The crowds +saw me, the victim of an outrage that cost Ellen's life, give public +token of pardon to Victorin by my following the hearse that carried his +remains; they also saw his mother following the hearse on which Ellen +reposed, and none had any but words of forgiveness and pity for the +memory of the young general. + +The funeral convoy was approaching the river bank where the two pyres +were raised, when Douarnek, who marched at the head of one of the +deputations of cohorts, profited by a halt in the procession to approach +me. He said with pronounced sadness: + +"Schanvoch, you have my sympathy. Assure Victoria, your sister, that we, +the soldiers, remember only the valor of her glorious son. He has so +long been our beloved son as well. Why did he disregard the frank and +wise words that I carried to him in the name of our whole army, on the +evening after our great battle of the Rhine! Had Victorin taken our +advice and mended his ways, had he reformed, none of these misfortunes +would have happened--" + +"Your words, comrade, will be a consolation to Victoria in her grief," I +answered Douarnek. "But do you know whatever became of the hooded +soldier who committed the barbarity of killing Victorin's child?" + +"Neither I, nor any of those near me at the time when the abominable +crime was committed, was able to catch the felon. He slipped from us in +the tumult and darkness. He fled towards the outposts of the camp, but +there, thanks to the gods, he met with condign punishment." + +"He is dead?" + +"Perhaps you know Eustace, the old blacksmith and friend of our brave +Captain Marion? He was mounting guard last night at the outposts. It +seems that Eustace has a sweetheart in town. Excuse me, Schanvoch, if I +mention to you such matters on so sad an occasion, but you asked me, and +I am answering--" + +"Proceed, friend Douarnek." + +"Well, instead of remaining at his post, and despite the watchword, +Eustace spent a part of the night in Mayence. He was returning at about +an hour before dawn, hoping, as he said to me, that his absence would +have passed unnoticed, when he saw a hooded man running breathlessly +near the posts on the river bank. 'Whither are you running so fast?' he +cried out. 'Those brutes are pursuing me!' was the answer, 'because I +broke the head of Victoria's grandson by dashing it against the +cobble-stones; they want to kill me.' 'And they are right! You deserve +death!' replied Eustace indignantly. Saying this he overtook the +infamous murderer and ran his sword through him. The corpse was found +this morning on the beach with his cloak and hood." + +The soldier's death destroyed my last hope of unraveling the mystery +that hung over that fatal night. + +The remains of Ellen, Victorin and his son were placed upon the pyres, +amidst the chants of the bards and druids. A sheet of flame rose +skyward. When the chants ceased only two heaps of ashes remained. + +The ashes of the pyre of Victorin and his son were piously gathered by +Victoria into a bronze urn, that she placed under a mural tablet bearing +the simple and touching inscription: + + HERE REST THE TWO + +That same evening the two Bohemian girls left Mayence. Tetrick also took +his departure after having exchanged the most touching adieus with +Victoria. Captain Marion was presented to the troops by the Mother of +the Camps and was acclaimed Chief of Gaul and general of the army. The +choice evoked no surprise; moreover, being presented by Victoria, whose +influence had in a manner increased with the death of her son and +grandson, there was no question of his being accepted. The bravery, the +good judgment, the wisdom of Captain Marion were long known and +appreciated by the soldiers. After his acclamation, the new general +pronounced the following words, which I later found reproduced by a +contemporary historian: + +"Comrades, I know that the trade of my youth may be objected to in me. +Let him blame me who wills. Yes, people may twit me all they please with +having been a blacksmith, provided the enemy admits that I have forged +their ruin. But, as to you, my good comrades, never forget that the +chief whom you have just chosen never knew and never will know how to +hold anything but the sword." + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +ASSASSINATION OF MARION. + + +Endowed with rare sagacity, a straightforward and firm nature, and ever +solicitous of the advice of Victoria, Marion's government was marked +with wisdom. The army grew ever more attached to him, and gave him +signal proof of its loyalty and admiration up to the day, exactly two +months after his acclamation, when he, in turn, fell the victim of +another horrible crime. I must narrate to you, my son, the circumstances +of this second crime. It is intimately connected, as you will discover, +with the bloody plot that drew in its vortex all whom I loved and +venerated, leaving you motherless, me a widower, and Victoria desolate. + +Two months had elapsed since the fatal night when my wife Ellen, +Victorin and his son lost their lives. The sight of my house became +insupportable to me; too many were the cruel recollections that +clustered around it. Victoria induced me to move to her house with +Sampso, who took your mother's place with you. + +"Here I am, all alone in the world, separated from my son and grandson +to the end of my days," said my foster-sister to me. "You know, +Schanvoch, all the affection of my life was centered upon those two +beings, so dear to my heart. Do not leave me alone. Come, you, your son +and Sampso, come and stay with me. You will aid me thereby to bear the +burden of my grief." + +At first I hesitated to accept Victoria's offer. Due to a shocking +fatality, I was the slayer of her son. True enough, she knew that, +despite the enormity of Victorin's outrage, I would have spared his +life, had I recognized him. She was aware of and saw the grief that the +involuntary and yet legitimate homicide caused me. Nevertheless, and +horrid was the recollection thereof to her, I had killed her son. I +feared--despite all her protestations, and despite her warmly expressed +desire that I move to her house--that my presence, however much wished +for during the first loneliness of her bereavement, might become cruel +and burdensome to her. Finally I yielded. Often did Sampso, in later +years, say to me: + +"Alas, Schanvoch, it was only after I saw how tenderly you always spoke +of Victorin to his mother, who, in turn, spoke to you of my poor sister +Ellen in the touching terms that she did, that I, together with all +those who knew us, understood and admired what at first seemed +impossible--the intimacy of you and Victoria, the two survivors of those +victims of a cruel fatality!" + +Whenever Victoria sufficiently surmounted her grief to consider the +interests of the country, she applauded herself on having succeeded in +deciding Captain Marion to accept the eminent post of which he daily +proved himself more worthy. She wrote several times to Tetrik in that +sense. He had left the government of Gascony in order to retire with his +son, then about twenty years of age, to a house that he owned near +Bordeaux, and where, as he said, he sought in poetry whatever solace he +could find for the death of Victorin and his son. He composed several +odes on those cruel events. Nothing, indeed, could be more touching than +an ode written by Tetrik on the subject of "The Two Victorins," and sent +by him to Victoria. Accordingly, the letters that he addressed to her +during the two months of Marion's administration were marked with +profound sadness. They expressed in a manner at once so simple, so +delicate and so tender the affection he entertained for her family, and +the sorrow that her bereavement caused him, that my foster-sister's +attachment for her relative increased by the day. Even I shared the +blind confidence that she reposed in him, and forgot the suspicions that +were twice awakened in my mind against the man. Moreover, my suspicions +vanished before the answer made to me by Eustace, when I questioned him +regarding the soldier, my mysterious traveling companion and perpetrator +of the assassination of Victoria's grandson. + +"Commissioned by Captain Marion to provide him with a reliable man for +your escort," Eustace answered me, "I picked out a horseman named +Bertal. He was ordered to wait for you at the city gate. After nightfall +I left the advanced post of the camp contrary to orders and went +secretly into the city. I was on my way thither when I met the soldier +on horseback. He was riding along the bank of the river, and was on the +way to meet you. I told him to say nothing of having met me, should he +run across any of our comrades on the road. He promised secrecy, and I +went my way. Early the next morning, as I was returning along the river +bank from Mayence, where I spent part of the night, I saw Bertal running +towards me. He was on foot; he was fleeing distractedly before the just +rage of our comrades. When I learned from his own mouth the horrible +crime that he even dared to glory in, I killed him on the spot. That is +all I know of the wretch." + +So far from the information clearing up, it obscured still more the +mystery that brooded over that fatal night. The Bohemian girls had +disappeared; and all inquiries set on foot regarding Bertal, my +traveling companion and subsequent perpetrator of such a horrible deed +as the murder of a child, agreed in representing the man as a brave and +honest soldier, incapable of the monstrous deed imputed to him, and +explainable only on the theory of drunkenness or insane fury. + +Accordingly, my son, Marion governed Gaul for two months to the +satisfaction of all. One evening, shortly before sunset, seeking some +diversion from the grief that oppressed me, I took a walk into the woods +near Mayence. I had been walking ahead mechanically a long time, seeking +only silence and seclusion and thus penetrating deeper and deeper into +the wood, when my feet struck an object that I had not noticed. I +tripped and was thus drawn from my sad revery. At my feet lay a casque +the visor and gorget of which were turned up. I recognized on the spot +Marion's casque by those features peculiar to the casque that he wore. I +examined the ground more attentively by the last rays of the sun which +penetrated the foliage with difficulty. I detected traces of blood on +the grass; I followed them; they led to a thicket; I entered it. + +There, stretched upon some tree branches that were bent and broken with +his fall, I saw Marion, bareheaded and bathed in his own blood. I +thought he was dead, or at least unconscious. I was mistaken. As I +stooped to raise him and to give him some aid, my eyes caught his; they +were fixed but still clear, despite approaching dissolution. + +"Go away, Schanvoch!" Marion said in a voice that though fainting +indicated anger. "I dragged myself to this spot in order to die in +peace--I threw myself into this thicket to escape detection. Go away, +Schanvoch! Leave me alone!" + +"Leave you!" I cried, looking at him in stupor and observing that his +blouse was red with blood just above the heart. "Leave you when your +blood is flowing over your clothes, and when your wound is perhaps +mortal!" + +"Oh, perhaps!" replied Marion with a sarcastic smile. "It is certainly +mortal, thanks to the gods!" + +"I shall run to town!" I cried without stopping to consider the distance +that I had just walked, absorbed as I was in my own sorrow. "I shall go +for help!" + +"Ha! Ha! Ha!--to run to the city--and we are two leagues away!" replied +Marion with a lugubrious peal of laughter. "I am not afraid of any help +that you may bring, Schanvoch. I shall be dead in less than a quarter of +an hour. But, in the name of heaven, go away!" + +"Are you resolved to die--did you smite yourself with your sword?" + +"You have said it." + +"No! You are trying to deceive me. Your sword is in its sheath." + +"What is that to you? Go away--" + +"You were struck by an assassin!" I exclaimed as I ran forward and +picked up a sword still bloody, that my eyes just fell upon and that lay +at a little distance. "This is the weapon that was used." + +"I fought in loyal combat--leave me--Schanvoch--" + +"You did not fight, and you did not wound yourself. Your sword lies +beside you in its sheath. No, no! You fell under the blows of some +cowardly assassin. Marion, let me examine your wound. Every soldier is +something of a surgeon--if the flow of blood is staunched it may be +enough to save your life--" + +"Stop the flow of blood!" cried Marion casting at me an angry look. +"Just you try to stop the flow of the blood from my wound, and you will +see how I will receive you--" + +"I shall endeavor to save you," I answered, "despite yourself." + +As I spoke I approached Marion who lay flat upon his back. Just as I +stooped over him he bent both his knees over his stomach and immediately +struck out violently with his feet. The kick took me in the chest and +threw me over upon the grass--so powerful was the expiring Hercules. + +"Will you still bring me help despite myself?" asked Marion as I rose +up, not angry but desolate over his brutality. If I should be overcome +in this sad struggle, it was clear that I would be compelled to give up +the hope of bringing help to the wounded man. + +"Very well! Die!" I said to him, "since such is your wish. Die, since +you forget that Gaul needs your services. But be sure of one thing--your +death will be avenged--we shall discover the name of your assassin--" + +"There has been no assassin--I gave myself the wound--" + +"This sword belongs to someone," I said picking up the weapon. As I +examined it I thought I could see through the blood that covered it that +its blade bore an inscription. To ascertain the fact, I wiped it with +some leaves. While I was engaged at this Marion cried in agony: + +"Will you leave that sword alone! Quit rubbing upon the blade! Oh! My +strength fails me, or I would rise and snatch the weapon from your +hands. A curse upon you, who have come to disturb my last moments! Oh! +It must be the devil who sent you!" + +"It is the gods who sent me!" I cried struck almost dumb with horror. +"It is Hesus who sent me for the punishment of the most horrible of +crimes! A friend slay his friend!" + +"You lie! You lie!" + +"It is Eustace who dealt you the wound!" + +"You lie! Oh! Why am I sinking so fast--I would smother those words in +your cursed throat!" + +"You were struck by this sword, the gift of your friendship to an +infamous murderer--" + +"It is false!" + +"'_Marion forged this sword for his dear friend Eustace_'--that is the +sentence engraved upon this blade," I replied to him pointing with my +finger at the inscription graven in the steel. "This is the sword that +you forged yourself." + +"The inscription proves nothing," observed Marion in great anguish. "The +man who struck me stole the sword from my friend Eustace--that's all." + +"You still seek to screen that man! Oh! There will be no punishment too +severe for the cowardly murderer!" + +"Listen, Schanvoch," replied Marion in a sinking and suppliant voice: "I +am about to die--nothing is denied to an expiring man--" + +"Oh! Speak! Speak, good and brave soldier. Seeing that, to the +misfortune of Gaul, fatality prevents me from saving you, speak! I shall +execute your last will--" + +"Schanvoch, the oath that soldiers give each other at the moment of +death--is sacred, is it not?" + +"Yes, my brave Marion." + +"Swear to me--that you will reveal to no one that you found here the +sword of my friend Eustace." + +"You, his victim--and you wish to save him!" + +"Promise me, Schanvoch, that you will do as I ask you--" + +"Save the monster from condign punishment! Never! No, a thousand times +no!" + +"Schanvoch, I implore you--" + +"Your murder shall be avenged--" + +"Be, then, yourself accursed! You who say 'No!' to the prayer of an +expiring man--to the prayer of an old soldier--who weeps--you see it. Is +it agony?--is it weakness?--I know not, but I weep--" + +And large drops of tears rolled down his face that gradually grew more +livid. + +"Good Marion, your kindheartedness distresses me! You, imploring mercy +for your murderer!" + +"Who else would take an interest in the unhappy fellow--if I did not?" +he answered with an expression of ineffable mercifulness. + +"Oh! Marion, those words are worthy of the young man of Nazareth, whom +my ancestress Genevieve saw put to death in Jerusalem!" + +"Friend Schanvoch--mercy--you will say nothing--I rely upon your +promise--" + +"No! No! Your celestial mercifulness only renders the crime more +atrocious. No pity for the monster who slew his friend!" + +"Go away from me!" feebly murmured Marion, sobbing. + +"It is you who harrow my last moments! Eustace only slew my body--but +you, pitiless before my agony, you torture my very soul!" + +"Your despair distresses me--and yet listen, Marion. It is not merely +the friend, the old friend that the assassin struck at--" + +"For twenty-three years we never left each other's side, Eustace and I," +Marion mumbled moaning. + +"No, it is not the friend only that the monster struck in striking you, +it was also, and perhaps especially, the Chief of Gaul and general of +the army that he aimed at. The mysterious cause of this crime may be of +deep interest to the country's future. The mystery must be fathomed, +uncovered--" + +"Schanvoch, you do not know Eustace. He cared little, I know, whether or +not I was Chief of Gaul or general of the army. Moreover, what does that +concern me--now, when I am about to live in yonder new worlds? All I ask +of you is that you grant me this last request--do not denounce my friend +Eustace. I implore you with clasped hands--" + +"Granted! I shall keep the secret, but under one condition, that you +inform me how the crime was committed." + +"How can you have the heart to drive such a bargain--the peace of +mind--a dying man--" + +"The welfare of Gaul may be at stake, I tell you! Everything points to +an infernal plot in this dark affair, the first victims of which were +Victorin and his son. That is why I insist upon learning from you the +details of this atrocious murder." + +"Schanvoch--a minute ago I could still distinguish your face--the color +of your clothes--now I see before me only a vague shape. Make haste, +make haste!" + +"Answer--how was the crime committed? By Hesus, tell me, and I swear to +you I shall keep the secret--not otherwise." + +"Schanvoch--my good friend--" + +"Was Eustace acquainted with Tetrik?" + +"Eustace never as much as spoke to him--" + +"Are you certain?" + +"Eustace told me so--he ever felt--without knowing why--an aversion for +the governor--I was not surprised at that. Eustace loved only me--" + +"And he killed you! Speak, and I swear to you, by Hesus, that I shall +keep the secret--otherwise, not!" + +"I shall speak--but your silence on the matter will not suffice me. A +score of times I proposed to my friend Eustace to share my purse--he met +my tender with insults. Oh! his is not a venal soul--not his--he has no +money--he must surely be without any resources whatever--how will he be +able to flee?" + +"I shall help him to flee--I shall furnish him the money that he may +need--I shall be only too glad to rid the camp of such a monster with +all possible speed!" + +"A monster!" murmured Marion reproachfully. "You are very severe towards +Eustace." + +"How did he manage to inflict a mortal wound upon you, and what was his +reason? Answer my question." + +"Since I was acclaimed Chief of Gaul and general, my friend Eustace +became more peevish than ever before, and more sullen--than he usually +was--he feared, poor soul, that my elevation would make me proud--" + +Marion choked in his speech. Throwing his arms about at random, he +called out: + +"Schanvoch, where are you?" + +"Here I am, close to you--" + +"I see you no longer," he said in a sinking voice. "Lean my back against +a tree--I am--smothering--" + +With no little difficulty I did what Marion desired; his Herculean body +was heavy. Finally, however, I succeeded in drawing him up with his back +against the nearest tree. Reclined against it, Marion continued in a +voice that steadily grew feebler: + +"In the measure that--the ill temper of my friend Eustace increased--I +sought to show myself even more friendly than usual towards him. I could +understand his apprehensions. Already, when I was only a captain, he +could not bring himself to treat me as his former companion at the +anvil. When I became general and Chief of Gaul he took me for a +potentate. As to myself, certain that I esteemed him none the less--I +always laughed in his face at his rudeness--I laughed--I did wrong--the +poor fellow was suffering. To make it short--to-day he said to me: +'Marion, it is a long time since we took a walk together, shall we take +a stroll in the woods, near the city?' I had a conference with Victoria. +But fearing to displease my friend Eustace, I wrote to the Mother of the +Camps, excusing myself--and he and I started on our walk arm in arm. I +was reminded of the days of our apprenticeship in the forest of +Chartres--where we used to go to trap magpies. I felt buoyant--and +despite my grey beard--knowing that nobody saw us--I indulged in all +manner of boyish tricks in order to amuse Eustace. I mimicked, as in the +days of our boyhood, the cry of--the magpies--by blowing upon a leaf +held close to my lips. I did other monkey tricks of the same nature--It +was singular--I never felt in better spirits than to-day--Eustace, on +the contrary did not move--a muscle of his face--not--a smile could be +extracted from him. We were a few steps from here, he behind me--he +called me--I turned around--and you will see, Schanvoch, that there +could not have been any wicked purpose on his part--only insanity--pure +insanity. The moment that I turned around he threw himself upon me sword +in hand--and--as he plunged the weapon into my side he cried: 'Do you +recognize this sword, you who forged it yourself?' I admit--I was not a +little surprised--I fell under the blow--I called out to my friend +Eustace: 'What ails you? Explain yourself at least. Have I offended you +in aught without knowing?' But I was only speaking--to the trees--the +poor crazy man had vanished--leaving his sword beside me--another +evidence of insanity--the weapon--you will notice--Schanvoch--the +weapon--bore on the blade the inscription: 'Marion forged this sword for +his dear friend Eustace.'" + +These were the last intelligible words of the good and brave soldier. He +expired a few minutes later uttering incoherent words, among which these +recurred with greatest frequency: + +"Eustace," "flee," "save yourself." + +After Marion had given up the ghost, I hastened back to Mayence in order +to notify Victoria of the occurrence, nor did I conceal from her that my +suspicions again pointed to Tetrik as having a hand in the plot. The +man, I explained, left again vacant the government of Gaul by the +removal of Marion, after Victorin and his son were gotten out of the +way. Although desolate by the death of Marion, my foster-sister +combated my suspicions with regard to Tetrik. She reminded me that I +myself, more than two months before the murder of Marion, was so struck +by the expression of hatred and envy betrayed by the face and words of +the captain's old companion, that I said to her before Tetrik that +Marion must be very much blinded by his affection to fail to perceive +that his friend was devoured by implacable jealousy. Victoria shared the +opinion of the good Marion, that the crime to which he had fallen a +victim had no other cause than the envious hatred of Eustace, who was +driven to the point of insanity by the more recent elevation of his +friend. Besides, a singular coincidence, on that same day my +foster-sister received from Tetrik, then on his way to Italy, a letter +in which he informed her that seeing his health was daily declining, the +physicians saw but one chance of safety for him--a trip to some southern +country. For that reason he was on the way to Rome with his son. + +These facts, Tetrik's conduct since the death of Victorin, the touching +letters that he wrote, together with what seemed to be the irrefutable +arguments advanced by Victoria, once more overthrew my mistrust toward +the Governor of Gascony. I also arrived at the conclusion, which was +certainly justified on the face of the events, that, in view of the +previous behavior of Eustace, the atrocious murder committed by him had +no other motive than a savage jealousy, that was driven to the point of +insanity by the recent distinction that fell to the lot of his friend. + +I kept the promise that I made to the good and brave Marion at the hour +of his death. His assassination was attributed to some unknown murderer, +but not to Eustace. I took the man's sword with me to Victoria; no +suspicion was drawn to the actual felon, who was never more seen either +at Mayence, or in the camp. Marion's remains, wept over by the whole +army, received the pompous military honors due to a general and a Chief +of Gaul. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE TRAITOR UNMASKED. + + +The direst day of my life since that on which I accompanied the remains +of Victorin, his son and my beloved wife Ellen to the funeral pyre that +was to consume them, was the day on which the following events took +place. They happened, my son, two hundred and sixty years after our +ancestress Genevieve saw the young man of Nazareth die upon the cross, +and five years after the assassination of Marion, the successor of +Victorin in the government of Gaul. + +Victoria no longer lived in Mayence, but in Treves, a large and +magnificent Gallic city situated on this side of the Rhine. I continued +to live with my foster-sister. Sampso, who served you as a mother since +the death of my never-to-be-forgotten Ellen, Sampso became my second +wife. On the evening of our marriage she admitted to me a fact of which +I never had any doubt--that having always felt a secret inclination for +me, she had decided never to marry, and to share her life with Ellen, +you, my child, and myself. + +My wife's death; the affection and profound esteem that Sampso inspired +in me; her virtues; the kindnesses that she heaped upon you; the love +with which you reciprocated her tenderness towards you--you loved her as +a mother, whose place she worthily filled; the requirements of your +education; finally also the urgent requests of Victoria, who valuing +the qualities of Sampso, warmly urged the union;--all these +circumstances combined to induce me to propose marriage to your aunt. +She accepted. But for the distressing recollections of the death of +Victorin and Ellen, of whom not a day passed but we spoke with tears in +our eyes; but for the incurable grief of Victoria, whose mind ever +turned upon her son and grandson;--but for these circumstances I would, +after so many misfortunes, have re-embraced happiness when I embraced +Sampso as my wife. + +Accordingly, I shared Victoria's house in the city of Treves. The sun +had just risen; I was engaged with some writing for the Mother of the +Camps, seeing that I continued my offices near her. Her confidential +servant, called Mora, stepped into the room. The girl claimed to have +been born in Mauritania, whence her name of Mora. Like the inhabitants +of that region, her complexion was bronzed, almost black, like a +Negro's. Nevertheless, despite the somber hue of her face, she was +handsome and young. Since the four years (remember the date, my son), +since the four years that Mora served my foster-sister, she gained her +mistress's affection by her zeal, her reserve and her devotion that +seemed proof against all temptation to change her quarters. +Occasionally, seeking some diversion from her sorrows, Victoria would +ask Mora to sing, because the girl's voice was of remarkable sweetness +and sadness. One of the officers of the army who had been as far as the +Danube, said to us one day as he heard Mora sing, that he had heard +those peculiar songs in the mountains of Bohemia. Mora seemed startled, +and said that she learned the songs she was singing as a little child in +the country of Mauritania. + +"Schanvoch," said Mora to me, "my mistress wishes to speak to you." + +"I shall follow you, Mora." + +"But before you go, one word, I beg you." + +"Speak--what is it?" + +"You are the friend, the foster-brother of my mistress--what affects her +affects you--" + +"Undoubtedly--what are you driving at?" + +"You left my mistress last night after having spent the evening with +her, your wife and son--" + +"Yes--and Victoria withdrew to her room, as usual." + +"Now listen--a short time after your departure, I took to her room a man +wrapped in a cloak. After a conversation with the unknown man, that +lasted deep into the night, instead of going to bed, my mistress was so +agitated that she walked up and down the room until morning." + +"Who can that man be?" I asked myself aloud, yielding to my +astonishment. Victoria was not in the habit of keeping any secrets from +me. "What mystery is this?" + +Mora believed that I questioned her, an act of indiscretion on my part +that I would have carefully guarded against, out of respect for +Victoria. The girl answered: + +"After your departure, Schanvoch, my mistress said to me: 'Go out by the +garden gate. Wait at the little door. You will soon hear a rap. A man in +a cloak will present himself--bring him to me--and not a word upon this +to anyone whatever--'" + +"You should, then, have abstained from making the confidence to me." + +"Perhaps I am wrong in not keeping the secret, even from you, Schanvoch, +the devoted friend and brother of my mistress. But she seemed to me so +agitated after the departure of the mysterious personage, that I thought +it my duty to tell you all. There is another reason why I decided to +speak to you. I led the man back to the garden gate--I walked a few +steps ahead of him--he seemed to be in a towering rage, and he dropped +terrible threats against my mistress. It was this that determined me to +reveal to you the secret of the interview." + +"Did you notify Victoria of the threats made against her?" + +"No--I was hardly back to her when she brusquely--she who is otherwise +so gentle towards me--ordered me to leave the room. I withdrew to a +contiguous apartment, and from there I could hear my mistress walk the +room all night in great agitation until dawn when she finally threw +herself upon her couch. A minute ago she called me in and ordered me to +bring you to her. Oh! If you had seen her! She looked so pale and +somber! I thought it best to reveal to you all that had happened--" + +I hastened to Victoria in a state of great alarm. The sight of her +struck me painfully. Mora had not exaggerated. + +Before proceeding with the thread of this narrative, and to the end of +helping you to understand it, my son, I must give you some details upon +the special arrangement of Victoria's chamber. In the rear of the +spacious apartment was a species of niche covered with heavy curtains. +In that niche, whither my foster-sister frequently retired in order to +think of those whom she had loved so much, hung the casques and swords +of her father, her husband and her son Victorin, over the symbols of our +druid faith. In the niche also stood--a dear and precious relic--the +cradle of the grandson of this woman, whom misfortune had so sorely +tried. + +Victoria stepped towards me, reached out her hand, and said in a +faltering voice: + +"Brother, for the first time in my life I have kept a secret from you; +brother, for the first time in my life I am about to resort to ruse and +dissimulation." + +She then took me by the hand, led me to the niche, drew back the heavy +curtain that closed it from sight, and added: + +"Every minute is precious; step into that niche; remain there silent, +motionless, and lose not a word of all that you shall hear. I hide you +in time in order to remove suspicion." + +The curtains of the niche closed upon me; I remained in the dark; for a +while I heard only Victoria's steps over the floor as she walked the +room in evident agitation. I was in my hiding place for over half an +hour when I heard the door of Victoria's room open and close. Someone +stepped in and said: + +"Greeting to Victoria the Great!" + +It was Tetrik's voice, the same mellifluous and insinuating voice. The +following conversation took place between him and Victoria. As she +recommended to me, I engraved every word in my memory, and that same day +I transcribed them, realizing the gravity of the dialogue. Another +circumstance which I shall presently inform you of dictated the +precaution to me. + +"Greeting to Victoria the Great," said the former Governor of Gascony. + +"Greeting to you, Tetrik." + +"Did the night bring counsel, Victoria?" + +"Tetrik," answered Victoria in a perfectly calm voice that was in strong +contrast with the agitation under which I had just seen her laboring, +"Tetrik, you are a poet?" + +"It is true--I sometimes seek in the cultivation of letters a little +recreation from the cares of state--especially from my undying sorrow +over the untimely departure of our glorious Victorin, whom, contrary to +my expectations, I have survived. I must repeat it to you, Victoria, let +us not speak of that young hero, whom I loved with the deep love of a +father. I had two sons; I have only one left to me.--I am a poet, say +you? Alas! Fain would I be one of those geniuses who render immortal the +heroes of their songs--Victorin would then live in all posterity as he +lives in the hearts of those who knew and mourn for him! But why do you +broach the subject of verses? Have they any connection with the subject +that brings me back to you this morning?" + +"Like all poets--you surely read your verses many times over in order to +correct them--and then you forget them, if the term can be used, to the +end that when you read them over anew, you may be struck all the more +forcibly by anything that may hurt your eyes or ears." + +"Certes, after having written some ode under the inspiration of the +moment, it has sometimes happened to me that, as the saying is, I let my +verses sleep for several months, and then, reading them over again, was +shocked at things that had at first escaped me. But poetry is not the +question before us." + +"There is, indeed, a great advantage in first letting thoughts sleep and +then taking them up again," answered my foster-sister with a phlegma +that surprised me more and more. "Yes, the method is a good one. That +which, under the heat of inspiration may not have at first wounded +us--sometimes shocks our senses when the inspiration has cooled down. If +the test is useful in the instance of frivolous matters like verses, +should it not be all the more useful when grave matters affecting our +lives are concerned?" + +"Victoria, I do not grasp your meaning!" + +"I yesterday received from you a letter that ran thus: 'This evening I +shall be in Treves unknown to anybody. I conjure you, in the name of the +most vital interests of our beloved country, to receive me in secrecy, +and not to mention the matter to anyone, not even to your friend +Schanvoch. Towards midnight I shall await your answer. I shall be found +wrapped in my cloak near your garden gate.'" + +"And you granted me the interview, Victoria. Unfortunately for me it led +to no decisive results, and so, instead of my returning to Mayence, as I +should have done, I find myself compelled to remain at Treves, seeing +you demanded time until this morning to arrive at a conclusion." + +"I shall be unable to arrive at any conclusion before submitting your +proposition to the test that we just spoke of. Tetrik, I let your offers +sleep, or rather I slept with them. Repeat to me, now, what you said to +me last night. Mayhap what wounded me then may no longer seem so +objectionable--" + +"Victoria, can you joke at such a moment?" + +"She who, even before having had to weep over her father and her +husband, over her son and her grandson, rarely laughed--such a woman +will assuredly not choose the hour of eternal mourning to indulge in +jokes. Believe me, Tetrik, I repeat it, your last night's propositions +seemed so extraordinary to me, they have thrown my mind into such +perplexity, they have raised such strange thoughts, that instead of +uttering myself under the shock of my first impressions, I prefer to +forget all that we said, and to listen to you once more, as if you +broached those matters for the first time." + +"Victoria, your eminent intellect, your powerful mind that has always +been prompt and unerring in taking a decision, did not, I must confess, +prepare me for such caution and hesitation." + +"Simply because never before in my life, now a long one, have I been +called upon to utter myself upon questions of such moment." + +"Pray, remember that yesterday--" + +"I wish to remember nothing. To me our last night's interview is as if +it had not been. Consider that it is now midnight, Mora has just let you +in by the garden gate, and has brought you to me. Speak--I listen." + +"Victoria--what is it that you have in mind?" + +"Be careful--if you refuse to broach the matter in full, I might give +you the answer that my first impressions dictated--and you know, Tetrik, +that when I once utter myself, I do so irrevocably." + +"Your first impression is, accordingly, unfavorable," cried Tetrik in an +accent of anguish. "Oh! It would be a misfortune, a great misfortune!" + +"Speak, then, if it is your desire to avert the misfortune." + +"Be it as you desire, Victoria, although such singular conduct on your +part disturbs me. You desire it? I shall satisfy you--our last night's +interview did not take place--I see you now for the first time after a +rather long absence, although a frequent exchange of correspondence kept +us in close touch with each other, and I say to you: It is now five +years ago since, struck at my very heart by the death of Victorin--a +fatal event, that carried away the hopes I entertained for the glory of +Gaul--I lay almost dying in Italy, at Rome, whither my son accompanied +me. According to the opinion of the physicians, the trip was to restore +my health. They erred. My ailments increased. It pleased God that a +Christian priest, whom a recently converted friend secretly introduced +into my house, succeeded in reaching my bedside. The faith enlightened +me--and, while enlightening me, performed a miracle--it saved me from +death. I returned, so to speak, to a new life with a new religion. My +son abjured, as I did, only in secret, the false gods that we had until +then adored. At that stage I received a letter from you, Victoria. You +informed me of the assassination of Marion. Guided by you, and as I had +expected, he had governed Gaul wisely. I remained overwhelmed by such +tidings; they were as distressing as they were unexpected. You conjured +me in the name of the most sacred interests of our country to return to +Gaul. None, you said to me, was capable of replacing Marion except +myself. You even went further. I alone, in the new and peaceful era that +opened to our country, could promote her prosperity by taking the reins +of government. You made a vehement appeal to my old friendship for you, +to my devotion for our country. I left Rome with my son. A month later I +was near you at Mayence. You pledged me your far-reaching influence with +the army--you were what you still are, the Mother of the Camps. +Presented by you to the army I was acclaimed by it. Yes, thanks to you +alone, I, a civil governor, who in my life had never touched a sword, I +was acclaimed the sole Chief of Gaul, and you boldly and proudly +declared on that day to the Emperor that Gaul, strong and feared, and +henceforth independent, would render obedience only to a Gallic chief, +freely elected. Engaged at the time in his disastrous war in the Orient +against Queen Zenobia, your heroic peer, the Emperor yielded. I alone +governed our country. Ruper, an old and tried general in the wars of the +Rhine, was placed in command of the troops. In its undying idolatry for +you, the army wished to keep you in its midst. I was engaged in +developing in Gaul the blessings of peace. Always faithful to the +Christian faith, I did not consider it politic to make a public +confession of my belief, and I concealed from even you, Victoria, my +conversion to a religion whose Pope is in Rome. Since the last five +years Gaul has been prospering at home, and is respected abroad. I +established the seat of my government and of the senate at Bordeaux, +while you remained with the army, which covers our frontier, and is ever +ready to repel either new invasions attempted by the Franks, or any +attack undertaken by the Romans, should the latter attempt to curtail +the complete independence that we enjoy and conquered so dearly. As you +know, Victoria, I always sought inspiration from your eminent wisdom, +either by visiting you in Treves, after you left Mayence, or through +correspondence with you upon the affairs of the country. But I indulge +in no delusions, Victoria; I am proud to admit the truth; it was only +your powerful hand that raised me to headship; it is only your hand that +keeps me there. Yes, from the seclusion of her modest retreat in Treves, +the Mother of the Camps is in fact the Empress of Gaul--despite the +power that I enjoy, I am only your first subject. That rapid glance over +the past was necessary in order to clearly formulate the present--" + +"Proceed, Tetrik, I am listening attentively." + +"The deplorable death of Victorin and his son, the assassination of +Marion, all these catastrophes tell you upon how slender a thread +elective sovereignty hangs. Gaul is at peace; her brave army is more +devoted to you than it has ever been to any of its generals; it overawes +our enemies; all that our beautiful country now stands in need of, in +order to reach the highest pinnacle of prosperity, is stability. The +country needs an authority that will not be dependent upon the caprice +of an election, which, however intelligent to-day, may be stupid +to-morrow. We need a government that is not personified in a man, ever +at the mercy of those who elected him, or of the dagger of an assassin. +The monarchic institution, based as it is, not upon a man, but upon a +principle, existed in Gaul centuries ago. It alone could to-day impart +to the nation the vigor and prosperity that it lacks. Victoria, you +dispose of the army, I govern the country. Let us join our strength for +a common aim--the insurance of our glorious country's future; let us +join, not our bodies--I am old, while you are still handsome and young, +Victoria--but our souls before a priest of the new religion. Embrace +Christianity, become my wife before God--and proclaim us, yourself +Empress, me Emperor of the Gauls. The army will have but one voice in +favor of elevating you upon a throne--you will reign alone and without +sharing your power with anyone. As to me, you know it, I have no +ambition to subserve. Despite my idle title of Emperor, I shall continue +to be your first vassal. As to my son, we shall adopt him for our +successor to the throne. He is of marriageable age; we shall choose for +him some sovereign alliance--and the monarchy of Gaul will be +established for all time. That, Victoria, was the proposal that I made +to you last night--I repeat it to-day. I have again laid my projects +bare before you and in the interest of our country. Adopt the plan; it +is the fruit of long years of meditation--and Gaul will march at the +head of the nations of the world." + +A long silence on the part of my foster-sister followed these words of +her relative. She then replied with the calmness that marked her words +since the entrance of Tetrik into the room: + +"It was a wise inspiration that caused me to wish to hear you a second +time, Tetrik. You abjured in favor of the new religion the ancient +religion of our fathers; but almost all Gaul is still loyal to the druid +faith." + +"Hence it is that I considered it politic to keep my abjuration a +secret, and in this I have acted in accord with the views of the Pope of +Rome. But if you should accept my offer, and should yourself abjure your +idolatry at our marriage, I shall then loudly proclaim my new belief, +and, according to the opinion of the bishops, our conversion will draw +in its wake the conversion of our people. Moreover I have the promise of +the bishops that they will glorify you as a saint with all the +magnificent pomp of the new Church. And, believe me, Victoria, a power +that is consecrated in the name of God by the Gallic prelates and by the +Pope of Rome, will be clothed in the eyes of the people with almost +divine authority." + +"Tell me, Tetrik; you abjured the belief of our fathers in favor of the +new, in favor of the gospel preached by the young man of Nazareth who +was crucified two centuries ago. I have read that gospel. An ancestress +of Schanvoch's witnessed the last days of Jesus, the friend of the slave +and the afflicted. Now, then, nowhere have I found in the gentle and +divine words of the young master of Nazareth aught but exhortations to +renounce wealth, to meekness, to equality among men--and here are you, +a fervent and recent convert, dreaming of royalty! The young man of +Nazareth, so sweet, so tender of the sufferers, the sinners and the +oppressed as he was, nevertheless broke out at times into terrible +threats against the rich, the powerful, the worldly happy--above all and +always he thundered against the princes of the church whom he branded as +infamous hypocrites--and, here are you, a fervent and recent convert, +seeking to place the royalty that you are striving after under the +consecration of just such princes of the church, the bishops! The young +man of Nazareth said to his disciples: 'When you pray, enter into your +closet, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father which is +in secret, and your Father which sees in secret will reward you +openly'--and here are you, a fervent and recent convert, proposing to me +to render our abjuration and prayers in public, pompously and solemnly, +seeing that the bishops are to glorify my conversion in the face of the +world. Truly, my feeble intellect, still closed to the light of the new +faith, is unable to reconcile such shocking contradictions." + +"Nothing more simple. The gospel of our Lord--" + +"Of what 'Lord' do you speak, Tetrik?" + +"Of our Lord Jesus Christ, the son of God, or rather the incarnate God." + +"How the times have changed! During his life the young man of Nazareth +did not call himself 'Lord'--far from it; he called himself the son of +God, in the sense that our druid faith teaches us that we are all +children of the same God. And in line with the teachings of our druids +he declared that our spirit, emancipated of its terrestrial bonds, +proceeds to unknown worlds where it animates rejuvenated bodies." + +"The times have changed--you are right, Victoria. Taken in an absolute +sense, the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ would be but a weapon of +eternal rebellion in the hands of the poor against the rich, the servant +against his lord, the people against their chiefs--it would be the +negation of all authority. Creeds on the contrary have the mission to +strengthen authority." + +"I am aware of that. In the days of their primitive barbarism, and +before they became the sublimest of men, our druids rendered themselves +redoubtable to the ignorant, struck them with terror, and crushed them +under their yoke. But the young man of Nazareth smote the atrocious +knavery when he indignantly denounced the princes of the church saying: +'They bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's +shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their +fingers.' All the more, if he is God, should his words be held sacred. +You speak, Tetrik, very much after the fashion of the Pharisees of old, +who caused the young man of Nazareth to be crucified." + +"Those are only sentimental views. Cultured minds, like yours, will +understand the true meaning of those bitter criticisms, and the violent +attacks of our Lord against the rich, the powerful and the priests of +his days. His sermons in favor of community of property, his exaggerated +mercifulness towards women of ill fame, the debauched, the prodigals, +the vagabonds--in short, his preference for the dregs of the population +with which he surrounded himself are not the means of government and +authority. The priests and bishops of the new faith alone are able, by +means of their sermons, skilfully to turn off the dangerous current of +the thought of equality among men, of hatred against the mighty, of +dispossessment against the rich, of liberty, of fraternity, of +community of goods, of tolerance for the guilty--a fatal current that +takes its source in certain passages of the gospel, which vulgar minds +wrongfully interpret." + +"And yet it is in the name of those generous thoughts that so many +martyrs have died in the past, and are still sacrificing their lives!" + +"Alas, yes! Jesus our Lord has remained for them the carpenter of +Nazareth, who was put to death for having defended the poor, the slaves, +the oppressed, the sinners, against those who then enjoyed power; he +promised the former the goods of the latter saying that the day would +come when 'the first would be the last.' It is for that reason that +these martyrs preach with unconquerable heroism the doctrines of Jesus, +the friend of the poor, the enemy of the mighty. The interests of both +the present and the future, accordingly, dictate to you that you accept +my offer. I resume: Take me for your husband; embrace the new faith, as +I did; have yourself and me proclaimed Emperor and Empress; adopt my son +and his posterity. All Gaul will follow our example and become +Christians; we shall heap privileges and wealth upon the bishops, and +they will consecrate in us the most sovereign and absolute authority +ever vested in any emperor or empress!" + +At this point, Victoria's voice, that until then was calm and collected, +broke out indignant and threatening: + +"Tetrik! The compact that you are proposing to me is +sacrilegious--infamous! Yesterday I thought you were demented--to-day, +when you repeat your proposition and expose to my gaze, even clearer +than you did before, the abysmal depths of your infernal soul, I see in +you a monster of ambition and of felony! At this hour the past lights +up the present before me, and the present lights the future! Blessed be +you, Hesus! I was not alone when this plot was unrolled to my ears! You +inspired me, Oh, Hesus! I wished to have a witness, who, in case of +need, could verify the reality of this monstrous proposal--Victoria +herself would not be believed upon her unsupported testimony when she +uncovers such dark designs! Come, brother--come, Schanvoch!" + +At Victoria's call I presented myself, crying: + +"Sister, I no longer say as I once did: 'I suspect this man!' To-day I +accuse the criminal!" + +"Schanvoch!" answered Tetrik disdainfully, "your accusations are stale. +This is not the first time that such silly words have dropped before my +contempt--" + +"I formerly only suspected you, Tetrik," I said determinedly, "of having +by your machinations brought on the death of Victorin and his son, who +was still in his cradle. To-day I accuse you of that horrible plot. I +prefer against you the charge of murder!" + +"Take care!" Tetrik answered pale, somber and with a threatening +gesture. "Take care! My power is great--I can annihilate you--" + +"Brother," Victoria said to me, "your thought is mine--speak without +fear--I also have power." + +"Tetrik," I proceeded, "I once only suspected you of being at the bottom +of Marion's assassination--to-day I accuse you of that crime also!" + +"Crazy wretch! Where are the proofs of the charges that you have the +audacity to hurl at me?" + +"Oh! You are prudent and skilful as well as patient. You break your +tools in the dark after having used them--" + +"Those are idle words," answered Tetrik with icy coolness. "Your proofs, +where are they! I laugh at your impotent threats." + +"The proofs!" cried Victoria. "They are embodied in your sacrilegious +propositions. You conceived the project of being the hereditary emperor +of Gaul long before Victorin's death; your proposition of having my +grandson acclaimed the heir of his father's office was a lure meant at +once to lead me off the scent of your designs and to furnish the first +step of the ladder that you meant to climb." + +"Victoria, anger is blinding you! What a bungler would I have been--if, +indeed, the ambitious object that I pursued was a hereditary throne for +myself--to advise you to vest the power in your own stock--" + +"Aye! For one thing, the principle would have been accepted by the army. +For another, once hereditary power was established for the future, you +would have rid yourself of my son and grandson, in the manner that you +did--by assassination. It is all now clear before me. That cursed +Bohemian girl was your instrument; she was sent to Mayence in order to +seduce my son, in order to drive him with her refusals to the infamous +act that the creature demanded as the price of her favors. The crime +once committed, my son would either be killed by Schanvoch, who was +hastily called back to Mayence that very night, or he would be slain by +the army, which received timely notice and was lashed to fury by your +emissaries--" + +"Proofs--proofs--Victoria! Proofs!" + +"I have none, yet I state the facts! You managed to have my grandson +killed the same night--torn from my arms. My stock is extinguished. Your +first step towards empire was marked in blood. You thereupon declined +power, and proposed the elevation of Marion. Oh! I admit it! Before that +prodigy of infernal cunning, my suspicions, which were for a moment +aroused, melted away. Two months after his acclamation as Chief of Gaul, +Marion fell under the sword of an execrable assassin, your instrument +again--" + +"Proofs!" broke in Tetrik impassibly. "Furnish the proofs!" + +"I have none, yet I state the facts. You remained the only available +candidate for the office--Victorin, his son and Marion were killed. +Thereupon, I unwittingly became your accomplice. I urged you to accept +the government of the country. You triumphed, but only in part; you +governed; but, you said it, you were but the first subject of the Mother +of the Camps. Oh! I perceive it clearly! The hour has come when my power +stands in your way. The army, Gaul, accepted Tetrik for their chief upon +my request. It was not they who chose you. With one word I can break +you, the same as I raised you to the place that you now are in. Blinded +by ambition you judged my heart after your own; you thought me capable +of wishing to exchange my influence over the army for the crown of an +empress, and of enthroning my stock. You have entered into a dark +compact with the Pope and bishops, looking to the eventual brutification +and enslavement of this proud Gallic people which freely chooses its +chiefs, and remains faithful to the religion of our fathers. Why, +centuries ago this people broke the yoke of kingship through the sacred +hands of Ritha-Gaur, and yet you now scheme to impose upon it a hated +domination by allying your self with the new Church! Very well, I, +Victoria, the Mother of the Camps, accuse you before the people in arms +of intriguing for the subjugation of Gaul! I accuse you of having +denied the faith of our fathers! I accuse you of entering into a secret +alliance with the bishops! I accuse you of wishing to usurp the imperial +crown and to render it hereditary in your family! I shall bring these +charges against you before the people in arms, and shall pronounce you a +traitor, a renegade, a murderer, a usurper! I shall demand on the spot +that you be tried by the senate, and punished with death for your +crimes!" + +The vehemence of the accusations of my foster-sister notwithstanding, +Tetrik maintained his habitual composure. For a moment he had dropped +the mask and flown at me with threats. Now he was himself again. Raising +his hands heavenward, he answered with the most unctuous voice that he +could summon: + +"Victoria, I considered the project that I submitted to you advantageous +to Gaul--let us drop it. You accuse me; I am ready to answer for my acts +before the senate and the army. Should my death, decreed at your +instigation, be of any service to my country, I shall not refuse to you +the few days of life that are still left to me. I shall await the +decision of the senate. Adieu, Victoria. The future will tell which of +us two, you or I, understood the country's interests better, and loved +Gaul with the wiser love." + +Saying this he took a step toward the door. I dashed forward ahead of +him, barred his passage and said: + +"You shall not go out! You mean to flee from the punishment that is due +to your crimes--" + +Tetrik looked me from head to feet with icy haughtiness, and half +turning towards Victoria, said: + +"What! In your house, violence is attempted upon an old man! Upon a +relative who comes to you unsuspecting--" + +"I shall respect that which is considered sacred in all +countries--hospitality," answered the Mother of the Camps. "You came to +me freely, you shall go out freely." + +"Sister!" I cried. "Be careful! Your confidence has proved fatal once +before--" + +Victoria interrupted me with a gesture, and said bitterly: + +"You are right--my confidence has been fatal to the country; it weighs +upon my heart with remorse--but fear not this time." + +Saying this she rang the bell. Mora entered almost immediately. Her +mistress whispered a few words in her ear and the servant quickly went +out again. + +"Tetrik," Victoria proceeded, "I have sent for Captain Paul and several +officers. They will come here for you. They will accompany you to your +lodging--you shall not leave the place but to appear before your +judges." + +"My judges! Who are to be my judges?" + +"The army will appoint a tribunal--that tribunal will judge you." + +"I can be tried only by the senate." + +"If the military tribunal finds you guilty, you will then be sent before +the senate; if the military tribunal acquits you, you will be free. Only +divine vengeance will then be able to reach you." + +Mora re-entered the room to inform her mistress that her orders were +issued to Captain Paul. Afterwards I remembered, but, alas! too late, +that Mora exchanged a few words in a low voice with Tetrik who sat near +the door. + +"Schanvoch," Victoria said to me, "did you hear well the conversation +that I had with Tetrik?" + +"Perfectly. I lost not one word." + +"Transcribe it faithfully." + +And turning to the Chief of Gaul she said: + +"That will be the indictment that I shall bring against you. It shall be +read before the military tribunal that is to sit in judgment upon you." + +"Victoria," Tetrik replied calmly, "listen to the advice of an old man, +who once was and still is your best friend. It is an easy thing to +accuse a man, but to prove his crime is a more difficult affair--" + +"Hold your tongue, detestable hypocrite!" cried Victoria angrily. "Drive +me not to extremes--" + +And clasping her hands: + +"Hesus! Give me the strength to be equitable towards this man. Calm down +in me, Oh, Hesus! the ebullitions of anger that might unsettle my +judgment!" + +Having heard steps behind the door, Mora opened it, and returned to her +mistress, saying: + +"Captain Paul has arrived." + +Victoria made a sign to Tetrik to leave the room. He stepped out heaving +a profound sigh and saying in penetrating accents: + +"Lord! Lord! Dissipate the blindness of my enemies! Pardon them, as I +pardon them!" + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE VISION OF VICTORIA. + + +When the room was cleared of the presence of Tetrik the Mother of the +Camps said to her servant, just as the latter was about to leave close +upon the heels of Tetrik: + +"Mora, my breast is afire. Bring me a cup of water with some honey, to +cool me and slake my thirst." + +The servant hurriedly nodded her head and vanished with Tetrik, who +lingered for a moment at the threshold. + +"Oh, my brother!" murmured Victoria despondently when we were again +alone. "My long struggle with that man has exhausted me--the sight of +evil lames my energies--I feel broken--" + +"Want of sleep, excitement, the horror that the sight of Tetrik inspired +you with--all this has rendered you feverish. Take a little rest, +sister; I shall instantly transcribe your conversation with the man. +This very evening justice will be done." + +"You are right; I think that if I could sleep a while I should feel +relieved. Go, brother, but do not leave the house." + +"Would you like Sampso to keep you company?" + +"No, I prefer to be alone." + +Mora re-entered. She carried a cup filled with the beverage that her +mistress had ordered. The latter took the cup and drained its contents +with avidity. Leaving my foster-sister to the care of her servant, I +went back to my room in order to reproduce the words of Tetrik +accurately. I was just about finishing the task, which took me nearly +two hours, when Mora dashed in pale and frightened. + +"Schanvoch!" she cried panting for breath. "Come! Come quick! Drop your +writing! Hasten to my mistress!" + +"What is the matter! What has happened?" + +"My mistress. Oh! Woe! Woe! Come quick!" + +"Victoria! Does any danger threaten her?" I cried, hurrying to the +apartment of my foster-sister, while Mora followed me, saying: + +"She sent me out of the room--she wanted to be alone. A minute ago I +went in--and, woe is me! I saw my poor mistress--" + +"Finish speaking--you saw Victoria--" + +"I saw her lying on her bed--her eyes open--but they were fixed--she +seemed dead--" + +I shall never forget the frightful sight that struck my eyes as I +stepped into Victoria's chamber. As Mora said, she lay stretched upon +her bed motionless, livid, like a corpse. Her fixed, yet sparkling eyes, +seemed to have sunk into their orbits; her features, painfully +contracted, were of the cold whiteness of marble. A sinister thought +flashed through my mind like lightning--Victoria was dying of poison! + +"Mora!" I cried throwing myself upon my knees beside the couch of the +Mother of the Camps. "Send immediately for the druid physician, and run +and tell Sampso to come here!" + +The servant rushed out. I took one of Victoria's hands. It was limp and +icy. + +"Sister! It is I!" I cried--"Schanvoch!" + +"Brother," she murmured. + +As I heard her muffled, feeble voice, methought the answer proceeded +from the bottom of a tomb. A moment later, her eyes, that until then +were fixed, turned slowly towards me. The divine intelligence that +formerly illumined the beautiful, august and sweet look of my +foster-sister seemed extinguished. Nevertheless, by degrees, she +recovered consciousness, and said: + +"Is it you--brother? I am dying--" + +Tossing her head painfully from one side to the other as if seeking +something, she made an effort to raise her arm; it dropped immediately +beside her; she then proceeded to say: + +"See yonder large trunk--open it--you will find in it--a bronze +casket--bring it to me--" + +I did as I was bid, and deposited a rather heavy bronze casket near her +on the couch. At that moment Sampso, whom Mora notified of Victoria's +condition, came in. + +"Sampso," said Victoria, "take this casket--take it away with you--keep +it carefully locked--open it in three days--the key is tied to the lid." + +And addressing me: + +"Did you transcribe Tetrik's conversation with me?" + +"I was just finishing it when Mora ran in to me." + +"Sampso, take that casket away to your room immediately, and bring me +the parchment on which Schanvoch has just been writing. Go, we have not +a minute to spare!" + +Sampso obeyed and left the room distracted. I remained alone with +Victoria. + +"Brother," she said to me, "every minute is precious. Listen to what I +have to say to you without interrupting me. I feel that I am dying; I +think I know the hand that smote me, without her being herself aware of +what she was doing. This crime caps a long series of dark and felonious +deeds. My death is at this moment a grave danger to Gaul. We must avert +the danger. You are known in the army--my confidence in you is +known--call the officers and soldiers together--inform them of Tetrik's +schemes. The conversation that you transcribed will be signed by me, in +order to verify your words. My life is ebbing fast. Oh! If I but had the +time to gather here around my death-bed the officers of the army who +this very evening will surround my funeral pyre. Upon that pyre I wish +you to lay the arms of my father, my husband and Victorin, also the +cradle of my little grandson!" + +"Schanvoch!" cried Sampso precipitately entering the room, "The +parchments that you left upon the table--have disappeared. But I saw +them lying on your desk when Mora came in to call me. They must have +been taken away since." + +"The parchments were taken away! Oh! What a misfortune to Gaul!" +murmured Victoria. "What mysterious hand is it that can thus penetrate +my house? Woe, woe is Gaul! Hesus! Omnipotent god! You call me to the +unknown worlds, where, perhaps, we may hover over this world that we +leave for yonder ones. Hesus! Am I to leave this earth without the +assurance of the welfare of the country I love so much? The future +terrifies me! Oh, Omnipotent! Allow your spirit to enlighten me at this +supreme moment! Hesus, have you heard me?" added Victoria in a louder +voice, half rising on her couch; and with inspired eyes she proceeded: +"What do I see? Is this the future that unveils itself before my eyes? +Who is that woman--so pale, lying prostrate? Her robe is +blood-bespattered. Also her chaplet of oaken leaves has drops of blood; +the sword, that her virile hand once held, lies broken at her side. One +of those savage Franks, his head ornamented with a crown, holds the +noble woman under his knees; he looks with mild and timid mien at a man +splendidly arrayed as a pontiff. Hesus! The bleeding woman--is Gaul! The +barbarian who kneels down upon her--is a Frankish king! The pontiff--is +the Bishop of Rome! Blood flows! a stream of blood! it carries in its +course, to the light of the flames of conflagrations, a mass of ruins, +thousands of corpses! Oh! the woman--Gaul, I see her again wan, worn, +clad in rags, the iron collar of servitude on her neck; she drags +herself on her knees; bending under a heavy burden! The Frankish king +and the Roman bishop quicken the march of enslaved Gaul with their +whips! Another torrent of blood; still the glamour of conflagration. Oh, +Hesus! Enough! Enough ruins and massacre! Heaven be praised!" cried +Victoria, whose face seemed for a moment to beam with divine splendor. +"The noble woman has risen to her feet! Behold her--more beautiful, +prouder than ever before! Her head is wreathed in a crown of fresh +oak-leaves! In one hand she holds a sheaf of grain, grapes and flowers; +in the other a red flag,[4] surmounted by the Gallic cock. Superbly she +tramples under foot the fragments of her collar of slavery, the crown of +the Frankish kings and that of the Roman pontiffs! Yes, that woman, free +at last, stately, glorious and fruitful--she is Gaul! Hesus! Hesus! Be +kind to her! Enable her to break the yoke of Kings and Pontiffs! Lead +her to freedom, glorious and fruitful without being compelled to reach +the goal by wading from century to century through those seas of tears, +those seas of blood that affright me!" + +These last words wholly exhausted Victoria's strength. Still she made +one more effort in her divine exaltation. She raised her eyes to heaven, +crossed her arms over her breast, heaved a long sigh, and fell back upon +her couch. + +The Mother of the Camps, Victoria the Great, was dead! + +While she spoke I made superhuman efforts to control my despair. When, +however, I saw her expire, I became dizzy, my knees sank under me, my +strength, my thoughts fled. I lost consciousness, but I still recollect +the sound of many voices and a great tumult in the contiguous apartment +whence I heard distinctly the words: + +"Tetrik, the Chief of Gaul, is in his death agony--he is dying of +poison--" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +CRIME TRIUMPHANT. + + +For several days I lay at death's door, constantly attended, my son, by +your second mother. About two weeks passed after the death of Victoria, +before I was able to collect and co-ordinate my recollections, and speak +with Sampso of our irreparable loss. The last words that struck my ears +when, broken with grief, I wholly lost consciousness beside the +death-bed of my foster-sister were these: + +"Tetrik, the Chief of Gaul, is in his death agony--he is dying of +poison." + +Indeed Tetrik was, or rather seemed to have been, poisoned at the same +time as Victoria. He had hardly stepped into the house of the general of +the army, when he seemed seized with severe pangs. When two weeks later +I myself returned to life, the life of Tetrik was still despaired of. + +I must admit I was stupefied at the strange information; my reason +refused to believe the man guilty of a crime of which he was himself a +victim. + +Victoria's death threw the city of Treves, the army, and later the whole +nation into consternation. The funeral of the august Mother of the Camps +seemed to be the funeral of Gaul herself. In her sudden taking-off +people saw the presage of new evils to the country. The Gallic senate +decreed the apotheosis of Victoria. It was celebrated at Treves in the +midst of universal sorrow and tears. The pompous solemnity of the druid +cult, the chant of the bards, imparted imposing splendor to the +ceremony. Embalmed and lying on an ivory couch covered with cloth of +gold, Victoria lay in state to the veneration of the citizens who +crowded in mass to the house of mourning. The place was constantly +invaded by that army of the Rhine of which Victoria was truly the +mother. Finally her remains were placed upon the pyre, agreeable to the +custom of our fathers. Incense rose along the streets of Treves, crossed +by the funeral procession, which was headed by the bards singing on +their golden harps the praises of the illustrious woman. The pyre was +then set on fire and disappeared in a sheet of flame. + +A medal, struck on the very day of the funeral ceremony, represents, on +its obverse, the head of the Gallic heroine, casqued as Minerva, and on +its reverse, an eagle with outstretched wings flying into space with its +eyes fixed upon the sun, the symbol of the druid faith--the soul leaving +this world and flying towards the unknown world where it is to be clad +in a new body. Under the symbol the ordinary formula was engraved: +"Consecration," followed below by these words: + + + VICTORIA, EMPEROR. + +By that virile appellation Gaul immortalized in her enthusiasm the +glorious Mother of the Camps, and wreathed her memory in a title that +she had steadily declined during life--a life that was at once modest +and sublime, and wholly consecrated to her father, her husband, her son +and to the glory and welfare of her country. + +My perplexity was profound. The poisoning of Tetrik, who, as it was +claimed, still struggled with death, the disappearance of the +parchments that contained the traitor's conversation with Victoria, and +which she was thereby prevented from signing before dying--all these +circumstances rendered the prosecution of the traitor difficult, if not +impossible. An accusation lodged by me, an obscure soldier, against +Tetrik, who survived as the supreme Chief of Gaul, and whose power was +now all the greater, seeing it was no longer counterbalanced by the vast +influence of the Mother of the Camps, could not lead to favorable +results. Before deciding upon a final course in the matter, I waited for +my shattered frame and mind to recover their former vigor. + +Three days after Victoria's death, and obedient to the last wishes of +the Mother of the Camps, Sampso opened the casket that Victoria gave +her. In it my wife found a last touching proof of the thoughtfulness of +my foster-sister. There was a parchment with these words inscribed in +her own hand: + + "We shall never part until death," did we, my good brother + Schanvoch, often say to each other; it is your wish, it is mine; + but if I am called away before you to live in the unknown worlds, + where we shall one day meet again, I shall feel happy on the day + when we shall meet again elsewhere than here, at the thought that + you have gone back to Brittany, the cradle of your family. + + The Roman conquest plundered your family of its ancestral fields. + Free once more, Gaul should, in the name of right or by force, have + revanquished the heritage of your children from the descendants of + the Romans. I know not what will be our country's condition, at the + time of our separation. But, hap what hap may, there are three + means by which you will be able to revindicate your just + heritage--right, money or force. You have the right, you have the + force, you have the money--you will find in this casket the + sufficient sum with which to buy back, if need be, the fields that + belonged to your family, and thenceforth live happy and free near + the sacred stones of Karnak, the witnesses of the heroic death of + your ancestress Hena, the Virgin of the Isle of Sen. + + You have often shown to me the pious relics of your family--I wish + to join to them a souvenir of my own. You will find in this casket + a bronze lark. I wore that ornament on my casque the day of the + battle of Riffenel, at which I saw my son Victorin flash his virgin + sword. I wish that you and your family may continue to keep this + memento of our fraternal friendship. It is left to you by your + foster-sister Victoria; she is of your family--did she not drink + the milk of your brave mother? + + When you read these lines, my good brother Schanvoch, I shall have + been re-born beyond, near those whom I have loved. + + Persevere in your fidelity to Gaul and the faith of our fathers. + You have approved yourself worthy of your family. May your + descendants approve themselves worthy of you, and write, without + having to blush, the history of their lives, as Joel, the brenn of + the tribe of Karnak, has desired them to do. + + VICTORIA. + + + +Need I tell you, my son, how deeply I was moved by such solicitude on +her part? I was at the time steeped in gloom and absorbed by the fear of +the grave events that might follow in the wake of Victoria's death. I +remained almost insensible to the hope of speedily returning to +Brittany, in order to end my days there, on the spot where my ancestors +lived. When my health was completely restored, I repaired to the general +who commanded the army of the Rhine. An old soldier himself, he was +certain to appreciate better than anyone else the serious dangers that +Gaul remained exposed to with Victoria's death. I frankly told him the +schemes that Tetrik was hatching; I also expressed to him my suspicions +regarding the poisoning of my foster-sister. The general made me the +following answer: + +"The crimes and plots that you accuse Tetrik of are so monstrous, they +would bespeak so infernal a soul, that I would hardly believe them, even +if they were attested by Victoria herself, our august mother, whom we +can never forget. Schanvoch, you are a brave and honest soldier, but +your deposition will not suffice to bring the Chief of Gaul to the bar +of the senate and the army. Besides, Tetrik is himself about to die; +even his own poisoning proves to a certainty that he is innocent of +Victoria's death. You would be the only witness against the Chief of +Gaul, who has been loved and venerated up to now, seeing that he has +always conducted himself as the first subject of Victoria, the real +empress of the nation. Take my advice, Schanvoch, invigorate your +spirit, that the sudden death of this august woman has so severely +shaken. It may be that, shocked by the disaster, your judgment is led +astray, and mistakes vague apprehensions for facts. Until now, Tetrik +has governed Gaul wisely, thanks to the inspiration of our august +Mother. If he dies, he will be regretted by us; if he survives the +mysterious crime which he has himself narrowly escaped, we shall +continue to honor the man who was pointed out to us by Victoria herself +as the fit object of our choice." + +The general's answer proved to me that I would never succeed in causing +the senate and the army to share my suspicions and convictions, both +being so thoroughly prejudiced in favor of the Chief of Gaul. + +Tetrik did not die. Hearing of his father's predicament, his son hurried +to Treves, and took his father in charge. When he became convalescent, +Tetrik held lengthy interviews with the senators and the chiefs of the +army. He manifested on the subject of Victoria's death so profound and, +to all appearance, sincere a grief; he honored her memory in so pious a +manner by a funeral ceremony at which he glorified the illustrious +woman, whose omnipotent hand, he said, had so long supported him, and to +whom he felt proud of owing his elevation; in short, he seemed so +heart-stricken when, pale, worn with his illness, frequently breaking +out into tears, and leaning on the arm of his son, he dragged himself +with unsteady step to the sad solemnity, that he conquered the affection +of the people and the army more completely than ever by the last homage +that he rendered to the memory of Victoria. + +I then realized how utterly futile it would be to press my accusations +against Tetrik. With my heart rent at seeing the fate of Gaul in the +hands of a man whom I knew for a traitor, I decided to leave Treves with +you, my son, and Sampso, your second mother, and repair to Brittany, the +country of our family's nativity, there to seek some consolation for my +sorrows. + +Nevertheless I felt bound to fulfil what I considered a sacred duty. By +dint of constantly interrogating my memory on the subject of the +conversation between Tetrik and Victoria, I succeeded in transcribing it +a second time, word for word. Of this I made a second copy, and on the +eve of my departure took the first draft to the general of the army. + +"You are of the opinion," I said to him, "that my reason wanders--keep +this narrative--I hope the future may not prove to you the truth of my +accusation." + +The general took the parchment, and dismissed me with the compassionate +mien that is bestowed upon people whose mind is deranged. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +KIDDA, THE BOHEMIAN GIRL. + + +On leaving the general of the army I walked home disconsolate. Crime was +triumphant. I returned home, to the house of my foster-sister, where I +remained until my departure for Brittany. I was engaged with Sampso +packing up the last articles needed on our journey, when the following +unlooked-for events happened on that night. + +Mora, the servant, had also remained in the house. The woman's grief at +her mistress's death touched my heart. On the night that I am writing +about, my son, while engaged with your second mother in the preparations +for our journey, we found that we needed another trunk. I went +downstairs in search of one into a room that was separated from Mora's +chamber by a rough wooden partition. It was past midnight. Upon entering +the room where the trunk was, I noticed, to my no slight astonishment, +that a bright light shone from the servant's room through the clefts of +the partition. Fearing that the woman's bed might have taken fire while +she slept, I hastened to peep through the clefts in the boards. I +bounded back with astonishment, but quickly returned to my place of +observation. + +Mora was contemplating herself in a little silver mirror by the light of +two lamps, the gleam of which had first attracted my attention. But it +was no longer Mora the Mauritanian; at least, her bronze complexion had +disappeared! I now saw her a pale brunette, coiffed in a rich gold band +ornamented with precious stones. The woman smiled at herself in the +glass. She put a long pearl earring to one of her ears, and--strangest +of all--she wore a corsage of some silvery material and a scarlet skirt. + +I recognized Kidda, the Bohemian girl. + +Alas! I had seen the creature only once, and then only by the light of +the moon, on that fateful night, when, suddenly recalled to Mayence by +the mysterious notification given me by my traveling companion, I slew +Victorin in my house, together with my beloved wife Ellen. + +Rage followed close upon the heels of my stupor--a horrible suspicion +flashed through my mind. I bolted from the inside the room in which I +was; with a violent thrust of my shoulder--rage multiplied my strength a +hundredfold--I broke down one of the boards of the partition, and +suddenly I stood before the eyes of the startled Bohemian. With one hand +I seized her and threw her upon her knees, with the other I took one of +the two heavy iron lamps, and raising it over the woman's head I cried: + +"I shall shatter your skull if you do not immediately confess your +crimes!" + +Kidda believed she read the decree of her death in my face. She grew +livid and murmured: + +"Kill me not! I shall speak!" + +"You are Kidda, the Bohemian girl?" + +"Yes--I am Kidda." + +"You were formerly at Mayence--and, as the price of your favors, you +exacted of Victorin that he dishonor my wife Ellen?" + +"Yes--that is so!" + +"You were acting under orders of Tetrik?" + +"No, I never spoke to him." + +"Whose orders were you, then, following?" + +"Of Tetrik's equerry." + +"The man is cautious," I thought to myself. "And the soldier who on that +fateful night announced to me that a heinous crime was being perpetrated +in my house--do you know who he was?" + +"It was Captain Marion's companion in arms, he was a former blacksmith, +like Marion." + +"Did Tetrik also know that soldier?" + +"No, it was Tetrik's equerry who had secret conferences with him at +Mayence." + +"And where is that soldier now?" + +"He died." + +"After Tetrik employed him to assassinate Captain Marion?" + +The girl looked puzzled. + +"Did Tetrik cause him to be put to death? Answer!" + +"I think so!" + +"And it is that same equerry who sent you to this house under the guise +of Mora, the Mauritanian? Was it in order to disguise yourself that you +painted your face?" + +"Yes--that is all so." + +"You were to spy upon your mistress, were you not?--and then poison her? +Speak! If you believe in a God--if your infernal soul dares at this +supreme moment to implore his help--you have but a minute to +live--Speak!" + +"Have pity upon me!" + +"Confess your crime--you committed it under orders of Tetrik? Speak!" + +"Yes, I was ordered by Tetrik." + +"When--how did he give you the order to execute that crime?" + +"When I entered the room the second time--after I was sent to bring +Captain Paul, who was to arrest Tetrik." + +"And the poison--you poured it into the drink that you were to present +to your mistress?" + +"Yes--it happened that way." + +"And on that same day," I added, my recollections now thronging to my +mind, "when I sent you to my wife, you purloined a parchment that lay on +my table and that I had written upon?" + +"Yes, Tetrik ordered me to--he heard Victoria refer to the parchment." + +"Why, after the crime was committed, did you stay in this house down to +to-day?" + +"So as to awaken no suspicions." + +"What induced you to poison your mistress?" + +"The gift of these jewels that I was entertaining myself with putting on +when you broke in upon me. I thought I was alone!" + +"Tetrik came himself near dying of the poison--do you believe his +equerry is guilty of that crime?" + +"Every poison has its counter-poison," answered the Bohemian with a +sinister smile. "He who poisons others, removes suspicion from himself +by drinking from the same cup, and he is safe through the +counter-poison." + +The woman's answer was a flash-light to me. By an infernal ruse, and +doubtlessly guaranteed against death, thanks to an antidote, Tetrik had +swallowed enough poison to produce in him the identical symptoms that +marked Victoria's agony and thus seem to share her fate. + +To seize a scarf that lay upon the bed, and, despite the resistance that +she offered, to tie her hands firmly together and to lock her up in one +of the lower rooms, was the affair of but an instant. I ran back to the +general of the army. After finally succeeding in being admitted to his +presence--a difficult thing owing to the hour of the night--I repeated +to him the confession that Kidda had just made to me. He shrugged his +shoulders impatiently and said: + +"Ever this same, rooted, thought--your mind must be wholly deranged. The +idea of having me waked up to hear such crazy man's stories. Moreover, +you have chosen ill the hour to prefer such charges against the +venerable Tetrik. He left Treves last evening for Bordeaux." + +The departure of Tetrik was a heavy blow to my last hopes. Nevertheless, +I pressed the general with such insistence, I spoke to him with such +earnestness and coherence, that he consented to order one of his +officers to accompany me back to the house, and take the Bohemian girl's +confession in writing. He and I returned hurriedly to the house. I +opened the door of the chamber in which I had left Kidda with her hands +tied. She was gone! She must have gnawed at the scarf with her teeth, +and fled by one of the windows that now stood open and that looked into +the garden. In my hurry and the seething confusion of my brain I had +omitted to guard against the chances of the woman's escape by that +issue. + +"Poor Schanvoch!" said the officer to me with deep pity. "Your grief +makes you see visions--be careful, or you will go crazy, altogether!" + +And without caring to listen to me any longer he left. + +The will of God be done! I now renounced all hope of uncovering the +crimes of Tetrik. The next day I left the city of Treves with you and +Sampso, and took the road for Brittany. + + * * * * * + +You will read, alas! with no little grief and apprehension, my son, the +few lines with which I shall close this narrative. You will see how our +old Gaul, after having fully reacquired her freedom by dint of three +centuries of continuous struggle, after having become great and powerful +under the influence of Victoria, was again to fall, not, it is true, +completely under the yoke, but at least enfeoffed to the Roman Emperors +through the infamous treachery of Tetrik. + +Finding his projects of marriage and usurpation thwarted by the Mother +of the Camps, the monster had her poisoned. She alone, had she consented +to abjure her faith and contract a union with him, could have cleared +the path for him to reach the hereditary throne of Gaul. With Victoria +dead, he realized the futility of persevering along that route. +Moreover, he soon felt that, being no longer sustained by the wisdom and +sovereign influence of that august woman, the people's affection for him +was visibly ebbing. Seeing that with every day he lost some of his +former prestige, and foreseeing his speedy fall, he began to cast about +for the commission of one of the two acts of treason that I had long ago +suspected him of contemplating. He labored in the dark to reduce Gaul, +after the country had acquired its complete independence, back to the +level of a dependency of the Roman Emperors. Long in advance, and by +means of a thousand and one covert schemes, he sowed the germs of civil +discord in the country. By these means Gaul's powers of resistance were +weakened. He succeeded in re-kindling the old jealousies between +province and province that had long been allayed. By means of +deliberately practiced acts of favoritism and of injustice, he incited +violent rivalries between the generals and also between the several army +corps. When matters were ripe for the deed of treason he secretly wrote +to Aurelian, the Roman Emperor: + +"The favorable moment for an attack upon Gaul has arrived. You will +prevail easily over a people that is weakened by internal dissensions, +and an army, one division of which is jealous of the other. I shall +notify you in advance of how the Gallic troops are distributed, and also +of their moves, in order to insure the prospects of your triumph." + +The two armies met on the banks of the Marne on the wide plain of +Chalon. Agreeable to his promise, and acting in concert with the Roman +general, Tetrik allowed the corps that he led to be cut off from the +rest of the army. The Gallic legions of the Rhine fought with their +wonted intrepidity, but it was of no avail. Their movements being known +in advance by the enemy and overpowered by numbers, they were finally +cut to pieces. Tetrik and his son took refuge in the enemy's camp. Our +army being out of the way, and our country divided against itself, as it +had never been before even during the darkest days of our history, +victory was rendered an easy matter to the Romans. After re-enjoying +absolute freedom for many a year, Gaul became a Roman province once +more. As Caesar had done before him, in order to glorify the great +event, the Emperor Aurelian made a solemn entry into the Roman capital. +All the captives, gathered by that emperor in the course of his long +wars in Asia, marched before his chariot. Among these the queen of the +Orient was seen, the heroine who emulated Victoria--Zenobia. She was +loaded with golden chains riveted to the gold collar that she wore +around her neck. Behind Zenobia marched Tetrik, the last Chief of Gaul +before the country relapsed into a province of Rome. Tetrik and his son +marched free and with heads erect, despite their infamous treachery. +They wore long purple mantles over silk tunics and breeches. They +represented in the procession the recent submission of the Gauls to +Aurelian the Emperor. + +Alas! my son, the history of our fathers will teach you that one day, +three hundred years ago, another Gaul also marched before the triumphal +chariot of a Roman Emperor, Caesar. That Gaul did not march in brilliant +array, with audacious mien and with smiles for his vanquisher. That +captive was loaded with chains, he was clad in rags, and was hardly able +to walk; he was that day taken out of the dungeon where he had +languished four years after having defended the freedom of Gaul inch by +inch against the victorious armies of the great Caesar. That captive, +one of the most heroic martyrs of our country and our independence, was +called Vercingetorix, the Chief of the Hundred Valleys. + +After the triumphal march of Caesar, the head of the valiant defender of +Gaul was cut off. + +After the triumphal march of Aurelian, Tetrik, the renegade who +delivered his country to the foreigner, was led with pomp to a splendid +palace, the price of his sacrilegious treason. + +Let not the contrast cause you to despair of virtue, my son. The justice +of Hesus is eternal. Traitors will receive their punishment. + + + + +EPILOGUE. + + +The narrative of my father Amael's great-grandfather Schanvoch on the +events that transpired in Gaul--after the death of Victoria the Great, +during the time that, living retiredly in Brittany on the fields of our +ancestors that he bought back from a Roman colonist, he quietly spent +his life with his son Alguen and his second wife Sampso--ends here. + +While it is true that Gaul was again a province of Rome, nevertheless, +all the practical franchises, that we reconquered so dearly by +innumerable insurrections, and paid for with the blood of our fathers, +have remained to us. None has dared, none will dare to deprive us of +them. We shall preserve our laws and customs; we shall enjoy our full +rights as citizens. Our incorporation with the Empire, the impost that +we pay into the fisc, and our name of "Roman Gaul"--these are the only +evidences of our dependence. Such a chain may not be heavy; but, light +as it be, a chain it is. I doubt not that some day we shall be able to +break it. The apprehensions that weighed upon my great-great-grandfather +Schanvoch's mind and that continue to weigh upon mine do not arise from +that quarter. No! The dangers that we apprehend--if faith is to be +attached to the prediction made by Victoria upon her death-bed; the +danger, that has filled us with dread for the future, rises from the +once more swelling number of the Frankish hordes on the other side of +the Rhine, and in the dark machinations of the bishops of the new +religion. + +My great-great-grandfather Schanvoch died peaceably in our house, +situated near the sacred stones of Karnak. He left the narrative that he +wrote, and the casque's lark, given him by Victoria, together with the +previous narratives of our family and the relics that accompany them, to +his son Alguen. After a long and peaceful life Alguen died, three +hundred and forty years after our ancestress Genevieve saw Jesus of +Nazareth perish on the cross. Alguen's son Roderik, my grandfather, +inherited from his father both our family records and relics, and a +quiet, peaceful and contented life, all of which he bequeathed to his +son, my father Amael, who in turn bequeathed them to me, Gildas. + +I then, Gildas, make this entry to-day in our family annals three +hundred and seventy-five years after the death of Jesus. I feel sad on +this occasion. My father had intended to add a few words to our family +annals. He postponed doing so from day to day, seeing there was nothing +that he desired to make particular mention of to our descendants, his +life being the uneventful one of a quiet, industrious and obscure +husbandman. Two days ago my father died. He died in our own house, near +the stones of Karnak, after a short illness. + +The frightful predictions of Victoria, the illustrious foster-sister of +my ancestor Schanvoch, have not been verified. May they never be! Gaul +continues a dependence of the Roman Emperors. Occasionally a traveler +reaches these parts, penetrating into these remote regions of our old +Armorica. From them we have learned that, in some of the other provinces +there have been several popular uprisings of considerable strength and +generally called "Bagaudies." These uprisings must have taken place +shortly after the death of my ancestor Schanvoch. Brittany has remained +free from the revolts of the "Bagauders." The region enjoys profound +tranquility. The impost that we pay into the emperor's fisc is not too +heavy. We live peacefully and free. + +Several of our ancestors, during the darksome days of their enslavement +to Rome, and when they were steeped in ignorance and misery, recorded on +our family parchments that such was the leaden uniformity of their days, +spent by them from dawn to dusk, in oppressive labors, that they had +nothing to say except: "I was born, I have lived and I shall die in the +sorrows of slavery." May it please the gods that the happiness of the +generations that are to follow me be in turn, so uniform, that each of +my descendants may, as I do now, have nothing to add to our family +chronicles but these lines with which I shall close my narrative: + +"I have lived happy, peaceful and obscure in our Armorican Brittany +cultivating our ancestral fields with the help of my family. I shall +depart from this world without fear or regret when it will please Hesus +to call me away to live again in yonder unknown worlds." + +I am now aged eighteen years. The family relics in my possession consist +of Hena's gold sickle, Guilhern's little brass bell, Sylvest's iron +collar, Genevieve's silver cross, and the casque's lark of Schanvoch. + +THE END. + + +FOOTNOTES + +[1] The Frankish chiefs, at the time of the conquest, daubed their hair +with tallow mixed with crushed limestone, to make their hair a glaring +reddish-yellow. Such was the beauty of the period. + +[2] Ardent, or Fiery. See "The Brass Bell," the second work of this +series. + + +[3] For the source of these recollections, see the third volume of this +series, entitled "The Iron Collar." + +[4] The color of the Gallic emblem was crimson red. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Casque's Lark, by Eugene Sue + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CASQUE'S LARK *** + +***** This file should be named 33868.txt or 33868.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/3/8/6/33868/ + +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. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +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 + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/33868.zip b/33868.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4f79572 --- /dev/null +++ b/33868.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..865e53e --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #33868 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/33868) |
