Part 4 (1/2)
”Tempt me not, archdeacon of Satan! By the faith of a Vagre, old as I am, I have a good mind to deserve your anathema by letting loose upon your sacred back a shower of blows with the scabbard of my sword.”
”Ronan, Ronan, no violence!” said Loysik. ”These strangers came here as enemies; they were the first to shed blood; you have disarmed them; that was just--”
”And their arms will enrich our a.r.s.enal,” Ronan broke in saying. ”Come, boys, gather in that goodly harvest of iron. By my faith, we shall now be armed like royal warriors!”
”Take those soldiers and their chief into one of the halls of the monastery,” Loysik ordered. ”They are to be kept locked up; armed monks shall mount guard at the doors and windows. We shall later decide upon what is to be done.”
”To dare hold me a prisoner, me, an officer of Queen Brunhild's household!” cried Gondowald grinding his teeth and struggling to free himself from his bonds. ”Oh, you will pay dearly for such audacity, insolent monk! The Queen will take revenge for me upon your old hide!”
”Queen Brunhild has acted in defiance of law and justice by sending hither armed men to support with force the message of the Bishop of Chalon. She did wrong, even if his pretensions were as just as they are iniquitous,” Loysik answered Gondowald; and turning to his monks he proceeded: ”Take away those men; above all guard against any injury being done to them; if they need food, let them be supplied. Let us prove ourselves merciful.”
The monks led away the Frankish soldiers and their chief, the latter of whom had to be carried in their arms, seeing that he wrathfully refused to walk. This being done, Loysik said to the archdeacon, who snarled out of breath with rage like a fox caught in a trap:
”Salvien, before aught else I must insure the safety and tranquility of this colony and community. I am, consequently, compelled to order you to remain a prisoner in this monastery. Fear not; you will be treated with consideration; your prison will be the precinct of the monastery. Within three or four days at the latest--when I shall be back here--you will be set free to return to Chalon.”
After the archdeacon was removed from their presence, Ronan said to Loysik:
”Brother, you spoke of your return; are you going away? Where to?”
”Yes; I depart this instant. I am going to Chalon, to speak with the bishop and the Queen.”
”What, Loysik!” cried Ronan with painful anxiety. ”You leave us? You propose to face Brunhild? Do you forget that that name spells 'Implacable Vengeance,' Loysik? You would be running to your perdition!
No--no! You shall not undertake such a journey!”
The monk laborers as well as the rest of the colonists shared the apprehensions of Ronan, and began to ply Loysik with tender and pressing entreaties, in order to draw him from his foolhardy project. The old monk was not to be moved. While one of the brothers who was to accompany him hastily made the preparations for the journey, he repaired to his own cell in order to take the charter of King Clotaire, which he kept there. Ronan and his family followed Loysik, still seeking to dissuade him from his project. He answered them sadly:
”Our situation is beset with perils. Not the fate of the monastery alone but of the whole colony is at stake. You could easily prevail over a handful of soldiers; but we cannot think of resisting Brunhild by force.
To attempt any such thing would be to invite the utter ruin of the Valley, the slaughter of its inhabitants and slavery for the survivors.
Clotaire's charter establishes our rights; but what is law or right to Brunhild?”
”But that being so, what do you purpose to do at Chalon, in the very den of the she-wolf?”
”To demand justice of her!”
”But you just said yourself 'What is law or justice to Brunhild!'”
”She sports with justice as she does with the lives of her men; and yet I entertain some slight hope. I wish you to keep the archdeacon and his soldiers prisoners--first, because in their fury they certainly would have me waylaid and killed on the road; I cling to life in order to lead to a successful issue the business that I now have in hand; secondly, because, rather than have the archdeacon and the chamberlain precede me in making the report of to-night's occurrence, I prefer myself to inform the bishop and Brunhild of the resistance that we offered.”
”But, brother, suppose justice is refused you; suppose the implacable Queen orders you to be slain--as she has done with so many other victims of her injustice!”
”In that event the iniquity will be accomplished. In that event, if their purpose is not only to subject your goods and persons to the tyranny and exactions of the Church, but also to despoil you forcibly of the soil and the liberty that you have reconquered and which a royal charter guarantees to you, in that event you will be forced to take a supreme resolution. Call together a solemn council, as our fathers of yore were in the habit of doing whenever the safety of the land was in peril. Let the mothers and wives take part in that council, as was the ancient custom of Gaul, because the fate of their husbands and children is to be determined upon. You will then with calmness, wisdom and firmness decide upon one of these three alternatives--the only ones, alas! left to you: Whether to submit to the pretensions of the Bishop of Chalon, and accept a disguised servitude that will soon transform our free Valley into a domain of the Church, to be exploited for his benefit; whether you will bow before the will of the Queen if she tramples your rights under foot, tears up the charter of Clotaire, and declares our Valley a domain of the royal fisc, which will mean to you spoliation, misery, slavery and shame; or, finally, whether, strong in your own right, but certain of being crushed by superior numbers, to make protest against the royal or episcopal iniquity by a heroic defense, and bury yourselves and your families under the ruins of your homes. You will have to decide upon one of these three measures.”
”All of us, without exception, men, women and children, will know how to fight and die like our ancestors, Loysik! And perhaps it may happen that the b.l.o.o.d.y lesson and example may shake the surrounding populations from their torpor. But, brother--brother--to think of your starting alone, and alone confronting a danger that I cannot share with you!”
”Come, Ronan, no weakness. See to it that all the fortified posts of the Valley be occupied as was done fifty years ago at the time of the invasion of Burgundy by Chram. The old military experience that you and the Master of the Hounds have acquired will now be of great service. For the rest, there will be no fear of any attack during the next four or five days. It will take me two days to reach Chalon, and an equally long time for the Queen's troops to reach the Valley, in the event of her resolving upon violence. Until the moment of my arrival at Chalon, both the bishop and Brunhild will be in the dark as to whether their orders were enforced or not. They can receive no tidings seeing that the archdeacon and the chamberlain, together with their troops, remain prisoners in the Valley and under safe surveillance.”
”And in case of need they will serve as hostages.”