Part 5 (1/2)

”Order Samuel to bring up the two young girls, immediately.”

The old woman bowed and vanished behind the curtain. Almost at the same moment Brunhild stepped out of her bedroom.

The Queen was sixty-seven years of age; the lines on her face still preserved the traces of exceptional beauty. Her wan and wrinkled face was illumined by the somber brilliancy of her two large but sunken eyes, which were surrounded with deep, dark circles. They were black, like her long eyelashes; only her hair was white. A front of bra.s.s, cruel lips, penetrating eyes, a head haughtily poised, proud and lofty carriage, seeing that she had preserved a straight and supple waist--such was Brunhild. She had hardly stepped into the apartment, when she stopped, listened and said to Chrotechilde:

”Who is coming up the little stairs?”

”The slave merchant; he has two young girls with him.”

”Let him in--let him in!”

”Madam, whom do you intend to present with the two slave girls that he brings?”

”I shall tell you later. But I am in a hurry to examine the two creatures. The choice is important.”

”Madam, here is Samuel.”

The dealer in Gallic flesh, a Jew by extraction like most of the men who devoted themselves to such traffic, entered, followed by the two slaves whom he brought with him. They were wrapped in long white veils, that were transparent enough to enable them to walk una.s.sisted.

”Ill.u.s.trious Queen,” said the Jew dropping on one knee and bowing so low that his forehead almost touched the floor, ”I am here obedient to your orders; here are two young female slaves; they are veritable treasures of beauty, of sweetness, of gracefulness, of gentleness and above all of maidenliness. Your excellency knows that old Samuel has but one quality--that of being an honest trader.”

”Rise--rise!” commanded Brunhild, addressing the two girls, who, at the sight of the redoubted Queen, had fallen on their knees at the threshold of the door near the merchant. ”Let the girls rise, and remove their veils.”

The two slaves hastened to obey the Queen. They rose. To the end of enhancing the value of his merchandise, the Jew had clad the two young girls in short-sleeved tunics, the skirt of which hardly reached their knees, while the cut of their corsage left their bosoms and shoulders half exposed. One of the two slaves, a tall and lithesome girl, wore a white tunic; her eyes were blue; a strand of corals wound itself in the braids of her black hair; eighteen or twenty years was the utmost age that she could be taken for. The girl's face, touchingly beautiful and open, was bathed in tears. Steeped in sorrow and shame, and trembling at every limb, she dared not raise her tear-dimmed eyes out of fear to encounter Brunhild's. After long and attentively contemplating the girl, whom she ordered to turn around in order to have a view of her from all sides, the old Queen exchanged a look of approval with Chrotechilde, who had been no less attentively examining the slave. Addressing the latter she asked:

”Of what country are you?”

”I am from the city of Toul,” answered the girl in a tremulous voice.

”Aurelie! Aurelie!” cried Samuel stamping on the ground with his foot.

”Is that the way you remember my lessons? You should answer: 'Glorious Queen, I am from the city of Toul.'” And turning towards Brunhild, ”Kindly pardon her, madam, but she is so childish, so simple--”

Brunhild cut off the Jew's flow of words and proceeded with her interrogatory:

”Where were you taken?”

”At Toul, madam, when the city was sacked by the King of Burgundy.”

”Were you free or slave?”

”I was free--my father was a master armorer.”

”Can you read and write? Have you pleasing accomplishments? Can you sing and play?”

”I can read and write, and my mother taught me to play upon the archlute and to sing.”

When she said that she could sing, the unhappy girl was unable to repress the sobs that suffocated her. She must have thought of her mother.

”Weep, and weep again!” Samuel cried, angrily scolding the girl. ”You can do that better than anything else. But, as you know, great Queen, one has a certain supply of tears, after the supply has run out the bag is empty.”