Part 14 (2/2)

Shortly afterwards, Loysik arrived at the entrance of the village of Ryonne. The aged monk alighted from his mule and asked the young brother to wait for him. A leude, from whom Loysik inquired after Duke Roccon, took him to the tent of the Frankish seigneur, contiguous to that of the King. Almost immediately afterwards the monk was taken to the duke, who said to him in a tone of respectful deference:

”You here, my good father in Christ?”

”I come with a just pet.i.tion to you.”

”If it is at all in my power, the matter is granted.”

”Are you a friend of King Clotaire? Have you any influence with him?”

”If you have any favor to prefer to him, you could hardly arrive at a better time.”

”I come for no favors from the King--I come for justice. Here is a charter given by his grandfather Clotaire I. As a matter of law, it requires no confirmation, seeing that the concession is absolute. But the Bishop of Chalon is giving us trouble. He is laying claims upon the goods of the monastery, upon those of the inhabitants of the Valley, and, as a consequence, upon their freedom, notwithstanding both their goods and their freedom are guaranteed by this charter.--Would you be willing to request Clotaire, who is now the King of Burgundy, to attach his seal to the charter issued by his grandfather, in order to insure its enforcement?”

”Is that all you wish to ask of the King?--The King honors the memory of his glorious grandfather too highly to fail to confirm a charter issued by that great Prince. Clotaire must now be in his tent. Wait for me here, my father in Christ. I shall be back soon.”

During the short absence of the Frankish seigneur, Loysik could hear the uproar of the impatient crowd and warriors calling aloud for Brunhild.

Duke Roccon returned quickly with the old charter of Clotaire I, to which Clotaire II had attached his seal under the following freshly written words:

”We will it, and we so order all our leudes, dukes, counts and bishops, that the above charter, signed by our glorious grandfather Clotaire, be upheld in force and respected in all its provisions in the present and in the future, and we do so in the belief that we thereby do honor to our glorious ancestor. And those who are to succeed me will uphold this donation inviolate, if they wish to share the life everlasting, and if they wish to be saved from the everlasting flames. Whoever in any manner does violence to this donation, may the gateman of heaven diminish his share of heaven; whoever may add to the donation, may the gateman of heaven add something unto him.”

The aged monk inquired from the duke who it was that wrote the last words to the charter, and was not a little surprised to hear that it was the Bishop of Troyes.

”You must, then, have said nothing to the King concerning the pretensions of the Bishop of Chalon--”

”I did not consider that necessary. I said to Clotaire: 'I request you to confirm this charter, which your grandfather granted to a holy man of G.o.d.' 'I can refuse nothing to my loyal servitors,' he answered, and he charged the bishop to write what was proper. That being done, the King attached his royal seal under the writing.”

”Roccon,” said the venerable monk, ”I thank you--adieu--”

But recollecting himself, Loysik added:

”You told me that the moment was favorable to obtain favors from the King--promise me that you will ask him to enfranchise a few slaves of the royal fisc, and to send them to me to the monastery of the Valley of Charolles.”

”Ah, my father in Christ! I knew full well that our conversation would not be done without your making some demand of enfranchis.e.m.e.nt.”

”Roccon, you have a wife and children--the accidents of war are changeable. Brunhild is now vanquished and a prisoner; but, if that implacable Queen, who has emerged so often victorious from the field of battle, had not been betrayed by her own army and her auxiliaries--had she, on the contrary, vanquished Clotaire, what would your lot have been, what the lot of all the seigneurs of Burgundy, who took the side of the King? What would have become of your wife, of your daughters?”

”Brunhild would have ordered my head cut off; she would have delivered my wife and daughters to the savage tribes of the other side of the Rhine as slaves!--Malediction! My two daughters Bathilde and Hermangarde, slaves!--The perspiration gathers on my temples at the bare thought of such a thing--let us not speak of it!”

”On the contrary, do let us speak of it! Who knows but that among those unknown slaves, whose freedom I am asking, there may be some with daughters whom they love as much as you love yours.--Judge of the joy that their deliverance would give them by the joy that you and your children would feel if, having become slaves, you were to be set free.

Roccon, it is in your power to afford such ineffable joy to some captives.--Keep your dear daughters in mind.”

”Very well my dear father in Christ, I promise you ten slaves. Clotaire will not refuse them to me as my share of the booty of this war.”

”Seigneur duke,” said a servant who hurried into the tent, ”the promenade of the camel is about to begin.”

”Oh! Oh! It is to be one of the best spectacles of the feast.--Come, my father in Christ!”

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