Part 5 (1/2)
”Thanks to the G.o.ds! The child is saved!” exclaimed almost in chorus the family of Joel, as if delivered from a painful apprehension.
Perceiving that he was about to be again interrupted by fresh questions, the stranger hastened to resume his narrative.
”While the buckler and child were being taken from the water, its father Vindorix, whose face was now as radiant with joy as it was somber until then, ran to his wife, and stretching out his arms to her said:”
”'Albrege!... Albrege!... You told me the truth.... You were faithful!'”
”But repelling her husband with an imperious gesture, Albrege answered him proudly: 'Certain of my honor, I did not fear the trial.... I felt at ease on my child's fate. The G.o.ds could not punish an innocent woman with the loss of her child.... But ... _a woman suspected is a woman outraged_.... I shall keep my child. You never more shall see us, nor him, nor me.... You have doubted your wife's honor!'”
”The child was just then brought in triumph. Its mother threw herself upon it, like a lioness upon her whelp; pressed it closely to her heart; so calm and peaceful as she had been until then, so violent was she now with the caresses that she showered upon the baby, with whom she now fled away.”
”O, that was a true daughter of Gaul!” said Guilhern's wife. ”A woman suspected is a woman outraged. Those are proud words.... I like to hear them!”
”But,” asked Joel, ”is that trial one of the customs of the Gauls along the Rhine?”
”Yes,” answered the stranger; ”the husband who suspects his wife of having dishonored his bed, places the baby upon a buckler and exposes it to the current of the river. If the child remains afloat, the wife's innocence is proved; if it sinks under the waves, the mother's crime is considered established.”
”And how was that brave wife clad, friend guest?” asked Henory. ”Did she wear a tunic like ours?”
”No,” answered the stranger; ”the tunics in that region are very short and of two colors. The corsage is generally blue, the skirt red. The latter is often embroidered with gold and silver thread.”
”And their head-gear?” asked one of the young girls. ”Are they white and cut square like our own?”
”No; they are black and bell-shaped, and they are also embroidered in gold and silver.”
”And the bucklers?” queried Guilhern. ”Are they like ours?”
”They are longer, and they are painted with lively colors, usually arranged in squares. Red and white is a very common combination.”
”And the marriages, how are they celebrated?” inquired another young girl.
”And the cattle, are they as fine as ours?” an old man wanted to know.
”And have they like us brave fighting c.o.c.ks?” asked a child.
The stranger was being a.s.sailed with such a shower of questions that Joel said to the questioners:
”Enough; enough.... Let our friend regain his breath. You are screaming around him like a flock of sea-gulls.”
”Do they pay, as we do, the money they owe the dead?” asked Stumpy, despite Joel's orders to cease questioning the stranger.
”Yes; their custom and ours is the same as here,” answered the stranger; ”and they are not idolaters like a man from Asia whom I met at Ma.r.s.eilles, and who claimed that, according to his religion, we continued to live after death, but not clad in human shape, according to him we were clad in the form of animals.”
”_Her!_ ... _Her!_” cried Stumpy in great trouble. ”If it were as those idolatrous people claim, then Gigel, who departed instead of old Mark, may be now inhabiting the body of a fish; and I would have sent him three pieces of silver with Armel who might now be inhabiting the body of a bird. How could a bird deliver silver pieces to a fish. _Her!_ ...
_Her!_”
”Our friend told you that that belief is idolatry, Stumpy,” put in Joel with severity; ”your fear is impious.”
”It must be so,” said Julyan sadly. ”What would I become who am to proceed to-morrow to meet Armel by oath and out of friends.h.i.+p, were I to find him turned into a bird while I may be turned into a stag of the woods or an ox of the fields?”