Part 13 (2/2)
”Rolf!” said the Archbishop of Rouen insinuatingly in order to calm the old pirate, ”the light of our faith has not yet sufficiently dispelled the darkness in which paganism held your soul imprisoned. I do not threaten you--I shall remain faithful to our compact.”
”That's then agreed!” replied Rolf. ”It is give and take between us. If your priests serve me well, they shall keep their lands. But I must recoup myself for the property that I leave to your abbots;” and addressing the King, who, wholly indifferent to the conversation that was taking place before him, remained silent, somber and sad: ”Charles, you gave me Ghisele and Neustria. That is not now enough. A King's daughter should be more richly dowered. My duchy of Northmandy borders on Brittany. I demand this province also, together with all its towns, abbeys and dependencies.”
”You want Brittany!” cried Charles the Simple, for the first time awaking from his gloomy apathy. ”Oh, you want Brittany! I give it to you with all my heart! You can have it. Go and take possession of it. It will be a bright day to me, the day that I shall hear that you set foot in that country. I gladly make you a present of Armorica, with its cities, abbeys and dependencies! All you have to do is to take possession!”
Not a little astonished at the King's eagerness to grant him so considerable a cession, the old pirate turned towards his men inquiringly. Gaelo whispered to him:
”Charles grants you the country of the Bretons because he knows that it is impregnable, being defended by a race of indomitable men.”
”There is nothing impregnable to you, my champions! You will take charge of the task.”
”Since six hundred years the Franks have been endeavoring to subjugate that land, and they have not yet succeeded in establis.h.i.+ng themselves firmly in it. They have invaded it; they have vanquished its forces--but never yet have they subjugated it.”
”The Northmans will subjugate those who have resisted the Franks.”
”Armorica,” replied Gaelo, ”will be the grave of your best soldiers.”
The old pirate shrugged his shoulders with incredulity and not a little impatience; he took two steps towards the King and said: ”Well, then, Charles, that province also is mine--”
”Yes--yes. It is yours--Duke of Northmandy and of Brittany--provided you can conquer it!”
”Rolf,” resumed Gaelo in a low voice, ”renounce your pretensions over Armorica--you will otherwise have reasons to regret your obstinacy.”
”Rolf wills what he wills!” answered the pirate haughtily.
”From this day,” replied Gaelo resolutely, ”you must no longer count me among your men--”
The Northman chief was on the point of inquiring from the young warrior the reason for his sudden resolution when the Archbishop of Rouen addressed the pirate:
”Rolf, Charles has invested you with the sovereignty of the Duchies of Northmandy and Brittany. You must now take the pledge of fealty and homage to Charles, King of the Franks, as your suzerain seigneur. It is the custom. Your invest.i.ture will not be complete until after this formality.”
”Very well; only waste no time about it. I am hungry, and I am anxious to join my wife--the royal little girl must be waiting for me.”
”Rolf, repeat after me the consecrated formula,” said the Archbishop of Rouen, and he p.r.o.nounced deliberately and slowly the following words which the Northman chief repeated in the measure that they fell from the prelate's lips:
”In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, indivisible Trinity, I, Rolf, Duke of Northmandy and of Brittany, swear fealty and homage to Charles, King of the Franks. I swear absolute fealty to him, to render him a.s.sistance in all things, and never to give, to his prejudice, a.s.sistance to his enemies with my arms. I swear it in the presence of the Divine Majesty and of the souls of the blissful, hoping for eternal blessing as the reward for my fidelity. Amen!”
Charles the Simple listened to the oath of fealty and homage with gloomy bitterness. He knew from experience the hollowness of the formula which had been invented by the priests.
”Is it done, now?” asked the pirate of the archbishop. ”This mummery tires me.”
”There is one more formality to be filled,” answered the archbishop. ”In token of respect you must kiss the King's foot.”
At these words, spoken loud enough by the Archbishop of Rouen to be heard all over the s.p.a.cious hall, there followed an explosion of hisses, imprecations and threats from the a.s.sembled Northman warriors. They revolted at the mere thought of the humiliating act that the archbishop dared to exact from their chieftain. Rolf himself, whose face grew purple with indignation, answered Francon's proposition with so threatening a gesture that the archbishop took fright and retreated precipitately from the immediate neighborhood of the Northman. However, after a second's reflection, the pirate chieftain calmed with a sign the tumultuous manifestations of his men, approached the archbishop, and said in a savage tone, that but ill concealed the slyness that struggled to the surface:
”Accordingly--I must kiss the feet of Charles?”
”Usage demands that you give to the King this mark of respect and humility.”
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