Part 14 (1/2)
”My champions!” cried the Northman chieftain to his pirates, making them a sign of intelligence, ”Rolf will, agreeable to usage, prove the magnitude of his respect for the Frankish Kings.” Saying this, Rolf stepped gravely towards the dais on which Charles stood and said to him: ”Let me have your foot!”
The poor simpleton reached his right foot to Rolf, but the old bandit, instead of bending to bestow the kiss of humility upon his suzerain, quickly seized the proffered limb by the ankle, and gave it so violent a pull that Charles the Simple lost his balance and fell backwards, measuring his full length on the floor of the dais. As the King rolled over, Rolf broke out in his wonted guffaw and cried:
”This is the way that the Duke of Northmandy and Brittany shows his respect for the King of the Franks.”
The pirate's brutal horse-play was received with a loud outburst of joy by his Northmans, while the Frankish seigneurs and prelates, so far from thinking of avenging the outrage done to their King, remained silent and motionless. The descendant of Charles, the great emperor, rose unaided, weeping with humiliation and physical pain. He had hurt his head with the fall. The blood flowed.
CHAPTER XIV.
ON THE SWAN'S ROUTE.
Eidiol, his son, his daughter, and Rustic the Gay, back from Rouen two days past, were congregated in the evening at their humble home in Paris. More than ever did they now realize the void made at their hearth by the death of Martha, good housekeeper that she was. The street was silent; the night dark. A rap was heard at the door. Rustic opened it and Gaelo, accompanied by s.h.i.+gne, now his wife, stepped in, with their cloaks closely wrapped over their armor. The old skipper had not met the young couple since the night when they returned to Eidiol's house, in order there to await the return of Count Rothbert, who departed in hot haste to Compiegne in order to inform Charles the Simple of the pirate's will.
”Good father,” said Gaelo to Eidiol, ”my wife and I have come to bid you good-bye and to bring you tidings that will no doubt cheer your heart. I heard you deplore the sudden disappearance of a daughter, the first born of all your children. She is not dead. I have seen her--”
”My daughter!” cried the old skipper in wonderment and clasping his hands. ”What! Jeanike is alive! You have seen her?”
”Where is our sister?” cried Anne and Guyrion at once. ”Where can we see her?”
”She is near Ghisele, the wife of Rolf, Duke of Northmandy.”
”Can it be possible!” again exclaimed Eidiol with increasing astonishment. ”And how does she come to be near Ghisele?”
”According to her vague recollections, your daughter was carried off by some of those mendicants who kidnap children in order to sell them. She was disposed of to the intendant of the royal domain. It therefore happened that she lived and grew up in Kersey-on-the-Oise. Later she was married to a serf of the place. Jeanike was soon afterwards attached to the palace among the domestics. There she gave birth to two children, a boy, who now is a forester serf of the forest of Compiegne, and a girl whom she had at her breast at the same time that the Queen-mother nursed Ghisele. The Queen having died of fright on the occasion of one of the Northman descents upon Kersey, the baby was placed in charge of Jeanike, whose own baby thus shared its nourishment with the princess. Jeanike, as the princess' foster-mother, was afterwards manumitted; but she never left the side of the poor creature, who to-day is the wife of Rolf.”
”What a strange accident!” said Eidiol deeply moved. ”But why did not Jeanike accompany you hither? Did you not inform her that we were relatives and that I lived in Paris?”
”Ghisele is on her deathbed. The horror that Rolf inspires in her is carrying her to the grave. She has requested your daughter not to leave her. Jeanike could not refuse.”
”Oh, brother!” said Anne the Sweet weeping with joy and sorrow, ”the sister whom we find again is also full of compa.s.sion for that unhappy King's daughter.”
”The woman who is cowardly enough to share the bed of a man whom she hates deserves Ghisele's fate,” put in the Beautiful s.h.i.+gne with savage pride. ”There must be no pity for despicable hearts!”
”Alas!” exclaimed Anne the Sweet timidly without venturing to raise her eyes to the female warrior, ”what could the unfortunate Ghisele do?”
”Kill Rolf!” promptly answered the heroine. ”And if she did not deem her hand firm enough to strike the blow, she should have killed herself--”
”Gaelo!” interrupted the old skipper, ”your wife speaks like our mothers of old, who preferred death to the shame of slavery. But how did you happen to recognize my daughter?”
”After the ceremony of the marriage and of the invest.i.ture of the Duchies of Northmandy and Brittany Rolf went to supper. He drank to the point of intoxication and started for his wife's chamber. However little I commiserate the royal races, the fate of Ghisele touched me. I made Rolf understand that his wife should be notified of his visit, and taking the mission upon myself, I ordered a servant to conduct me to Ghisele's apartment. Her nurse received me. We were considering how, at least for this first night, she might conceal the young bride, so as to save her from the maudlin brutalities of Rolf. While speaking with Jeanike, my eyes accidentally fell upon the words '_Brenn_--_Karnak_'
burnt into her arm which, as is the custom with the domestics, was half bare--”
”I understand the rest!” broke in Eidiol. ”Recognizing--”
”Yes; I soon was convinced that Jeanike was your daughter. I told her so! Imagine her joy at the revelation! Unfortunately kept near the bedside of the dying Ghisele, Jeanike could not fly to you, as she wanted. But you will soon see her, together with her daughter Yvonne and her son Germain, the forester serf, provided he can obtain leave for a day. And now, adieu. I depart happy at the thought that I leave in your heart a good souvenir of myself, seeing that I have returned your daughter to you. That souvenir will remain in your midst.”
”Where are you going, Gaelo?”