The Branding Needle, or The Monastery of Charolles Part 4

"Tempt me not, archdeacon of Satan! By the faith of a Vagre, old as I am, I have a good mind to deserve your anathema by letting loose upon your sacred back a shower of blows with the scabbard of my sword."

"Ronan, Ronan, no violence!" said Loysik. "These strangers came here as enemies; they were the first to shed blood; you have disarmed them; that was just--"

"And their arms will enrich our a.r.s.enal," Ronan broke in saying. "Come, boys, gather in that goodly harvest of iron. By my faith, we shall now be armed like royal warriors!"

"Take those soldiers and their chief into one of the halls of the monastery," Loysik ordered. "They are to be kept locked up; armed monks shall mount guard at the doors and windows. We shall later decide upon what is to be done."

"To dare hold me a prisoner, me, an officer of Queen Brunhild's household!" cried Gondowald grinding his teeth and struggling to free himself from his bonds. "Oh, you will pay dearly for such audacity, insolent monk! The Queen will take revenge for me upon your old hide!"

"Queen Brunhild has acted in defiance of law and justice by sending hither armed men to support with force the message of the Bishop of Chalon. She did wrong, even if his pretensions were as just as they are iniquitous," Loysik answered Gondowald; and turning to his monks he proceeded: "Take away those men; above all guard against any injury being done to them; if they need food, let them be supplied. Let us prove ourselves merciful."

The monks led away the Frankish soldiers and their chief, the latter of whom had to be carried in their arms, seeing that he wrathfully refused to walk. This being done, Loysik said to the archdeacon, who snarled out of breath with rage like a fox caught in a trap:

"Salvien, before aught else I must insure the safety and tranquility of this colony and community. I am, consequently, compelled to order you to remain a prisoner in this monastery. Fear not; you will be treated with consideration; your prison will be the precinct of the monastery. Within three or four days at the latest--when I shall be back here--you will be set free to return to Chalon."

After the archdeacon was removed from their presence, Ronan said to Loysik:

"Brother, you spoke of your return; are you going away? Where to?"

"Yes; I depart this instant. I am going to Chalon, to speak with the bishop and the Queen."

"What, Loysik!" cried Ronan with painful anxiety. "You leave us? You propose to face Brunhild? Do you forget that that name spells 'Implacable Vengeance,' Loysik? You would be running to your perdition!

No--no! You shall not undertake such a journey!"

The monk laborers as well as the rest of the colonists shared the apprehensions of Ronan, and began to ply Loysik with tender and pressing entreaties, in order to draw him from his foolhardy project. The old monk was not to be moved. While one of the brothers who was to accompany him hastily made the preparations for the journey, he repaired to his own cell in order to take the charter of King Clotaire, which he kept there. Ronan and his family followed Loysik, still seeking to dissuade him from his project. He answered them sadly:

"Our situation is beset with perils. Not the fate of the monastery alone but of the whole colony is at stake. You could easily prevail over a handful of soldiers; but we cannot think of resisting Brunhild by force.

To attempt any such thing would be to invite the utter ruin of the Valley, the slaughter of its inhabitants and slavery for the survivors.

Clotaire's charter establishes our rights; but what is law or right to Brunhild?"

"But that being so, what do you purpose to do at Chalon, in the very den of the she-wolf?"

"To demand justice of her!"

"But you just said yourself 'What is law or justice to Brunhild!'"

"She sports with justice as she does with the lives of her men; and yet I entertain some slight hope. I wish you to keep the archdeacon and his soldiers prisoners--first, because in their fury they certainly would have me waylaid and killed on the road; I cling to life in order to lead to a successful issue the business that I now have in hand; secondly, because, rather than have the archdeacon and the chamberlain precede me in making the report of to-night's occurrence, I prefer myself to inform the bishop and Brunhild of the resistance that we offered."

"But, brother, suppose justice is refused you; suppose the implacable Queen orders you to be slain--as she has done with so many other victims of her injustice!"

"In that event the iniquity will be accomplished. In that event, if their purpose is not only to subject your goods and persons to the tyranny and exactions of the Church, but also to despoil you forcibly of the soil and the liberty that you have reconquered and which a royal charter guarantees to you, in that event you will be forced to take a supreme resolution. Call together a solemn council, as our fathers of yore were in the habit of doing whenever the safety of the land was in peril. Let the mothers and wives take part in that council, as was the ancient custom of Gaul, because the fate of their husbands and children is to be determined upon. You will then with calmness, wisdom and firmness decide upon one of these three alternatives--the only ones, alas! left to you: Whether to submit to the pretensions of the Bishop of Chalon, and accept a disguised servitude that will soon transform our free Valley into a domain of the Church, to be exploited for his benefit; whether you will bow before the will of the Queen if she tramples your rights under foot, tears up the charter of Clotaire, and declares our Valley a domain of the royal fisc, which will mean to you spoliation, misery, slavery and shame; or, finally, whether, strong in your own right, but certain of being crushed by superior numbers, to make protest against the royal or episcopal iniquity by a heroic defense, and bury yourselves and your families under the ruins of your homes. You will have to decide upon one of these three measures."

"All of us, without exception, men, women and children, will know how to fight and die like our ancestors, Loysik! And perhaps it may happen that the b.l.o.o.d.y lesson and example may shake the surrounding populations from their torpor. But, brother--brother--to think of your starting alone, and alone confronting a danger that I cannot share with you!"

"Come, Ronan, no weakness. See to it that all the fortified posts of the Valley be occupied as was done fifty years ago at the time of the invasion of Burgundy by Chram. The old military experience that you and the Master of the Hounds have acquired will now be of great service. For the rest, there will be no fear of any attack during the next four or five days. It will take me two days to reach Chalon, and an equally long time for the Queen's troops to reach the Valley, in the event of her resolving upon violence. Until the moment of my arrival at Chalon, both the bishop and Brunhild will be in the dark as to whether their orders were enforced or not. They can receive no tidings seeing that the archdeacon and the chamberlain, together with their troops, remain prisoners in the Valley and under safe surveillance."

"And in case of need they will serve as hostages."

"It is the law of war. If the insane bishop, if the implacable Queen wish war, we must also keep as prisoners the two priests, the infamous hypocrites, who treacherously brought the archdeacon into the Valley."

"I overheard the monks argue upon the lesson that they should administer to the two spies--they spoke of a strapping."

"I expressly forbid any act of violence towards the two priests!" said Loysik in a tone of severe reproof, addressing two monk laborers who happened to be at the time in the cell. "Those clerks are but the creatures of the bishop; they merely obeyed his orders. I repeat it--no violence, my children!"

"Good father Loysik, seeing you so order it, no harm shall be done them."

Heartrending was the leave-taking between Loysik and both the inhabitants of the colony and the members of the community. Many tears flowed; many childish hands clung to the monk's robe. Vain were the recurring entreaties not to depart on his errand. He took his leave, accompanied as far as the punt by Ronan and his family. At the landing of the punt they found the Master of the Hounds and his posse ready posted to cut off the retreat of the Franks. As he took his post, the Master of the Hounds noticed on the other side of the river a number of slaves guarding the mounts of the warriors and the archdeacon's baggage.

The Master of the Hounds considered it prudent to seize both men and animals. Leaving one-half of his companions at the lodge, he crossed the river at the head of the rest. The slaves offered no resistance, and three trips sufficed to transport the men, the animals and the wagons to the opposite sh.o.r.e. Loysik approved the manoeuvre of the Master of the Hounds. Seeing that neither the archdeacon nor Gondowald returned, the slaves might have run back to Chalon and given the alarm. It was important to the project upon which the monk was bent that the recent occurrences at the monastery remained a secret. Considering his advanced age and the long road that he had to travel, Loysik decided to use the archdeacon's mule for the journey. The animal was re-embarked on the punt, which Ronan and his son Gregory decided themselves to take to the other sh.o.r.e, so as to remain a few minutes longer with Loysik. The craft touched ground; the old monk laborer embraced Ronan and his son once more, mounted his mule, and, accompanied by a young brother of the community, who followed him on foot, took the road to Chalon-on-the-Saone, the residence of the redoubted Queen Brunhild.

PART II.

THE CASTLE OF BRUNHILD

CHAPTER I.

IN THE TOWER-ROOM.

"Long live he who loves the Franks! May Christ uphold their empire! May He enlighten their chiefs and fill them with grace! May He protect the army, may He fortify the faith, may He grant peace and happiness to those who govern them under the auspices of our Lord Jesus Christ!"

By the faith of a Vagre! That pa.s.sage from the prelude to the Salic Law always recurs to the mind when Frankish kings or queens are on the tapis. Let us enter the lair of Brunhild--splendid lair! Not rustic is this burg, like Neroweg's, the large burg that we old Vagres reduced to ashes! No; this great Queen has a refined taste. One of her pa.s.sions is for architecture. The n.o.ble woman loves the ancient arts of Greece and Italy. Aye, she loves art! Regale your sight with the magnificent castle that she built at Chalon-on-the-Saone, the capital of Burgundy.

Magnificent as are all her other castles, none, not even that of Bourcheresse, can compare with her royal residence, the superb gardens of which stretch to the very banks of the Saone. It is a palace at once gorgeous and martial. In these days of incessant feuds, kings and seigneurs always turn their homes into fortifications. So also did Brunhild. Her palace is girt by thick walls, flanked with ma.s.sive towers. One only entrance--a vaulted pa.s.sage closed at its two extremities by enormous iron-barred doors--leads within. Night and day Brunhild's men-at-arms mount guard in the vault. In the inside courtyards are numerous other lodges for hors.e.m.e.n and footmen. The halls of the palace are vast; they are paved in marble or in mosaics, and are ornamented with colonnades of jasper, porphyry and alabaster surmounted with capitals of gilded bronze. These architectural wonders, masterpieces of art, the spoils of the temples and palaces of Gaul, were transported with the help of an immense number of relays of slaves and beasts of burden from their original and distant sites to the palace of the Queen. These vast and gorgeous halls, which are furthermore stored with ma.s.sive ivory, gold and silver furniture, with exquisitely wrought pagan statues, with precious vases and tripods, are but vestibules to the private chamber of Brunhild. The sun has just risen. The s.p.a.cious halls are filling with the Queen's domestic slaves, with officers of her troops, with high dignitaries of her establishment--chamberlains, equerries, stewards, constables--all coming to receive their mistress's orders.

A circular apartment, contrived into one of the towers of the palace, connects with the chamber that the Queen habitually inhabits. The walls are pierced by three doors--one leads to the hall where the officers of the palace are in waiting; another into Brunhild's bedroom; the third, a simple bay closed by a curtain of gilded leather, opens upon a spiral staircase that is built into the hollow of the wall itself. The Queen's chamber is sumptuously furnished. Upon a table, covered with a richly embroidered tapestry, lie rolls of white parchment beside a solid coffer studded with precious stones. Around the table a number of chairs are arranged, all of which are furnished with soft purple cus.h.i.+ons. Here and there the shafts of pillars serve as pedestals for vases of jasper, of onyx, or of Corinthian bronze, a material more precious than gold or red alabaster. Upon an antique green plinth rests a group exquisitely wrought in Parisian marble and representing the pagan G.o.d of Love caressing Venus. Not far from that group, two statues of bronze that age has turned green represent the obscene figures of a fawn and a nymph.

Between these two masterpieces of pagan art, a picture painted upon wood and brought at great expense from Byzantium, represents the infant Christ and John the Baptist, the latter also as a child. This picture of holiness indicates that Queen Brunhild is a fervent Catholic. Does she not carry on a regular correspondence with the Pope of Rome, the pious Gregory, who can not bestow too many blessings upon his holy daughter in Christ? Further away, upon yonder ivory stand, is an elaborately carved case in which large Roman and Gallic medals of silver and gold are displayed. Among these medals is one of bronze, the only one of that metal in the collection. What does it represent?

What! Here! In a place like this! That august, that venerated face! O, profanation!

Oh, never was the place or time more opportune for a miracle than here and now, in order to terrify evildoers! That bronze effigy should shudder with horror at the place in which it finds itself.

An elderly and richly clad woman, of stony, cynic and wily countenance, steps from Brunhild's bedroom and enters the apartment in the tower. The woman, of n.o.ble Frankish extraction and Chrotechilde by name, has long been the confidante in all the Queen's crimes and debaucheries. She steps to a bell, rings it and waits. Shortly after, another old woman appears at the door that opens upon the spiral staircase in the wall.

Her extremely simple costume announces that she is of inferior rank.

"I heard you ring, n.o.ble dame Chrotechilde, at your orders."

"Did Samuel, the slave merchant, come as ordered?"

"He has been waiting below for over an hour with two young girls, and also an old man with a long white beard."

"Who is that old man?"

"A slave, I suppose, that the Jew is to take somewhere else, after his business is done here."