The Poniard's Hilt Part 32

"He is in royal company."

"In royal company?"

"Chram, the son of the King of the Franks, arrived there this morning with his bodyguard; we come from the pond where we caught this mess of fish for to-night's supper."

"As true as my beard is grey that is a good windfall for a poor man like me. I shall be able to amuse the n.o.ble seigneurs exhibiting my bear and monkey to them. Do you believe, my children, that I shall be allowed admission to the burg?"

"Oh, we do not know. Strangers are not usually allowed to cross the fosse of the burg, without special permission from the seigneur count.

The draw-bridge is guarded by day, and raised at night.

"Nevertheless, last winter, I know, another exhibitor of trained animals visited the burg, and the seigneur count was greatly entertained with their performances. He may not refuse to tender a similar entertainment to his royal guest."

"Perhaps not. If he does, then the evening's entertainment will help to while away the time of the seigneurs until to-morrow morning's spectacle."

"What spectacle is that to be, my friends?"

"The four people who were sentenced to-day will be executed--Ronan the Vagre, the hermit-laborer, a renegade monk who joined the Vagrery; a little female slave, their accomplice; and the bishopess, an accursed witch; they say she once was the wife of our blessed bishop Cautin."

"Oh, have they been capturing Vagres in this region, my friends? And so they were all sentenced to-day?"

"The _mahl_ a.s.sembled at noon. The King's son and our holy bishop were present. Ronan the Vagre and the hermit-laborer were first put to the torture."

"Then they must have denied that they had run the Vagrery, did they?"

"No. Ronan, the accursed bandit, on the contrary, boasted that he was a Vagre."

"Why, then, the torture?"

"That is just what the son of the King said. He thought that the torture had no purpose with Ronan. He opposed it strongly."

"But our holy bishop," explained the other slave, "declared that a truth extracted by torture was doubly certain, it being in the nature of a judgment of G.o.d. Thereupon no one raised any further objection, and matters took their course."

"At the bishop's orders," resumed the first slave, "the feet of the Vagre and of the hermit-laborer were dipped into boiling oil--they confessed a second time."

"And thereupon they were both carried back to the _ergastula_, because they could not walk."

"And to-morrow they will be taken out for execution. It is said that the manner of their death will be frightful--but it never could be frightful enough to atone for the crimes that Ronan the Vagre--"

"And what crimes did he commit, my friends?"

"Did not the sacrilegious wretch, at the head of his band, pillage and burn down the episcopal villa of our holy bishop?"

"How, my friends, do you mean to say that Ronan the Vagre, the impious wretch, dared to commit such a crime? And what about the women, were they also put to the torture?"

"The little slave is still near death's door of a wound that she inflicted upon herself in an attempt to commit suicide. She made the attempt in a fit of despair when she saw that the Vagres were cut to pieces."

"As to the witch of a bishopess, they were preparing to apply the torture to her, when our holy bishop interposed, saying: 'We must be careful not to weaken the witch; she may succ.u.mb to the pain; it is better that she remain as strong as possible, in order that she escape not one of the torments of to-morrow's execution.'"

"Your bishop is wise, my friends. And where do the bandits await death?"

"In the underground prison of the burg."

"I hope that there is no chance of the accursed people escaping!"

"As to Ronan the Vagre and the hermit-laborer, even if they were free, they could not walk a step, their feet are all blistered."

"Oh, I forgot that, my friends."

"Besides, the _ergastula_ is made of bricks and Roman cement. The walls are as hard as rocks. Then, the cave is closed with a row of iron bars, each as thick as my arm, and it is always guarded by armed sentries."

"Thank G.o.d, it is not possible, my friends, for the accursed criminals to escape execution--they deserve all that they will get! I see that you are not of the wicked slaves, unfortunately but too numerous, who sympathize with the Vagres."

"The Vagres are demons. We would like to see them executed to the last one. They are implacable enemies of the Franks and the holy bishops!"

"I see from your speech that you have a kind master."

"He is all the better master, his clerk told us, for making us suffer a good deal. Sufferings here on earth insure to us paradise after death.

So we are resigned!"

"You can not escape salvation, my good friends, being animated with such sentiments. I hope that all your companions at the burg are like you, good Christians, resigned to their lot."

"There are impious and unbelieving people everywhere. Many of the slaves at the burg would gladly run the Vagrery if the opportunity were to present itself. Some of them do not even respect our holy bishops, sneer at the priests, hate our seigneurs, the Franks, and object to being slaves. But we always denounce them to the clerk of our count."

"You are truly good Christian companions! But are there many such wicked slaves at the burg?"

"Oh, no! There may be fifteen or twenty of them among the hundred that we are in the domestic service, and I suppose there may be two or three hundred of them among the four thousand and more colonists and field slaves whom the count owns on his domains."

"My good friends, do you know it seems to me that it will bring me good luck to spend a few hours in a house peopled with such good slaves as you are? I wish you would announce me to the count's steward. If the n.o.ble seigneur is willing to amuse himself with the capers of my bear, he will issue orders to admit me."

"We shall announce you. The steward will decide.":

And the two slaves, who, streaming with sweat, had laid down for a moment the net in which they carried a mess of large fish, freshly taken from the pond, and some of which were still seen wriggling, through the meshes, again lifted up their heavy burden and resumed their way to the burg.

As soon as the two slaves disappeared from sight, the bear raised himself on his legs, pulled off his head, dashed it on the road, and cried:

"Blood and ma.s.sacre! They are to burn my beautiful bishopess to-morrow!

And Ronan, our brave Ronan, he also is to be executed! Shall we allow that, Karadeucq?"

"I shall avenge my sons--or shall die beside them! O Loysik! O, Ronan!

Tortured! Tortured! And executed to-morrow!"

"As true as the remembrance of the bishopess sets my heart aflame, the torture of to-day, the executions of to-morrow, the arrival of that Chram with his armed men--all these events upset our plans. Instead of being taken to Clermont for trial, Ronan and the bishopess are to be executed at the burg to-morrow morning--instead of being healed of their wounds and able to use their legs, Ronan and his brother are rendered helpless. The leudes of Chram, together with those of the count and the foot soldiers, const.i.tute a garrison of more than three hundred armed men; they occupy the burg--and who is there to set free Ronan and Loysik, neither of whom can walk, the little dying slave, and my beautiful bishopess. Only you and I! Karadeucq, if I can see how we are to come out of this fix, I shall be willing to become a bear in truth--not a trick bear, as now I am, but a real bear! Oh, if anyone had said to me, when, disguised like so many others in some animal form, I celebrated the saturnalia of January nights--if anyone had said to me: 'My gay lad, you will celebrate the calends of winter in midsummer,' I would have answered: 'Go to, good man, it will be warm, then!' And I would have spoken the truth. I would be cooler in an oven than in this hide! Rage and heat make one swelter. You are silent, my old Vagre--what are you thinking about?"

"About my children. What is to be done--what is to be done?"

"I am better in action than in council, especially at this moment, when rage is making me crazy. Poor, brave woman! Burned to-morrow! Oh, how came I to be separated from her at the fastness of Allange during the combat engaged in by our archers from the branches of the oak trees against the soldiers of the count! Poor, poor woman! I thought she was killed! Our rout was complete, it was impossible for me to a.s.sure myself concerning the fate of my sweetheart! Too happy to be able to escape the ma.s.sacre with a few others of our band, and to dive into the thickest of the woods, after giving ourselves one of our haunts, the rocks on the peak of Mont-Dore, for _rendezvous_--I fled. Finally, after the lapse of a few days, about a dozen of our band met at the appointed place; it was there that we met you also in the company of two runaway slaves--you, our old Vagre, whom we had given up for lost over two years ago. It was from you that we learned of the fate of your two sons, the little slave and the bishopess. Strange, what sentiments I experience for that brave woman! The memory of her never leaves me. My heart breaks with grief at the knowledge that she is in the hands of the count and the bishop. In all Vagrery there is no Vagre more Vagre than myself for a life of adventures; nevertheless, were some unforeseen accident to cast the bishopess and myself in some solitary corner of the earth, I believe I would live there quietly with her ten, twenty, a hundred years! You surely take me for a fool, old Karadeucq, or better yet for a ninny, seeing that I weep and act stupidly! But, the devil take grief! The hour calls for action!"

"O, my sons! my sons!"