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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Gold Sickle, by Eugène Sue, Translated by
+Daniel De Leon
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Gold Sickle
+       or Hena, The Virgin of The Isle of Sen. A Tale of Druid Gaul
+
+
+Author: Eugène Sue
+
+
+
+Release Date: March 23, 2010  [eBook #31752]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GOLD SICKLE***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Chuck Greif and the Project Gutenberg Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from scanned images of
+public domain material generously made available by the Google Books
+Library Project (http://books.google.com/)
+
+
+
+Note: Images of the original pages are available through
+      the the Google Books Library Project. See
+      http://books.google.com/books?vid=MCYnAAAAMAAJ&id
+
+
+
+
+
+THE GOLD SICKLE
+
+Or
+
+Hena, The Virgin of The Isle of Sen
+
+A Tale of Druid Gaul
+
+by
+
+EUGENE SUE
+
+Translated from the Original French by Daniel De Leon
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+New York Labor News Company, 1904
+
+Copyright, 1904, by the
+New York Labor News Company
+
+
+
+
+TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE
+
+
+_The Gold Sickle; or, Hena the Virgin of the Isle of Sen_, is the
+initial story of the series that Eugene Sue wrote under the collective
+title of _The Mysteries of the People; or, History of a Proletarian
+Family Across the Ages_.
+
+The scheme of this great work of Sue's was stupendously ambitious--and
+the author did not fall below the ideal that he pursued. His was the
+purpose of producing a comprehensive "universal history," dating from
+the beginning of the present era down to his own days. But the history
+that he proposed to sketch was not to be a work for closet study. It was
+to be a companion in the stream of actual, every-day life and struggle,
+with an eye especially to the successive struggles of the successively
+ruled with the successively ruling classes. In the execution of his
+design, Sue conceived a plan that was as brilliant as it was
+poetic--withal profoundly philosophic. One family, the descendants of a
+Gallic chief named Joel, typifies the oppressed; one family, the
+descendants of a Frankish chief and conqueror named Neroweg, typifies
+the oppressor; and across and adown the ages, the successive struggles
+between oppressors and oppressed--the history of civilization--is thus
+represented in a majestic allegory. In the execution of this superb plan
+a thread was necessary to connect the several epochs with one another,
+to preserve the continuity requisite for historic accuracy, and, above
+all, to give unity and point to the silent lesson taught by the
+unfolding drama. Sue solved the problem by an ingenious scheme--a series
+of stories, supposedly written from age to age, sometimes at shorter,
+other times at longer intervals, by the descendants of the ancestral
+type of the oppressed, narrating their special experience and handing
+the supplemented chronicle down to their successors from generation to
+generation, always accompanied with some emblematic relic, that
+constitutes the first name of each story. The series, accordingly,
+though a work presented in the garb of "fiction," is the best universal
+history extant: Better than any work, avowedly on history, it
+graphically traces the special features of class-rule as they have
+succeeded one another from epoch to epoch, together with the special
+character of the struggle between the contending classes. The "Law,"
+"Order," "Patriotism," "Religion," "Family," etc., etc., that each
+successive tyrant class, despite its change of form, fraudulently sought
+refuge in to justify its criminal existence whenever threatened; the
+varying economic causes of the oppression of the toilers; the mistakes
+incurred by these in their struggles for redress; the varying fortunes
+of the conflict;--all these social dramas are therein reproduced in a
+majestic series of "novels" covering leading and successive episodes in
+the history of the race--an inestimable gift, above all to our own
+generation, above all to the American working class, the short history
+of whose country deprives it of historic back-ground.
+
+It is not until the fifth story is reached--the period of the Frankish
+conquest of Gaul, 486 of the present era--that the two distinct streams
+of the typical oppressed and typical oppressor meet. But the four
+preceding ones are necessary, and preparatory for the main drama, that
+starts with the fifth story and that, although carried down to the
+revolution of 1848 which overthrew Louis Philippe in France, reaches its
+grand climax in _The Sword of Honor; or, The Foundation of the French
+Republic_, that is, the French Revolution. These stories are nineteen in
+number, and their chronological order is the following:
+
+     1. The Gold Sickle; or, Hena, the Virgin of the Isle of Sen;
+     2. The Brass Bell; or, The Chariot of Death;
+     3. The Iron Collar; or, Faustine and Syomara;
+     4. The Silver Cross; or, The Carpenter of Nazareth;
+     5. The Casque's Lark; or, Victoria, The Mother of the Fields;
+     6. The Poniard's Hilt; or, Karadeucq and Ronan;
+     7. The Branding Needle; or, The Monastery of Charolles;
+     8. The Abbatial Crosier; or, Bonaik and Septimine;
+     9. Carlovingian Coins; or, The Daughters of Charlemagne;
+    10. The Iron Arrow-Head; or, The Maid of the Buckler;
+    11. The Infant's Skull; or, The End of the World;
+    12. The Pilgrim's Shell; or, Fergan the Quarryman;
+    13. The Iron Pincers; or, Mylio and Karvel;
+    14. The Iron Trevet; or, Jocelyn the Champion;
+    15. The Executioner's Knife; or, Joan of Arc;
+    16. The Pocket Bible; or, Christian the Printer;
+    17. The Blacksmith's Hammer; or, The Peasant-Code;
+    18. The Sword of Honor; or, The Foundation of the French Republic;
+    19. The Galley-Slave's Ring; or, The Family of Lebrenn.
+
+Long and effectually has the influence of the usurping class in the
+English-speaking world succeeded in keeping this brilliant torch that
+Eugene Sue lighted, from casting its rays across the path of the
+English-speaking peoples. Several English translations were attempted
+before this, in England and this country, some fifty years ago. They
+were all fractional: they are all out of print now: most of them are not
+to be found even in public libraries of either England or America, not a
+wrack being left to them, little more than a faint tradition. Only two
+of the translations are not wholly obliterated. One of them was
+published by Trübner & Co. jointly with David Nutt, both of London, in
+1863; the other was published by Clark, 448 Broome street, New York, in
+1867. The former was anonymous, the translator's identity being
+indicated only with the initials "K. R. H. M." It contains only eight of
+the nineteen stories of the original, and even these are avowedly
+abridgments. The latter was translated by Mary L. Booth, and it broke
+off before well under way--extinguished as if snuffed off by a gale.
+Even these two luckier fragmentary translations, now surviving only as
+curios in a few libraries, attest the vehemence and concertedness of the
+effort to suppress this great gift of Sue's intellect to the human race.
+It will be thus no longer. _The Mysteries of the People; or, History of
+a Proletarian Family Across the Ages_ will henceforth enlighten the
+English-speaking toiling masses as well.
+
+DANIEL DE LEON.
+
+New York, May 1, 1904.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+Translator's Preface                           iii
+
+Chapter 1. The Guest                             1
+
+Chapter 2. A Gallic Homestead                   11
+
+Chapter 3. Armel and Julyan                     20
+
+Chapter 4. The Story of Albrege                 27
+
+Chapter 5. The Story of Syomara                 33
+
+Chapter 6. The Story of Gaul                    39
+
+Chapter 7. "War! War! War!"                     45
+
+Chapter 8. "Farewell!"                          53
+
+Chapter 9. The Forest of Karnak                 66
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE GUEST.
+
+
+He who writes this account is called Joel, the brenn[A] of the tribe of
+Karnak; he is the son of Marik, who was the son of Kirio, the son of
+Tiras, the son of Gomer, the son of Vorr, the son of Glenan, the son of
+Erer, the son of Roderik chosen chief of the Gallic army that, now two
+hundred and seventy-seven years ago, levied tribute upon Rome.
+
+[A] Gallic word for chief.
+
+Joel (why should I not say so?) feared the gods, he was of a right
+heart, a steady courage and a cheerful mind. He loved to laugh, to tell
+stories, and above all to hear them told, like the genuine Gaul that he
+was.
+
+At the time when Cæsar invaded Gaul (may his name be accursed!), Joel
+lived two leagues from Alrè, not far from the sea and the isle of
+Roswallan, near the edge of the forest of Karnak, the most celebrated
+forest of Breton Gaul.
+
+One evening towards nightfall--the evening before the anniversary of the
+day when Hena, his daughter, his well-beloved daughter was born unto
+him--it is now eighteen years ago--Joel and his eldest son Guilhern were
+returning home in a chariot drawn by four of those fine little Breton
+oxen whose horns are smaller than their ears. Joel and his son had been
+laying marl on their lands, as is usually done in the autumn, so that
+the lands may be in good condition for seed-time in the spring. The
+chariot was slowly climbing up the hill of Craig'h at a place where that
+mountainous road is narrowed between two rocks, and from where the sea
+is seen at a distance, and still farther away the Isle of Sen--the
+mysterious and sacred isle.
+
+"Father," Guilhern said to Joel, "look down there below on the flank of
+the hill. There is a rider coming this way. Despite the steepness of the
+descent, he has put his horse to a gallop."
+
+"As sure as the good Elldud invented the plow, that man will break his
+neck."
+
+"Where can he be riding to in such a hurry? The sun is going down; the
+wind blows high and threatens a storm; and that road that leads to the
+desert strand--"
+
+"Son, that man is not of Breton Gaul. He wears a furred cap and a shaggy
+coat, and his tanned-skin hose are fastened with red bands."
+
+"A short axe hangs at his right and he has a long knife in a sheath at
+his left."
+
+"His large black horse does not seem to stumble in the descent.... Where
+can he be going in such a hurry?"
+
+"Father, the man must have lost his way."
+
+"Oh, my son, may Teutates hear you! We shall tender our hospitality to
+the rider. His dress tells he is a stranger. What beautiful stories will
+he not be able to tell us of his country and his travels!"
+
+"May the divine Ogmi, whose words bind men in golden chains, be
+propitious to us, father! It is long since any strange story-teller has
+sat at our hearth."
+
+"Besides, we have had no news of what is going on elsewhere in Gaul."
+
+"Unfortunately so!"
+
+"Oh, my son, if I were all-powerful as Hesus, I would have a new
+story-teller every evening at supper."
+
+"I would send men traveling everywhere, and have them return and tell
+their adventures."
+
+"And if I had the power of Hesus, what wonderful adventures would I not
+provide for my travelers so as to increase the interest in their stories
+on their return."
+
+"Father, the rider is coming close to us!"
+
+"Yes, he reins in because the road is here narrow, and we bar his
+passage with our chariot. Come, Guilhern, the moment is favorable; the
+passenger must have lost his way; let us offer him hospitality for
+to-night. We shall then keep him to-morrow, and perhaps several other
+days. We shall have done him a good turn, and he will give us the news
+from Gaul and of the other countries that he has visited."
+
+"Besides, it will be a great joy to my sister Hena who is to come home
+to-morrow for the feast of her birthday."
+
+"Oh, Guilhern, I never thought of the pleasure that my beloved daughter
+will have listening to the stranger! He must be our guest!"
+
+"That he shall be, father! Indeed, he shall!" answered Guilhern
+resolutely.
+
+Joel and his son alighted from the chariot, and advanced towards the
+rider. Once close to him, both were struck with the majesty of the
+stranger's looks. Nothing haughtier than his eyes, more masculine than
+his face, more worthy than his bearing. On his forehead and on one cheek
+were visible the traces of two wounds only freshly healed. To judge by
+his dauntless appearance, the rider must have been one of those chiefs
+whom the tribes elect from time to time to lead them in battle. Joel and
+his son were all the more anxious to have him accept their hospitality.
+
+"Friend traveler," said Joel, "night is upon us; you have lost your way;
+the road you are on leads nowhere but to the desert strands; the tide
+will soon be washing over them because the wind is blowing high. To keep
+on your route by night would be dangerous. Come to my house. You may
+resume your journey to-morrow."
+
+"I have not lost my way; I know where I am going to; and I am in a
+hurry. Turn your oxen aside; make room for me to pass," was the brusque
+answer of the rider, whose forehead was wet with perspiration from the
+hurry of his course. By his accent he seemed to be from central Gaul,
+towards the Loire. After having thus addressed Joel, he struck his
+large black horse with both heels in the flanks and tried to draw still
+nearer to the oxen that now completely barred his passage.
+
+"Friend traveler, did you not hear me?" rejoined Joel. "I told you that
+this road led only to the seashore, that night was on, and that I offer
+you my house."
+
+The stranger, however, beginning to wax angry, replied: "I do not need
+your hospitality.... Draw your oxen aside.... Do you not see that the
+rocks leave me no passage either way?... Hurry up; I am in haste--"
+
+"Friend," said Joel, "you are a stranger; I am of this country; it is my
+duty to prevent you from going astray.... I shall do my duty--"
+
+"By Ritha-Gaür, who made himself a blouse out of the beard of the kings
+he shaved!" cried the stranger, now in towering rage. "I have traveled a
+deal since my beard began to grow, have seen many countries, many
+peoples and many strange customs, but never yet have I come across two
+fools like these!"
+
+Learning from the mouth of the stranger himself that he had seen many
+countries, many peoples and many strange customs, Joel and his son, both
+of whom were passionately fond of hearing stories, concluded that many
+and charming must be the ones the stranger could tell, and they felt all
+the more desirous of securing such a guest. Accordingly, so far from
+turning the chariot aside, Joel advanced close to the rider, and said to
+him with the sweetest voice that he could master, his natural voice
+being rather rough:
+
+"Friend, you shall go no further! I wish to be respectful to the gods,
+above all to Teutates, the god of travelers, and shall therefore keep
+you from going astray by making you spend a good night under a good
+roof, instead of allowing you to wander about the strand, where you
+would run the risk of being drowned in the rising tide."
+
+"Take care!" replied the unknown rider carrying his hand to the axe that
+hung from his belt. "Take care!... If you do not forthwith turn your
+oxen aside, I shall make a sacrifice to the gods, and shall join you to
+the offering!"
+
+"The gods cannot choose but protect such a worshipper as yourself,"
+answered Joel, who, smiling, had passed a few words in a low voice to
+his son. "The gods will prevent you from spending the night on the
+strand.... You'll see--"
+
+Father and son precipitated themselves unexpectedly upon the traveler.
+Each took him by a leg, and both being large and robust men, raised him
+erect over his saddle, giving at the same time a thump with their knees
+to his horse's belly. The animal ran ahead, and Joel and Guilhern
+respectfully lowered the rider on his feet to the ground. Now in a wild
+rage, the traveler tried to resist, but before he could draw his knife
+he was held fast by Joel and Guilhern, one of whom produced a strong
+rope with which they firmly tied the stranger's feet and hands--all of
+which was done with great mildness and affability on the part of the
+story-greedy father and son, who despite the furious wrestling of the
+stranger, deposited him on the chariot with increasing respect and
+politeness, seeing they were increasingly struck by the virile dignity
+of his face.
+
+Guilhern then mounted the traveler's horse and followed the chariot that
+Joel led, urging on the oxen with his goad. They were in earnest haste
+to reach the shelter of their house: the gale increased; the roar of the
+waves was heard dashing upon the rocks along the coast; streaks of
+lightning glistened through the darkening clouds; all the signs
+portended a stormy night.
+
+All these threatening signs notwithstanding, the unknown rider seemed
+nowise thankful for the hospitality that Joel and his son had pressed
+upon him. Extended on the bottom of the chariot he was pale with rage.
+He ground his teeth and puffed at his mouth. But keeping his anger to
+himself he said not a word. Joel (it must be admitted) passionately
+loved a story, but he also passionately loved to talk. He turned to the
+stranger:
+
+"My guest, for such you are now, I give thanks to Teutates, the god of
+travelers, for having sent me a guest. You should know who I am. Yes, I
+must tell you who I am, seeing you are to sit down at my hearth;" and
+unaffected by the stranger's gesture of anger, which seemed to say he
+cared not to know who Joel was, the latter proceeded:
+
+"My name is Joel ... I am the son of Marik, who was the son of Kirio ...
+Kirio was the son of Tiras ... Tiras was the son of Gomer ... Gomer was
+the son of Vorr ... Vorr was the son of Glenan ... Glenan, son of Erer,
+who was the son of Roderik, chosen brenn of the confederated Gallic
+army, who two hundred and seventy-six years ago levied tribute upon Rome
+in order to punish the Romans for their treachery. I have been chosen
+brenn of my tribe, which is the tribe of Karnak. From father to son we
+have been peasants; we cultivate our fields as best we can, following
+the example left by Coll to our ancestors.... We sow more wheat and
+barley than rye and oats."
+
+The stranger continued nursing his rage rather than paying any attention
+to these details. Joel continued imperturbably:
+
+"Thirty-two years ago, I married Margarid, the daughter of Dorlern. I
+have from her three sons and a daughter. The elder boy is there behind
+us, leading your good black horse, friend guest ... his name is
+Guilhern. He and several other relatives help me in the cultivation of
+our field. I raise a good many black sheep that pasture on our meadows,
+as well as half-wild hogs, as vicious as wolves and who never sleep
+under a roof.... We have some fine meadows in this valley of Alrè.... I
+also raise horses, colts of my spirited stallion Tom-Bras.[B] My son
+amuses himself raising war and hunting dogs. The hunting dogs are of the
+breed of a greyhound named Tyntammar; the ones destined for war are the
+whelps of a large mastiff named Deber-Trud.[C] Our horses and our dogs
+are so renowned that people come more than twenty leagues from here to
+buy them. So you see, my guest, that you might have fallen into a worse
+house."
+
+[B] Ardent.
+
+[C] Man-eater.
+
+The stranger emitted a sigh of suppressed rage, bit what he could reach
+of his long blonde mustache and raised his eyes to heaven.
+
+Joel proceeded while pricking his oxen:
+
+"Mikael, my second son, is an armorer at Alrè, four leagues from
+here.... He does not fashion war implements only, but also plow-coulters
+and long Gallic scythes and axes that are highly prized, because he
+draws his iron from the mountains of Arres.... But there is more, friend
+traveler.... Mikael does other things besides. Before establishing
+himself at Alrè, he was at Bourges and worked with one of our parents
+who is a descendant of the first artisan who ever conceived the idea of
+alloying iron and copper with block-tin, a composition in which the
+artisans of Bourges excel.... Thus my son Mikael came away a worthy
+pupil of his masters. Oh, if you only saw the things he turns out! You
+would think the horse's bits, the chariot ornaments, the superb casques
+of war that Mikael manufactures to be of silver! He has just finished a
+casque the point of which represents an elk's head with its horns....
+There is nothing more magnificent!"
+
+"O!" murmured the stranger between his teeth, "how true is the saying:
+'The Sword of a Gaul kills but once, his tongue massacres you without
+end!'"
+
+"Friend guest, so far I can bestow no praise upon your tongue, which is
+as silent as a fish's. But I shall await your leisure, when it will be
+your turn to tell me who you are, whence you come, where you are going
+to, what you have seen in your travels, what wonderful people you have
+met, and the latest news from the sections of Gaul that you have
+traversed. While waiting for your narratives, I shall finish informing
+you about myself and family."
+
+At this threat the stranger contorted his members in an effort to snap
+his bonds; he failed; the rope was staunch, and Joel as well as his son
+made perfect knots.
+
+"I have not yet spoken to you of my third son Albinik the sailor,"
+continued Joel. "He traffics with the island of Great Britanny, as well
+as all the ports of Gaul, and he goes as far as Spain carrying Gascony
+wines and salted provisions from Aquitaine.... Unfortunately he has been
+at sea a long time with his lovely wife Meroë; so you will not see them
+this evening at my house. I told you that besides three sons I had a
+daughter ... as to her! Oh, as to her!... See here," added Joel with an
+air that was at once boastful and tender, "she is the pearl of the
+family.... It is not I only who say so, my wife also, my sons, my whole
+tribe says the same thing. There is but one voice to sing the praises of
+Hena, the daughter of Joel ... of Hena, one of the virgins of the Isle
+of Sen."
+
+"What!" cried the traveler sitting up with a start, the only motion
+allowed to him by his bonds, that held his feet tied and his arms
+pinioned behind him. "What? Your daughter? Is she one of the virgins of
+the Isle of Sen?"
+
+"That seems to astonish and somewhat mollify you, friend guest!"
+
+"Your daughter?" the stranger proceeded, as if unable to believe what he
+heard. "Your daughter?... Is she one of the nine druid priestesses of
+the Isle of Sen?"
+
+"As true as that to-morrow it will be eighteen years since she was born!
+We have been preparing to celebrate her birthday, and you may attend the
+feast. The guest seated at our hearth is of our family.... You will see
+my daughter. She is the most beautiful, the sweetest, the wisest of her
+companions, without thereby detracting from any of them."
+
+"Very well, then," brusquely replied the unknown, "I shall pardon you
+the violence you committed upon me."
+
+"Hospitable violence, friend."
+
+"Hospitable, or not, you prevented me by force from proceeding to the
+wharf of Erer, where a boat awaited me until sunset, to take me to the
+Isle of Sen."
+
+At these words Joel broke out laughing.
+
+"What are you laughing about?" asked the stranger.
+
+"If you were to tell me that a boat with the head of a dog, the wings of
+a bird and the tail of a fish was waiting for you to take you to the
+sun, I would laugh as loud, and for the same reason. You are my guest; I
+shall not insult you by telling you that you lie. But I will tell you,
+friend, you are joking when you talk of a boat that is to take you to
+the Isle of Sen. No man, excepting the very oldest druids, have ever or
+ever will set foot on the Isle of Sen."
+
+"And when you go there to see your daughter?"
+
+"I do not step on the isle. I stop at the little island of Kellor. There
+I wait for my daughter, and she goes there to meet me."
+
+"Friend Joel," said the traveler, "you have so willed it that I be your
+guest; I am that, and, as such, I ask a service of you. Take me
+to-morrow in your boat to the little island of Kellor."
+
+"Do you know that the ewaghs watch day and night?"
+
+"I know it. It was one of them who was to come for me this evening at
+the wharf of Erer to conduct me to Talyessin the oldest of the druids,
+who, at this hour, is at the Isle of Sen with his wife Auria."
+
+"That is true!" exclaimed Joel much surprised. "The last time my
+daughter came home she said that Talyessin was on the isle since the new
+year, and that the wife of Talyessin tendered her a mother's care."
+
+"You see, you may believe me, friend Joel. Take me to-morrow to the
+island of Kellor; I shall see one of the ewaghs."
+
+"I consent. I shall take you to the island of Kellor."
+
+"And now you may loosen my bonds. I swear by Hesus that I shall not seek
+to elude your hospitality."
+
+"Very well," responded Joel, loosening the stranger's bonds; "I trust my
+guest's promise."
+
+While this conversation proceeded it had grown pitch dark. But the
+darkness notwithstanding and the difficulties of the road, the chariot,
+conducted by the sure hand of Joel, rolled up before his house. His son,
+Guilhern, who, mounted on the stranger's horse, had followed the van,
+took an ox-horn that was opened at both ends, and using it for a trumpet
+blew three times. The signal was speedily answered by a great barking of
+dogs.
+
+"Here we are at home!" said Joel to the stranger. "Be not alarmed at the
+barking of the dogs. Listen! That loud voice that dominates all the
+others is Deber-Trud's, from whom descends the valiant breed of war dogs
+that you will see to-morrow. My son Guilhern will take your horse to the
+stable. The animal will find a good shelter and plenty of provender."
+
+At the sound of Guilhern's trump, one of the family came out of the
+house holding a resin torch. Guided by the light, Joel led his oxen and
+the chariot entered the yard.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+A GALLIC HOMESTEAD.
+
+
+Like all other rural homes, Joel's was spacious and round of shape. The
+walls consisted of two rows of hurdles, the space between which was
+filled with a mixture of beaten clay and straw; the inside and outside
+of the thick wall was plastered over with a layer of fine and fattish
+earth, which, when dry, was hard as sandstone. The roofing was large and
+projecting. It consisted of oaken joists joined together and covered
+with a layer of seaweed laid so thick that it was proof against water.
+
+On either side of the house stood the barns destined for the storage of
+the harvest, and also for the stables, the sheepfolds, the kennels, the
+storerooms and the washrooms.
+
+These several structures formed an oblong square that surrounded a large
+yard, closed up at night with a massive gate. On the outside, a strong
+palisade, raised on the brow of a deep ditch, enclosed the system of
+buildings, leaving between it and them an alley about four feet wide.
+Two large and ferocious war mastiffs were let loose during the night in
+the vacant space. The palisade had an exterior door that corresponded
+with an interior one. All were locked at night.
+
+The number of men, women and children--all more or less near relatives
+of Joel--who cultivated fields in common with him, was considerable.
+These lodged in the houses attached to the principal building, where
+they met at noon and in the evening to take their joint meals.
+
+Other homesteads, similarly constructed and occupied by numerous
+families who cultivated lands in common, lay scattered here and there
+over the landscape and composed the _ligniez_, or tribe of Karnak, of
+which Joel was chosen chief.
+
+Upon his entrance in the yard of his homestead, Joel was received with
+the caresses of his old war dog Deber-Trud, an animal of an iron grey
+color streaked with black, an enormous head, blood-shot eyes, and of
+such a high stature that in standing up to caress his master he placed
+his front paws upon Joel's shoulders. He was a dog of such boldness that
+he once fought a monstrous bear of the mountains of Arres, and killed
+him. As to his war qualities, Deber-Trud would have been worthy of
+figuring with the war pack of Bithert, the Gallic chieftain who at sight
+of a small hostile troop said disdainfully: "They are not enough for a
+meal for my dogs."
+
+As Deber-Trud looked over and smelled the traveler with a doubtful air,
+Joel said to the animal: "Do you not see he is a guest whom I bring
+home?"
+
+As if he understood the words, Deber-Trud ceased showing any uneasiness
+about the stranger, and gamboled clumsily ahead of his master into the
+house. The house was partitioned into three sections of unequal size.
+The two smaller ones, separated from each other and from the main hall
+by oaken panels, were destined, one for Joel and his wife, the other for
+Hena, their daughter, when she came to visit the family. The vast hall
+between the two served as a dining-room, and in it were performed the
+noon and evening in-door labors.
+
+When the stranger entered the hall, a large fire of beech wood,
+enlivened with dry brush wood and seaweed burned in the hearth, and with
+its brilliancy rendered superfluous the light of a handsome lamp of
+burnished copper that hung from three chains of the same metal. The lamp
+was a present from Mikael the armorer.
+
+Two whole sheep, impaled in long iron spits broiled before the hearth,
+while salmon and other sea fish boiled in a large pewter pot filled with
+water, seasoned with vinegar, salt and caraway.
+
+The panels were ornamented with heads of wolves, boars, cerfs and of two
+wild bulls called _urok_, an animal that began to be rare in the region;
+beside them hung hunting weapons, such as bows, arrows and slings, and
+weapons of war, such as the _sparr_ and the _matag_, axes, sabres of
+copper, bucklers of wood covered with the tough skin of seals, and long
+lances with iron heads, sharpened and barbed and provided with little
+brass bells, intended to notify the enemy from afar that the Gallic
+warrior approached, seeing that the latter disdains ambuscades, and
+loves to fight in the open. There were also fishing nets and harpoons to
+harpoon the salmon in the shallows when the tide goes out.
+
+To the right of the main door stood a kind of altar, consisting of a
+block of granite, surmounted and covered by large oak branches freshly
+cut. A little copper bowl lay on the stone in which seven twigs of
+mistletoe stood. From above, on the wall, the following inscription
+looked down:
+
+          Abundance and Heaven
+        Are for the Just and the Pure.
+            He is Pure and Holy
+    Who Performs Celestial Works and Pure.
+
+When Joel stepped into the house, he approached the copper basin in
+which stood the seven branches of mistletoe and reverently put his lips
+to each. His guest followed his example, and then both walked towards
+the hearth.
+
+At the hearth was Mamm' Margarid, Joel's wife, with a distaff. She was
+tall of stature, and wore a short, sleeveless tunic of brown wool over a
+long robe of grey with narrow sleeves, both tunic and robe being
+fastened around her waist with her apron string. A white cap, cut
+square, left exposed her grey hair, that parted over her forehead. Like
+many other women of her kin, she wore a coral necklace round her neck,
+bracelets inwrought with garnets and other trinkets of gold and silver
+fashioned at Autun.
+
+Around Mamm' Margarid played the children of Guilhern and several other
+of her kin, while their young mothers busied themselves preparing
+supper.
+
+"Margarid," said Joel to his wife, "I bring a guest to you."
+
+"He is welcome," answered the woman without stopping to spin. "The gods
+send us a guest, our hearth is his own. The eve of my daughter's birth
+is propitious."
+
+"May your children when they travel, be received as I am by you,"
+answered the stranger respectfully.
+
+"But you do not yet know what kind of a guest the gods have sent us,
+Margarid," rejoined Joel; "such a guest as one would request of Ogmi for
+the long autumn and winter nights; a guest who in the course of his
+travels has seen so many curious things and wonderful that a hundred
+evenings would not be too many to listen to his marvelous stories."
+
+Hardly had Joel pronounced these words when, from Mamm' Margarid and the
+young mothers down to the little boys and girls, all looked at the
+stranger with the greed of curiosity, expectant of the marvelous stories
+he was to tell.
+
+"Are we to have supper soon, Margarid?" asked Joel. "Our guest is
+probably as hungry as myself; I am hungry as a wolf."
+
+"The folk have just gone out to fill the racks of the cattle," answered
+Margarid; "they will be back shortly. If our guest is willing we shall
+be pleased of his company at supper."
+
+"I thank the wife of Joel, and shall wait," said the unknown.
+
+"And while waiting," remarked Joel, "you can tell us a story--"
+
+But the traveler interrupted his host and said smiling:
+
+"Friend, as one cup serves for all, so does the same story serve for
+all.... The cup will shortly circulate from lip to lip, and the story
+from ear to ear.... But now tell me, what is that brass belt for that I
+see hanging yonder?"
+
+"Have you not also in your country the belt of agility?"
+
+"Explain yourself, Joel."
+
+"Here, with us, at every new moon, the lads of each tribe come to the
+chief and try on the belt, in order to prove that their girth has not
+broadened with self-indulgence, and that they have preserved themselves
+agile and nimble. Those who cannot hitch the belt around themselves, are
+hissed, are pointed at with derision, and must pay a fine. Accordingly,
+all see to their stomachs lest they come to look like a leathern bottle
+on two skittles."
+
+"A good custom. I regret it fell into disuse in my province. And what is
+the purpose of that big old trunk? It is of precious wood and seems to
+have seen many years."
+
+"Very many. That is the family trunk of triumph," answered Joel opening
+the trunk, in which the stranger saw many whitened skulls. One of them,
+sawn in two, was mounted on a brass foot like a cup.
+
+"These are, no doubt, the heads of enemies who have been killed by your
+fathers, friend Joel? With us this sort of family charnel houses has
+long been abandoned."
+
+"With us also. I preserve these heads only out of respect for my
+ancestors. Since more than two hundred years, the prisoners of war are
+no longer mutilated. The habit existed in the days of the kings whom
+Ritha-Gaür shaved of their hair, as you mentioned before, to make
+himself a blouse out of their beards. Those were gay days of barbarism,
+were those days of royalty. I heard my grandfather Kirio say that even
+as late as in the days of his father, Tiras, the men who went to war
+returned to their tribes carrying the heads of their enemies stuck to
+the points of their lances, or trailed by the hair from the
+breast-plates of their horses. They were then nailed to the doors of the
+houses for trophies, just as you see yonder on the wall the heads of
+wild animals."
+
+"With us, in olden days, friend Joel, these trophies were also
+preserved, but preserved in cedar oil when they were the heads of a
+hostile chieftain."
+
+"By Hesus! Cedar oil!... What magnificence!" exclaimed Joel smiling.
+"That is the way our wives reason: 'for good fish, good sauce.'"
+
+"These relics were with us, as with you, the book from which the young
+Gaul learned of the exploits of his fathers. Often did the families of
+the vanquished offer to ransom these spoils; but to relinquish for money
+a head conquered by oneself or an ancestor was looked upon as an
+unpardonable crime of avarice and impiousness. I say with you, those
+barbarous customs passed away with royalty, and with them the days when
+our ancestors painted their bodies blue and scarlet, and dyed their hair
+and beard with lime water to impart to them a copper-red hue."
+
+"Without wronging their memory, friend guest, our ancestors must have
+been unpleasant beings to look upon, and must have resembled the
+frightful red and blue dragons that ornament the prows of the vessels of
+those savage pirates of the North that my son Albinik the sailor and his
+lovely wife Meroë have told us some curious tales about. But here are
+our men back from the stables; we shall not have to wait much longer for
+supper. I see Margarid unspitting the lambs. You shall taste them,
+friend, and see what a fine taste the salt meadows on which they browse
+impart to their flesh."
+
+All the men of the family of Joel who entered the hall wore, like him, a
+sleeveless blouse of coarse wool, through which the sleeves of their
+jackets or white shirts were passed. Their breeches reached down to
+their ankles; and they were shod with low slippers. Several of these
+laborers, just in from the fields, wore over their shoulders a cloak of
+sheep-skin, which they immediately took off. All wore woolen caps, long
+hair cut round, and bushy beards. The last two to enter held each other
+by the arm; they were especially handsome and robust.
+
+"Friend Joel," inquired the stranger, "who are those two young fellows?
+The statues of the heathen god Mars are not better shaped, nor have so
+valiant an aspect."
+
+"They are two relatives of mine; two cousins, Julyan and Armel. They
+love each other like brothers.... Quite recently an enraged bull rushed
+at Armel and Julyan saved Armel at the peril of his own life. Thanks to
+Hesus we are not now in times of war. But should it be necessary to take
+up arms, Julyan and Armel have taken 'the pledge of brotherhood'.... But
+supper is ready.... Come, yours is the seat of honor."
+
+Joel and the unknown guest drew near the table. It was round and raised
+somewhat above the floor which was covered with fresh straw. All around
+the table were seats bolstered with fragrant grass. The two broiled
+muttons, now quartered, were served up in large platters of beechwood,
+white as ivory. There were also large pieces of salted pork and a smoked
+ham of wild boar. The fish remained in the large pot that they had been
+boiled in.
+
+At the place where Joel, the head of the family, took his seat, stood a
+huge cup of plated copper that even two men could not have drained. It
+was before that cup, which marked the place of honor, that the stranger
+was placed with Joel at his left and Mamm' Margarid at his right.
+
+The old men, the young girls and the children then ranked themselves
+around the table. The grown up and the young men sat down behind these
+in a second row, from which they rose from time to time to perform some
+service, or, every time that, passing from hand to hand, beginning with
+the stranger, the large cup was empty, to fill it from a barrel of
+hydromel, that was placed at a corner of the hall. Furnished with a
+piece of barley or wheat bread, everyone received or took a slice of
+broiled or salted meat, which he cut up with his knife, or into which he
+bit freely without the help of knife.
+
+The old war-dog Deber-Trud, enjoying the privileges of his age and long
+years of service, lay at the feet of Joel, who did not forget his
+faithful servitor.
+
+Towards the end of the meal, Joel having carved the wild boar ham,
+detached the hoof, and following an ancient custom, said to his young
+relative Armel, handing it to him:
+
+"To you, Armel, belongs the bravest part! To you, the vanquisher in last
+evening's fight!"
+
+At the moment when, proud of being pronounced the bravest in the
+presence of the stranger, Armel was stretching out his hand to take the
+wild boar's hoof that Joel presented to him, an exceptionally short man
+in the family, nicknamed "Stumpy" by reason of his small stature,
+observed aloud:
+
+"Armel won in yesterday's fight because he was not fighting with Julyan.
+Two bullocks of equal strength avoid and fear each other, and do not
+lock horns."
+
+Feeling humiliated at hearing it said of them, and before a stranger,
+that they did not fight together because they were mutually afraid of
+each other, Julyan and Armel grew red in the face.
+
+With sparkling eyes, Julyan cried: "If I did not fight with Armel it was
+because someone else took my place; but Julyan fears Armel as little as
+Armel fears Julyan; and if you were but one inch taller, Stumpy, I would
+show you on the spot that, beginning with you, I fear nobody--not even
+my good brother Armel--"
+
+"Good brother Julyan!" added Armel whose eyes also began to glisten, "we
+shall have to prove to the stranger that we do not fear each other."
+
+"Done, Armel--let's fight with sabres and bucklers."
+
+The two friends reached out their hands to each other and pressed them
+warmly. They entertained no rancor for each other; they loved each other
+as warmly as ever; the combat decided upon by them was a not uncommon
+outbreak of foolhardiness.
+
+Joel was not sorry at seeing his kin act bravely before his guest; and
+his family shared his views.
+
+At the announcement of the battle, everybody present, even the little
+children and young women and girls felt joyful; they clapped their hands
+smiling and looked at each other proud of the good opinion that the
+unknown visitor was to form of the courage of their family.
+
+Mamm' Margarid thereupon addressed the young men: "The fight ends the
+moment I lower my distaff."
+
+"These children are feasting you at their best, friend guest," said Joel
+to the stranger; "you will, in turn, have to feast them by telling them
+and all of us some of the marvelous things that you have seen in your
+travels."
+
+"I could not do else than pay in my best coin for your hospitality,
+friend," answered the stranger. "I shall tell you the stories."
+
+"Let's hurry, brother Julyan," said Armel; "I have a strong desire to
+hear the traveler. I can never get tired of listening to stories, but
+the story-tellers are rare around Karnak."
+
+"You see, friend," said Joel, "with what impatience your stories are
+awaited. But before starting, and so as to give you strength, you shall
+presently drink to the victor with good wine of Gaul," and turning to
+his son: "Guilhern, fetch in the little keg of white wine from Beziers
+that your brother Albinik brought us on his last trip; fill up the cup
+in honor of the traveler."
+
+When that was done, Joel said to Julyan and Armel:
+
+"Now, boys, fall to with your sabres!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+ARMEL AND JULYAN.
+
+
+The numerous family of Joel, gathered in a semi-circle at one end of the
+spacious hall, impatiently awaited the combat, with Mamm' Margarid
+holding the place of honor. The stranger stood at her right, her husband
+at her left, and two of the smallest children before her on their knees.
+Margarid raised her distaff and gave the signal for the combat to begin;
+the lowering of the distaff was to be the signal for the combat to end.
+
+Julyan and Armel stripped down to the waist, preserving their breeches
+only. Again they clasped hands. Each thereupon slung on his left arm a
+buckler of wood covered with seal-skin, armed himself with a heavy sabre
+of copper, and impetuously assailed each other, being all the more
+spurred by the presence of the stranger, before whom they were eager to
+display their skill and valor. Joel's guest looked more highly delighted
+than anyone else at the spectacle before him, and his face lighted with
+warlike animation.
+
+Julyan and Armel were at it. Their eyes sparkled, not with hatred but
+with foolhardiness. They exchanged no words of anger but of friendly
+cheer, all the while dealing out terrible blows that would have been
+deadly had they not been skillfully parried. At every thrust,
+brilliantly made, or dexterously avoided, the men, women and children in
+the audience clapped their hands, and according as the combat ran,
+cried:
+
+"_Her_ ... _her_ ... Julyan!"
+
+"_Her_ ... _her_ ... Armel!"
+
+Such was the effect of these cries, of the sight of the combat, of the
+clash of arms, that the huge mastiff Deber-Trud, the man-eater, felt
+the ardor of battle seize also himself, and barked wildly looking up at
+his master, who calmed and caressed him with his hand.
+
+Perspiration covered the young bodies of the handsome and robust Julyan
+and Armel. Each other's peers in courage, vigor and agility, neither had
+yet wounded the other.
+
+"Let's hurry, brother Julyan!" said Armel rushing on his companion with
+fresh impetus. "Let us hurry to hear the pretty stories of the
+stranger."
+
+"The plow can go no faster than the plowman, brother Armel," answered
+Julyan.
+
+With these words, Julyan seized his sabre with both hands, stretched
+himself at full length, and dealt so furious a stroke to his adversary
+that, although the latter threw himself back and thereby softened the
+blow, his buckler flew into splinters and the weapon struck Armel in the
+temple. The wounded man staggered for an instant and then fell flat upon
+his back, amid the admiring cries of "_Her_ ... _her_ ... Julyan!" from
+the enraptured by-standers among whom Stumpy was the loudest with the
+cry of "_Her_ ... _her_!"
+
+After lowering her distaff as a sign that the combat was over Mamm'
+Margarid stepped toward the wounded combatant to give him her attention,
+while Joel said to his guest, reaching him the cup:
+
+"Friend guest, you shall drink this old wine to the triumph of Julyan."
+
+"I drink to the triumph of Julyan and also to the valiant defeat of
+Armel!" responded the stranger. "The courage of the vanquished youth
+equals that of the vanquisher.... I have seen many a combat, but never
+have I seen greater bravery and courage displayed! Glory to the family
+of Joel!... Glory to your tribe!"
+
+"Formerly," said Joel, "these festive combats took place among us almost
+every day. Now they are rarer; they have been replaced by wrestling
+matches; but sabre combats better recall the habits of the old Gauls."
+
+Mamm' Margarid shook her head after a second inspection of the wound,
+while Julyan steadying himself against the wall sought to hold up his
+friend. One of the young women hurried with a casket of lint and salves,
+in which was also a little vial of mistletoe water. Armel's wound bled
+copiously; it was staunched with difficulty; the wounded youth's face
+was pale and his eyes closed.
+
+"Brother Armel," said Julyan to him in a cheerful voice, on his knees
+beside the prostrate Armel, "do not break down for so little.... Each
+has his day and his hour.... To-day you were wounded, to-morrow will be
+my turn.... We fought bravely.... The stranger will not forget the young
+men of Karnak and of the family of Joel, the brenn of the tribe."
+
+His face down, his forehead bathed in cold perspiration, Armel seemed
+not to hear the voice of his friend. Mamm' Margarid again shook her
+head, ordered some burnt coal, that was brought her on a little flat
+stone and threw on it some of the pulverized mistletoe bark. A strong
+vapor rose from the little brasier, and Mamm' Margarid made Armel inhale
+it. A little after he opened his eyes, looked around as if he awoke from
+a dream, and said feebly:
+
+"The angel of death calls me.... I shall now live no longer here but
+yonder.... My father and mother will be surprised and pleased to see me
+so soon.... I also shall be happy to meet them."
+
+A second later he added regretfully:
+
+"How I would have liked to hear the pretty stories of the traveler!"
+
+"What, brother Armel!" said Julyan, visibly astonished and grieved. "Are
+you to depart so soon from us? We were enjoying life so well
+together.... We swore brotherhood and never to leave each other!"
+
+"We did so swear, Julyan," Armel answered feebly, "but it is otherwise
+decreed."
+
+Julyan dropped his head upon his two hands and made no answer.
+
+Mamm' Margarid, skillful in the art of tending wounds, an art that she
+learned from a druid priestess her relative, placed her hand on Armel's
+heart. A few seconds later she said to those near her and who, together
+with Joel and his guest, stood around:
+
+"Teutates calls Armel away to take him to those who have preceded us. He
+will soon depart. If any of us has any message for the loved ones who
+have preceded us yonder, and wishes Armel to carry it--let him make
+haste."
+
+Mamm' Margarid thereupon kissed the forehead of the dying young man and
+said to him: "Give to all the members of our family the kiss of
+remembrance and hope."
+
+"I shall give them, Mamm' Margarid, the kiss of remembrance and hope in
+your name," answered Armel in a fainting voice, and added again in a
+pet, "and yet I would so much have liked to hear the pretty stories of
+the traveler!"
+
+These words seemed deeply to affect Julyan, who still holding his
+friend's head looked down upon him with sadness.
+
+Little Sylvest, the son of Guilhern, a child of rosy cheeks and golden
+hair, who held with one hand the hand of his mother Henory, advanced a
+little and addressing the dying relative said:
+
+"I loved little Alanik very much; he went away last year.... Tell him
+that little Sylvest always remembers him, and embrace him for me,
+Armel."
+
+"I shall embrace little Alanik for you, little Sylvest," and Armel added
+again, "and yet I would have liked to hear the pretty stories of the
+traveler!"
+
+Another man of Joel's family said to his expiring kinsman:
+
+"I was a friend of Houarne of the tribe of Morlech, our neighbor. He was
+killed defenceless, while asleep, a short time ago. Tell him, Armel,
+that Daoulas, his murderer, was discovered, was tried and condemned by
+the druids of Karnak and his sacrifice will soon take place. Houarne
+will be pleased to learn of Daoulas' punishment."
+
+Armel signified that he would convey the message to Houarne.
+
+Stumpy, who, not through wickedness but intemperate language, was the
+cause of Armel's death, also drew near with a message to the one about
+to depart, and said:
+
+"You know that at the eighth face of this month's moon old Mark, who
+lives near Glen'han was taken ill; the angel of death told him also to
+prepare for a speedy departure. Old Mark was not ready. He wished to
+assist at the wedding of his daughter's daughter. Not being ready to go,
+old Mark bethought him of some one who might be ready to go in his place
+and that would satisfy the angel of death. He asked the druid, his
+physician, if he knew of some 'substitute.' The druid answered him that
+Gigel of Nouaren, a member of our tribe, would be available, that he
+might consent to depart in the place of old Mark, and that he might be
+induced to do so both out of kindness to Mark and to render himself
+agreeable to the gods, who are always pleased at the sight of such
+sacrifices. Gigel consented freely. Old Mark made him a present of ten
+pieces of silver with the stamp of a horse's head, which Gigel
+distributed among his friends before departing. He then cheerfully
+emptied his last cup and bared his breast to the sacred knife amid the
+chants of the bards. The angel of death accepted the substitute. Old
+Mark attended the wedding of his daughter's daughter, and to-day he is
+in good health--"
+
+"Do you mean to say that you are willing to depart in my stead, Stumpy?"
+asked the dying warrior. "I fear it is now too late--"
+
+"No, no; I am not ready to depart in your stead," Stumpy hastened to
+answer. "I only wish to request you to return to Gigel three pieces of
+silver that I owed him; I could not repay him sooner. I feared Gigel
+might come and demand his money by moonlight in the shape of some
+demon." Saying which Stumpy rummaged in his lamb-skin bag, took out
+three pieces with the stamp of a horse's head, and placed them in the
+pocket of Armel's breeches.
+
+"I shall hand your three pieces of silver to Gigel," said Armel in a
+voice now hardly audible; and for a last time he murmured at Julyan's
+ear: "And yet ... I would ... have liked ... to hear ... the pretty
+stories ... of ... the traveler."
+
+"Be at ease, brother Armel," Julyan answered him; "I shall attentively
+listen to the pretty stories so that I may remember them well; and
+to-morrow ... I shall depart and tell them to you.... I would weary here
+without you.... We swore brotherhood to each other, and never to be
+separated; I shall follow you and continue to live yonder in your
+company."
+
+"Truly ... you will come?" said the dying youth, whom the promise seemed
+to render happy; "will you come ... to-morrow?"
+
+"To-morrow, by Hesus.... I swear to you, Armel, I shall come."
+
+The eyes of the whole family turned to Julyan at hearing the promise,
+and looked lovingly upon him. The wounded youth seemed the most pleased
+of all, and with his last breath said:
+
+"So long, then, brother Julyan ... listen attentively ... to the
+stories.... And now ... farewell ... farewell ... to all of you of our
+tribe," and Armel sought to suit the motion of his hands to his words.
+
+As loving relatives and friends crowd around one of their own when he is
+about to depart on a long journey, during which he will meet people of
+whom they all preserve a cherished remembrance, each now pressed the
+hand of Armel and gave him some tender commission for those of their
+tribe whom he was about to meet again.
+
+After Armel was dead, Joel closed the youth's eyes and had him taken to
+the altar of grey stones, above which stood the copper bowl with the
+seven twigs of mistletoe.
+
+The body was then covered with oak branches taken from the altar, so
+that, instead of the corpse, only a heap of verdure met the eye, with
+Julyan seated close to it.
+
+Finally, the head of the family filled the large cup up to the brim,
+moistened his lips in it and said to the stranger: "May Armel's journey
+be a happy one; he has ever been good and just; may he traverse under
+the guidance of Teutates the marvelous regions and countries that lie
+beyond the grave which none of us has yet traveled over, and which all
+of us will yet see. May Armel meet again those whom we have loved, and
+let him assure them that we love them still!"
+
+The cup went around; the women and young girls expressed their good
+wishes to Armel on his journey; the remains of the supper were removed;
+and all gathered at the hearth, impatient to hear the promised stories
+told by the stranger.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE STORY OF ALBREGE.
+
+
+"Is it a story that you want of me?" asked the unknown guest turning to
+Joel, and seeing the eyes of all fixed upon himself.
+
+"One story?" cried Joel. "Tell us twenty, a hundred! You must have seen
+so much! so many countries! so many peoples! One story only? Ah, by the
+good Ormi, you shall not be let off with only one story, friend guest!"
+
+"Oh, no!" cried the family in chorus and with set determination. "Oh,
+no! We must have more than one!"
+
+"And yet," observed the stranger with a pensive and severe mien, "there
+is more serious work in hand than to tell and listen to frivolous
+stories."
+
+"I understand not what you mean," said Joel no less taken back than his
+family; all turned their eyes upon the stranger in silent amazement.
+
+"No, you do not understand me," replied the stranger sadly.
+"Nevertheless, I shall keep my promise--the thing promised is a thing
+done;" and pointing to Julyan who had remained at the other end of the
+hall near the oak-covered body of Armel he added: "We must see to it
+that that young man has something to tell his brother when he joins him
+beyond."
+
+"Proceed, guest, proceed with your story," answered Julyan, without
+raising his head from his hands; "proceed with your story; I shall not
+lose a word.... Armel shall hear it just as you tell it."
+
+"Two years ago," said the stranger, beginning his story, "while
+traveling among the Gauls who inhabit the borders of the Rhine, I
+happened one day to be at Strasburg. I had gone out of the town for a
+walk along the river bank. Presently I saw a large crowd of people
+moving in the direction of where I stood. They were following a man and
+woman, both young and both handsome, who carried on a buckler, that they
+held by the edges, a little baby not more than three or four months old.
+The man looked restless and somber; the woman pale and calm. Both
+stopped at the river's bank, at a spot where the stream runs especially
+rapid. The crowd also stopped. I drew near and inquired who the man and
+woman were. 'The man's name is Vindorix, the woman's Albrege; they are
+man and wife,' was the answer I received. I then saw Vindorix, whose
+countenance waxed more and more somber, approach his wife and say to
+her:
+
+"'This is the time.'
+
+"'Do you wish it?' asked Albrege. 'Do you wish it?'
+
+"'Yes,' answered the husband; 'I doubt--I want to be certain.'
+
+"'Then, be it so,' said she.
+
+"Thereupon, himself taking the buckler where the little child lay,
+smiling and stretching out its chubby arms to him, Vindorix walked into
+the river up to his waist, raised the buckler and child for a moment
+over his head, and looked back a last time towards his wife, as if to
+threaten her with what he was about to do. With her forehead high and a
+steady countenance, Albrege remained erect at the river bank, motionless
+like a statue, her arms crossed upon her bosom. When her husband now
+turned to her she stretched out her right hand towards him as if to say:
+
+"'Do it!'
+
+"At that moment a shudder ran over the crowd. Vindorix deposited upon
+the stream the buckler on which lay the child, and in that frail craft
+left the infant to the mercy of the eddies."
+
+"Oh, the wicked man!" cried Mamm' Margarid deeply moved by the story as
+were the other hearers. "And his wife!... his wife ... who remained on
+the bank?--"
+
+"But what was the reason of such a barbarity, friend guest?" asked
+Henory, the young wife of Guilhern embracing her two children, little
+Sylvest and little Syomara, both of whom she took on her knees as if
+fearing to see them exposed to a similar danger.
+
+With a gesture the stranger put an end to the interrogatories, and
+proceeded:
+
+"The stream had barely carried away the buckler on which the child lay,
+than the father raised both his trembling hands to heaven as if to
+invoke the gods. He followed the course of the buckler with sullen
+anxiety, leaning, despite himself, to the right when the buckler dipped
+to the right, and to the left when the buckler dipped on that side. The
+mother, on the contrary, her arms crossed over her bosom, followed the
+buckler with firm eyes, and as tranquil as if she had nothing to fear
+for her child."
+
+"Nothing to fear!" cried Guilhern. "To see her child thus exposed to
+almost certain death ... it is bound to go under...."
+
+"That must have been an unnatural mother," cried Henory.
+
+"And not one man in all that crowd to jump into the water and save the
+child!" observed Julyan thinking of his friend. "Oh, that will surely
+anger the heart of Armel, when I tell him that."
+
+"But do not interrupt every instant!" cried Joel. "Proceed, my guest;
+may Teutates, who presides over all journeys made in this world and in
+the others, guard the poor little thing!"
+
+"Twice," the stranger proceeded, "the buckler threatened to be swallowed
+up by the eddies of the rapid stream. Of all present, only the mother
+moved not a muscle. Presently the buckler was seen riding the waters
+like an airy skiff and peacefully following the course of the stream
+beyond the rapids. Immediately the crowd cried, beating their hands:
+
+"'The boat! The boat!'
+
+"Two men ran down the bank, pushed off a boat, and swiftly plying their
+oars, quickly reached the buckler, and took it up from the water
+together with the child that had fallen asleep--"
+
+"Thanks to the gods! 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 gods 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 cocks?" asked a child.
+
+The stranger was being assailed 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
+Marseilles, 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 friendship, 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?"
+
+"Fear not, young man," said the stranger to Julyan, "the religion of
+Hesus is the only true religion; it teaches us that after death we are
+reclad in younger and handsomer bodies."
+
+"I pin my hopes on that!" said Stumpy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE STORY OF SYOMARA.
+
+
+The storm of questions had spent itself and the thirst for fresh stories
+returned among the assembled family of Joel, whose head remarked with
+wonderment: "What a thing traveling is? How much one learns; but we must
+not lag behind our guest. Story for story. Proud Gallic woman for proud
+Gallic woman. Friend guest, ask Mamm' Margarid to tell you the beautiful
+story and deed of one of her own female ancestors, which happened about
+a hundred and thirty years ago when our fathers went as far as Asia to
+found a new Gaul, because you must know that few are the countries on
+earth that their soles have not trod upon."
+
+"After your wife's story," answered the stranger, "and seeing that you
+wish to speak of our own ancestors, I shall also speak of them ... and
+by Ritha Gaür!... never would the time be fitter. While we are here
+telling stories, you do not seem to know what is going on elsewhere in
+the land; you do not know that perhaps at this very moment--"
+
+"Why do you interrupt yourself?" asked Joel wondering at the suddenness
+with which his guest broke off in the middle of the sentence. "What is
+going on while we are here telling stories? What better can we do at the
+corner of our hearth during an autumn evening?"
+
+Instead of answering Joel, the stranger respectfully said to Mamm'
+Margarid:
+
+"I shall listen to the story of Joel's wife."
+
+"It is a very short and simple story," answered Margarid plying her
+distaff. "The story is as simple as the action of my ancestral
+grandmother. Her name was Syomara."
+
+"And in honor of her," said Guilhern breaking in upon his mother and
+proudly pointing the stranger to an eight year old child of surprising
+beauty, "in honor of our ancestral grandmother Syomara, who was as
+beautiful as she was brave, I have given her name to this little girl of
+mine."
+
+"This is indeed a most charming child," remarked the stranger struck by
+the lovely face of little Syomara. "I am sure she will have her
+grandmother's valor in the same degree that she is endowed with her
+beauty."
+
+Henory, the child's mother blushed with joy at these words and said
+smiling to Mamm' Margarid:
+
+"I dare not blame Guilhern for having interrupted you; it brought on the
+pretty compliment."
+
+"The compliment is as sweet to me as to you, my daughter," answered
+Mamm' Margarid; saying which she began her story:
+
+"My grandmother's name was Syomara; she was the daughter of Ronan. Her
+father had taken her into lower Languedoc whither his traffic called
+him. The Gauls of the neighborhood were just preparing for the
+expedition to the East. Their chief, Oriegon by name, saw my
+grandmother, was fascinated by her beauty, won her love and married her.
+Syomara departed with her husband on the expedition to the East. At
+first they triumphed. Afterwards, the Romans, who were ever jealous of
+the Gallic possessions, attacked our fathers. In one of the battles,
+Syomara, who, led thereto both by duty and love, accompanied Oriegon,
+her husband, to battle in a war-chariot, was separated from her husband
+during the fray, taken prisoner, and placed under the guard of a Roman
+officer, who was a miser and a libertine. The Roman, who was captivated
+by the beauty of Syomara, attempted to seduce her; but she repelled his
+advances with contempt. He then surprised his captive during her sleep
+and outraged her--"
+
+"Listen, Joel!" cried the stranger indignantly. "Listen to that!... A
+Roman subjects an ancestor of your wife to such indignity!"
+
+"Listen to the end of the story, friend guest," said Joel; "you will see
+that Syomara is the peer of the Gallic woman of the Rhine."
+
+"The one and the other," Margarid proceeded, "showed themselves true to
+the maxim that there are three kinds of chastity among the women of
+Gaul: The first, when a father says in the presence of his daughter that
+he grants her hand to him whom she loves; the second, when for the first
+time she enters her husband's bed; and the third, when she appears the
+next morning before other men. The Roman had outraged Syomara, his
+prisoner. His passion being satisfied, he offered her freedom upon
+payment of a ransom. She accepted the offer and induced the Roman to
+send her servant, a prisoner like herself, to the camp of the Gauls and
+tell Oriegon or, in his absence, any of his friends, to bring the ransom
+to an appointed place. The servant departed to the camp of the Gauls.
+The miserly Roman, wishing himself to receive the ransom and not share
+it with anyone else, led Syomara alone to the appointed place. The
+friends of Oriegon were there with the gold for the ransom. While the
+Roman was counting the gold, Syomara addressed the Gauls in their own
+tongue and ordered them to kill the infamous man. Her orders were
+executed on the spot. Syomara then cut off his head, placed it in a fold
+of her dress and returned to the camp of her people. Oriegon, who had
+himself been also taken prisoner and managed to escape, arrived in camp
+at the same time as his wife. At the sight of her husband, Syomara
+dropped the head of the Roman at his feet and addressed Oriegon saying:
+'That is the head of a man who outraged me.... There is none but you who
+can say that he possessed me.'"
+
+At the close of her narrative, Mamm' Margarid continued to spin in
+silence.
+
+"Did I not tell you, friend," said Joel, "that Syomara, Margarid's
+grandmother, was the peer of your Gallic woman of the Rhine?"
+
+"And must not the noble name bring good luck to my daughter!" added
+Guilhern tenderly kissing the blonde head of the child.
+
+"That powerful and chaste story is worthy of the lips that told it,"
+said the stranger. "It also proves that the Romans, our implacable
+enemies, have not changed. Avaricious and debauched were they once--and
+are to-day. And seeing that we are speaking of the avaricious and
+debauched Romans and that you love stories," he added with a bitter
+smile, "you must know that I have been in Rome ... and that I saw ...
+Julius Cæsar ... the most famous of the Roman generals, as also the most
+avaricious and the most debauched man of all Italy. I would not venture
+to speak of his infamous acts of libertinage before women and young
+girls."
+
+"Oh! Did you see that famous Julius Cæsar? What kind of a looking man is
+he?" asked Joel with great inquisitiveness.
+
+The stranger looked at the brenn as if greatly surprised at the
+question, and answered with an effort to suppress his anger:
+
+"Cæsar is nearing old age; he is tall of stature; his face is lean and
+long; his complexion pale; his eyes black; his head bald. Seeing the man
+combines in his person all the vices of the worst women of the Romans,
+he is possessed, like them, of extraordinary personal vanity.
+Accordingly, in order to conceal his baldness, he ever carries a chaplet
+of gold leaves on his head. Is your inquisitiveness satisfied, Joel?
+Would you want more details about Cæsar's infirmities? That he is
+subject to epileptic fits?... That--"
+
+But the stranger did not finish his sentence. Letting his eyes wander
+over the assembled family of the brenn, he cried with towering rage:
+
+"By the anger of Hesus! Can it be that all of you--as many as you are
+here capable of seizing the sabre and the sword but insatiable after
+idle stories--can it be you do not know that a Roman army, after having
+invaded under the command of Cæsar one-half of our provinces, has taken
+winter quarters in the country of Orleans, of Touraine and of Anjou?"
+
+"Yes, yes; we have heard about it," calmly said Joel. "People from
+Anjou, who came here to buy beef and pork, told us about it."
+
+"And it is with such unconcern that you speak of the Roman invasion of
+Gaul?" cried the traveler.
+
+"Never have the Breton Gauls been invaded by strangers," proudly
+answered the brenn of the tribe of Karnak. "We shall remain spotless of
+the taint. We are independent of the Gauls of Piotou, of Touraine, of
+Orleans and of the other sections of the land, just as they are
+independent of us. They have not asked for our help. We are not so
+constituted as to offer ourselves to their chiefs and to fight under
+them. Let everyone guard his own honor and his own province. The Romans
+are in Touraine ... but it is a long way from Touraine to here."
+
+"So that if the pirates of the North were to kill your son Albinik the
+sailor and his brave wife Meroë, it would no wise concern you because
+the murder was committed far from here?"
+
+"You are joking. My son is my son.... The Gauls of provinces other than
+mine are not my sons!"
+
+"Are they not, like yourself, the sons of the same god, as the druid
+religion teaches you? If that is so, are not all the Gauls your
+brothers? And does not the subjugation, does not the blood of a brother
+cry for vengeance? Are you unconcerned because the enemy is not at the
+very gates of your own homestead? On that principle, the hand, even when
+it knows that the foot is gangrened, could say to itself: 'As to me, I
+am well, and the foot is far from the hand--I need not worry over the
+disease.' And the gangrene, not being stopped, rises from the foot to
+the other members, until the whole body perishes."
+
+"Unless the healthy hand take an axe," said the brenn, "and cut off the
+foot from which the evil proceeds."
+
+"And what becomes of the body that is thus mutilated, Joel?" put in
+Mamm' Margarid who all the while had been listening in silence. "When
+the best regions of the country shall have been invaded by the stranger,
+what will then become of the rest of Gaul? Thus mutilated and
+dismembered, how will she defend herself against her enemies?"
+
+"The worthy spouse of my host speaks wisely," said the traveler
+respectfully to Mamm' Margarid; "like all Gallic matrons she holds her
+place at the public council as well as at her hearth."
+
+"You speak truly," rejoined Joel, "Margarid has a brave heart and a wise
+head. Often her opinion is better than mine.... I gladly say so.... But
+this time I am right. Whatever may happen to the rest of Gaul, never
+will the Romans set foot in our old Britanny. There are her rocks, her
+marshes, her woods, her sand banks--above all her Bretons to defend
+her."
+
+At these words of her husband Mamm' Margarid shook her head
+disapprovingly; all the men of the family, however, loudly applauded
+their brenn's words.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE STORY OF GAUL.
+
+
+When the noisy and martial ardor, evoked by the boastful words of the
+brenn of the tribe of Karnak had subsided, the traveler was seen sitting
+in somber silence. He looked up and said:
+
+"Very well, one more and last story, but let this one fall upon the
+hearts of you all like burning brass, seeing that the wise words of this
+household's matron have proved futile."
+
+All looked with surprise at the stranger, who with somber and severe
+mien began his story with these words:
+
+"Once upon a time, as far back as two or three thousand years, there
+lived a family here in Gaul. Whence did it come, to fill the vast
+solitudes that to-day are so populous? It doubtlessly came from the
+heart of Asia, that ancient cradle of the human races, now, however,
+hidden in the night of antiquity. That family ever preserved a type
+peculiar to itself, and found with no other people of the world. Loyal,
+hospitable, generous, vivacious, gay, inclined to humor, loving to tell,
+above all, to hear stories, intrepid in battle, daring death more
+heroically than any other nation, because its religion taught it what
+death was--such were that family's virtues. Giddy-headed, vagabond,
+presumptuous, inconsistent, curious after novelty, and greedier yet of
+seeing than of conquering unknown countries, as easily uniting as
+falling apart, too proud and too fickle to adjust its opinions to those
+of its neighbors, or if consenting thereto, incapable of long marching
+in concert with them, although common and vital interests be at
+stake--such are that family's vices. In point of its virtues and in
+point of its vices, thus has it always been since the remotest
+centuries; thus is it to-day; thus will it be to-morrow."
+
+"Oh, oh! If I am not much mistaken," broke in the brenn smiling, "all of
+us, Gauls though we may be, must have some cousin red with that family."
+
+"Yes," said the stranger, "to its own misfortune--and to the joy of its
+enemies--such has been and such is to-day the character of our own
+people!"
+
+"But at least admit, despite such a character, the dear Gallic people
+has made its way well through the world. Few are the countries where the
+inquisitive vagabond, as you call it, did not promenade his shoes, with
+his nose in the air, his sword at his side--"
+
+"You are right. Such is its spirit of adventure: always marching ahead
+towards the unknown, rather than to stop and build. Thus, to-day,
+one-third of Gaul is in the hands of the Romans, while some centuries
+ago the Gallic race occupied through its headlong conquests, besides
+Gaul, England, Ireland, upper Italy, the banks of the Danube, and the
+countries along the sea border as far east and north as Denmark. Nor yet
+was that enough. It looked as if our race was to spread itself over the
+whole world. The Gauls of the Danube went into Macedonia, into Thrace,
+into Thessaly. Others of them crossed the Bosphorus and the Hellespont,
+reached Asia Minor, founded New Gaul, and thus became the arbiters of
+all the kingdoms of the East."
+
+"So far, meseems," rejoined the brenn, "we have nothing to regret over
+our character that you so severely judge."
+
+"And what is left of those senseless battles, undertaken by the pride of
+the kings who then reigned over the Gauls?" the stranger proceeded
+looking around. "Have not the distant conquests slipped from us? Have
+not our implacable and ever more powerful enemies, the Romans, raised
+all the peoples against us? Have we not been compelled to abandon those
+useless possessions--Asia, Greece, Germany, Italy? That is the net
+result of so much heroism and so much blood! That is the pass to which
+we have been brought by the ambition of the kings, who usurped the power
+of the druids!"
+
+"To that I have nothing to say. You are right. There was no need of
+promenading so far away only to soil the soles of our shoes with the
+blood and the dust of foreign lands. But if I am not mistaken, it was at
+about that time that the sons of the brave Ritha Gaür, who had a blouse
+made for himself of the beards of the kings whom he shaved, seeing in
+these the butchers of the people and not its shepherds, overthrew the
+royalty."
+
+"Yes, thanks to the gods, an epoch of real grandeur, of peace and of
+prosperity succeeded the barren and bloody conquests of the kings.
+Disembarassed of its useless possessions, reduced to rational
+limits--its natural frontiers--the Rhine, the Alps, the Pyrenees and the
+Ocean--the republic of the Gauls became the queen and envy of the world.
+Its fertile soil, cultivated as we so well know how, produced everything
+in abundance; the rivers were covered with merchant vessels; gold,
+silver and copper mines increased its wealth every day; large cities
+rose everywhere. The druids, spreading light in all directions, preached
+union to the provinces, and set the example by convoking once a year in
+the center of Gaul solemn assemblies, at which the general interests of
+the country were considered. Each tribe, each canton, each town, elected
+its own magistrates; each province was a republic which, according to
+the druid plan, merged into the great Republic of the Gauls, and thus
+constituted one powerful body through the union of all."
+
+"The fathers of our grandfathers saw those happy days, friend guest."
+
+"And their sons saw only ruins and misfortune! What has happened? The
+accursed stock of dethroned kings joins the stock of their former and no
+less accursed clients or seigneurs, and all of them, irritated at having
+been deposed of their authority, hope for restoration from the public
+misfortunes, and exploit with infamous perfidy our innate pride and lack
+of discipline, which, under the powerful influence of the druids, were
+being steadily corrected. The rivalries between province and province,
+long allayed, re-awakened; jealousies and hatreds sprang up anew;
+everywhere the structure of union began to crumble. For all this the
+kings do not re-ascend the throne. Many of their descendants are even
+judicially executed. But they have unchained internal feud. Civil war
+flares up. The more powerful provinces seek to subjugate the weaker.
+Thus, towards the end of the last century, the Marseillians, the
+descendants of the exiled Greeks to whom Gaul generously assigned the
+territory on which they built their town, sought to assume the rôle of
+sovereignty. The province rose against the town; finding herself in
+danger, Marseilles called the Romans to her aid. They came, not to
+sustain Marseilles in her contemplated iniquity, but to themselves take
+possession of the region, a purpose that they succeeded in, despite the
+prodigies of valor with which they were opposed. Established in
+Provence, the Romans built the town of Aix, and thus founded their first
+colony on our soil--"
+
+"Oh, a curse upon the Marseillians!" cried Joel. "It was thanks to those
+sons of Greeks that the Romans gained a foothold in Gaul!"
+
+"By what right can we curse the people of Marseilles? Must not also
+those provinces be cursed which, since the decline of the republic, thus
+allowed one of their sisters to be overpowered and subjugated? But
+retribution was swift. Encouraged by the indifference of the Gauls, the
+Romans took possession of Auvergne, and later of the Dauphine, and a
+little later also of Languedoc and Vivarais despite the heroic defence
+of their peoples, who, besides being divided among themselves, were left
+to their own resources. Thus the Romans became masters of almost all
+southern Gaul; they govern it by their proconsuls and reduce its people
+to slavery. Do the other provinces at last take alarm at these ominous
+invasions of Rome that push ever forward and threaten the very heart of
+Gaul? No! No! Relying upon their own courage, they say as you, Joel, did
+shortly ago: 'The South lies far away from the North, the East lies far
+away from the West.' This notwithstanding, our race, which is heedless
+and presumptuous enough to fail to prepare in advance, and when it is
+still time, against foreign domination, always has the belated courage
+of rebelling when the yoke is actually placed upon its neck. The
+provinces that have been subjugated by the Romans, break out in resolute
+rebellion; these are smothered in their own blood. Our disasters follow
+swiftly upon one another. The Burgundians, incited thereto by the
+descendants of the old kings, take up arms against the Frank-Compté and
+invoke the aid of the Romans. The Frank-Compté, unable to make head
+against such an alliance, requests reinforcements from the Germans of
+the other side of the Rhine. Thus these barbarians of the North are
+taught the road to Gaul, and after bloody battles with the very people
+who invited them, remain masters of both Burgundy and Frank-Compté. Last
+year, the Swiss, encouraged by the example of the Germans, make an
+irruption into the Gallic provinces that had been conquered by the
+Romans. Thereupon, Julius Cæsar is appointed proconsul; he hastens from
+Italy; owerthrows the Swiss in their mountains; drives the Germans out
+of Burgundy and Frank-Compté; takes possession of these provinces, now
+exhausted by their long struggles with the barbarians; and to the yoke
+of these now succeeds that of the Romans. It was a change of masters.
+And finally, at the beginning of this year a portion of Gaul shakes off
+its lethargy and scents the dangers that threatens the still independent
+provinces. Brave patriots, wanting neither Romans nor Germans for their
+masters--Galba among the Gauls of Belgium, Boddig-nat among the Gauls of
+Flanders--induce the people to rise in mass against Cæsar. The Gauls of
+Vermandois and those of Artois also rise in rebellion. Together they all
+march against the Romans! Oh, it was a great and terrible battle, that
+battle of the Sambre!" cried the unknown traveler with exaltation. "The
+Gallic army awaited Cæsar on the left bank of the river. Three times did
+the Roman army cross, and three times was it compelled to recross it,
+fighting up to their waists in the blood-reddened waters. The Roman is
+overthrown, the oldest legions are shattered. Cæsar alights from his
+horse, swings his sword, rallies his last cohorts of veterans, that
+already were yielding ground, and at their head charges upon our army.
+Despite Cæsar's courage the battle was lost to him, when we saw a fresh
+body arrive to his aid."
+
+"You say 'We saw'?" asked Joel. "Were you at that terrible battle?"
+
+But the unknown visitor proceeded without answering: "Exhausted,
+decimated by a seven hours' fight, we still held out against the fresh
+troops ... we fought to the bitter end ... we fought unto death.... And
+do you know," added the stranger with an expression of profound grief,
+"do you know, you who remained peacefully at home, while your brothers
+were dying for the liberty of Gaul, which is also yours,--do you know
+how many survived of the sixty thousand men in the Gallic army--in that
+battle of the Sambre?... _Not five hundred!_"
+
+"Not five hundred!" cried Joel as if questioning the figures.
+
+"I say so because I am one of the survivors," answered the stranger
+proudly.
+
+"Then the two fresh scars on your face--"
+
+"I received them at the battle of the Sambre--"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+"WAR! WAR! WAR!"
+
+
+A furious barking of dogs in the yard and a distinct noise of hard
+rapping at the gate of the palisade interrupted the stranger's
+narrative. Still laboring under the painful impression of the traveler's
+words, the family of the brenn for a moment imagined their homestead was
+being attacked. The women rose precipitately, the little ones rushed to
+their mothers' arms, the men ran for their arms that hung from the
+walls. But the dogs soon ceased barking, although the rapping at the
+gate continued unabated. Joel said to his family:
+
+"Although they are still rapping, the dogs do not bark. They must know
+who is at the gate."
+
+Saying this, the brenn stepped out. Several of his kinsmen, the stranger
+included, followed him out of prudence. The yard gate was opened and two
+voices were heard outside the palisades crying:
+
+"It is we, friends, ... Albinik and Mikael."
+
+Indeed the two sons of the brenn were distinguished by the light of the
+torches, and behind them their horses, panting for breath and white with
+foam. After tenderly embracing his sons, especially the mariner, who was
+absent over a year on his sea journeys, Joel entered the house with
+them, where they were received with joy and not a little surprise by
+their mother and other relatives.
+
+Albinik the mariner and Mikael the armorer were, like their father and
+their brother, men of large and robust stature. Over their clothes they
+carried a caped cloak of heavy woolen fabric streaming with the rain.
+Upon entering the house, and even before embracing their mother, the new
+arrivals stepped to the altar and approached their lips to the seven
+small twigs of mistletoe that stood dipped in the copper bowl on the
+large stone. They there noticed a lifeless body covered with oak
+branches, near which Julyan still sat.
+
+"Good evening, Julyan," said Mikael. "Who is dead?"
+
+"It is Armel; I killed him this evening in a sword contest," answered
+Julyan; "but as we have both pledged brotherhood to each other, I shall
+join him to-morrow beyond. If you wish it I shall mention you to him."
+
+"Yes, yes. Julyan; I loved Armel and expected to find him alive. In the
+bag on my horse I have a little harpoon head of iron that I forged for
+him; I shall place it to-morrow on the pyre of you two--"
+
+"And you must tell Armel," added the mariner smiling, "that he went away
+too soon; his friends Albinik and Meroë would have told him their last
+experience at sea."
+
+"It is Armel and myself," replied Julyan with a smile, "who will later
+have pretty stories to tell you. Your sea trips will be like nothing to
+the travels that await us in those marvelous worlds that none has seen
+and all will see."
+
+After Margarid's two sons had answered the tender inquiries of their
+mother and family, the brenn said to the unknown traveler:
+
+"Friend, these are my two sons."
+
+"May it please heaven that the suddenness of their arrival may not be
+caused by some evil event," answered the traveler.
+
+"I say so, too, my children," rejoined Joel. "What has happened that you
+come at so late an hour and in such hurry? Happy be your return,
+Albinik, but I did not expect it so soon. But where is the gentle
+Meroë?"
+
+"I left her at Vannes, father. This is what has happened. I returned
+from Spain by the gulf of Gascony on the way to England. The bad weather
+forced us to put in at Vannes. But by Teutates, who presides over all
+journeys by land and sea, here on earth and beyond, I did not
+expect--no, I did not expect to see what I saw in that town. I,
+therefore, left my vessel in port in charge of my sailors with my wife
+as their chief, I took a horse and galloped to Auray. There I gave the
+news to Mikael, and we hastened hither to forewarn you, father."
+
+"And what is it you saw at Vannes?"
+
+"What did I see? All the inhabitants, in revolt, full of indignation and
+rage, like the brave Bretons that they are!"
+
+"And what is the reason of it all, children?" asked Mamm' Margarid
+without leaving her distaff.
+
+"Four Roman officers, without any other escort than four soldiers and as
+calmly insolent as if they were in some enslaved country, came in
+yesterday and commanded the magistrates of the town to issue orders to
+all the neighboring tribes to send to Vannes ten thousand bags of
+wheat--"
+
+"And what else?" asked Joel laughing and shrugging his shoulders.
+
+"Five thousand bags of oats."
+
+"And what else?"
+
+"Five hundred barrels of hydromel."
+
+"Of course," said the brenn laughing louder, "they must also drink--and
+what else?"
+
+"A thousand heads of beef."
+
+"And, of course, the fattest--What else?"
+
+"Five thousand sheep."
+
+"That's right. One soon gets tired of beef only. Is that all, my boy?"
+
+"They also demanded three hundred horses to furnish new equipages to the
+Roman cavalry, besides two hundred wagons of forage."
+
+"And why not? The poor horses must be fed," continued Joel sneeringly.
+"But there must be some more orders. If they begin to issue orders, why
+stop at all?"
+
+"The provisions were to be taken in wagons as far as Poitou and
+Touraine."
+
+"And what is the wide maw that is to swallow up those bags of wheat,
+those muttons, those heads of beef and those barrels of hydromel?"
+
+"Above all," added the traveler, "who is to pay for all those
+provisions?"
+
+"Pay for them!" replied Albinik. "Why, nobody. It is a forced impost."
+
+"Ha! Ha!" laughed Joel.
+
+"And the wide maw that is to gulp up the provisions is none other than
+the Roman army, which is wintering in Touraine and Anjou."
+
+A shudder of rage mixed with disdain ran through the family of the
+brenn. "Well, Joel," the unknown traveler remarked, "do you still think
+that it is a long way from Touraine to Britanny? The distance does not
+seem to me long, seeing that the officers of Cæsar come calmly and
+without escort, empty-pursed and swinging high their canes, to provision
+their army here."
+
+Joel no longer laughed; he dropped his head and remained silent.
+
+"Our guest is right," put in Albinik; "these Romans came empty-pursed
+and swinging high their canes. One of them even raised his cane over old
+Ronan, the oldest magistrate of Vannes, who, like you, father, objected
+strongly to the Roman exaction."
+
+"And yet, children, what else can we do but laugh at these demands. To
+levy these provisionings upon us and the neighboring tribes of Vannes;
+to force us to carry the requisitions to Touraine and Anjou with our
+oxen and horses which the Romans will surely keep also, and all that at
+the very season of the late sowing and of our autumn labors; to ruin
+next year's harvest;--why, that is to reduce us to living upon the grass
+that would have fed the cattle that they rob us of!"
+
+"Yes," said Mikael the armorer; "they want to take away our wheat and
+our cattle, and leave the grass to us. By the iron of the lance that I
+was forging this very morning, it shall be the Romans who, under our
+blows, will bite the grass on our fields!"
+
+"Vannes is now preparing to defend herself if attacked," added the
+mariner. "They have begun to throw up trenches in the neighborhood of
+the port. All our sailors are to be armed, and if the Roman galleys
+attack us by sea, never will the sea crows have had a like feast of
+corpses upon our beach."
+
+"While crossing to-night the other tribes," resumed Mikael, "we spread
+the news and sounded the alarm. The magistrates of Vannes have also sent
+out messengers in all direction ordering that fires be lighted from hill
+to hill, and thereby give immediate notice of the imminent danger from
+one end of Britanny to the other."
+
+Without once dropping her distaff, Mamm' Margarid had listened to the
+report given by her sons. When they stopped speaking she calmly said:
+
+"As to those Roman officers, my sons, were they not sent back to their
+army--after a thorough caning?"
+
+"No, mother; they were lodged in jail at Vannes, all except two of their
+soldiers whom the magistrates charged to declare to the Roman general
+that no provisions whatever were to be furnished him, and that his
+officers were to be as hostages."
+
+"It would have been better to give the officers a thorough caning and
+drive them in disgrace out of the town," replied Mamm' Margarid. "That
+is the way thieves are treated, and these Romans tried to rob us."
+
+"You are right, Margarid," said Joel; "they came to rob us--to starve
+us! to carry away our harvests and our cattle!" And Joel, now in a
+towering rage, added: "By the vengeance of Hesus! To think of their
+taking our fine turn-out of six young oxen with skins slick as wolves!
+Our four yokes of black bulls that have such a beautiful white star in
+the center of their foreheads!"
+
+"And our beautiful white heifers with yellow heads!" said Mamm' Margarid
+shrugging her shoulders and never quitting her distaff, "our sheep whose
+fleece is so nice and thick.... Come, a good caning for these Romans!"
+
+"And the powerful horses of the stock of your magnificent stallion
+Tom-Bras," put in the traveler. "They will, after all, have to draw your
+harvest to Touraine, and will then serve to replace the worn-out horses
+of the Roman cavalry.... True, to them, the labor will not be excessive
+... because you will now probably discover that it is not far from
+Touraine to Britanny."
+
+"Well may you mock, friend," said Joel. "You were right, and I confess
+myself to have been wrong. Oh! If only the provinces of Gaul had from
+the start confederated themselves against the first assault of the
+Romans! If united they had put forth but one-half the efforts that they
+put forth separately--we would not now be exposed to the insolent
+demands and to the threats of these heathens! Well may you mock!"
+
+"No, Joel, I will mock no longer," gravely answered the traveler. "The
+danger is near; the hostile camp lies only a twelve day's march from
+here; the refusal of the magistrates of Vannes and the imprisonment of
+the Roman officers--all that means speedy war--a merciless war, as only
+the Romans know how to wage! If we are vanquished it means to us death
+on the battle field, or slavery far away! The slave merchants follow the
+tracks of the Roman army; they are greedy after prey. Whatever survives,
+whether whole or wounded--men, young women, girls, children--all are
+sold at auction like cattle for the benefit of the vanquisher, and are
+forthwith consigned by the thousands to Italy or to Southern Gaul where
+the Romans are settled! Arrived at their destination, the male slaves of
+robust frame are often forced to fight ferocious animals in the circus
+for the amusement of their masters; the young women and girls, even the
+children are subjected to monstrous debaucheries. Such is war with the
+Romans if vanquished!" cried the stranger. "Will you allow yourselves to
+be vanquished? Will you submit to such disgrace? Will you deliver to
+them your wives, your sisters, your daughters and children, ye Gauls of
+Britanny?"
+
+Hardly had the traveler uttered these words when the whole family of
+Joel--men, women, young girls, children--all down to the dwarfy Stumpy,
+rose to their feet and with their eyes shooting fire, their cheeks
+inflamed, cried tumultuously, waving their arms:
+
+"War! War! War!"
+
+Joel's large battle mastiff, fired by these cries, rose on his hind legs
+and laid his fore-paws on the breast of his master, who, while caressing
+his enormous head said:
+
+"Yes, old Deber-Trud, like our tribe you will hunt the Romans.... The
+quarry shall be for you.... Your jaws shall be red with blood!... Wow!
+Wow, Deber-Trud! At the Romans! At the Romans!"
+
+Hearing the well-known war-cry, the mastiff responded with furious
+barks, displaying fangs as redoubtable as a lion's. Hearing Deber-Trud,
+the outside watch-dogs, as well as those locked up in the kennels,
+answered him. Frightful was the war-cry raised by the pack.
+
+"A good omen, friend Joel," observed the traveler. "Your dogs bark death
+to the enemy."
+
+"Yes, yes; death to the enemy!" cried the brenn. "Thanks be to the gods,
+in our Breton Gaul, on the day of peril, the watch-dog becomes a
+war-dog! the draw-horse becomes a war-horse! the ox of the field a
+war-ox! the harvest carts chariots of war! the laborer a warrior! even
+our peaceful and fruitful earth turns to war and devours the stranger!
+at every step he finds a grave in our fathomless marshes, and his
+vessels vanish in the whirlpools of our bays which are more terrible in
+their calm than in the tempest of their fury!"
+
+"Joel," now said Julyan, who had left the body of his friend, "I
+promised Armel to meet him to-morrow yonder--Such a death would be
+pleasant to me.... To die fighting the Romans is a duty.... What shall I
+do?"
+
+"Ask to-morrow one of the druids of Karnak."
+
+"And our sister Hena," said Albinik the mariner to his mother. "It is
+nearly a year I have not seen her.... She is surely still the pearl of
+the Isle of Sen? My wife Meroë charged me to remember her to Hena."
+
+"You will see her to-morrow," answered Mamm' Margarid; and laying down
+her distaff she arose. It was the signal for the family to retire. Mamm'
+Margarid looked around and said:
+
+"Let us retire, my children; it is late; to-morrow at break of day we
+must begin our war preparations;" and turning to the traveler:
+
+"May the gods grant you a good rest and pleasant dreams!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+FAREWELL!
+
+
+Agreeable to his promise, Joel pushed off his boat early the next
+morning, accompanied by his son Albinik the mariner, and took the
+unknown traveler to the island of Kellor, seeing he did not dare to land
+at the sacred precincts of the Isle of Sen. The brenn's guest said a few
+words in a low voice to the ewagh who mounts perpetual guard in the
+island's house. He seemed to be struck with respect and answered that
+Talyessin, the oldest of the living druids, who then was at the Isle of
+Sen together with his wife Auria, expected a traveler since the previous
+evening.
+
+Before leaving Joel, the stranger said to his host: "I hope neither you
+nor your family will forget your resolution of yesterday. This day a
+call to arms will resound from one end of Breton Gaul to the other."
+
+"You may rest assured that I and the rest of my tribe will be the first
+to respond to the call."
+
+"I believe you. The issue now is whether Gaul shall fall into slavery or
+shall rise again to the height of her one-time power and glory."
+
+"But should I not, at this moment when I am to leave you, know the name
+of the brave man who sat at my hearth? The name of the wise man who
+speaks with so much soundness and loves his country so warmly?"
+
+"Joel, my name shall be 'Soldier' so long as Gaul is not free; and if we
+ever meet again, I shall call myself 'Your Friend,' seeing that I am
+that."
+
+Saying these words the unknown traveler stepped into the ewagh's boat
+that was to take him from Kellor to the Isle of Sen. Before the boat,
+which was under charge of the ewagh, put off, Joel asked the latter
+whether he would be permitted to wait at the house for his daughter
+Hena, who was to come on that day to visit the family. The ewagh
+informed him that his daughter would not start for the shore until
+evening. Sorry at not being able to take Hena with him, the brenn
+re-entered his boat and returned alone with Albinik.
+
+Towards noon, Julyan went to consult the druids of the forest of Karnak
+upon whether he should take the immediate and voluntary death which
+would be a pleasure to him, seeing he was to rejoin Armel, or seek death
+in battle against the Romans. The druids answered him that having sworn
+to Armel upon his brotherhood faith to die with him, he should be
+faithful to his promise, and that the ewaghs would bring the body of
+Armel with the usual ceremonies in order to place it upon the pyre where
+Julyan would find his place at moon-rise. Happy at being able so soon to
+join his friend, Julyan was about to leave Karnak, when he saw the
+stranger, who had been the guest of Joel and who now returned from the
+Isle of Sen, approaching through the forest in the company of Talyessin.
+The latter said a few words to the other druids, who forthwith
+surrounded the traveler with great eagerness and marks of respect. The
+younger ones of the druids received him as a brother, the elder ones as
+a son.
+
+Recognizing Julyan, the traveler said to him:
+
+"As you are to return to the brenn of the tribe, wait a little; I shall
+give you a letter for him."
+
+Julyan yielded to the wish of the stranger, who withdrew accompanied by
+Talyessin and other druids. He returned shortly and handed to Julyan a
+little scroll of yellow tanned skin, saying:
+
+"This is for Joel.... This evening, Julyan, when the moon rises we shall
+see each other again.... Hesus loves those who, like you, are brave and
+faithful in their friendship."
+
+Upon arriving at the brenn's house, Julyan learned that the former was
+on the field gathering in the wheat. He went after him and delivered to
+Joel the writing sent by the stranger. It said:
+
+"Friend Joel, in the name of Gaul now in danger, this is what the druids
+expect of you: Command all the members of your family who are at work on
+the fields to cry out to those of the tribe working not far from them:
+The mistletoe and the new year! _Let every man, woman and child, all
+without exception, meet this evening in the forest of Karnak at the rise
+of the moon._ Let those of the tribe who will have heard these words in
+turn repeat them aloud to those of the other tribes who may also be at
+work on the fields, so that the call being repeated from mouth to mouth,
+from one to another, from village to village, from town to town, from
+Vannes to Auray, notify all the tribes to convene this evening at the
+forest of Karnak."
+
+Joel did as ordered by the stranger in the name of the druids of Karnak.
+The call was carried from mouth to mouth, from the nearest to the most
+distant tribes; all were notified to meet that evening in the forest of
+Karnak when the moon rose.
+
+While some of the brenn's family were hurriedly gathering in the wheat
+harvest that still remained heaped on the fields, in order to deposit a
+portion of it in cellars that the laborers were digging on dry ground,
+the women, the girls and even the children, all working under the
+direction of Margarid, were as busily engaged disposing of salted meats
+into baskets, flour into bags, hydromel and wine into pouches; others
+were filling coffers with lint and balsam for wounds; others were
+adjusting broad and strong tent cloths over the chariots. In all wars
+considered dangerous, the tribes threatened by the enemy, instead of
+waiting for, usually went out to meet him. The houses were abandoned;
+the field oxen were hitched to the war-chariots, all of which contained
+the women, the children, the clothes and the provisions of the
+combatants. The horses, ridden by the full grown men of the tribe,
+constituted the cavalry. The young men, being more agile, went on foot
+as an armed escort. The grain was hidden away; the cattle, let loose,
+pastured where they pleased and returned instinctively every evening to
+their usual stables. Generally, the wolves and bears devoured a part.
+The fields remained untended and scarcity followed. Often the combatants
+who went to war in defence of their country, encouraged by the presence
+of their wives and children, and having nothing to expect from the enemy
+but disgrace, slavery or death, drove back the invader beyond their
+frontiers, and returned home to repair the disasters of the fields.
+
+Knowing that his daughter was due at the house, Joel returned home
+towards sun-down. He also expected to be able to take a hand in the
+preparations for the war.
+
+Hena, the virgin of the Isle of Sen, soon arrived. When her father,
+mother and other relatives saw her enter it seemed to them never before
+had she been so beautiful. Never before did her father feel so proud of
+his daughter. The long black tunic that she wore was held around her
+waist by a brass belt, from which, on one side, hung a little gold
+sickle, and on the other a crescent in the shape of the waning moon.
+Hena had dressed herself with special care in honor of the celebration
+of her birthday. A necklace and gold bracelets inlaid with garnets
+ornamented her arms and neck, whiter than the driven snow. When she took
+off her caped cloak it was noticed that she wore, as ever at religious
+ceremonies, a crown of green oak leaves on her blonde hair, plaited in
+braids over her chaste and mild forehead. The blue of the sea, when
+lying calmly under a clear sky, was not purer than the blue of Hena's
+eyes.
+
+The brenn stretched out his arms to his daughter. She ran into them
+joyously and offered him her forehead, as she also did her mother. The
+children of the family loved Hena dearly and contested with each other
+the privilege of being the first to kiss her hands--sought with greed by
+all the little innocent mouths. Even old Deber-Trud gamboled and barked
+with joy at the arrival of his young mistress.
+
+Albinik the mariner was the first to whom Hena offered her forehead to
+kiss after her father and mother; she had not seen her brother for a
+long time. Next came the turn of Guilhern and Mikael and then the swarm
+of children, whom, stooping to them, Hena, sought to hold all together
+in one embrace. The young priestess then tenderly greeted Henory, her
+brother Guilhern's wife, and expressed her regret at not seeing
+Albinik's wife Meroë. Nor were the other relatives forgotten; all, down
+to Stumpy, otherwise everyone's butt, had a kind word from her.
+
+The general exchange of greetings being over, and happy at finding
+herself among her own, in the house where she was born eighteen years
+before, Hena sat down at her mother's feet on the same stool that she
+used to occupy when a child. When she saw her child seated at her feet,
+Mamm' Margarid called the maid's attention to the disorder that reigned
+in the house due to the preparations for war, and she said sadly:
+
+"We should have celebrated this day of your birth with joy and
+tranquility, dear child! Instead, you now find confusion and alarm in
+our house that soon will be deserted.... War threatens."
+
+"Mother is right," answered Hena sighing; "Great is the anger of Hesus."
+
+"And what say you, dear child, you who are a saint," inquired Joel, "a
+saint of the Isle of Sen? What must we do to appease the wrath of the
+All-Powerful?"
+
+"My father and mother honor me too much by calling me a saint," answered
+the young virgin. "Like the druids, myself and my female companions have
+meditated all night under the shadows of the sacred oak-trees at the
+hour of moon rise. We search for the simplest and divinest principles,
+and seek to spread them among our fellow-beings. We adore the
+All-Powerful in His works, from the mighty oak that is sacred to Him,
+down to the humble moss that grows on the rocks of our isle; from the
+stars, whose eternal course we study, down to the insect that is born
+and dies in one day; from the sourceless sea, down to the streamlet of
+water that glides under the grass. We search for the cure of diseases
+that cause pain, and we glorify those among our fathers and mothers who
+have shed lustre upon Gaul. By the knowledge of the auguries and the
+study of the past, we seek to foresee the future to the end of
+enlightening those who are less clear-sighted than ourselves. Finally,
+like the druids, we teach childhood, we inspire the child with an ardent
+love of our common and beloved fatherland--so threatened to-day by the
+wrath of Hesus, a wrath that comes down upon them because they have
+forgotten that _they are all the children of the same God_, and that a
+brother must resent the wound inflicted upon his brother."
+
+"The stranger who was our guest and whom this morning I took to the Isle
+of Sen," replied the brenn, "spoke to us as you do, dear daughter."
+
+"My father and mother may listen as sacred words to the words of the
+Chief of the Hundred Valleys. Hesus and love for Gaul inspire him. He is
+brave among the bravest."
+
+"He! Is he the Chief of the Hundred Valleys?" exclaimed Joel. "He
+refused to give me his name! Do you know it, daughter? Do you know which
+is his native province?"
+
+"He was impatiently waited for yesterday evening at the Isle of Sen by
+the venerable Talyessin. As to his name, all that I am free to say to my
+father and mother is that the day on which our country should be
+subjugated will also be the day when the Chief of the Hundred Valleys
+will see the last drop of his blood flow from his veins. May the wrath
+of Hesus spare us that disastrous day!"
+
+"Oh, my daughter, if Hesus is angry, how are we to appease him?"
+
+"By obeying the law. He has said--_all men are the children of one
+God_. By offering to him human sacrifices.... May those that are to be
+offered to-night calm his wrath."
+
+"The sacrifices of to-night?" asked the brenn; "which are they?"
+
+"Do not my father and mother know that to-night, when the moon rises,
+there will be three human sacrifices at the stones of the forest of
+Karnak?"
+
+"We know," answered Joel, "that all the tribes have been convened to
+appear this evening at the forest of Karnak. But who are the people that
+are to be sacrificed and will be pleasing to Hesus, dear daughter?"
+
+"First of all Daoulas the murderer: he killed Houarne without a fight
+and in his sleep. The druids have sentenced him to die this evening. The
+blood of a cowardly murderer is an expiation agreeable to Hesus."
+
+"And the second sacrifice?"
+
+"Our relative Julyan wishes, out of friendship, to rejoin Armel, whom he
+loyally killed in a contest. This evening, glorified by the chant of the
+bards, he will go, agreeable to his vow, and join Armel in the unknown
+worlds. The blood of a brave man, voluntarily offered to Hesus, is
+agreeable to him."
+
+"And the third sacrifice, dear child?" asked Mamm' Margarid; "Who is
+it?"
+
+Hena did not answer. She dropped her blonde and charming head upon the
+knees of Margarid, remained a while in a revery, kissed her mother's
+hands and said to her with a sweet smile that brought back old
+remembrances:
+
+"How often did not little Hena, when still a child, fall asleep of an
+evening on your knees, mother, while you spun at your distaff, and when
+all of you now present, except Albinik, were gathered at the hearth,
+narrating the virile virtues of our mothers and our fathers of old!"
+
+"It is true, dear daughter," answered Margarid caressingly passing her
+hand over the blonde hair of her child; "it is true. And here among us
+we all loved you so much for your good heart and your infantine grace,
+that when we saw you had fallen asleep on my knees, we all spoke in a
+low voice not to awake you."
+
+Stumpy, who was among the crowd of relatives, put in:
+
+"But who is that third human sacrifice, that is to appease Hesus and
+deliver us from war? Who, Hena, is the third to be sacrificed this
+evening?"
+
+"I shall tell you, Stumpy, when I shall have had a little time to
+meditate upon the past," answered the young maid dreamily, without
+leaving her mother's knees; and passing her hand over her forehead as if
+to refreshen her memory, she looked around, pointed to the stone where
+stood the copper bowl with the seven twigs of mistletoe and proceeded
+saying:
+
+"When I was twelve, do my father and mother remember how happy I was at
+having been selected by the female druids of the Isle of Sen to receive
+in a veil of linen, whitened in the dew of night, the mistletoe which
+the druids cut with a gold sickle at the moment when the moon shed its
+clearest light? Do my father and mother remember how, bringing home the
+mistletoe to sanctify our home, I was taken hither by the ewaghs in a
+chariot decked with flowers and greens while the bards sang the glory of
+Hesus? What tender embraces did not my whole family lavish upon me at my
+return! What a feast it was in our tribe!"
+
+"Dear, dear daughter," said Margarid pressing Hena's head against her
+maternal breast, "if the female druids chose you to receive the sacred
+mistletoe in a linen veil, it was because your soul was as pure as the
+veil."
+
+"It was because little Hena was the bravest of all her companions, she
+almost perished in the attempt to save Janed, the daughter of Wor, who,
+as she was gathering shells on the rocks along the shore of Glen'-Hek,
+fell into the water and was being carried away by the waves," said
+Mikael the armorer, tenderly contemplating his sister.
+
+"It was because, beyond all others, little Hena was sweet, patient and
+kind to the children; it was because, when only twelve, she instructed
+them like at matron at the cottage of the female druids of the Isle of
+Sen," said Guilhern in his turn.
+
+The daughter of Joel blushed with modesty at the words of her mother and
+brothers; but Stumpy insisted:
+
+"But who is that third human sacrifice that is to appease Hesus and
+deliver us from war? Who is it, Hena, who is it to be sacrificed this
+evening?"
+
+"I shall tell you, Stumpy," answered the young maid rising; "I shall
+tell you after I have once more looked at the dear little chamber where
+I used to sleep when, having grown unto maidenhood, I came here from the
+Isle of Sen to attend our family feasts." And stepping towards the door
+of the chamber, she stopped for a moment at the threshold and said:
+
+"What sweet nights have I spent there after retiring for the evening,
+regretful of leaving you! With what impatience did I not rise in the
+morning to meet you again!"
+
+Taking two steps into the little chamber, while her family felt ever
+more astonished at hearing Hena, still so young, thus dwell upon the
+past, the young maid proceeded, taking up several articles that lay upon
+a little table:
+
+"This is the sea-shell necklace that I entertained myself making in the
+evening sitting beside my mother.... These are the little dried twigs
+that resemble trees, and that I gathered from our rocks.... This is the
+net which I used when the tide was going out to catch little fishes
+with; how the sport used to amuse me!... There are the rolls of white
+skin on which, every time I came here, I recorded my joy at meeting my
+relatives and again seeing the house of my birth.... I find everything
+in its place. I am glad of having gathered these young girl's
+treasures."
+
+Stumpy, however, whom these mementoes did not seem to affect, again
+repeated in his sour and impatient voice:
+
+"But who is to be the third human sacrifice that is to appease Hesus
+and deliver us from war? Who, Hena, is to be sacrificed this evening?"
+
+"I shall let you know, Stumpy," answered Hena smiling. "I shall let you
+know after I shall have distributed my little treasures among you
+all,--you among them, Stumpy."
+
+Saying this, the daughter of the brenn motioned to her relatives to
+enter the chamber, and in the midst of the silent astonishment of all
+she gave a souvenir to each. Each, even of the little ones who loved her
+so much and also Stumpy received something. In order to make her gifts
+reach around, she loosened the sea-shell necklace and split up the dry
+twigs, saying in her sweet voice to each:
+
+"Keep this, I pray you, out of friendship for Hena, your relative and
+friend."
+
+Joel, his wife and his three children, to all of whom Hena had not yet
+given aught, looked at one another all the more astonished at what she
+did, seeing that towards the end tears appeared in her eyes although the
+young maid gave no other token of sadness. When all the others were
+supplied, Hena took from her neck the garnet necklace that she wore and
+said to Margarid while kissing her hand:
+
+"Hena prays her mother to keep this out of love for her."
+
+She then took the little rolls of white skin that had been prepared for
+writing on, handed them to Joel and kissing his hand said:
+
+"Hena prays her father to keep this roll out of love for her; he will
+there find her most cherished thoughts."
+
+Detaching thereupon from her arm her two garnet bracelets, Hena said to
+the wife of her brother Guilhern, the laborer:
+
+"Hena prays her sister Henory to wear this bracelet out of love for
+her."
+
+And giving the other bracelet to her brother the mariner she said:
+
+"Your wife, Meroë, whom I love as much for her courage as for her noble
+heart, is to keep this bracelet as a souvenir from me."
+
+Hena then took from her copper belt the little gold sickle and crescent
+that hung from it. She tendered the former to Guilhern the laborer, the
+second to Albinik the mariner, and taking a ring from her finger she
+gave it to Mikael the armorer, saying to the three:
+
+"I wish my brothers to preserve these keepsakes out of love for their
+sister Hena."
+
+All those present remained astonished and holding in their hands the
+gifts that the virgin of the Isle of Sen had delivered to them. They all
+remained standing and so speechless with astonishment that none could
+utter a word, but looked uneasily at one another as if threatened by
+some unknown disaster. Hena finally turned to Stumpy:
+
+"Stumpy," said she, "I shall now let you know who is to be the third
+sacrifice of this evening;" and taking the hands of Joel and Margarid
+she gently led them back into the large hall, whither all the others
+followed. Arrived there, Hena addressed her parents and assembled
+relatives:
+
+"My father and mother know that the blood of a cowardly murderer is an
+expiatory offering to Hesus, and that it might appease him--"
+
+"Yes--you told us so, dear daughter."
+
+"They also know that the blood of a brave man who dies in pledge of
+friendship is a valorous offering to Hesus, and that it might appease
+him."
+
+"Yes--you told us so, dear daughter."
+
+"Finally, my father and mother know that the most acceptable of all
+offerings to Hesus and most likely to appease him is the innocent blood
+of a virgin, happy and proud at the thought of offering her blood to
+Hesus, and of doing so voluntarily--voluntarily--in the hope that that
+all-powerful god may deliver our beloved fatherland, this dear and
+sacred fatherland of our fathers, from foreign oppression!... Thus the
+innocent blood of a virgin will flow this evening to appease the wrath
+of Hesus."
+
+"And her name?" asked Stumpy, "the name of that virgin who is to deliver
+us from war!"
+
+Hena looked towards her father and mother with tenderness and serenity
+and said:
+
+"The virgin who is to die is one of the nine female druids of the Isle
+of Sen. Her name is Hena. She is the daughter of Margarid and Joel, the
+brenn of the tribe of Karnak!"
+
+Deep silence fell upon the family of Joel. None, not one present,
+expected to see Hena travel so soon yonder. None, not one present,
+neither her father, nor her mother, nor her brothers, nor any of her
+other relatives, was prepared for the farewells of the sudden journey.
+
+The children joined their little hands and said weeping:
+
+"What!... Leave us so soon?... Our Hena?... Why do you journey away?"
+
+The father and mother looked at each other and sighed.
+
+Margarid said to Hena: "Joel and Margarid believed that they would have
+to wait for their dear daughter in those unknown worlds, where we
+continue to live and where we meet again those whom we have loved
+here.... But it is to be otherwise. It is Hena who will precede us."
+
+"And perhaps," said the brenn, "our sweet and dear daughter will not
+long have to wait for us--"
+
+"May her blood, innocent and pure as a lamb's, appease the wrath of
+Hesus!" added Margarid; "May we soon be able to follow our dear daughter
+and inform her that Gaul is delivered from the stranger."
+
+"And the remembrance of the valiant sacrifice of our daughter shall be
+kept alive in our race," said the father; "so long as the descendants of
+Joel, the brenn of the tribe of Karnak, shall live they will be proud to
+number among their ancestors Hena, the virgin of the Isle of Sen."
+
+The young maid made no answer. Her eyes wandered with sweet avidity from
+one relative to the other as, at the moment of undertaking a journey,
+the departing one takes a last look at the beloved beings from whom he
+is to be separated for a while.
+
+Pointing through the open door at the moon that, now at her fullest, was
+seen across the evening mist rising large-orbed and ruddy like a burning
+disk, Stumpy cried:
+
+"Hena!... Hena! The moon is rising above the horizon...."
+
+"You are right, Stumpy; this is the hour," she said, unwillingly taking
+her eyes from the faces of her beloved family. An instant later she
+added:
+
+"Let my father and mother and all the members of my family accompany me
+to the sacred stones of the forest of Karnak.... The hour of the
+sacrifice has come."
+
+Walking between Joel and Margarid, and followed by all the members of
+the tribe, Hena walked serenely to the forest of Karnak.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE FOREST OF KARNAK.
+
+
+The call for assembling that was issued to the tribes at noon, had run
+from mouth to mouth, from village to village, from town to town. It was
+heard all over Breton Gaul. Towards evening the tribes proceeded en
+masse--men, women and children--to the forest of Karnak, the same as
+Joel and his family.
+
+The moon, at her fullest on that night, shone radiant amid the stars in
+the firmament. After having marched through the dark and the lighted
+spots of the forest, the assembling multitude finally arrived at the
+shores of the sea. The sacred stones of Karnak rose there in nine long
+avenues. They are sacred stones! They are the gigantic pillars of a
+temple that has the sky for its vault.
+
+In the measure that the tribes drew nearer to the place, their solemnity
+deepened.
+
+At the extremity of the avenue, the three stones of the sacrificial
+altar were ranged in a semi-circle, close to the shore. Behind the mass
+of people rose the deep and brooding forest, before them extended the
+boundless sea, above them spread the starry firmament.
+
+The tribes did not step beyond the last avenue of Karnak. They left a
+wide space between themselves and the altar. The large crowd remained
+silent.
+
+At the feet of the sacrificial stones rose three pyres.
+
+The center one, the largest of the three, was ornamented with long white
+veils striped with purple; it was also ornamented with ash, oak and
+birch-tree branches, arranged in mystical order.
+
+The pyre to the right was somewhat less high, but was also ornamented
+with green branches besides sheafs of wheat. On it lay the body of
+Armel, who had been killed in loyal combat. It was almost hidden under
+green and fruit-bearing boughs.
+
+The left pyre was surmounted with a hollow bunch of twisted osiers
+bearing the resemblance of a human body of gigantic stature.
+
+The sound of cymbals and harps was presently heard from the distance.
+
+The male and female druids, together with the virgins of the Isle of Sen
+were approaching the sacrificial place.
+
+At the head of the procession marched the bards, dressed in long white
+tunics that were held around their waists by brass belts; their temples
+were wreathed in oak leaves; they sang while playing upon their harps:
+"God, Gaul and her heroes."
+
+They were followed by the ewaghs charged with the sacrifices, and
+carrying torches and axes; they led in their midst and in chains
+Daoulas, the murderer who was to be executed.
+
+Behind these marched the druids themselves, clad in their purple-striped
+white robes, and their temples also wreathed in oak leaves. In their
+midst was Julyan, happy and proud; Julyan who was glad to leave this
+world in order to rejoin his friend Armel, and journey in his company
+over the unknown worlds.
+
+Finally came the married female druids, clad in white tunics with gold
+belts, and the nine virgins of the Isle of Sen, clad in their black
+tunics, their belts of brass, their arms bare, their green chaplets and
+their gold harps. Hena walked at the head of the latter. Her eyes looked
+for her father, her mother and her relatives--Joel, Margarid and their
+family had been placed in the front rank of the crowd--they soon
+recognized their daughter; their hearts went out to her.
+
+The druids ranked themselves beside the sacrificial stones. The bards
+ceased chanting. One of the ewaghs than said to the crowd, that all who
+wished to be remembered to people whom they had loved and who were no
+longer here, could deposit their letters and offering on the pyres.
+
+A large number of relatives and friends of those who had long been
+traveling yonder, thereupon piously approached the pyres, and deposited
+letters, flowers and other souvenirs that were to re-appear in the other
+worlds, the same as the souls of the bodies that were about to dissolve
+in brilliant flames, were to re-appear in a new body.
+
+Nobody, however, not one single person, deposited aught on the pyre of
+the murderer. As proud and joyful as Julyan was, Daoulas was crestfallen
+and frightened. Julyan had everything to hope for from the continuance
+of a life that had been uniformly pure and just. The murderer had
+everything to fear from the continuance of a life that was stained with
+crime. After all the offerings for the departed ones were deposited on
+the pyres, a profound silence followed.
+
+The ewaghs led Daoulas in chains to the osier effigy. Despite the
+pitiful cries of the condemned man, he was pinioned and placed at the
+foot of the pyre, and the ewaghs remained near him, axes in hand.
+
+Talyessin, the oldest of all the druids, an old man with long white
+beard, made a sign to one of the bards, who thereupon struck his
+three-stringed harp and intonated the following chant, after pointing to
+the murderer:
+
+"This man is of the tribe of Morlech. He killed Houarne of the same
+tribe. Did he kill him, like a brave man face to face with equal
+weapons? No, Daoulas killed Houarne like a coward. At the noon hour,
+Houarne was asleep under a tree. Daoulas approached him on tiptoe, axe
+in hand and killed his victim with one blow. Little Erick of the same
+tribe, who happened to be in a near-by tree picking fruit, saw the
+murder and him who committed it. On the evening of the same day the
+ewaghs seized Daoulas in his tribe. Brought before the druids of Karnak
+and confronted by Erick, he confessed his crime. Whereupon the oldest of
+the druids said:
+
+"'In the name of Hesus, _He who is because he is_, in the name of
+Teutates, who presides over journeys in this world and in the others,
+hear: The expiatory blood of the murderer is agreeable to Hesus.... You
+are about to be born again in other worlds. Your new life will be
+terrible, because you were cruel and cowardly.... You will die to be
+re-born in still greater wretchedness forever and ever through all
+eternity.... Become, on the contrary, from the moment that you are
+re-born, brave and good, despite the sufferings that you will endure and
+you will then die happy, to be re-born yonder, thus forever and ever,
+through all eternity!!!'"
+
+The bard then addressed himself to the murderer, who emitted fearful
+cries of terror.
+
+Thus spoke the venerable druid: "Daoulas, you are about to die ... and
+to meet your victim.... _He is waiting for you, he is waiting for you!_"
+
+When the bard pronounced these words, a shudder went through the
+assembled crowd. The fearful thought of meeting in the next world alive
+him who was killed in this made them all tremble.
+
+The bard proceeded, turning towards the pyre:
+
+"Daoulas, you are about to die! It is a glorious thing to see the face
+of a brave and just person at the moment when he or she voluntarily
+quits this world for some sacred cause. They love, at the moment of
+their departure to see the tender looks of farewell of their parents and
+friends. Cowards like yourself, Daoulas, are unworthy of taking a last
+look at the just. Hence, Daoulas, you will die and burn hidden in that
+envelop of osier, the effigy of a man, as you have become since the
+commission of the murder."
+
+And the bard cried:
+
+"In the name of Hesus! In the name of Teutates! Glory, glory to the
+brave! Shame, shame on the coward!"
+
+All the bards struck upon their harps and their cymbals, and cried in
+chorus:
+
+"Glory, glory to the brave! Shame, shame on the coward!"
+
+An ewagh then took up a sacred knife, cut off the murderer's life and
+cast his body inside of the huge osier effigy of a man. The pyre was set
+on fire. The harps and cymbals struck up in chorus, and all the tribes
+repeated aloud the last words of the bard:
+
+"Shame on the coward!"
+
+Soon the murderer's pyre was a raging mass of flame, within which was
+seen for a moment the effigy of a man like a giant on fire. The flames
+lighted the tops of the oaks of the forest, the colossal stones of
+Karnak, and even the vast expanse of the sea, while the moon inundated
+the space with its divine light. A few minutes later there was nothing
+left but a heap of ashes where the pyre of Daoulas had stood.
+
+Julyan was then seen ascending with radiant mien the pyre where lay the
+body of Armel, his friend--his pledged brother. Julyan had on his
+holiday clothes: a blouse of fine material striped white and blue, held
+around his waist by an embroidered leather belt, from which hung his
+knife. His caped cloak of brown wool was held by a brooch over his left
+shoulder. An oak crown decked his manly head. He held in his hand a
+nosegay of vervain. He looked serene and bold. Hardly had he ascended
+the pyre, when again the harps and cymbals struck up, and the bard
+chanted:
+
+"Who is this? He is a brave man! It is Julyan the laborer; Julyan of the
+family of Joel, the brenn of the tribe of Karnak! He fears the gods, and
+all love him. He is good, he is industrious, he is brave. He killed
+Armel not in hate but in a contest, in loyal combat, buckler on arm,
+sword in hand, like a true Breton Gaul, who loves to display his bravery
+and does not fear death. Armel having departed, Julyan, who had pledged
+brotherhood to him, wishes to depart also and join his friend. Glory to
+Julyan, faithful to the teachings of the druids. He knows that the
+creatures of the All-Powerful never die, and his pure and noble blood
+Julyan now offers up to Hesus. Glory, hope and happiness to Julyan! He
+has been good, just and brave. He will be re-born still happier, still
+juster, still braver, and ever onward, from world to world, Julyan will
+be re-born, his soul being ever re-incarnated in a new body the same as
+the body that here puts on new clothes."
+
+"Oh, Gauls! Ye proud souls, to whom death does not exist! Come, come!
+Remove your eyes from this earth; rise to the sublimity of heaven. See,
+see at your feet the abyss of space, dotted by these myriads of mortals
+as are all of us, and whom Teutates guides incessantly from the world
+that they have lived in towards the world that they are next to inhabit.
+Oh, what unknown worlds and marvelous we shall journey through, with our
+friends and our relatives that have preceded us, and with those whom we
+shall precede!"
+
+"No, we are not mortals! Our infinite lives are numbered by myriads and
+myriads of centuries, just as are numbered by myriads of myriads the
+stars in the firmament--mysterious worlds, ever different, ever new,
+that we are successively to inhabit."
+
+"Let those fear death who, faithful to the false gods of the Greeks, the
+Romans and the Jews, believe that man lives only once, and that after
+that, stripped of his body, the happy or unhappy soul remains eternally
+in the same hell or the same paradise! Aye! They are bound to fear death
+who believe that when man quits this life he finds _immobility in
+eternity_."
+
+"We Gauls have the right knowledge of God. We hold the secret of death.
+_Man is immortal both in body and soul._ Our destiny from world to world
+is to see and learn, to the end that at each of these journeys, if we
+have led wicked and impure lives, we may purify ourselves and become
+better--still better if we have been just and good; and that thus, from
+new birth to new birth man rises incessantly towards perfection as
+endless as his life!"
+
+"Happy, therefore, are the brave who voluntarily leave this world for
+other regions where they will ever see new and marvelous sights in the
+company of those whom they have loved! Happy, therefore, happy the brave
+Julyan! He is about to meet again with his friend, and with him see and
+know _what none of us has yet seen or known, and what all of us shall
+see and know_! Happy Julyan! Glory, glory to Julyan!"
+
+And all the bards and all the druids, the female druids and the virgins
+of the Isle of Sen repeated in chorus to the sound of the harps and the
+cymbals:
+
+"Happy, Happy Julyan! Glory to Julyan!"
+
+And all the tribes, feeling the thrill of curiosity of death and certain
+that they all would eventually become acquainted with the marvels of the
+other worlds, repeated with their thousands of voices:
+
+"Happy Julyan! Happy Julyan!"
+
+Standing erect upon his pyre, his face radiant, and at his feet the body
+of Armel, Julyan raised his inspired eyes towards the brilliant moon,
+opened his blouse, drew his long knife, held up the nosegay of vervain
+to heaven with his left hand, and with his right firmly plunged his
+knife into his breast, uttering as he did so in a strong voice:
+
+"Happy--happy am I. I am to join Armel!"
+
+The pyre was immediately lighted. Julyan, raised for a last, time his
+nosegay of vervain to heaven, and then vanished in the midst of the
+blinding flames, while the chants of the bards and the clang of harp and
+cymbals resounded far and wide.
+
+In their impatience to see and know the mysteries of the other world, a
+large number of men and women of the tribes rushed towards Julyan's pyre
+for the purpose of departing with him and of offering to Hesus an
+immense hecatomb with their bodies. But Talyessin, the eldest of the
+druids, ordered the ewaghs to restrain and hold these faithful people
+back. He cried out to them:
+
+"Enough blood has flown without that which is still to flow. But the
+hour has come when the blood of Gaul should flow only for freedom. The
+blood that is shed for liberty is also an agreeable offering to the
+All-Powerful."
+
+It was not without great effort that the ewaghs prevented the threatened
+rush of voluntary human sacrifices. The pyre of Julyan and Armel burned
+until the flames had nothing more to feed upon.
+
+Again profound silence fell upon the crowd. Hena, the virgin of the Isle
+of Sen, had ascended the third pyre.
+
+Joel and Margarid, their three sons, Guilhern, Albinik and Mikael,
+Guilhern's wife and little children all of whom so dearly loved Hena,
+all her relatives and all the members of her tribe held one another in a
+close embrace, and said to one another:
+
+"There is Hena.... There is our Hena!"
+
+As the virgin of the Isle of Sen stood upon the pyre that was ornamented
+with white veils, greens and flowers, the crowds of the tribes cried in
+one voice: "How beautiful she is!... How holy!"
+
+Joel writes it now down in all sincerity. His daughter Hena was indeed
+very beautiful as she stood erect on the pyre, lighted by the mellow
+light of the moon and resplendent in her black tunic, her blonde hair
+and her green chaplet, while her arms, whiter than ivory, embraced her
+gold harp!
+
+The bards ordered silence.
+
+The virgin of the Isle of Sen sang in a voice as pure as her own soul:
+
+"The daughter of Joel and Margarid comes to offer gladly her life as a
+sacrifice to Hesus!
+
+"Oh, All-Powerful! From the stranger deliver the soil of our father!
+
+"Gauls of Britanny, you have the lance and the sword!
+
+"The daughter of Joel and Margarid has but her blood. She offers it
+voluntarily to Hesus!
+
+"Oh, Almighty God! Render invincible the Gallic lance and sword! Oh,
+Hesus, take my blood, it is yours ... save our sacred fatherland!"
+
+The eldest of the female druids stood all this while on the pyre behind
+Hena with the sacred knife in her hand. When Hena's chant was ended, the
+knife glistened in the air and struck the virgin of the Isle of Sen.
+
+Her mother and her brothers, all the members of her tribe and her father
+Joel saw Hena fall upon her knees, cross her arms, turn her celestial
+face towards the moon, and cry with a still sonorous voice:
+
+"Hesus ... Hesus ... by the blood that flows.... Mercy for Gaul!"
+
+"Gauls, by this blood that flows, victory to our arms!"
+
+Thus the sacrifice of Hena was consummated amidst the religious
+admiration of the tribes. All repeated the last words of the brave
+virgin:
+
+"Hesus, mercy for Gaul!... Gauls, victory to our arms!"
+
+Several young men, being fired with enthusiasm by the heroic example and
+beauty of Hena sought to kill themselves upon her pyre in order to be
+re-born with her. The ewaghs held them back. The flames soon enveloped
+the pyre and Hena vanished in their dazzling splendor. A few minutes
+later there was nothing left of the virgin and her pyre but a heap of
+ashes. A high wind sat in from the sea and dispersed the atoms. The
+virgin of the Isle of Sen, brilliant and pure as the flame that consumed
+her, had vanished into space to be re-born and to await beyond for the
+arrival of those whom she had loved.
+
+The cymbals and harps resounded anew, and the chief of the bards struck
+up the chant:
+
+"To arms, ye Gauls, to arms!
+
+"The innocent blood of a virgin flowed for your sakes, and shall not
+yours flow for the fatherland! To arms! The Romans are here. Strike,
+Gauls, strike at their heads! Strike hard! See the enemy's blood flow
+like a stream! It rises up to your knees! Courage! Strike hard! Gauls,
+strike the Romans! Still harder! Harder still! You see the enemy's
+blood extend like a lake! It rises up to your chests! Courage! Strike
+still harder, Gauls! Strike the Romans! Strike harder still! You will
+rest to-morrow.... To-morrow Gaul will be free! Let, to-day, from the
+Loire to the ocean, but one cry resound--'To arms!'"
+
+As if carried away by the breath of war, all the tribes dispersed,
+running to their arms. The moon had gone down; dark night set in. But
+from all parts of the woods, from the bottoms of the valleys, from the
+tops of the hills where the signal fires were burning, a thousand voices
+echoed and re-echoed the chant of the bards:
+
+"To arms! Strike, Gauls! Strike hard at the Romans! To arms!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The above truthful account of all that happened at our poor home on the
+birthday of my glorious Hena, a day that also saw her heroic
+sacrifice--that account has been written by me, Joel, the brenn of the
+tribe of Karnak, at the last moon of October of the first year that
+Julius Cæsar came to invade Gaul. I wrote it upon the rolls of white
+skin that my glorious daughter Hena gave me as a keepsake, and my eldest
+son, Guilhern has attached to them the keepsake he received from
+her--the mystic gold sickle of the virgin druid priestess. Let the two
+ever remain together.
+
+After me, my eldest son Guilhern shall carefully preserve both the
+writing and the emblem, and after Guilhern, the sons of his sons are
+charged to transmit them from generation to generation, to the end that
+our family may for all time preserve green the memory of Hena, the
+virgin of the Isle of Sen.
+
+
+(The End.)
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+THE INFANT'S SKULL; OR THE END OF THE WORLD.
+
+By EUGENE SUE.
+
+_Translated from the original French_ By DANIEL DE LEON.
+
+This is one of that series of thrilling stories by Eugene Sue in which
+historic personages and events are so artistically grouped that, without
+the fiction losing by the otherwise solid facts and without the solid
+facts suffering by the fiction, both are enhanced and combinedly act as
+a flash-light upon the past--and no less so upon the future.
+
+PRICE, FIFTY CENTS.
+
+New York Labor News Co. 2, 4 & 6 New Reade Street New York, N. Y.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE PILGRIM'S SHELL
+
+OR
+
+FERGAN THE QUARRYMAN
+
+By Eugene Sue.
+
+Translated by Daniel De Leon.
+
+283 pp., on fine book paper, cloth 75 cents.
+
+This great historical story by the eminent French writer is one of the
+majestic series that cover the leading and successive episodes of the
+history of the human race. The novel treats of the feudal system, the
+first Crusade and the rise of the Communes in France. It is the only
+translation into English of this masterpiece of Sue.
+
+The New York Sun says:
+
+Eugene Sue wrote a romance which seems to have disappeared in a curious
+fashion, called "Les Mysteres du Peuple." It is the story of a Gallic
+family through the ages, told in successive episodes, and, so far as we
+have been able to read it, is fully as interesting as "The Wandering
+Jew" or "The Mysteries of Paris." The French edition is pretty hard to
+find, and only parts have been translated into English. We don't know
+the reason. One medieval episode, telling of the struggle of the
+communes for freedom, is now translated by Mr. Daniel De Leon, under the
+title "The Pilgrim's Shell" (New York Labor News Co.). We trust the
+success of his effort may be such as to lead him to translate the rest
+of the romance. It will be the first time the feat has been done in
+English.
+
+NEW YORK LABOR NEWS CO., 2, 4 & 6 New Reade St., New York.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Woman Under Socialism
+
+By August Bebel
+
+Translated from the Original German of the Thirty-third Edition by
+Daniel De Leon, Editor of the New York Daily People, with translator's
+preface and foot notes.
+
+Cloth, 400 pages, with pen drawing of the author.
+
+Price, $1.00
+
+The complete emancipation of woman, and her complete equality with man
+is the final goal of our social development, whose realization no power
+on earth can prevent;--and this realization is possible only by a social
+change that shall abolish the rule of man over man--hence also of
+capitalists over working-men. Only then will the human race reach its
+highest development. The "Golden Age" that man has been dreaming of for
+thousands of years, and after which they have been longing, will have
+come at last. Class rule will have reached its end for all time, and
+along with it, the rule of man over woman.
+
+CONTENTS:
+
+    WOMAN IN THE PAST.
+      Before Christianity.
+      Under Christianity.
+    WOMAN IN THE PRESENT.
+      Sexual Instinct, Wedlock, Checks and Obstructions to Marriage.
+      Further Checks and Obstructions to Marriage, Numerical Proportion of
+        the Sexes, Its Causes and Effects.
+      Prostitution a Necessary Institution of the Capitalist World.
+      Woman's Position as a Breadwinner. Her Intellectual Faculties,
+        Darwinism and the Condition of Society.
+      Woman's Civic and Political Status.
+      The State and Society.
+      The Socialization of Society.
+    WOMAN IN THE FUTURE.
+    INTERNATIONALITY.
+    POPULATION AND OVER-POPULATION.
+
+NEW YORK LABOR NEWS CO. 2-6 New Reade St. New York City
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Paris Commune
+
+By Karl Marx, with the elaborate introduction of Frederick Engels. It
+includes the First and Second manifestos of the International
+Workingman's Association, the Civil War in France and the
+Anti-Plebiscite Manifesto. Near his close of the Civil War in France,
+turning from history to forecast the future, Marx says:
+
+"After Whit-Sunday, 1871, there can be neither peace nor truce possible
+between the Workingmen of France and the appropriators of their produce.
+The iron hand of a mercenary soldiery may keep for a time both classes
+tied down in common oppression. But the battle must break out in ever
+growing dimensions, and there can be no doubt as to who will be the
+victor in the end--the appropriating few, or the immense working
+majority. And the French working class is only the vanguard of the
+modern proletariat."
+
+Price, 50 cents.
+
+New York Labor News Co.
+2, 4, & 6 New Reade Street,
+New York City.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GOLD SICKLE***
+
+
+******* This file should be named 31752-8.txt or 31752-8.zip *******
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+<h1 class="pg">The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Gold Sickle, by Eugène Sue, Translated by
+Daniel De Leon</h1>
+<pre>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: The Gold Sickle</p>
+<p>       or Hena, The Virgin of The Isle of Sen. A Tale of Druid Gaul</p>
+<p>Author: Eugène Sue</p>
+<p>Release Date: March 23, 2010  [eBook #31752]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GOLD SICKLE***</p>
+<h4 class="center">E-text prepared by Chuck Greif<br />
+    and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br />
+    (<a href="http://www.pgdp.net/c/">http://www.pgdp.net</a>)<br />
+    from scanned images of public domain material generously made available by<br />
+    the Google Books Library Project<br />
+    (<a href="http://books.google.com/">http://books.google.com/</a>)</h4>
+<table border="0" style="background-color: #ddddee;" cellpadding="10">
+  <tr>
+    <td valign="top">
+      Note:
+    </td>
+    <td>
+      Images of the original pages are available through
+	  the the Google Books Library Project. See
+	  <a href="http://books.google.com/books?vid=MCYnAAAAMAAJ&amp;id">
+	  http://books.google.com/books?vid=MCYnAAAAMAAJ&amp;id</a>
+	</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<div class="box">
+<div class="box2">
+<h1>THE GOLD SICKLE</h1>
+
+<p class="c"><b>" " OR " "</b></p>
+
+<h2>Hena, &nbsp; The &nbsp; Virgin &nbsp; of &nbsp; The &nbsp; Isle &nbsp; of &nbsp; Sen</h2>
+
+<table summary="name" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"
+style="border-bottom:6px double black;
+letter-spacing:8px;font-size:125%;">
+<tr><td>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
+&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
+&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
+&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<p class="c top15"><b>A &nbsp; Tale &nbsp; of &nbsp; Druid &nbsp; Gaul</b></p>
+
+<table summary="name" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"
+style="border-top:4px double black;
+border-bottom:6px double black;">
+<tr><td><b>&mdash;&mdash;By EUGENE SUE&mdash;&mdash;</b></td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<table summary="name" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"
+style="border-bottom:6px double black;
+letter-spacing:8px;font-size:125%;">
+<tr><td>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
+&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
+&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
+&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<p class="c smcap"><b>translated from the original french by</b></p>
+
+<p class="c"><b>DANIEL DE LEON</b></p>
+
+<p class="c smcap"><b>new york labor news company, 1904</b></p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p class="c top5">Copyright, 1904, by the<br />
+New York Labor News Company</p>
+
+<h3><a name="page_iii" id="page_iii"></a><a name="TRANSLATORS_PREFACE" id="TRANSLATORS_PREFACE"></a>TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE</h3>
+
+<p><i>The Gold Sickle; or, Hena the Virgin of the Isle of Sen</i>, is the
+initial story of the series that Eugene Sue wrote under the collective
+title of <i>The Mysteries of the People; or, History of a Proletarian
+Family Across the Ages</i>.</p>
+
+<p>The scheme of this great work of Sue's was stupendously ambitious&mdash;and
+the author did not fall below the ideal that he pursued. His was the
+purpose of producing a comprehensive "universal history," dating from
+the beginning of the present era down to his own days. But the history
+that he proposed to sketch was not to be a work for closet study. It was
+to be a companion in the stream of actual, every-day life and struggle,
+with an eye especially to the successive struggles of the successively
+ruled with the successively ruling classes. In the execution of his
+design, Sue conceived a plan that was as brilliant as it was
+poetic&mdash;withal profoundly philosophic. One family, the descendants of a
+Gallic chief named Joel, typifies the oppressed; one family, the
+descendants of a Frankish chief and conqueror named Neroweg, typifies
+the oppressor; and across and adown the ages, the successive struggles
+between oppressors and oppressed&mdash;the history of civilization&mdash;is thus
+represented in a majestic allegory. In the execution of this superb plan
+a thread was necessary to connect the several epochs with one another,
+to preserve the continuity requisite for historic accuracy, and, above
+all, to give unity and point to the silent lesson taught by the
+unfolding drama. Sue solved the problem by an ingenious scheme&mdash;a series
+of stories, supposedly written from age to age, sometimes at shorter,
+other times at longer intervals, by the descendants of the ancestral
+type of the oppressed, narrating their special experience and handing
+<a name="page_iv" id="page_iv"></a>the supplemented chronicle down to their successors from generation to
+generation, always accompanied with some emblematic relic, that
+constitutes the first name of each story. The series, accordingly,
+though a work presented in the garb of "fiction," is the best universal
+history extant: Better than any work, avowedly on history, it
+graphically traces the special features of class-rule as they have
+succeeded one another from epoch to epoch, together with the special
+character of the struggle between the contending classes. The "Law,"
+"Order," "Patriotism," "Religion," "Family," etc., etc., that each
+successive tyrant class, despite its change of form, fraudulently sought
+refuge in to justify its criminal existence whenever threatened; the
+varying economic causes of the oppression of the toilers; the mistakes
+incurred by these in their struggles for redress; the varying fortunes
+of the conflict;&mdash;all these social dramas are therein reproduced in a
+majestic series of "novels" covering leading and successive episodes in
+the history of the race&mdash;an inestimable gift, above all to our own
+generation, above all to the American working class, the short history
+of whose country deprives it of historic back-ground.</p>
+
+<p>It is not until the fifth story is reached&mdash;the period of the Frankish
+conquest of Gaul, 486 of the present era&mdash;that the two distinct streams
+of the typical oppressed and typical oppressor meet. But the four
+preceding ones are necessary, and preparatory for the main drama, that
+starts with the fifth story and that, although carried down to the
+revolution of 1848 which overthrew Louis Philippe in France, reaches its
+grand climax in <i>The Sword of Honor; or, The Foundation of the French
+Republic</i>, that is, the French Revolution. These stories are nineteen in
+number, and their chronological order is the following:</p>
+
+<table summary="chronological"
+cellspacing="0"
+cellpadding="1"
+style="margin-left:0%;">
+<tr><td align="right">1.</td><td>The Gold Sickle; or, Hena, the Virgin of the Isle of Sen;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">2.</td><td>The Brass Bell; or, The Chariot of Death;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">3.</td><td>The Iron Collar; or, Faustine and Syomara;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">4.</td><td>The Silver Cross; or, The Carpenter of Nazareth;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a name="page_v" id="page_v"></a>5.</td><td>The Casque's Lark; or, Victoria, The Mother of the Fields;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">6.</td><td>The Poniard's Hilt; or, Karadeucq and Ronan;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">7.</td><td>The Branding Needle; or, The Monastery of Charolles;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">8.</td><td>The Abbatial Crosier; or, Bonaik and Septimine;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">9.</td><td>Carlovingian Coins; or, The Daughters of Charlemagne;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">10.</td><td>The Iron Arrow-Head; or, The Maid of the Buckler;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">11.</td><td>The Infant's Skull; or, The End of the World;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">12.</td><td>The Pilgrim's Shell; or, Fergan the Quarryman;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">13.</td><td>The Iron Pincers; or, Mylio and Karvel;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">14.</td><td>The Iron Trevet; or, Jocelyn the Champion;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">15.</td><td>The Executioner's Knife; or, Joan of Arc;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">16.</td><td>The Pocket Bible; or, Christian the Printer;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">17.</td><td>The Blacksmith's Hammer; or, The Peasant-Code;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">18.</td><td>The Sword of Honor; or, The Foundation of the French Republic;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">19.</td><td>The Galley-Slave's Ring; or, The Family of Lebrenn.</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>Long and effectually has the influence of the usurping class in the
+English-speaking world succeeded in keeping this brilliant torch that
+Eugene Sue lighted, from casting its rays across the path of the
+English-speaking peoples. Several English translations were attempted
+before this, in England and this country, some fifty years ago. They
+were all fractional: they are all out of print now: most of them are not
+to be found even in public libraries of either England or America, not a
+wrack being left to them, little more than a faint tradition. Only two
+of the translations are not wholly obliterated. One of them was
+published by Trübner &amp; Co. jointly with David Nutt, both of London, in
+1863; the other was published by Clark, 448 Broome street, New York, in
+1867. The former was anonymous, the translator's identity being
+indicated only with the initials "K. R. H. M." It contains only eight of
+the nineteen stories of the original, and even these are avowedly
+abridgments. The latter was translated by Mary L. Booth, and it broke
+off before well under way&mdash;extinguished as if snuffed off by a gale.
+Even these <a name="page_vi" id="page_vi"></a>two luckier fragmentary translations, now surviving only as
+curios in a few libraries, attest the vehemence and concertedness of the
+effort to suppress this great gift of Sue's intellect to the human race.
+It will be thus no longer. <i>The Mysteries of the People; or, History of
+a Proletarian Family Across the Ages</i> will henceforth enlighten the
+English-speaking toiling masses as well.</p>
+
+<p class="r">DANIEL DE LEON.</p>
+
+<p>New York, May 1, 1904.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="page_vii" id="page_vii"></a>INDEX.</h3>
+
+<table summary="toc"
+cellspacing="2"
+cellpadding="5">
+<tr><td><a href="#TRANSLATORS_PREFACE">Translator's Preface</a></td><td align="right"><a href="#page_iii">iii</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_I">Chapter 1.</a> &nbsp; The Guest</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_1">1</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_II">Chapter 2.</a> &nbsp; A Gallic Homestead</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_11">11</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_III">Chapter 3.</a> &nbsp; Armel and Julyan</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_20">20</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">Chapter 4.</a> &nbsp; The Story of Albrege</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_27">27</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_V">Chapter 5.</a> &nbsp; The Story of Syomara &nbsp; &nbsp; </td><td align="right"><a href="#page_33">33</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">Chapter 6.</a> &nbsp; The Story of Gaul</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_39">39</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">Chapter 7.</a> &nbsp; "War! War! War!"</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_45">45</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">Chapter 8.</a> &nbsp; "Farewell!"</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_53">53</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">Chapter 9.</a> &nbsp; The Forest of Karnak</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_66">66</a></td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<p><a name="page_viii" id="page_viii"></a></p>
+
+<p><a name="page_1" id="page_1"></a></p>
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h3>
+
+<p class="subhead">THE GUEST.</p>
+
+<p>He who writes this account is called Joel, the brenn<a name="A" id="A"></a><sup><a href="#Gallic_word_for_chief">[A]</a></sup> of the tribe of
+Karnak; he is the son of Marik, who was the son of Kirio, the son of
+Tiras, the son of Gomer, the son of Vorr, the son of Glenan, the son of
+Erer, the son of Roderik chosen chief of the Gallic army that, now two
+hundred and seventy-seven years ago, levied tribute upon Rome.</p>
+
+<p><sup><a href="#A">[A]</a></sup>  <span  class="footnote"><a name="Gallic_word_for_chief" id="Gallic_word_for_chief"></a>Gallic word for chief</span>.</p>
+
+<p>Joel (why should I not say so?) feared the gods, he was of a right
+heart, a steady courage and a cheerful mind. He loved to laugh, to tell
+stories, and above all to hear them told, like the genuine Gaul that he
+was.</p>
+
+<p>At the time when Cæsar invaded Gaul (may his name be accursed!), Joel
+lived two leagues from Alrè, not far from the sea and the isle of
+Roswallan, near the edge of the forest of Karnak, the most celebrated
+forest of Breton Gaul.</p>
+
+<p>One evening towards nightfall&mdash;the evening before the anniversary of the
+day when Hena, his daughter, his well-beloved daughter was born unto
+him&mdash;it is now eighteen years ago&mdash;Joel and his eldest son Guilhern were
+returning home in a chariot drawn by four of those fine little Breton
+oxen whose horns are smaller than their ears. Joel and his son had been
+laying marl on their lands, as is usually done in the autumn, so that
+the lands may be in good condition for seed-time in the spring. The
+chariot was slowly climbing up the hill of Craig'h at a place where that
+mountainous road is narrowed between two rocks, and from where the sea
+is seen at a distance, and still farther away the Isle of Sen&mdash;the
+mysterious and sacred isle.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page_2" id="page_2"></a></p>
+
+<p>"Father," Guilhern said to Joel,
+"look down there below on the flank of the hill. There is a rider coming
+this way. Despite the steepness of the descent, he has put his horse to
+a gallop."</p>
+
+<p>"As sure as the good Elldud invented the plow, that man will break his
+neck."</p>
+
+<p>"Where can he be riding to in such a hurry? The sun is going down; the
+wind blows high and threatens a storm; and that road that leads to the
+desert strand&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Son, that man is not of Breton Gaul. He wears a furred cap and a shaggy
+coat, and his tanned-skin hose are fastened with red bands."</p>
+
+<p>"A short axe hangs at his right and he has a long knife in a sheath at
+his left."</p>
+
+<p>"His large black horse does not seem to stumble in the descent.... Where
+can he be going in such a hurry?"</p>
+
+<p>"Father, the man must have lost his way."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, my son, may Teutates hear you! We shall tender our hospitality to
+the rider. His dress tells he is a stranger. What beautiful stories will
+he not be able to tell us of his country and his travels!"</p>
+
+<p>"May the divine Ogmi, whose words bind men in golden chains, be
+propitious to us, father! It is long since any strange story-teller has
+sat at our hearth."</p>
+
+<p>"Besides, we have had no news of what is going on elsewhere in Gaul."</p>
+
+<p>"Unfortunately so!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, my son, if I were all-powerful as Hesus, I would have a new
+story-teller every evening at supper."</p>
+
+<p>"I would send men traveling everywhere, and have them return and tell
+their adventures."</p>
+
+<p>"And if I had the power of Hesus, what wonderful adventures would I not
+provide for my travelers so as to increase the interest in their stories
+on their return."</p>
+
+<p>"Father, the rider is coming close to us!"<a name="page_3" id="page_3"></a></p>
+
+<p>"Yes, he reins in because the road is here narrow, and we bar his
+passage with our chariot. Come, Guilhern, the moment is favorable; the
+passenger must have lost his way; let us offer him hospitality for
+to-night. We shall then keep him to-morrow, and perhaps several other
+days. We shall have done him a good turn, and he will give us the news
+from Gaul and of the other countries that he has visited."</p>
+
+<p>"Besides, it will be a great joy to my sister Hena who is to come home
+to-morrow for the feast of her birthday."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Guilhern, I never thought of the pleasure that my beloved daughter
+will have listening to the stranger! He must be our guest!"</p>
+
+<p>"That he shall be, father! Indeed, he shall!" answered Guilhern
+resolutely.</p>
+
+<p>Joel and his son alighted from the chariot, and advanced towards the
+rider. Once close to him, both were struck with the majesty of the
+stranger's looks. Nothing haughtier than his eyes, more masculine than
+his face, more worthy than his bearing. On his forehead and on one cheek
+were visible the traces of two wounds only freshly healed. To judge by
+his dauntless appearance, the rider must have been one of those chiefs
+whom the tribes elect from time to time to lead them in battle. Joel and
+his son were all the more anxious to have him accept their hospitality.</p>
+
+<p>"Friend traveler," said Joel, "night is upon us; you have lost your way;
+the road you are on leads nowhere but to the desert strands; the tide
+will soon be washing over them because the wind is blowing high. To keep
+on your route by night would be dangerous. Come to my house. You may
+resume your journey to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"I have not lost my way; I know where I am going to; and I am in a
+hurry. Turn your oxen aside; make room for me to pass," was the brusque
+answer of the rider, whose forehead was wet with perspiration from the
+hurry of his course. By his accent he seemed to be from central Gaul,
+towards the<a name="page_4" id="page_4"></a> Loire. After having thus addressed Joel, he struck his
+large black horse with both heels in the flanks and tried to draw still
+nearer to the oxen that now completely barred his passage.</p>
+
+<p>"Friend traveler, did you not hear me?" rejoined Joel. "I told you that
+this road led only to the seashore, that night was on, and that I offer
+you my house."</p>
+
+<p>The stranger, however, beginning to wax angry, replied: "I do not need
+your hospitality.... Draw your oxen aside.... Do you not see that the
+rocks leave me no passage either way?... Hurry up; I am in haste&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Friend," said Joel, "you are a stranger; I am of this country; it is my
+duty to prevent you from going astray.... I shall do my duty&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"By Ritha-Gaür, who made himself a blouse out of the beard of the kings
+he shaved!" cried the stranger, now in towering rage. "I have traveled a
+deal since my beard began to grow, have seen many countries, many
+peoples and many strange customs, but never yet have I come across two
+fools like these!"</p>
+
+<p>Learning from the mouth of the stranger himself that he had seen many
+countries, many peoples and many strange customs, Joel and his son, both
+of whom were passionately fond of hearing stories, concluded that many
+and charming must be the ones the stranger could tell, and they felt all
+the more desirous of securing such a guest. Accordingly, so far from
+turning the chariot aside, Joel advanced close to the rider, and said to
+him with the sweetest voice that he could master, his natural voice
+being rather rough:</p>
+
+<p>"Friend, you shall go no further! I wish to be respectful to the gods,
+above all to Teutates, the god of travelers, and shall therefore keep
+you from going astray by making you spend a good night under a good
+roof, instead of allowing you to wander about the strand, where you
+would run the risk of being drowned in the rising tide."</p>
+
+<p>"Take care!" replied the unknown rider carrying his hand to the axe that
+hung from his belt. "Take care!... If<a name="page_5" id="page_5"></a> you do not forthwith turn your
+oxen aside, I shall make a sacrifice to the gods, and shall join you to
+the offering!"</p>
+
+<p>"The gods cannot choose but protect such a worshipper as yourself,"
+answered Joel, who, smiling, had passed a few words in a low voice to
+his son. "The gods will prevent you from spending the night on the
+strand.... You'll see&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Father and son precipitated themselves unexpectedly upon the traveler.
+Each took him by a leg, and both being large and robust men, raised him
+erect over his saddle, giving at the same time a thump with their knees
+to his horse's belly. The animal ran ahead, and Joel and Guilhern
+respectfully lowered the rider on his feet to the ground. Now in a wild
+rage, the traveler tried to resist, but before he could draw his knife
+he was held fast by Joel and Guilhern, one of whom produced a strong
+rope with which they firmly tied the stranger's feet and hands&mdash;all of
+which was done with great mildness and affability on the part of the
+story-greedy father and son, who despite the furious wrestling of the
+stranger, deposited him on the chariot with increasing respect and
+politeness, seeing they were increasingly struck by the virile dignity
+of his face.</p>
+
+<p>Guilhern then mounted the traveler's horse and followed the chariot that
+Joel led, urging on the oxen with his goad. They were in earnest haste
+to reach the shelter of their house: the gale increased; the roar of the
+waves was heard dashing upon the rocks along the coast; streaks of
+lightning glistened through the darkening clouds; all the signs
+portended a stormy night.</p>
+
+<p>All these threatening signs notwithstanding, the unknown rider seemed
+nowise thankful for the hospitality that Joel and his son had pressed
+upon him. Extended on the bottom of the chariot he was pale with rage.
+He ground his teeth and puffed at his mouth. But keeping his anger to
+himself he said not a word. Joel (it must be admitted) passionately
+loved a story, but he also passionately loved to talk. He turned to the
+stranger:</p>
+
+<p>"My guest, for such you are now, I give thanks to Teutates,<a name="page_6" id="page_6"></a> the god of
+travelers, for having sent me a guest. You should know who I am. Yes, I
+must tell you who I am, seeing you are to sit down at my hearth;" and
+unaffected by the stranger's gesture of anger, which seemed to say he
+cared not to know who Joel was, the latter proceeded:</p>
+
+<p>"My name is Joel ... I am the son of Marik, who was the son of Kirio ...
+Kirio was the son of Tiras ... Tiras was the son of Gomer ... Gomer was
+the son of Vorr ... Vorr was the son of Glenan ... Glenan, son of Erer,
+who was the son of Roderik, chosen brenn of the confederated Gallic
+army, who two hundred and seventy-six years ago levied tribute upon Rome
+in order to punish the Romans for their treachery. I have been chosen
+brenn of my tribe, which is the tribe of Karnak. From father to son we
+have been peasants; we cultivate our fields as best we can, following
+the example left by Coll to our ancestors.... We sow more wheat and
+barley than rye and oats."</p>
+
+<p>The stranger continued nursing his rage rather than paying any attention
+to these details. Joel continued imperturbably:</p>
+
+<p>"Thirty-two years ago, I married Margarid, the daughter of Dorlern. I
+have from her three sons and a daughter. The elder boy is there behind
+us, leading your good black horse, friend guest ... his name is
+Guilhern. He and several other relatives help me in the cultivation of
+our field. I raise a good many black sheep that pasture on our meadows,
+as well as half-wild hogs, as vicious as wolves and who never sleep
+under a roof.... We have some fine meadows in this valley of Alrè.... I
+also raise horses, colts of my spirited stallion Tom-Bras.<a name="B" id="B"></a><sup><a href="#Ardent">[B]</a></sup> My son
+amuses himself raising war and hunting dogs. The hunting dogs are of the
+breed of a greyhound named Tyntammar; the ones destined for war are the
+whelps of a large mastiff named Deber-Trud.<a name="C" id="C"></a><sup><a href="#Man-eater">[C]</a></sup> Our horses <a name="page_7" id="page_7"></a>and our dogs
+are so renowned that people come more than twenty leagues from here to
+buy them. So you see, my guest, that you might have fallen into a worse
+house."</p>
+
+<p><sup><a href="#B">[B]</a></sup> <span  class="footnote"><a name="Ardent" id="Ardent"></a>Ardent</span>.</p>
+
+<p><sup><a href="#C">[C]</a></sup> <span  class="footnote"><a name="Man-eater" id="Man-eater"></a>Man-eater</span>.</p>
+
+<p>The stranger emitted a sigh of suppressed rage, bit what he could reach
+of his long blonde mustache and raised his eyes to heaven.</p>
+
+<p>Joel proceeded while pricking his oxen:</p>
+
+<p>"Mikael, my second son, is an armorer at Alrè, four leagues from
+here.... He does not fashion war implements only, but also plow-coulters
+and long Gallic scythes and axes that are highly prized, because he
+draws his iron from the mountains of Arres.... But there is more, friend
+traveler.... Mikael does other things besides. Before establishing
+himself at Alrè, he was at Bourges and worked with one of our parents
+who is a descendant of the first artisan who ever conceived the idea of
+alloying iron and copper with block-tin, a composition in which the
+artisans of Bourges excel.... Thus my son Mikael came away a worthy
+pupil of his masters. Oh, if you only saw the things he turns out! You
+would think the horse's bits, the chariot ornaments, the superb casques
+of war that Mikael manufactures to be of silver! He has just finished a
+casque the point of which represents an elk's head with its horns....
+There is nothing more magnificent!"</p>
+
+<p>"O!" murmured the stranger between his teeth, "how true is the saying:
+'The Sword of a Gaul kills but once, his tongue massacres you without
+end!'"</p>
+
+<p>"Friend guest, so far I can bestow no praise upon your tongue, which is
+as silent as a fish's. But I shall await your leisure, when it will be
+your turn to tell me who you are, whence you come, where you are going
+to, what you have seen in your travels, what wonderful people you have
+met, and the latest news from the sections of Gaul that you have
+traversed. While waiting for your narratives, I shall finish informing
+you about myself and family."<a name="page_8" id="page_8"></a></p>
+
+<p>At this threat the stranger contorted his members in an effort to snap
+his bonds; he failed; the rope was staunch, and Joel as well as his son
+made perfect knots.</p>
+
+<p>"I have not yet spoken to you of my third son Albinik the sailor,"
+continued Joel. "He traffics with the island of Great Britanny, as well
+as all the ports of Gaul, and he goes as far as Spain carrying Gascony
+wines and salted provisions from Aquitaine.... Unfortunately he has been
+at sea a long time with his lovely wife Meroë; so you will not see them
+this evening at my house. I told you that besides three sons I had a
+daughter ... as to her! Oh, as to her!... See here," added Joel with an
+air that was at once boastful and tender, "she is the pearl of the
+family.... It is not I only who say so, my wife also, my sons, my whole
+tribe says the same thing. There is but one voice to sing the praises of
+Hena, the daughter of Joel ... of Hena, one of the virgins of the Isle
+of Sen."</p>
+
+<p>"What!" cried the traveler sitting up with a start, the only motion
+allowed to him by his bonds, that held his feet tied and his arms
+pinioned behind him. "What? Your daughter? Is she one of the virgins of
+the Isle of Sen?"</p>
+
+<p>"That seems to astonish and somewhat mollify you, friend guest!"</p>
+
+<p>"Your daughter?" the stranger proceeded, as if unable to believe what he
+heard. "Your daughter?... Is she one of the nine druid priestesses of
+the Isle of Sen?"</p>
+
+<p>"As true as that to-morrow it will be eighteen years since she was born!
+We have been preparing to celebrate her birthday, and you may attend the
+feast. The guest seated at our hearth is of our family.... You will see
+my daughter. She is the most beautiful, the sweetest, the wisest of her
+companions, without thereby detracting from any of them."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, then," brusquely replied the unknown, "I shall pardon you
+the violence you committed upon me."</p>
+
+<p>"Hospitable violence, friend."<a name="page_9" id="page_9"></a></p>
+
+<p>"Hospitable, or not, you prevented me by force from proceeding to the
+wharf of Erer, where a boat awaited me until sunset, to take me to the
+Isle of Sen."</p>
+
+<p>At these words Joel broke out laughing.</p>
+
+<p>"What are you laughing about?" asked the stranger.</p>
+
+<p>"If you were to tell me that a boat with the head of a dog, the wings of
+a bird and the tail of a fish was waiting for you to take you to the
+sun, I would laugh as loud, and for the same reason. You are my guest; I
+shall not insult you by telling you that you lie. But I will tell you,
+friend, you are joking when you talk of a boat that is to take you to
+the Isle of Sen. No man, excepting the very oldest druids, have ever or
+ever will set foot on the Isle of Sen."</p>
+
+<p>"And when you go there to see your daughter?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not step on the isle. I stop at the little island of Kellor. There
+I wait for my daughter, and she goes there to meet me."</p>
+
+<p>"Friend Joel," said the traveler, "you have so willed it that I be your
+guest; I am that, and, as such, I ask a service of you. Take me
+to-morrow in your boat to the little island of Kellor."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know that the ewaghs watch day and night?"</p>
+
+<p>"I know it. It was one of them who was to come for me this evening at
+the wharf of Erer to conduct me to Talyessin the oldest of the druids,
+who, at this hour, is at the Isle of Sen with his wife Auria."</p>
+
+<p>"That is true!" exclaimed Joel much surprised. "The last time my
+daughter came home she said that Talyessin was on the isle since the new
+year, and that the wife of Talyessin tendered her a mother's care."</p>
+
+<p>"You see, you may believe me, friend Joel. Take me to-morrow to the
+island of Kellor; I shall see one of the ewaghs."</p>
+
+<p>"I consent. I shall take you to the island of Kellor."</p>
+
+<p>"And now you may loosen my bonds. I swear by Hesus that I shall not seek
+to elude your hospitality."<a name="page_10" id="page_10"></a></p>
+
+<p>"Very well," responded Joel, loosening the stranger's bonds; "I trust my
+guest's promise."</p>
+
+<p>While this conversation proceeded it had grown pitch dark. But the
+darkness notwithstanding and the difficulties of the road, the chariot,
+conducted by the sure hand of Joel, rolled up before his house. His son,
+Guilhern, who, mounted on the stranger's horse, had followed the van,
+took an ox-horn that was opened at both ends, and using it for a trumpet
+blew three times. The signal was speedily answered by a great barking of
+dogs.</p>
+
+<p>"Here we are at home!" said Joel to the stranger. "Be not alarmed at the
+barking of the dogs. Listen! That loud voice that dominates all the
+others is Deber-Trud's, from whom descends the valiant breed of war dogs
+that you will see to-morrow. My son Guilhern will take your horse to the
+stable. The animal will find a good shelter and plenty of provender."</p>
+
+<p>At the sound of Guilhern's trump, one of the family came out of the
+house holding a resin torch. Guided by the light, Joel led his oxen and
+the chariot entered the yard.<a name="page_11" id="page_11"></a></p>
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h3>
+
+<p class="subhead">A GALLIC HOMESTEAD.</p>
+
+<p>Like all other rural homes, Joel's was spacious and round of shape. The
+walls consisted of two rows of hurdles, the space between which was
+filled with a mixture of beaten clay and straw; the inside and outside
+of the thick wall was plastered over with a layer of fine and fattish
+earth, which, when dry, was hard as sandstone. The roofing was large and
+projecting. It consisted of oaken joists joined together and covered
+with a layer of seaweed laid so thick that it was proof against water.</p>
+
+<p>On either side of the house stood the barns destined for the storage of
+the harvest, and also for the stables, the sheepfolds, the kennels, the
+storerooms and the washrooms.</p>
+
+<p>These several structures formed an oblong square that surrounded a large
+yard, closed up at night with a massive gate. On the outside, a strong
+palisade, raised on the brow of a deep ditch, enclosed the system of
+buildings, leaving between it and them an alley about four feet wide.
+Two large and ferocious war mastiffs were let loose during the night in
+the vacant space. The palisade had an exterior door that corresponded
+with an interior one. All were locked at night.</p>
+
+<p>The number of men, women and children&mdash;all more or less near relatives
+of Joel&mdash;who cultivated fields in common with him, was considerable.
+These lodged in the houses attached to the principal building, where
+they met at noon and in the evening to take their joint meals.</p>
+
+<p>Other homesteads, similarly constructed and occupied by numerous
+families who cultivated lands in common, lay scattered<a name="page_12" id="page_12"></a> here and there
+over the landscape and composed the <i>ligniez</i>, or tribe of Karnak, of
+which Joel was chosen chief.</p>
+
+<p>Upon his entrance in the yard of his homestead, Joel was received with
+the caresses of his old war dog Deber-Trud, an animal of an iron grey
+color streaked with black, an enormous head, blood-shot eyes, and of
+such a high stature that in standing up to caress his master he placed
+his front paws upon Joel's shoulders. He was a dog of such boldness that
+he once fought a monstrous bear of the mountains of Arres, and killed
+him. As to his war qualities, Deber-Trud would have been worthy of
+figuring with the war pack of Bithert, the Gallic chieftain who at sight
+of a small hostile troop said disdainfully: "They are not enough for a
+meal for my dogs."</p>
+
+<p>As Deber-Trud looked over and smelled the traveler with a doubtful air,
+Joel said to the animal: "Do you not see he is a guest whom I bring
+home?"</p>
+
+<p>As if he understood the words, Deber-Trud ceased showing any uneasiness
+about the stranger, and gamboled clumsily ahead of his master into the
+house. The house was partitioned into three sections of unequal size.
+The two smaller ones, separated from each other and from the main hall
+by oaken panels, were destined, one for Joel and his wife, the other for
+Hena, their daughter, when she came to visit the family. The vast hall
+between the two served as a dining-room, and in it were performed the
+noon and evening in-door labors.</p>
+
+<p>When the stranger entered the hall, a large fire of beech wood,
+enlivened with dry brush wood and seaweed burned in the hearth, and with
+its brilliancy rendered superfluous the light of a handsome lamp of
+burnished copper that hung from three chains of the same metal. The lamp
+was a present from Mikael the armorer.</p>
+
+<p>Two whole sheep, impaled in long iron spits broiled before the hearth,
+while salmon and other sea fish boiled in a large pewter pot filled with
+water, seasoned with vinegar, salt and caraway.<a name="page_13" id="page_13"></a></p>
+
+<p>The panels were ornamented with heads of wolves, boars, cerfs and of two
+wild bulls called <i>urok</i>, an animal that began to be rare in the region;
+beside them hung hunting weapons, such as bows, arrows and slings, and
+weapons of war, such as the <i>sparr</i> and the <i>matag</i>, axes, sabres of
+copper, bucklers of wood covered with the tough skin of seals, and long
+lances with iron heads, sharpened and barbed and provided with little
+brass bells, intended to notify the enemy from afar that the Gallic
+warrior approached, seeing that the latter disdains ambuscades, and
+loves to fight in the open. There were also fishing nets and harpoons to
+harpoon the salmon in the shallows when the tide goes out.</p>
+
+<p>To the right of the main door stood a kind of altar, consisting of a
+block of granite, surmounted and covered by large oak branches freshly
+cut. A little copper bowl lay on the stone in which seven twigs of
+mistletoe stood. From above, on the wall, the following inscription
+looked down:</p>
+
+<p class="c">Abundance and Heaven<br />
+Are for the Just and the Pure.<br />
+He is Pure and Holy<br />
+Who Performs Celestial Works and Pure.</p>
+
+<p>When Joel stepped into the house, he approached the copper basin in
+which stood the seven branches of mistletoe and reverently put his lips
+to each. His guest followed his example, and then both walked towards
+the hearth.</p>
+
+<p>At the hearth was Mamm' Margarid, Joel's wife, with a distaff. She was
+tall of stature, and wore a short, sleeveless tunic of brown wool over a
+long robe of grey with narrow sleeves, both tunic and robe being
+fastened around her waist with her apron string. A white cap, cut
+square, left exposed her grey hair, that parted over her forehead. Like
+many other women of her kin, she wore a coral necklace round her neck,
+bracelets inwrought with garnets and other trinkets of gold and silver
+fashioned at Autun.<a name="page_14" id="page_14"></a></p>
+
+<p>Around Mamm' Margarid played the children of Guilhern and several other
+of her kin, while their young mothers busied themselves preparing
+supper.</p>
+
+<p>"Margarid," said Joel to his wife, "I bring a guest to you."</p>
+
+<p>"He is welcome," answered the woman without stopping to spin. "The gods
+send us a guest, our hearth is his own. The eve of my daughter's birth
+is propitious."</p>
+
+<p>"May your children when they travel, be received as I am by you,"
+answered the stranger respectfully.</p>
+
+<p>"But you do not yet know what kind of a guest the gods have sent us,
+Margarid," rejoined Joel; "such a guest as one would request of Ogmi for
+the long autumn and winter nights; a guest who in the course of his
+travels has seen so many curious things and wonderful that a hundred
+evenings would not be too many to listen to his marvelous stories."</p>
+
+<p>Hardly had Joel pronounced these words when, from Mamm' Margarid and the
+young mothers down to the little boys and girls, all looked at the
+stranger with the greed of curiosity, expectant of the marvelous stories
+he was to tell.</p>
+
+<p>"Are we to have supper soon, Margarid?" asked Joel. "Our guest is
+probably as hungry as myself; I am hungry as a wolf."</p>
+
+<p>"The folk have just gone out to fill the racks of the cattle," answered
+Margarid; "they will be back shortly. If our guest is willing we shall
+be pleased of his company at supper."</p>
+
+<p>"I thank the wife of Joel, and shall wait," said the unknown.</p>
+
+<p>"And while waiting," remarked Joel, "you can tell us a story&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>But the traveler interrupted his host and said smiling:</p>
+
+<p>"Friend, as one cup serves for all, so does the same story serve for
+all.... The cup will shortly circulate from lip to lip, and the story
+from ear to ear.... But now tell me, what is that brass belt for that I
+see hanging yonder?"</p>
+
+<p>"Have you not also in your country the belt of agility?"</p>
+
+<p>"Explain yourself, Joel."<a name="page_15" id="page_15"></a></p>
+
+<p>"Here, with us, at every new moon, the lads of each tribe come to the
+chief and try on the belt, in order to prove that their girth has not
+broadened with self-indulgence, and that they have preserved themselves
+agile and nimble. Those who cannot hitch the belt around themselves, are
+hissed, are pointed at with derision, and must pay a fine. Accordingly,
+all see to their stomachs lest they come to look like a leathern bottle
+on two skittles."</p>
+
+<p>"A good custom. I regret it fell into disuse in my province. And what is
+the purpose of that big old trunk? It is of precious wood and seems to
+have seen many years."</p>
+
+<p>"Very many. That is the family trunk of triumph," answered Joel opening
+the trunk, in which the stranger saw many whitened skulls. One of them,
+sawn in two, was mounted on a brass foot like a cup.</p>
+
+<p>"These are, no doubt, the heads of enemies who have been killed by your
+fathers, friend Joel? With us this sort of family charnel houses has
+long been abandoned."</p>
+
+<p>"With us also. I preserve these heads only out of respect for my
+ancestors. Since more than two hundred years, the prisoners of war are
+no longer mutilated. The habit existed in the days of the kings whom
+Ritha-Gaür shaved of their hair, as you mentioned before, to make
+himself a blouse out of their beards. Those were gay days of barbarism,
+were those days of royalty. I heard my grandfather Kirio say that even
+as late as in the days of his father, Tiras, the men who went to war
+returned to their tribes carrying the heads of their enemies stuck to
+the points of their lances, or trailed by the hair from the
+breast-plates of their horses. They were then nailed to the doors of the
+houses for trophies, just as you see yonder on the wall the heads of
+wild animals."</p>
+
+<p>"With us, in olden days, friend Joel, these trophies were also
+preserved, but preserved in cedar oil when they were the heads of a
+hostile chieftain."<a name="page_16" id="page_16"></a></p>
+
+<p>"By Hesus! Cedar oil!... What magnificence!" exclaimed Joel smiling.
+"That is the way our wives reason: 'for good fish, good sauce.'"</p>
+
+<p>"These relics were with us, as with you, the book from which the young
+Gaul learned of the exploits of his fathers. Often did the families of
+the vanquished offer to ransom these spoils; but to relinquish for money
+a head conquered by oneself or an ancestor was looked upon as an
+unpardonable crime of avarice and impiousness. I say with you, those
+barbarous customs passed away with royalty, and with them the days when
+our ancestors painted their bodies blue and scarlet, and dyed their hair
+and beard with lime water to impart to them a copper-red hue."</p>
+
+<p>"Without wronging their memory, friend guest, our ancestors must have
+been unpleasant beings to look upon, and must have resembled the
+frightful red and blue dragons that ornament the prows of the vessels of
+those savage pirates of the North that my son Albinik the sailor and his
+lovely wife Meroë have told us some curious tales about. But here are
+our men back from the stables; we shall not have to wait much longer for
+supper. I see Margarid unspitting the lambs. You shall taste them,
+friend, and see what a fine taste the salt meadows on which they browse
+impart to their flesh."</p>
+
+<p>All the men of the family of Joel who entered the hall wore, like him, a
+sleeveless blouse of coarse wool, through which the sleeves of their
+jackets or white shirts were passed. Their breeches reached down to
+their ankles; and they were shod with low slippers. Several of these
+laborers, just in from the fields, wore over their shoulders a cloak of
+sheep-skin, which they immediately took off. All wore woolen caps, long
+hair cut round, and bushy beards. The last two to enter held each other
+by the arm; they were especially handsome and robust.</p>
+
+<p>"Friend Joel," inquired the stranger, "who are those two<a name="page_17" id="page_17"></a> young fellows?
+The statues of the heathen god Mars are not better shaped, nor have so
+valiant an aspect."</p>
+
+<p>"They are two relatives of mine; two cousins, Julyan and Armel. They
+love each other like brothers.... Quite recently an enraged bull rushed
+at Armel and Julyan saved Armel at the peril of his own life. Thanks to
+Hesus we are not now in times of war. But should it be necessary to take
+up arms, Julyan and Armel have taken 'the pledge of brotherhood'.... But
+supper is ready.... Come, yours is the seat of honor."</p>
+
+<p>Joel and the unknown guest drew near the table. It was round and raised
+somewhat above the floor which was covered with fresh straw. All around
+the table were seats bolstered with fragrant grass. The two broiled
+muttons, now quartered, were served up in large platters of beechwood,
+white as ivory. There were also large pieces of salted pork and a smoked
+ham of wild boar. The fish remained in the large pot that they had been
+boiled in.</p>
+
+<p>At the place where Joel, the head of the family, took his seat, stood a
+huge cup of plated copper that even two men could not have drained. It
+was before that cup, which marked the place of honor, that the stranger
+was placed with Joel at his left and Mamm' Margarid at his right.</p>
+
+<p>The old men, the young girls and the children then ranked themselves
+around the table. The grown up and the young men sat down behind these
+in a second row, from which they rose from time to time to perform some
+service, or, every time that, passing from hand to hand, beginning with
+the stranger, the large cup was empty, to fill it from a barrel of
+hydromel, that was placed at a corner of the hall. Furnished with a
+piece of barley or wheat bread, everyone received or took a slice of
+broiled or salted meat, which he cut up with his knife, or into which he
+bit freely without the help of knife.</p>
+
+<p>The old war-dog Deber-Trud, enjoying the privileges of his<a name="page_18" id="page_18"></a> age and long
+years of service, lay at the feet of Joel, who did not forget his
+faithful servitor.</p>
+
+<p>Towards the end of the meal, Joel having carved the wild boar ham,
+detached the hoof, and following an ancient custom, said to his young
+relative Armel, handing it to him:</p>
+
+<p>"To you, Armel, belongs the bravest part! To you, the vanquisher in last
+evening's fight!"</p>
+
+<p>At the moment when, proud of being pronounced the bravest in the
+presence of the stranger, Armel was stretching out his hand to take the
+wild boar's hoof that Joel presented to him, an exceptionally short man
+in the family, nicknamed "Stumpy" by reason of his small stature,
+observed aloud:</p>
+
+<p>"Armel won in yesterday's fight because he was not fighting with Julyan.
+Two bullocks of equal strength avoid and fear each other, and do not
+lock horns."</p>
+
+<p>Feeling humiliated at hearing it said of them, and before a stranger,
+that they did not fight together because they were mutually afraid of
+each other, Julyan and Armel grew red in the face.</p>
+
+<p>With sparkling eyes, Julyan cried: "If I did not fight with Armel it was
+because someone else took my place; but Julyan fears Armel as little as
+Armel fears Julyan; and if you were but one inch taller, Stumpy, I would
+show you on the spot that, beginning with you, I fear nobody&mdash;not even
+my good brother Armel&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Good brother Julyan!" added Armel whose eyes also began to glisten, "we
+shall have to prove to the stranger that we do not fear each other."</p>
+
+<p>"Done, Armel&mdash;let's fight with sabres and bucklers."</p>
+
+<p>The two friends reached out their hands to each other and pressed them
+warmly. They entertained no rancor for each other; they loved each other
+as warmly as ever; the combat decided upon by them was a not uncommon
+outbreak of foolhardiness.<a name="page_19" id="page_19"></a></p>
+
+<p>Joel was not sorry at seeing his kin act bravely before his guest; and
+his family shared his views.</p>
+
+<p>At the announcement of the battle, everybody present, even the little
+children and young women and girls felt joyful; they clapped their hands
+smiling and looked at each other proud of the good opinion that the
+unknown visitor was to form of the courage of their family.</p>
+
+<p>Mamm' Margarid thereupon addressed the young men: "The fight ends the
+moment I lower my distaff."</p>
+
+<p>"These children are feasting you at their best, friend guest," said Joel
+to the stranger; "you will, in turn, have to feast them by telling them
+and all of us some of the marvelous things that you have seen in your
+travels."</p>
+
+<p>"I could not do else than pay in my best coin for your hospitality,
+friend," answered the stranger. "I shall tell you the stories."</p>
+
+<p>"Let's hurry, brother Julyan," said Armel; "I have a strong desire to
+hear the traveler. I can never get tired of listening to stories, but
+the story-tellers are rare around Karnak."</p>
+
+<p>"You see, friend," said Joel, "with what impatience your stories are
+awaited. But before starting, and so as to give you strength, you shall
+presently drink to the victor with good wine of Gaul," and turning to
+his son: "Guilhern, fetch in the little keg of white wine from Beziers
+that your brother Albinik brought us on his last trip; fill up the cup
+in honor of the traveler."</p>
+
+<p>When that was done, Joel said to Julyan and Armel:</p>
+
+<p>"Now, boys, fall to with your sabres!"<a name="page_20" id="page_20"></a></p>
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h3>
+
+<p class="subhead">ARMEL AND JULYAN.</p>
+
+<p>The numerous family of Joel, gathered in a semi-circle at one end of the
+spacious hall, impatiently awaited the combat, with Mamm' Margarid
+holding the place of honor. The stranger stood at her right, her husband
+at her left, and two of the smallest children before her on their knees.
+Margarid raised her distaff and gave the signal for the combat to begin;
+the lowering of the distaff was to be the signal for the combat to end.</p>
+
+<p>Julyan and Armel stripped down to the waist, preserving their breeches
+only. Again they clasped hands. Each thereupon slung on his left arm a
+buckler of wood covered with seal-skin, armed himself with a heavy sabre
+of copper, and impetuously assailed each other, being all the more
+spurred by the presence of the stranger, before whom they were eager to
+display their skill and valor. Joel's guest looked more highly delighted
+than anyone else at the spectacle before him, and his face lighted with
+warlike animation.</p>
+
+<p>Julyan and Armel were at it. Their eyes sparkled, not with hatred but
+with foolhardiness. They exchanged no words of anger but of friendly
+cheer, all the while dealing out terrible blows that would have been
+deadly had they not been skillfully parried. At every thrust,
+brilliantly made, or dexterously avoided, the men, women and children in
+the audience clapped their hands, and according as the combat ran,
+cried:</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Her</i> ... <i>her</i> ... Julyan!"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Her</i> ... <i>her</i> ... Armel!"</p>
+
+<p>Such was the effect of these cries, of the sight of the combat, of the
+clash of arms, that the huge mastiff Deber-Trud, the<a name="page_21" id="page_21"></a> man-eater, felt
+the ardor of battle seize also himself, and barked wildly looking up at
+his master, who calmed and caressed him with his hand.</p>
+
+<p>Perspiration covered the young bodies of the handsome and robust Julyan
+and Armel. Each other's peers in courage, vigor and agility, neither had
+yet wounded the other.</p>
+
+<p>"Let's hurry, brother Julyan!" said Armel rushing on his companion with
+fresh impetus. "Let us hurry to hear the pretty stories of the
+stranger."</p>
+
+<p>"The plow can go no faster than the plowman, brother Armel," answered
+Julyan.</p>
+
+<p>With these words, Julyan seized his sabre with both hands, stretched
+himself at full length, and dealt so furious a stroke to his adversary
+that, although the latter threw himself back and thereby softened the
+blow, his buckler flew into splinters and the weapon struck Armel in the
+temple. The wounded man staggered for an instant and then fell flat upon
+his back, amid the admiring cries of "<i>Her</i> ... <i>her</i> ... Julyan!" from
+the enraptured by-standers among whom Stumpy was the loudest with the
+cry of "<i>Her</i> ... <i>her</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>After lowering her distaff as a sign that the combat was over Mamm'
+Margarid stepped toward the wounded combatant to give him her attention,
+while Joel said to his guest, reaching him the cup:</p>
+
+<p>"Friend guest, you shall drink this old wine to the triumph of Julyan."</p>
+
+<p>"I drink to the triumph of Julyan and also to the valiant defeat of
+Armel!" responded the stranger. "The courage of the vanquished youth
+equals that of the vanquisher.... I have seen many a combat, but never
+have I seen greater bravery and courage displayed! Glory to the family
+of Joel!... Glory to your tribe!"</p>
+
+<p>"Formerly," said Joel, "these festive combats took place among us almost
+every day. Now they are rarer; they have been replaced<a name="page_22" id="page_22"></a> by wrestling
+matches; but sabre combats better recall the habits of the old Gauls."</p>
+
+<p>Mamm' Margarid shook her head after a second inspection of the wound,
+while Julyan steadying himself against the wall sought to hold up his
+friend. One of the young women hurried with a casket of lint and salves,
+in which was also a little vial of mistletoe water. Armel's wound bled
+copiously; it was staunched with difficulty; the wounded youth's face
+was pale and his eyes closed.</p>
+
+<p>"Brother Armel," said Julyan to him in a cheerful voice, on his knees
+beside the prostrate Armel, "do not break down for so little.... Each
+has his day and his hour.... To-day you were wounded, to-morrow will be
+my turn.... We fought bravely.... The stranger will not forget the young
+men of Karnak and of the family of Joel, the brenn of the tribe."</p>
+
+<p>His face down, his forehead bathed in cold perspiration, Armel seemed
+not to hear the voice of his friend. Mamm' Margarid again shook her
+head, ordered some burnt coal, that was brought her on a little flat
+stone and threw on it some of the pulverized mistletoe bark. A strong
+vapor rose from the little brasier, and Mamm' Margarid made Armel inhale
+it. A little after he opened his eyes, looked around as if he awoke from
+a dream, and said feebly:</p>
+
+<p>"The angel of death calls me.... I shall now live no longer here but
+yonder.... My father and mother will be surprised and pleased to see me
+so soon.... I also shall be happy to meet them."</p>
+
+<p>A second later he added regretfully:</p>
+
+<p>"How I would have liked to hear the pretty stories of the traveler!"</p>
+
+<p>"What, brother Armel!" said Julyan, visibly astonished and grieved. "Are
+you to depart so soon from us? We were enjoying life so well
+together.... We swore brotherhood and never to leave each other!"<a name="page_23" id="page_23"></a></p>
+
+<p>"We did so swear, Julyan," Armel answered feebly, "but it is otherwise
+decreed."</p>
+
+<p>Julyan dropped his head upon his two hands and made no answer.</p>
+
+<p>Mamm' Margarid, skillful in the art of tending wounds, an art that she
+learned from a druid priestess her relative, placed her hand on Armel's
+heart. A few seconds later she said to those near her and who, together
+with Joel and his guest, stood around:</p>
+
+<p>"Teutates calls Armel away to take him to those who have preceded us. He
+will soon depart. If any of us has any message for the loved ones who
+have preceded us yonder, and wishes Armel to carry it&mdash;let him make
+haste."</p>
+
+<p>Mamm' Margarid thereupon kissed the forehead of the dying young man and
+said to him: "Give to all the members of our family the kiss of
+remembrance and hope."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall give them, Mamm' Margarid, the kiss of remembrance and hope in
+your name," answered Armel in a fainting voice, and added again in a
+pet, "and yet I would so much have liked to hear the pretty stories of
+the traveler!"</p>
+
+<p>These words seemed deeply to affect Julyan, who still holding his
+friend's head looked down upon him with sadness.</p>
+
+<p>Little Sylvest, the son of Guilhern, a child of rosy cheeks and golden
+hair, who held with one hand the hand of his mother Henory, advanced a
+little and addressing the dying relative said:</p>
+
+<p>"I loved little Alanik very much; he went away last year.... Tell him
+that little Sylvest always remembers him, and embrace him for me,
+Armel."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall embrace little Alanik for you, little Sylvest," and Armel added
+again, "and yet I would have liked to hear the pretty stories of the
+traveler!"</p>
+
+<p>Another man of Joel's family said to his expiring kinsman:</p>
+
+<p>"I was a friend of Houarne of the tribe of Morlech, our neighbor. He was
+killed defenceless, while asleep, a short time<a name="page_24" id="page_24"></a> ago. Tell him, Armel,
+that Daoulas, his murderer, was discovered, was tried and condemned by
+the druids of Karnak and his sacrifice will soon take place. Houarne
+will be pleased to learn of Daoulas' punishment."</p>
+
+<p>Armel signified that he would convey the message to Houarne.</p>
+
+<p>Stumpy, who, not through wickedness but intemperate language, was the
+cause of Armel's death, also drew near with a message to the one about
+to depart, and said:</p>
+
+<p>"You know that at the eighth face of this month's moon old Mark, who
+lives near Glen'han was taken ill; the angel of death told him also to
+prepare for a speedy departure. Old Mark was not ready. He wished to
+assist at the wedding of his daughter's daughter. Not being ready to go,
+old Mark bethought him of some one who might be ready to go in his place
+and that would satisfy the angel of death. He asked the druid, his
+physician, if he knew of some 'substitute.' The druid answered him that
+Gigel of Nouaren, a member of our tribe, would be available, that he
+might consent to depart in the place of old Mark, and that he might be
+induced to do so both out of kindness to Mark and to render himself
+agreeable to the gods, who are always pleased at the sight of such
+sacrifices. Gigel consented freely. Old Mark made him a present of ten
+pieces of silver with the stamp of a horse's head, which Gigel
+distributed among his friends before departing. He then cheerfully
+emptied his last cup and bared his breast to the sacred knife amid the
+chants of the bards. The angel of death accepted the substitute. Old
+Mark attended the wedding of his daughter's daughter, and to-day he is
+in good health&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean to say that you are willing to depart in my stead, Stumpy?"
+asked the dying warrior. "I fear it is now too late&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no; I am not ready to depart in your stead," Stumpy hastened to
+answer. "I only wish to request you to return to Gigel three pieces of
+silver that I owed him; I could not repay him sooner. I feared Gigel
+might come and demand his money by moonlight in the shape of some
+demon." Saying which<a name="page_25" id="page_25"></a> Stumpy rummaged in his lamb-skin bag, took out
+three pieces with the stamp of a horse's head, and placed them in the
+pocket of Armel's breeches.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall hand your three pieces of silver to Gigel," said Armel in a
+voice now hardly audible; and for a last time he murmured at Julyan's
+ear: "And yet ... I would ... have liked ... to hear ... the pretty
+stories ... of ... the traveler."</p>
+
+<p>"Be at ease, brother Armel," Julyan answered him; "I shall attentively
+listen to the pretty stories so that I may remember them well; and
+to-morrow ... I shall depart and tell them to you.... I would weary here
+without you.... We swore brotherhood to each other, and never to be
+separated; I shall follow you and continue to live yonder in your
+company."</p>
+
+<p>"Truly ... you will come?" said the dying youth, whom the promise seemed
+to render happy; "will you come ... to-morrow?"</p>
+
+<p>"To-morrow, by Hesus.... I swear to you, Armel, I shall come."</p>
+
+<p>The eyes of the whole family turned to Julyan at hearing the promise,
+and looked lovingly upon him. The wounded youth seemed the most pleased
+of all, and with his last breath said:</p>
+
+<p>"So long, then, brother Julyan ... listen attentively ... to the
+stories.... And now ... farewell ... farewell ... to all of you of our
+tribe," and Armel sought to suit the motion of his hands to his words.</p>
+
+<p>As loving relatives and friends crowd around one of their own when he is
+about to depart on a long journey, during which he will meet people of
+whom they all preserve a cherished remembrance, each now pressed the
+hand of Armel and gave him some tender commission for those of their
+tribe whom he was about to meet again.</p>
+
+<p>After Armel was dead, Joel closed the youth's eyes and had him taken to
+the altar of grey stones, above which stood the copper bowl with the
+seven twigs of mistletoe.<a name="page_26" id="page_26"></a></p>
+
+<p>The body was then covered with oak branches taken from the altar, so
+that, instead of the corpse, only a heap of verdure met the eye, with
+Julyan seated close to it.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, the head of the family filled the large cup up to the brim,
+moistened his lips in it and said to the stranger: "May Armel's journey
+be a happy one; he has ever been good and just; may he traverse under
+the guidance of Teutates the marvelous regions and countries that lie
+beyond the grave which none of us has yet traveled over, and which all
+of us will yet see. May Armel meet again those whom we have loved, and
+let him assure them that we love them still!"</p>
+
+<p>The cup went around; the women and young girls expressed their good
+wishes to Armel on his journey; the remains of the supper were removed;
+and all gathered at the hearth, impatient to hear the promised stories
+told by the stranger.<a name="page_27" id="page_27"></a></p>
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h3>
+
+<p class="subhead">THE STORY OF ALBREGE.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it a story that you want of me?" asked the unknown guest turning to
+Joel, and seeing the eyes of all fixed upon himself.</p>
+
+<p>"One story?" cried Joel. "Tell us twenty, a hundred! You must have seen
+so much! so many countries! so many peoples! One story only? Ah, by the
+good Ormi, you shall not be let off with only one story, friend guest!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no!" cried the family in chorus and with set determination. "Oh,
+no! We must have more than one!"</p>
+
+<p>"And yet," observed the stranger with a pensive and severe mien, "there
+is more serious work in hand than to tell and listen to frivolous
+stories."</p>
+
+<p>"I understand not what you mean," said Joel no less taken back than his
+family; all turned their eyes upon the stranger in silent amazement.</p>
+
+<p>"No, you do not understand me," replied the stranger sadly.
+"Nevertheless, I shall keep my promise&mdash;the thing promised is a thing
+done;" and pointing to Julyan who had remained at the other end of the
+hall near the oak-covered body of Armel he added: "We must see to it
+that that young man has something to tell his brother when he joins him
+beyond."</p>
+
+<p>"Proceed, guest, proceed with your story," answered Julyan, without
+raising his head from his hands; "proceed with your story; I shall not
+lose a word.... Armel shall hear it just as you tell it."</p>
+
+<p>"Two years ago," said the stranger, beginning his story, "while
+traveling among the Gauls who inhabit the borders of the Rhine, I
+happened one day to be at Strasburg. I had gone out of the<a name="page_28" id="page_28"></a> town for a
+walk along the river bank. Presently I saw a large crowd of people
+moving in the direction of where I stood. They were following a man and
+woman, both young and both handsome, who carried on a buckler, that they
+held by the edges, a little baby not more than three or four months old.
+The man looked restless and somber; the woman pale and calm. Both
+stopped at the river's bank, at a spot where the stream runs especially
+rapid. The crowd also stopped. I drew near and inquired who the man and
+woman were. 'The man's name is Vindorix, the woman's Albrege; they are
+man and wife,' was the answer I received. I then saw Vindorix, whose
+countenance waxed more and more somber, approach his wife and say to
+her:</p>
+
+<p>"'This is the time.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Do you wish it?' asked Albrege. 'Do you wish it?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Yes,' answered the husband; 'I doubt&mdash;I want to be certain.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Then, be it so,' said she.</p>
+
+<p>"Thereupon, himself taking the buckler where the little child lay,
+smiling and stretching out its chubby arms to him, Vindorix walked into
+the river up to his waist, raised the buckler and child for a moment
+over his head, and looked back a last time towards his wife, as if to
+threaten her with what he was about to do. With her forehead high and a
+steady countenance, Albrege remained erect at the river bank, motionless
+like a statue, her arms crossed upon her bosom. When her husband now
+turned to her she stretched out her right hand towards him as if to say:</p>
+
+<p>"'Do it!'</p>
+
+<p>"At that moment a shudder ran over the crowd. Vindorix deposited upon
+the stream the buckler on which lay the child, and in that frail craft
+left the infant to the mercy of the eddies."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, the wicked man!" cried Mamm' Margarid deeply moved by the story as
+<a name="page_29" id="page_29"></a>were the other hearers. "And his wife!... his wife ... who remained on
+the bank?&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"But what was the reason of such a barbarity, friend guest?" asked
+Henory, the young wife of Guilhern embracing her two children, little
+Sylvest and little Syomara, both of whom she took on her knees as if
+fearing to see them exposed to a similar danger.</p>
+
+<p>With a gesture the stranger put an end to the interrogatories, and
+proceeded:</p>
+
+<p>"The stream had barely carried away the buckler on which the child lay,
+than the father raised both his trembling hands to heaven as if to
+invoke the gods. He followed the course of the buckler with sullen
+anxiety, leaning, despite himself, to the right when the buckler dipped
+to the right, and to the left when the buckler dipped on that side. The
+mother, on the contrary, her arms crossed over her bosom, followed the
+buckler with firm eyes, and as tranquil as if she had nothing to fear
+for her child."</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing to fear!" cried Guilhern. "To see her child thus exposed to
+almost certain death ... it is bound to go under...."</p>
+
+<p>"That must have been an unnatural mother," cried Henory.</p>
+
+<p>"And not one man in all that crowd to jump into the water and save the
+child!" observed Julyan thinking of his friend. "Oh, that will surely
+anger the heart of Armel, when I tell him that."</p>
+
+<p>"But do not interrupt every instant!" cried Joel. "Proceed, my guest;
+may Teutates, who presides over all journeys made in this world and in
+the others, guard the poor little thing!"</p>
+
+<p>"Twice," the stranger proceeded, "the buckler threatened to be swallowed
+up by the eddies of the rapid stream. Of all present, only the mother
+moved not a muscle. Presently the buckler was seen riding the waters
+like an airy skiff and peacefully following the course of the stream
+beyond the rapids. Immediately the crowd cried, beating their hands:</p>
+
+<p>"'The boat! The boat!'</p>
+
+<p>"Two men ran down the bank, pushed off a boat, and swiftly<a name="page_30" id="page_30"></a> plying their
+oars, quickly reached the buckler, and took it up from the water
+together with the child that had fallen asleep&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks to the gods! The child is saved!" exclaimed almost in chorus the
+family of Joel, as if delivered from a painful apprehension.</p>
+
+<p>Perceiving that he was about to be again interrupted by fresh questions,
+the stranger hastened to resume his narrative.</p>
+
+<p>"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:"</p>
+
+<p>"'Albrege!... Albrege!... You told me the truth.... You were faithful!'"</p>
+
+<p>"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 gods could not punish an innocent woman
+with the loss of her child.... But ... <i>a woman suspected is a woman
+outraged</i>.... I shall keep my child. You never more shall see us, nor
+him, nor me.... You have doubted your wife's honor!'"</p>
+
+<p>"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."</p>
+
+<p>"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!"</p>
+
+<p>"But," asked Joel, "is that trial one of the customs of the Gauls along
+the Rhine?"</p>
+
+<p>"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."<a name="page_31" id="page_31"></a></p>
+
+<p>"And how was that brave wife clad, friend guest?" asked Henory. "Did she
+wear a tunic like ours?"</p>
+
+<p>"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."</p>
+
+<p>"And their head-gear?" asked one of the young girls. "Are they white and
+cut square like our own?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; they are black and bell-shaped, and they are also embroidered in
+gold and silver."</p>
+
+<p>"And the bucklers?" queried Guilhern. "Are they like ours?"</p>
+
+<p>"They are longer, and they are painted with lively colors, usually
+arranged in squares. Red and white is a very common combination."</p>
+
+<p>"And the marriages, how are they celebrated?" inquired another young
+girl.</p>
+
+<p>"And the cattle, are they as fine as ours?" an old man wanted to know.</p>
+
+<p>"And have they like us brave fighting cocks?" asked a child.</p>
+
+<p>The stranger was being assailed with such a shower of questions that
+Joel said to the questioners:</p>
+
+<p>"Enough; enough.... Let our friend regain his breath. You are screaming
+around him like a flock of sea-gulls."</p>
+
+<p>"Do they pay, as we do, the money they owe the dead?" asked Stumpy,
+despite Joel's orders to cease questioning the stranger.</p>
+
+<p>"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
+Marseilles, 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."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Her!</i> ... <i>Her!</i>" 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<a name="page_32" id="page_32"></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. <i>Her!</i> ...
+<i>Her!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>"Our friend told you that that belief is idolatry, Stumpy," put in Joel
+with severity; "your fear is impious."</p>
+
+<p>"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 friendship, 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?"</p>
+
+<p>"Fear not, young man," said the stranger to Julyan, "the religion of
+Hesus is the only true religion; it teaches us that after death we are
+reclad in younger and handsomer bodies."</p>
+
+<p>"I pin my hopes on that!" said Stumpy.<a name="page_33" id="page_33"></a></p>
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h3>
+
+<p class="subhead">THE STORY OF SYOMARA.</p>
+
+<p>The storm of questions had spent itself and the thirst for fresh stories
+returned among the assembled family of Joel, whose head remarked with
+wonderment: "What a thing traveling is? How much one learns; but we must
+not lag behind our guest. Story for story. Proud Gallic woman for proud
+Gallic woman. Friend guest, ask Mamm' Margarid to tell you the beautiful
+story and deed of one of her own female ancestors, which happened about
+a hundred and thirty years ago when our fathers went as far as Asia to
+found a new Gaul, because you must know that few are the countries on
+earth that their soles have not trod upon."</p>
+
+<p>"After your wife's story," answered the stranger, "and seeing that you
+wish to speak of our own ancestors, I shall also speak of them ... and
+by Ritha Gaür!... never would the time be fitter. While we are here
+telling stories, you do not seem to know what is going on elsewhere in
+the land; you do not know that perhaps at this very moment&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you interrupt yourself?" asked Joel wondering at the suddenness
+with which his guest broke off in the middle of the sentence. "What is
+going on while we are here telling stories? What better can we do at the
+corner of our hearth during an autumn evening?"</p>
+
+<p>Instead of answering Joel, the stranger respectfully said to Mamm'
+Margarid:</p>
+
+<p>"I shall listen to the story of Joel's wife."</p>
+
+<p>"It is a very short and simple story," answered Margarid plying her
+distaff. "The story is as simple as the action of my ancestral
+grandmother. Her name was Syomara."<a name="page_34" id="page_34"></a></p>
+
+<p>"And in honor of her," said Guilhern breaking in upon his mother and
+proudly pointing the stranger to an eight year old child of surprising
+beauty, "in honor of our ancestral grandmother Syomara, who was as
+beautiful as she was brave, I have given her name to this little girl of
+mine."</p>
+
+<p>"This is indeed a most charming child," remarked the stranger struck by
+the lovely face of little Syomara. "I am sure she will have her
+grandmother's valor in the same degree that she is endowed with her
+beauty."</p>
+
+<p>Henory, the child's mother blushed with joy at these words and said
+smiling to Mamm' Margarid:</p>
+
+<p>"I dare not blame Guilhern for having interrupted you; it brought on the
+pretty compliment."</p>
+
+<p>"The compliment is as sweet to me as to you, my daughter," answered
+Mamm' Margarid; saying which she began her story:</p>
+
+<p>"My grandmother's name was Syomara; she was the daughter of Ronan. Her
+father had taken her into lower Languedoc whither his traffic called
+him. The Gauls of the neighborhood were just preparing for the
+expedition to the East. Their chief, Oriegon by name, saw my
+grandmother, was fascinated by her beauty, won her love and married her.
+Syomara departed with her husband on the expedition to the East. At
+first they triumphed. Afterwards, the Romans, who were ever jealous of
+the Gallic possessions, attacked our fathers. In one of the battles,
+Syomara, who, led thereto both by duty and love, accompanied Oriegon,
+her husband, to battle in a war-chariot, was separated from her husband
+during the fray, taken prisoner, and placed under the guard of a Roman
+officer, who was a miser and a libertine. The Roman, who was captivated
+by the beauty of Syomara, attempted to seduce her; but she repelled his
+advances with contempt. He then surprised his captive during her sleep
+and outraged her&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Listen, Joel!" cried the stranger indignantly. "Listen to that!... A
+Roman subjects an ancestor of your wife to such indignity!"<a name="page_35" id="page_35"></a></p>
+
+<p>"Listen to the end of the story, friend guest," said Joel; "you will see
+that Syomara is the peer of the Gallic woman of the Rhine."</p>
+
+<p>"The one and the other," Margarid proceeded, "showed themselves true to
+the maxim that there are three kinds of chastity among the women of
+Gaul: The first, when a father says in the presence of his daughter that
+he grants her hand to him whom she loves; the second, when for the first
+time she enters her husband's bed; and the third, when she appears the
+next morning before other men. The Roman had outraged Syomara, his
+prisoner. His passion being satisfied, he offered her freedom upon
+payment of a ransom. She accepted the offer and induced the Roman to
+send her servant, a prisoner like herself, to the camp of the Gauls and
+tell Oriegon or, in his absence, any of his friends, to bring the ransom
+to an appointed place. The servant departed to the camp of the Gauls.
+The miserly Roman, wishing himself to receive the ransom and not share
+it with anyone else, led Syomara alone to the appointed place. The
+friends of Oriegon were there with the gold for the ransom. While the
+Roman was counting the gold, Syomara addressed the Gauls in their own
+tongue and ordered them to kill the infamous man. Her orders were
+executed on the spot. Syomara then cut off his head, placed it in a fold
+of her dress and returned to the camp of her people. Oriegon, who had
+himself been also taken prisoner and managed to escape, arrived in camp
+at the same time as his wife. At the sight of her husband, Syomara
+dropped the head of the Roman at his feet and addressed Oriegon saying:
+'That is the head of a man who outraged me.... There is none but you who
+can say that he possessed me.'"</p>
+
+<p>At the close of her narrative, Mamm' Margarid continued to spin in
+silence.</p>
+
+<p>"Did I not tell you, friend," said Joel, "that Syomara, Margarid's
+grandmother, was the peer of your Gallic woman of the Rhine?"<a name="page_36" id="page_36"></a></p>
+
+<p>"And must not the noble name bring good luck to my daughter!" added
+Guilhern tenderly kissing the blonde head of the child.</p>
+
+<p>"That powerful and chaste story is worthy of the lips that told it,"
+said the stranger. "It also proves that the Romans, our implacable
+enemies, have not changed. Avaricious and debauched were they once&mdash;and
+are to-day. And seeing that we are speaking of the avaricious and
+debauched Romans and that you love stories," he added with a bitter
+smile, "you must know that I have been in Rome ... and that I saw ...
+Julius Cæsar ... the most famous of the Roman generals, as also the most
+avaricious and the most debauched man of all Italy. I would not venture
+to speak of his infamous acts of libertinage before women and young
+girls."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! Did you see that famous Julius Cæsar? What kind of a looking man is
+he?" asked Joel with great inquisitiveness.</p>
+
+<p>The stranger looked at the brenn as if greatly surprised at the
+question, and answered with an effort to suppress his anger:</p>
+
+<p>"Cæsar is nearing old age; he is tall of stature; his face is lean and
+long; his complexion pale; his eyes black; his head bald. Seeing the man
+combines in his person all the vices of the worst women of the Romans,
+he is possessed, like them, of extraordinary personal vanity.
+Accordingly, in order to conceal his baldness, he ever carries a chaplet
+of gold leaves on his head. Is your inquisitiveness satisfied, Joel?
+Would you want more details about Cæsar's infirmities? That he is
+subject to epileptic fits?... That&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>But the stranger did not finish his sentence. Letting his eyes wander
+over the assembled family of the brenn, he cried with towering rage:</p>
+
+<p>"By the anger of Hesus! Can it be that all of you&mdash;as many as you are
+here capable of seizing the sabre and the sword but insatiable after
+idle stories&mdash;can it be you do not know that a Roman army, after having
+invaded under the command of Cæsar<a name="page_37" id="page_37"></a> one-half of our provinces, has taken
+winter quarters in the country of Orleans, of Touraine and of Anjou?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes; we have heard about it," calmly said Joel. "People from
+Anjou, who came here to buy beef and pork, told us about it."</p>
+
+<p>"And it is with such unconcern that you speak of the Roman invasion of
+Gaul?" cried the traveler.</p>
+
+<p>"Never have the Breton Gauls been invaded by strangers," proudly
+answered the brenn of the tribe of Karnak. "We shall remain spotless of
+the taint. We are independent of the Gauls of Piotou, of Touraine, of
+Orleans and of the other sections of the land, just as they are
+independent of us. They have not asked for our help. We are not so
+constituted as to offer ourselves to their chiefs and to fight under
+them. Let everyone guard his own honor and his own province. The Romans
+are in Touraine ... but it is a long way from Touraine to here."</p>
+
+<p>"So that if the pirates of the North were to kill your son Albinik the
+sailor and his brave wife Meroë, it would no wise concern you because
+the murder was committed far from here?"</p>
+
+<p>"You are joking. My son is my son.... The Gauls of provinces other than
+mine are not my sons!"</p>
+
+<p>"Are they not, like yourself, the sons of the same god, as the druid
+religion teaches you? If that is so, are not all the Gauls your
+brothers? And does not the subjugation, does not the blood of a brother
+cry for vengeance? Are you unconcerned because the enemy is not at the
+very gates of your own homestead? On that principle, the hand, even when
+it knows that the foot is gangrened, could say to itself: 'As to me, I
+am well, and the foot is far from the hand&mdash;I need not worry over the
+disease.' And the gangrene, not being stopped, rises from the foot to
+the other members, until the whole body perishes."</p>
+
+<p>"Unless the healthy hand take an axe," said the brenn, "and cut off the
+foot from which the evil proceeds."</p>
+
+<p>"And what becomes of the body that is thus mutilated, Joel?" put in
+Mamm' Margarid who all the while had been listening in<a name="page_38" id="page_38"></a> silence. "When
+the best regions of the country shall have been invaded by the stranger,
+what will then become of the rest of Gaul? Thus mutilated and
+dismembered, how will she defend herself against her enemies?"</p>
+
+<p>"The worthy spouse of my host speaks wisely," said the traveler
+respectfully to Mamm' Margarid; "like all Gallic matrons she holds her
+place at the public council as well as at her hearth."</p>
+
+<p>"You speak truly," rejoined Joel, "Margarid has a brave heart and a wise
+head. Often her opinion is better than mine.... I gladly say so.... But
+this time I am right. Whatever may happen to the rest of Gaul, never
+will the Romans set foot in our old Britanny. There are her rocks, her
+marshes, her woods, her sand banks&mdash;above all her Bretons to defend
+her."</p>
+
+<p>At these words of her husband Mamm' Margarid shook her head
+disapprovingly; all the men of the family, however, loudly applauded
+their brenn's words.<a name="page_39" id="page_39"></a></p>
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h3>
+
+<p class="subhead">THE STORY OF GAUL.</p>
+
+<p>When the noisy and martial ardor, evoked by the boastful words of the
+brenn of the tribe of Karnak had subsided, the traveler was seen sitting
+in somber silence. He looked up and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, one more and last story, but let this one fall upon the
+hearts of you all like burning brass, seeing that the wise words of this
+household's matron have proved futile."</p>
+
+<p>All looked with surprise at the stranger, who with somber and severe
+mien began his story with these words:</p>
+
+<p>"Once upon a time, as far back as two or three thousand years, there
+lived a family here in Gaul. Whence did it come, to fill the vast
+solitudes that to-day are so populous? It doubtlessly came from the
+heart of Asia, that ancient cradle of the human races, now, however,
+hidden in the night of antiquity. That family ever preserved a type
+peculiar to itself, and found with no other people of the world. Loyal,
+hospitable, generous, vivacious, gay, inclined to humor, loving to tell,
+above all, to hear stories, intrepid in battle, daring death more
+heroically than any other nation, because its religion taught it what
+death was&mdash;such were that family's virtues. Giddy-headed, vagabond,
+presumptuous, inconsistent, curious after novelty, and greedier yet of
+seeing than of conquering unknown countries, as easily uniting as
+falling apart, too proud and too fickle to adjust its opinions to those
+of its neighbors, or if consenting thereto, incapable of long marching
+in concert with them, although common and vital interests be at
+stake&mdash;such are that family's vices. In point of its virtues and in
+point of its vices, thus has it<a name="page_40" id="page_40"></a> always been since the remotest
+centuries; thus is it to-day; thus will it be to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, oh! If I am not much mistaken," broke in the brenn smiling, "all of
+us, Gauls though we may be, must have some cousin red with that family."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said the stranger, "to its own misfortune&mdash;and to the joy of its
+enemies&mdash;such has been and such is to-day the character of our own
+people!"</p>
+
+<p>"But at least admit, despite such a character, the dear Gallic people
+has made its way well through the world. Few are the countries where the
+inquisitive vagabond, as you call it, did not promenade his shoes, with
+his nose in the air, his sword at his side&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You are right. Such is its spirit of adventure: always marching ahead
+towards the unknown, rather than to stop and build. Thus, to-day,
+one-third of Gaul is in the hands of the Romans, while some centuries
+ago the Gallic race occupied through its headlong conquests, besides
+Gaul, England, Ireland, upper Italy, the banks of the Danube, and the
+countries along the sea border as far east and north as Denmark. Nor yet
+was that enough. It looked as if our race was to spread itself over the
+whole world. The Gauls of the Danube went into Macedonia, into Thrace,
+into Thessaly. Others of them crossed the Bosphorus and the Hellespont,
+reached Asia Minor, founded New Gaul, and thus became the arbiters of
+all the kingdoms of the East."</p>
+
+<p>"So far, meseems," rejoined the brenn, "we have nothing to regret over
+our character that you so severely judge."</p>
+
+<p>"And what is left of those senseless battles, undertaken by the pride of
+the kings who then reigned over the Gauls?" the stranger proceeded
+looking around. "Have not the distant conquests slipped from us? Have
+not our implacable and ever more powerful enemies, the Romans, raised
+all the peoples against us? Have we not been compelled to abandon those
+useless possessions&mdash;Asia, Greece, Germany, Italy? That is the net
+result of so much<a name="page_41" id="page_41"></a> heroism and so much blood! That is the pass to which
+we have been brought by the ambition of the kings, who usurped the power
+of the druids!"</p>
+
+<p>"To that I have nothing to say. You are right. There was no need of
+promenading so far away only to soil the soles of our shoes with the
+blood and the dust of foreign lands. But if I am not mistaken, it was at
+about that time that the sons of the brave Ritha Gaür, who had a blouse
+made for himself of the beards of the kings whom he shaved, seeing in
+these the butchers of the people and not its shepherds, overthrew the
+royalty."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, thanks to the gods, an epoch of real grandeur, of peace and of
+prosperity succeeded the barren and bloody conquests of the kings.
+Disembarassed of its useless possessions, reduced to rational
+limits&mdash;its natural frontiers&mdash;the Rhine, the Alps, the Pyrenees and the
+Ocean&mdash;the republic of the Gauls became the queen and envy of the world.
+Its fertile soil, cultivated as we so well know how, produced everything
+in abundance; the rivers were covered with merchant vessels; gold,
+silver and copper mines increased its wealth every day; large cities
+rose everywhere. The druids, spreading light in all directions, preached
+union to the provinces, and set the example by convoking once a year in
+the center of Gaul solemn assemblies, at which the general interests of
+the country were considered. Each tribe, each canton, each town, elected
+its own magistrates; each province was a republic which, according to
+the druid plan, merged into the great Republic of the Gauls, and thus
+constituted one powerful body through the union of all."</p>
+
+<p>"The fathers of our grandfathers saw those happy days, friend guest."</p>
+
+<p>"And their sons saw only ruins and misfortune! What has happened? The
+accursed stock of dethroned kings joins the stock of their former and no
+less accursed clients or seigneurs, and all of them, irritated at having
+been deposed of their authority, hope for restoration from the public
+misfortunes, and exploit with infamous perfidy our innate pride and lack
+of discipline, which,<a name="page_42" id="page_42"></a> under the powerful influence of the druids, were
+being steadily corrected. The rivalries between province and province,
+long allayed, re-awakened; jealousies and hatreds sprang up anew;
+everywhere the structure of union began to crumble. For all this the
+kings do not re-ascend the throne. Many of their descendants are even
+judicially executed. But they have unchained internal feud. Civil war
+flares up. The more powerful provinces seek to subjugate the weaker.
+Thus, towards the end of the last century, the Marseillians, the
+descendants of the exiled Greeks to whom Gaul generously assigned the
+territory on which they built their town, sought to assume the rôle of
+sovereignty. The province rose against the town; finding herself in
+danger, Marseilles called the Romans to her aid. They came, not to
+sustain Marseilles in her contemplated iniquity, but to themselves take
+possession of the region, a purpose that they succeeded in, despite the
+prodigies of valor with which they were opposed. Established in
+Provence, the Romans built the town of Aix, and thus founded their first
+colony on our soil&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, a curse upon the Marseillians!" cried Joel. "It was thanks to those
+sons of Greeks that the Romans gained a foothold in Gaul!"</p>
+
+<p>"By what right can we curse the people of Marseilles? Must not also
+those provinces be cursed which, since the decline of the republic, thus
+allowed one of their sisters to be overpowered and subjugated? But
+retribution was swift. Encouraged by the indifference of the Gauls, the
+Romans took possession of Auvergne, and later of the Dauphine, and a
+little later also of Languedoc and Vivarais despite the heroic defence
+of their peoples, who, besides being divided among themselves, were left
+to their own resources. Thus the Romans became masters of almost all
+southern Gaul; they govern it by their proconsuls and reduce its people
+to slavery. Do the other provinces at last take alarm at these ominous
+invasions of Rome that push ever forward and threaten the very heart of
+Gaul? No! No! Relying upon their own courage, they say as you, Joel, did
+shortly ago: 'The South<a name="page_43" id="page_43"></a> lies far away from the North, the East lies far
+away from the West.' This notwithstanding, our race, which is heedless
+and presumptuous enough to fail to prepare in advance, and when it is
+still time, against foreign domination, always has the belated courage
+of rebelling when the yoke is actually placed upon its neck. The
+provinces that have been subjugated by the Romans, break out in resolute
+rebellion; these are smothered in their own blood. Our disasters follow
+swiftly upon one another. The Burgundians, incited thereto by the
+descendants of the old kings, take up arms against the Frank-Compté and
+invoke the aid of the Romans. The Frank-Compté, unable to make head
+against such an alliance, requests reinforcements from the Germans of
+the other side of the Rhine. Thus these barbarians of the North are
+taught the road to Gaul, and after bloody battles with the very people
+who invited them, remain masters of both Burgundy and Frank-Compté. Last
+year, the Swiss, encouraged by the example of the Germans, make an
+irruption into the Gallic provinces that had been conquered by the
+Romans. Thereupon, Julius Cæsar is appointed proconsul; he hastens from
+Italy; owerthrows the Swiss in their mountains; drives the Germans out
+of Burgundy and Frank-Compté; takes possession of these provinces, now
+exhausted by their long struggles with the barbarians; and to the yoke
+of these now succeeds that of the Romans. It was a change of masters.
+And finally, at the beginning of this year a portion of Gaul shakes off
+its lethargy and scents the dangers that threatens the still independent
+provinces. Brave patriots, wanting neither Romans nor Germans for their
+masters&mdash;Galba among the Gauls of Belgium, Boddig-nat among the Gauls of
+Flanders&mdash;induce the people to rise in mass against Cæsar. The Gauls of
+Vermandois and those of Artois also rise in rebellion. Together they all
+march against the Romans! Oh, it was a great and terrible battle, that
+battle of the Sambre!" cried the unknown traveler with exaltation. "The
+Gallic army awaited Cæsar on the left bank of the river. Three times did
+the Roman army cross, and three times was it compelled to recross<a name="page_44" id="page_44"></a> it,
+fighting up to their waists in the blood-reddened waters. The Roman is
+overthrown, the oldest legions are shattered. Cæsar alights from his
+horse, swings his sword, rallies his last cohorts of veterans, that
+already were yielding ground, and at their head charges upon our army.
+Despite Cæsar's courage the battle was lost to him, when we saw a fresh
+body arrive to his aid."</p>
+
+<p>"You say 'We saw'?" asked Joel. "Were you at that terrible battle?"</p>
+
+<p>But the unknown visitor proceeded without answering: "Exhausted,
+decimated by a seven hours' fight, we still held out against the fresh
+troops ... we fought to the bitter end ... we fought unto death.... And
+do you know," added the stranger with an expression of profound grief,
+"do you know, you who remained peacefully at home, while your brothers
+were dying for the liberty of Gaul, which is also yours,&mdash;do you know
+how many survived of the sixty thousand men in the Gallic army&mdash;in that
+battle of the Sambre?... <i>Not five hundred!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>"Not five hundred!" cried Joel as if questioning the figures.</p>
+
+<p>"I say so because I am one of the survivors," answered the stranger
+proudly.</p>
+
+<p>"Then the two fresh scars on your face&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I received them at the battle of the Sambre&mdash;"<a name="page_45" id="page_45"></a></p>
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h3>
+
+<p class="subhead">"WAR! WAR! WAR!"</p>
+
+<p>A furious barking of dogs in the yard and a distinct noise of hard
+rapping at the gate of the palisade interrupted the stranger's
+narrative. Still laboring under the painful impression of the traveler's
+words, the family of the brenn for a moment imagined their homestead was
+being attacked. The women rose precipitately, the little ones rushed to
+their mothers' arms, the men ran for their arms that hung from the
+walls. But the dogs soon ceased barking, although the rapping at the
+gate continued unabated. Joel said to his family:</p>
+
+<p>"Although they are still rapping, the dogs do not bark. They must know
+who is at the gate."</p>
+
+<p>Saying this, the brenn stepped out. Several of his kinsmen, the stranger
+included, followed him out of prudence. The yard gate was opened and two
+voices were heard outside the palisades crying:</p>
+
+<p>"It is we, friends, ... Albinik and Mikael."</p>
+
+<p>Indeed the two sons of the brenn were distinguished by the light of the
+torches, and behind them their horses, panting for breath and white with
+foam. After tenderly embracing his sons, especially the mariner, who was
+absent over a year on his sea journeys, Joel entered the house with
+them, where they were received with joy and not a little surprise by
+their mother and other relatives.</p>
+
+<p>Albinik the mariner and Mikael the armorer were, like their father and
+their brother, men of large and robust stature. Over their clothes they
+carried a caped cloak of heavy woolen fabric streaming with the rain.
+Upon entering the house, and even before embracing their mother, the new
+arrivals stepped to the<a name="page_46" id="page_46"></a> altar and approached their lips to the seven
+small twigs of mistletoe that stood dipped in the copper bowl on the
+large stone. They there noticed a lifeless body covered with oak
+branches, near which Julyan still sat.</p>
+
+<p>"Good evening, Julyan," said Mikael. "Who is dead?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is Armel; I killed him this evening in a sword contest," answered
+Julyan; "but as we have both pledged brotherhood to each other, I shall
+join him to-morrow beyond. If you wish it I shall mention you to him."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes. Julyan; I loved Armel and expected to find him alive. In the
+bag on my horse I have a little harpoon head of iron that I forged for
+him; I shall place it to-morrow on the pyre of you two&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"And you must tell Armel," added the mariner smiling, "that he went away
+too soon; his friends Albinik and Meroë would have told him their last
+experience at sea."</p>
+
+<p>"It is Armel and myself," replied Julyan with a smile, "who will later
+have pretty stories to tell you. Your sea trips will be like nothing to
+the travels that await us in those marvelous worlds that none has seen
+and all will see."</p>
+
+<p>After Margarid's two sons had answered the tender inquiries of their
+mother and family, the brenn said to the unknown traveler:</p>
+
+<p>"Friend, these are my two sons."</p>
+
+<p>"May it please heaven that the suddenness of their arrival may not be
+caused by some evil event," answered the traveler.</p>
+
+<p>"I say so, too, my children," rejoined Joel. "What has happened that you
+come at so late an hour and in such hurry? Happy be your return,
+Albinik, but I did not expect it so soon. But where is the gentle
+Meroë?"</p>
+
+<p>"I left her at Vannes, father. This is what has happened. I returned
+from Spain by the gulf of Gascony on the way to England. The bad weather
+forced us to put in at Vannes. But by Teutates, who presides over all
+journeys by land and<a name="page_47" id="page_47"></a> sea, here on earth and beyond, I did not
+expect&mdash;no, I did not expect to see what I saw in that town. I,
+therefore, left my vessel in port in charge of my sailors with my wife
+as their chief, I took a horse and galloped to Auray. There I gave the
+news to Mikael, and we hastened hither to forewarn you, father."</p>
+
+<p>"And what is it you saw at Vannes?"</p>
+
+<p>"What did I see? All the inhabitants, in revolt, full of indignation and
+rage, like the brave Bretons that they are!"</p>
+
+<p>"And what is the reason of it all, children?" asked Mamm' Margarid
+without leaving her distaff.</p>
+
+<p>"Four Roman officers, without any other escort than four soldiers and as
+calmly insolent as if they were in some enslaved country, came in
+yesterday and commanded the magistrates of the town to issue orders to
+all the neighboring tribes to send to Vannes ten thousand bags of
+wheat&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"And what else?" asked Joel laughing and shrugging his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"Five thousand bags of oats."</p>
+
+<p>"And what else?"</p>
+
+<p>"Five hundred barrels of hydromel."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," said the brenn laughing louder, "they must also drink&mdash;and
+what else?"</p>
+
+<p>"A thousand heads of beef."</p>
+
+<p>"And, of course, the fattest&mdash;What else?"</p>
+
+<p>"Five thousand sheep."</p>
+
+<p>"That's right. One soon gets tired of beef only. Is that all, my boy?"</p>
+
+<p>"They also demanded three hundred horses to furnish new equipages to the
+Roman cavalry, besides two hundred wagons of forage."</p>
+
+<p>"And why not? The poor horses must be fed," continued Joel sneeringly.
+"But there must be some more orders. If they begin to issue orders, why
+stop at all?"<a name="page_48" id="page_48"></a></p>
+
+<p>"The provisions were to be taken in wagons as far as Poitou and
+Touraine."</p>
+
+<p>"And what is the wide maw that is to swallow up those bags of wheat,
+those muttons, those heads of beef and those barrels of hydromel?"</p>
+
+<p>"Above all," added the traveler, "who is to pay for all those
+provisions?"</p>
+
+<p>"Pay for them!" replied Albinik. "Why, nobody. It is a forced impost."</p>
+
+<p>"Ha! Ha!" laughed Joel.</p>
+
+<p>"And the wide maw that is to gulp up the provisions is none other than
+the Roman army, which is wintering in Touraine and Anjou."</p>
+
+<p>A shudder of rage mixed with disdain ran through the family of the
+brenn. "Well, Joel," the unknown traveler remarked, "do you still think
+that it is a long way from Touraine to Britanny? The distance does not
+seem to me long, seeing that the officers of Cæsar come calmly and
+without escort, empty-pursed and swinging high their canes, to provision
+their army here."</p>
+
+<p>Joel no longer laughed; he dropped his head and remained silent.</p>
+
+<p>"Our guest is right," put in Albinik; "these Romans came empty-pursed
+and swinging high their canes. One of them even raised his cane over old
+Ronan, the oldest magistrate of Vannes, who, like you, father, objected
+strongly to the Roman exaction."</p>
+
+<p>"And yet, children, what else can we do but laugh at these demands. To
+levy these provisionings upon us and the neighboring tribes of Vannes;
+to force us to carry the requisitions to Touraine and Anjou with our
+oxen and horses which the Romans will surely keep also, and all that at
+the very season of the late sowing and of our autumn labors; to ruin
+next year's harvest;&mdash;why, that is to reduce us to living upon the grass
+that would have fed the cattle that they rob us of!"<a name="page_49" id="page_49"></a></p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Mikael the armorer; "they want to take away our wheat and
+our cattle, and leave the grass to us. By the iron of the lance that I
+was forging this very morning, it shall be the Romans who, under our
+blows, will bite the grass on our fields!"</p>
+
+<p>"Vannes is now preparing to defend herself if attacked," added the
+mariner. "They have begun to throw up trenches in the neighborhood of
+the port. All our sailors are to be armed, and if the Roman galleys
+attack us by sea, never will the sea crows have had a like feast of
+corpses upon our beach."</p>
+
+<p>"While crossing to-night the other tribes," resumed Mikael, "we spread
+the news and sounded the alarm. The magistrates of Vannes have also sent
+out messengers in all direction ordering that fires be lighted from hill
+to hill, and thereby give immediate notice of the imminent danger from
+one end of Britanny to the other."</p>
+
+<p>Without once dropping her distaff, Mamm' Margarid had listened to the
+report given by her sons. When they stopped speaking she calmly said:</p>
+
+<p>"As to those Roman officers, my sons, were they not sent back to their
+army&mdash;after a thorough caning?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, mother; they were lodged in jail at Vannes, all except two of their
+soldiers whom the magistrates charged to declare to the Roman general
+that no provisions whatever were to be furnished him, and that his
+officers were to be as hostages."</p>
+
+<p>"It would have been better to give the officers a thorough caning and
+drive them in disgrace out of the town," replied Mamm' Margarid. "That
+is the way thieves are treated, and these Romans tried to rob us."</p>
+
+<p>"You are right, Margarid," said Joel; "they came to rob us&mdash;to starve
+us! to carry away our harvests and our cattle!" And Joel, now in a
+towering rage, added: "By the vengeance of Hesus! To think of their
+taking our fine turn-out of six young oxen with skins slick as wolves!
+Our four yokes of black bulls<a name="page_50" id="page_50"></a> that have such a beautiful white star in
+the center of their foreheads!"</p>
+
+<p>"And our beautiful white heifers with yellow heads!" said Mamm' Margarid
+shrugging her shoulders and never quitting her distaff, "our sheep whose
+fleece is so nice and thick.... Come, a good caning for these Romans!"</p>
+
+<p>"And the powerful horses of the stock of your magnificent stallion
+Tom-Bras," put in the traveler. "They will, after all, have to draw your
+harvest to Touraine, and will then serve to replace the worn-out horses
+of the Roman cavalry.... True, to them, the labor will not be excessive
+... because you will now probably discover that it is not far from
+Touraine to Britanny."</p>
+
+<p>"Well may you mock, friend," said Joel. "You were right, and I confess
+myself to have been wrong. Oh! If only the provinces of Gaul had from
+the start confederated themselves against the first assault of the
+Romans! If united they had put forth but one-half the efforts that they
+put forth separately&mdash;we would not now be exposed to the insolent
+demands and to the threats of these heathens! Well may you mock!"</p>
+
+<p>"No, Joel, I will mock no longer," gravely answered the traveler. "The
+danger is near; the hostile camp lies only a twelve day's march from
+here; the refusal of the magistrates of Vannes and the imprisonment of
+the Roman officers&mdash;all that means speedy war&mdash;a merciless war, as only
+the Romans know how to wage! If we are vanquished it means to us death
+on the battle field, or slavery far away! The slave merchants follow the
+tracks of the Roman army; they are greedy after prey. Whatever survives,
+whether whole or wounded&mdash;men, young women, girls, children&mdash;all are
+sold at auction like cattle for the benefit of the vanquisher, and are
+forthwith consigned by the thousands to Italy or to Southern Gaul where
+the Romans are settled! Arrived at their destination, the male slaves of
+robust frame are often forced to fight ferocious animals in the<a name="page_51" id="page_51"></a> circus
+for the amusement of their masters; the young women and girls, even the
+children are subjected to monstrous debaucheries. Such is war with the
+Romans if vanquished!" cried the stranger. "Will you allow yourselves to
+be vanquished? Will you submit to such disgrace? Will you deliver to
+them your wives, your sisters, your daughters and children, ye Gauls of
+Britanny?"</p>
+
+<p>Hardly had the traveler uttered these words when the whole family of
+Joel&mdash;men, women, young girls, children&mdash;all down to the dwarfy Stumpy,
+rose to their feet and with their eyes shooting fire, their cheeks
+inflamed, cried tumultuously, waving their arms:</p>
+
+<p>"War! War! War!"</p>
+
+<p>Joel's large battle mastiff, fired by these cries, rose on his hind legs
+and laid his fore-paws on the breast of his master, who, while caressing
+his enormous head said:</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, old Deber-Trud, like our tribe you will hunt the Romans.... The
+quarry shall be for you.... Your jaws shall be red with blood!... Wow!
+Wow, Deber-Trud! At the Romans! At the Romans!"</p>
+
+<p>Hearing the well-known war-cry, the mastiff responded with furious
+barks, displaying fangs as redoubtable as a lion's. Hearing Deber-Trud,
+the outside watch-dogs, as well as those locked up in the kennels,
+answered him. Frightful was the war-cry raised by the pack.</p>
+
+<p>"A good omen, friend Joel," observed the traveler. "Your dogs bark death
+to the enemy."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes; death to the enemy!" cried the brenn. "Thanks be to the gods,
+in our Breton Gaul, on the day of peril, the watch-dog becomes a
+war-dog! the draw-horse becomes a war-horse! the ox of the field a
+war-ox! the harvest carts chariots of war! the laborer a warrior! even
+our peaceful and fruitful earth turns to war and devours the stranger!
+at every step he finds a grave in our fathomless marshes, and his
+vessels vanish in the<a name="page_52" id="page_52"></a> whirlpools of our bays which are more terrible in
+their calm than in the tempest of their fury!"</p>
+
+<p>"Joel," now said Julyan, who had left the body of his friend, "I
+promised Armel to meet him to-morrow yonder&mdash;Such a death would be
+pleasant to me.... To die fighting the Romans is a duty.... What shall I
+do?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ask to-morrow one of the druids of Karnak."</p>
+
+<p>"And our sister Hena," said Albinik the mariner to his mother. "It is
+nearly a year I have not seen her.... She is surely still the pearl of
+the Isle of Sen? My wife Meroë charged me to remember her to Hena."</p>
+
+<p>"You will see her to-morrow," answered Mamm' Margarid; and laying down
+her distaff she arose. It was the signal for the family to retire. Mamm'
+Margarid looked around and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Let us retire, my children; it is late; to-morrow at break of day we
+must begin our war preparations;" and turning to the traveler:</p>
+
+<p>"May the gods grant you a good rest and pleasant dreams!"<a name="page_53" id="page_53"></a></p>
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h3>
+
+<p class="subhead">FAREWELL!</p>
+
+<p>Agreeable to his promise, Joel pushed off his boat early the next
+morning, accompanied by his son Albinik the mariner, and took the
+unknown traveler to the island of Kellor, seeing he did not dare to land
+at the sacred precincts of the Isle of Sen. The brenn's guest said a few
+words in a low voice to the ewagh who mounts perpetual guard in the
+island's house. He seemed to be struck with respect and answered that
+Talyessin, the oldest of the living druids, who then was at the Isle of
+Sen together with his wife Auria, expected a traveler since the previous
+evening.</p>
+
+<p>Before leaving Joel, the stranger said to his host: "I hope neither you
+nor your family will forget your resolution of yesterday. This day a
+call to arms will resound from one end of Breton Gaul to the other."</p>
+
+<p>"You may rest assured that I and the rest of my tribe will be the first
+to respond to the call."</p>
+
+<p>"I believe you. The issue now is whether Gaul shall fall into slavery or
+shall rise again to the height of her one-time power and glory."</p>
+
+<p>"But should I not, at this moment when I am to leave you, know the name
+of the brave man who sat at my hearth? The name of the wise man who
+speaks with so much soundness and loves his country so warmly?"</p>
+
+<p>"Joel, my name shall be 'Soldier' so long as Gaul is not free; and if we
+ever meet again, I shall call myself 'Your Friend,' seeing that I am
+that."</p>
+
+<p>Saying these words the unknown traveler stepped into the ewagh's boat
+that was to take him from Kellor to the Isle of<a name="page_54" id="page_54"></a> Sen. Before the boat,
+which was under charge of the ewagh, put off, Joel asked the latter
+whether he would be permitted to wait at the house for his daughter
+Hena, who was to come on that day to visit the family. The ewagh
+informed him that his daughter would not start for the shore until
+evening. Sorry at not being able to take Hena with him, the brenn
+re-entered his boat and returned alone with Albinik.</p>
+
+<p>Towards noon, Julyan went to consult the druids of the forest of Karnak
+upon whether he should take the immediate and voluntary death which
+would be a pleasure to him, seeing he was to rejoin Armel, or seek death
+in battle against the Romans. The druids answered him that having sworn
+to Armel upon his brotherhood faith to die with him, he should be
+faithful to his promise, and that the ewaghs would bring the body of
+Armel with the usual ceremonies in order to place it upon the pyre where
+Julyan would find his place at moon-rise. Happy at being able so soon to
+join his friend, Julyan was about to leave Karnak, when he saw the
+stranger, who had been the guest of Joel and who now returned from the
+Isle of Sen, approaching through the forest in the company of Talyessin.
+The latter said a few words to the other druids, who forthwith
+surrounded the traveler with great eagerness and marks of respect. The
+younger ones of the druids received him as a brother, the elder ones as
+a son.</p>
+
+<p>Recognizing Julyan, the traveler said to him:</p>
+
+<p>"As you are to return to the brenn of the tribe, wait a little; I shall
+give you a letter for him."</p>
+
+<p>Julyan yielded to the wish of the stranger, who withdrew accompanied by
+Talyessin and other druids. He returned shortly and handed to Julyan a
+little scroll of yellow tanned skin, saying:</p>
+
+<p>"This is for Joel.... This evening, Julyan, when the moon rises we shall
+see each other again.... Hesus loves those who, like you, are brave and
+faithful in their friendship."<a name="page_55" id="page_55"></a></p>
+
+<p>Upon arriving at the brenn's house, Julyan learned that the former was
+on the field gathering in the wheat. He went after him and delivered to
+Joel the writing sent by the stranger. It said:</p>
+
+<p>"Friend Joel, in the name of Gaul now in danger, this is what the druids
+expect of you: Command all the members of your family who are at work on
+the fields to cry out to those of the tribe working not far from them:
+The mistletoe and the new year! <i>Let every man, woman and child, all
+without exception, meet this evening in the forest of Karnak at the rise
+of the moon.</i> Let those of the tribe who will have heard these words in
+turn repeat them aloud to those of the other tribes who may also be at
+work on the fields, so that the call being repeated from mouth to mouth,
+from one to another, from village to village, from town to town, from
+Vannes to Auray, notify all the tribes to convene this evening at the
+forest of Karnak."</p>
+
+<p>Joel did as ordered by the stranger in the name of the druids of Karnak.
+The call was carried from mouth to mouth, from the nearest to the most
+distant tribes; all were notified to meet that evening in the forest of
+Karnak when the moon rose.</p>
+
+<p>While some of the brenn's family were hurriedly gathering in the wheat
+harvest that still remained heaped on the fields, in order to deposit a
+portion of it in cellars that the laborers were digging on dry ground,
+the women, the girls and even the children, all working under the
+direction of Margarid, were as busily engaged disposing of salted meats
+into baskets, flour into bags, hydromel and wine into pouches; others
+were filling coffers with lint and balsam for wounds; others were
+adjusting broad and strong tent cloths over the chariots. In all wars
+considered dangerous, the tribes threatened by the enemy, instead of
+waiting for, usually went out to meet him. The houses were abandoned;
+the field oxen were hitched to the war-chariots, all of which contained
+the women, the children, the clothes and the provisions of the
+combatants. The horses, ridden by the full grown<a name="page_56" id="page_56"></a> men of the tribe,
+constituted the cavalry. The young men, being more agile, went on foot
+as an armed escort. The grain was hidden away; the cattle, let loose,
+pastured where they pleased and returned instinctively every evening to
+their usual stables. Generally, the wolves and bears devoured a part.
+The fields remained untended and scarcity followed. Often the combatants
+who went to war in defence of their country, encouraged by the presence
+of their wives and children, and having nothing to expect from the enemy
+but disgrace, slavery or death, drove back the invader beyond their
+frontiers, and returned home to repair the disasters of the fields.</p>
+
+<p>Knowing that his daughter was due at the house, Joel returned home
+towards sun-down. He also expected to be able to take a hand in the
+preparations for the war.</p>
+
+<p>Hena, the virgin of the Isle of Sen, soon arrived. When her father,
+mother and other relatives saw her enter it seemed to them never before
+had she been so beautiful. Never before did her father feel so proud of
+his daughter. The long black tunic that she wore was held around her
+waist by a brass belt, from which, on one side, hung a little gold
+sickle, and on the other a crescent in the shape of the waning moon.
+Hena had dressed herself with special care in honor of the celebration
+of her birthday. A necklace and gold bracelets inlaid with garnets
+ornamented her arms and neck, whiter than the driven snow. When she took
+off her caped cloak it was noticed that she wore, as ever at religious
+ceremonies, a crown of green oak leaves on her blonde hair, plaited in
+braids over her chaste and mild forehead. The blue of the sea, when
+lying calmly under a clear sky, was not purer than the blue of Hena's
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>The brenn stretched out his arms to his daughter. She ran into them
+joyously and offered him her forehead, as she also did her mother. The
+children of the family loved Hena dearly and contested with each other
+the privilege of being the first to kiss her hands&mdash;sought with greed by
+all the little innocent<a name="page_57" id="page_57"></a> mouths. Even old Deber-Trud gamboled and barked
+with joy at the arrival of his young mistress.</p>
+
+<p>Albinik the mariner was the first to whom Hena offered her forehead to
+kiss after her father and mother; she had not seen her brother for a
+long time. Next came the turn of Guilhern and Mikael and then the swarm
+of children, whom, stooping to them, Hena, sought to hold all together
+in one embrace. The young priestess then tenderly greeted Henory, her
+brother Guilhern's wife, and expressed her regret at not seeing
+Albinik's wife Meroë. Nor were the other relatives forgotten; all, down
+to Stumpy, otherwise everyone's butt, had a kind word from her.</p>
+
+<p>The general exchange of greetings being over, and happy at finding
+herself among her own, in the house where she was born eighteen years
+before, Hena sat down at her mother's feet on the same stool that she
+used to occupy when a child. When she saw her child seated at her feet,
+Mamm' Margarid called the maid's attention to the disorder that reigned
+in the house due to the preparations for war, and she said sadly:</p>
+
+<p>"We should have celebrated this day of your birth with joy and
+tranquility, dear child! Instead, you now find confusion and alarm in
+our house that soon will be deserted.... War threatens."</p>
+
+<p>"Mother is right," answered Hena sighing; "Great is the anger of Hesus."</p>
+
+<p>"And what say you, dear child, you who are a saint," inquired Joel, "a
+saint of the Isle of Sen? What must we do to appease the wrath of the
+All-Powerful?"</p>
+
+<p>"My father and mother honor me too much by calling me a saint," answered
+the young virgin. "Like the druids, myself and my female companions have
+meditated all night under the shadows of the sacred oak-trees at the
+hour of moon rise. We search for the simplest and divinest principles,
+and seek to spread them among our fellow-beings. We adore the
+All-Powerful<a name="page_58" id="page_58"></a> in His works, from the mighty oak that is sacred to Him,
+down to the humble moss that grows on the rocks of our isle; from the
+stars, whose eternal course we study, down to the insect that is born
+and dies in one day; from the sourceless sea, down to the streamlet of
+water that glides under the grass. We search for the cure of diseases
+that cause pain, and we glorify those among our fathers and mothers who
+have shed lustre upon Gaul. By the knowledge of the auguries and the
+study of the past, we seek to foresee the future to the end of
+enlightening those who are less clear-sighted than ourselves. Finally,
+like the druids, we teach childhood, we inspire the child with an ardent
+love of our common and beloved fatherland&mdash;so threatened to-day by the
+wrath of Hesus, a wrath that comes down upon them because they have
+forgotten that <i>they are all the children of the same God</i>, and that a
+brother must resent the wound inflicted upon his brother."</p>
+
+<p>"The stranger who was our guest and whom this morning I took to the Isle
+of Sen," replied the brenn, "spoke to us as you do, dear daughter."</p>
+
+<p>"My father and mother may listen as sacred words to the words of the
+Chief of the Hundred Valleys. Hesus and love for Gaul inspire him. He is
+brave among the bravest."</p>
+
+<p>"He! Is he the Chief of the Hundred Valleys?" exclaimed Joel. "He
+refused to give me his name! Do you know it, daughter? Do you know which
+is his native province?"</p>
+
+<p>"He was impatiently waited for yesterday evening at the Isle of Sen by
+the venerable Talyessin. As to his name, all that I am free to say to my
+father and mother is that the day on which our country should be
+subjugated will also be the day when the Chief of the Hundred Valleys
+will see the last drop of his blood flow from his veins. May the wrath
+of Hesus spare us that disastrous day!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, my daughter, if Hesus is angry, how are we to appease him?"</p>
+
+<p>"By obeying the law. He has said&mdash;<i>all men are the children<a name="page_59" id="page_59"></a> of one
+God</i>. By offering to him human sacrifices.... May those that are to be
+offered to-night calm his wrath."</p>
+
+<p>"The sacrifices of to-night?" asked the brenn; "which are they?"</p>
+
+<p>"Do not my father and mother know that to-night, when the moon rises,
+there will be three human sacrifices at the stones of the forest of
+Karnak?"</p>
+
+<p>"We know," answered Joel, "that all the tribes have been convened to
+appear this evening at the forest of Karnak. But who are the people that
+are to be sacrificed and will be pleasing to Hesus, dear daughter?"</p>
+
+<p>"First of all Daoulas the murderer: he killed Houarne without a fight
+and in his sleep. The druids have sentenced him to die this evening. The
+blood of a cowardly murderer is an expiation agreeable to Hesus."</p>
+
+<p>"And the second sacrifice?"</p>
+
+<p>"Our relative Julyan wishes, out of friendship, to rejoin Armel, whom he
+loyally killed in a contest. This evening, glorified by the chant of the
+bards, he will go, agreeable to his vow, and join Armel in the unknown
+worlds. The blood of a brave man, voluntarily offered to Hesus, is
+agreeable to him."</p>
+
+<p>"And the third sacrifice, dear child?" asked Mamm' Margarid; "Who is
+it?"</p>
+
+<p>Hena did not answer. She dropped her blonde and charming head upon the
+knees of Margarid, remained a while in a revery, kissed her mother's
+hands and said to her with a sweet smile that brought back old
+remembrances:</p>
+
+<p>"How often did not little Hena, when still a child, fall asleep of an
+evening on your knees, mother, while you spun at your distaff, and when
+all of you now present, except Albinik, were gathered at the hearth,
+narrating the virile virtues of our mothers and our fathers of old!"</p>
+
+<p>"It is true, dear daughter," answered Margarid caressingly passing her
+hand over the blonde hair of her child; "it is true. And here among us
+we all loved you so much for your good heart<a name="page_60" id="page_60"></a> and your infantine grace,
+that when we saw you had fallen asleep on my knees, we all spoke in a
+low voice not to awake you."</p>
+
+<p>Stumpy, who was among the crowd of relatives, put in:</p>
+
+<p>"But who is that third human sacrifice, that is to appease Hesus and
+deliver us from war? Who, Hena, is the third to be sacrificed this
+evening?"</p>
+
+<p>"I shall tell you, Stumpy, when I shall have had a little time to
+meditate upon the past," answered the young maid dreamily, without
+leaving her mother's knees; and passing her hand over her forehead as if
+to refreshen her memory, she looked around, pointed to the stone where
+stood the copper bowl with the seven twigs of mistletoe and proceeded
+saying:</p>
+
+<p>"When I was twelve, do my father and mother remember how happy I was at
+having been selected by the female druids of the Isle of Sen to receive
+in a veil of linen, whitened in the dew of night, the mistletoe which
+the druids cut with a gold sickle at the moment when the moon shed its
+clearest light? Do my father and mother remember how, bringing home the
+mistletoe to sanctify our home, I was taken hither by the ewaghs in a
+chariot decked with flowers and greens while the bards sang the glory of
+Hesus? What tender embraces did not my whole family lavish upon me at my
+return! What a feast it was in our tribe!"</p>
+
+<p>"Dear, dear daughter," said Margarid pressing Hena's head against her
+maternal breast, "if the female druids chose you to receive the sacred
+mistletoe in a linen veil, it was because your soul was as pure as the
+veil."</p>
+
+<p>"It was because little Hena was the bravest of all her companions, she
+almost perished in the attempt to save Janed, the daughter of Wor, who,
+as she was gathering shells on the rocks along the shore of Glen'-Hek,
+fell into the water and was being carried away by the waves," said
+Mikael the armorer, tenderly contemplating his sister.</p>
+
+<p>"It was because, beyond all others, little Hena was sweet,<a name="page_61" id="page_61"></a> patient and
+kind to the children; it was because, when only twelve, she instructed
+them like at matron at the cottage of the female druids of the Isle of
+Sen," said Guilhern in his turn.</p>
+
+<p>The daughter of Joel blushed with modesty at the words of her mother and
+brothers; but Stumpy insisted:</p>
+
+<p>"But who is that third human sacrifice that is to appease Hesus and
+deliver us from war? Who is it, Hena, who is it to be sacrificed this
+evening?"</p>
+
+<p>"I shall tell you, Stumpy," answered the young maid rising; "I shall
+tell you after I have once more looked at the dear little chamber where
+I used to sleep when, having grown unto maidenhood, I came here from the
+Isle of Sen to attend our family feasts." And stepping towards the door
+of the chamber, she stopped for a moment at the threshold and said:</p>
+
+<p>"What sweet nights have I spent there after retiring for the evening,
+regretful of leaving you! With what impatience did I not rise in the
+morning to meet you again!"</p>
+
+<p>Taking two steps into the little chamber, while her family felt ever
+more astonished at hearing Hena, still so young, thus dwell upon the
+past, the young maid proceeded, taking up several articles that lay upon
+a little table:</p>
+
+<p>"This is the sea-shell necklace that I entertained myself making in the
+evening sitting beside my mother.... These are the little dried twigs
+that resemble trees, and that I gathered from our rocks.... This is the
+net which I used when the tide was going out to catch little fishes
+with; how the sport used to amuse me!... There are the rolls of white
+skin on which, every time I came here, I recorded my joy at meeting my
+relatives and again seeing the house of my birth.... I find everything
+in its place. I am glad of having gathered these young girl's
+treasures."</p>
+
+<p>Stumpy, however, whom these mementoes did not seem to affect, again
+repeated in his sour and impatient voice:</p>
+
+<p>"But who is to be the third human sacrifice that is to appease<a name="page_62" id="page_62"></a> Hesus
+and deliver us from war? Who, Hena, is to be sacrificed this evening?"</p>
+
+<p>"I shall let you know, Stumpy," answered Hena smiling. "I shall let you
+know after I shall have distributed my little treasures among you
+all,&mdash;you among them, Stumpy."</p>
+
+<p>Saying this, the daughter of the brenn motioned to her relatives to
+enter the chamber, and in the midst of the silent astonishment of all
+she gave a souvenir to each. Each, even of the little ones who loved her
+so much and also Stumpy received something. In order to make her gifts
+reach around, she loosened the sea-shell necklace and split up the dry
+twigs, saying in her sweet voice to each:</p>
+
+<p>"Keep this, I pray you, out of friendship for Hena, your relative and
+friend."</p>
+
+<p>Joel, his wife and his three children, to all of whom Hena had not yet
+given aught, looked at one another all the more astonished at what she
+did, seeing that towards the end tears appeared in her eyes although the
+young maid gave no other token of sadness. When all the others were
+supplied, Hena took from her neck the garnet necklace that she wore and
+said to Margarid while kissing her hand:</p>
+
+<p>"Hena prays her mother to keep this out of love for her."</p>
+
+<p>She then took the little rolls of white skin that had been prepared for
+writing on, handed them to Joel and kissing his hand said:</p>
+
+<p>"Hena prays her father to keep this roll out of love for her; he will
+there find her most cherished thoughts."</p>
+
+<p>Detaching thereupon from her arm her two garnet bracelets, Hena said to
+the wife of her brother Guilhern, the laborer:</p>
+
+<p>"Hena prays her sister Henory to wear this bracelet out of love for
+her."</p>
+
+<p>And giving the other bracelet to her brother the mariner she said:</p>
+
+<p>"Your wife, Meroë, whom I love as much for her courage as<a name="page_63" id="page_63"></a> for her noble
+heart, is to keep this bracelet as a souvenir from me."</p>
+
+<p>Hena then took from her copper belt the little gold sickle and crescent
+that hung from it. She tendered the former to Guilhern the laborer, the
+second to Albinik the mariner, and taking a ring from her finger she
+gave it to Mikael the armorer, saying to the three:</p>
+
+<p>"I wish my brothers to preserve these keepsakes out of love for their
+sister Hena."</p>
+
+<p>All those present remained astonished and holding in their hands the
+gifts that the virgin of the Isle of Sen had delivered to them. They all
+remained standing and so speechless with astonishment that none could
+utter a word, but looked uneasily at one another as if threatened by
+some unknown disaster. Hena finally turned to Stumpy:</p>
+
+<p>"Stumpy," said she, "I shall now let you know who is to be the third
+sacrifice of this evening;" and taking the hands of Joel and Margarid
+she gently led them back into the large hall, whither all the others
+followed. Arrived there, Hena addressed her parents and assembled
+relatives:</p>
+
+<p>"My father and mother know that the blood of a cowardly murderer is an
+expiatory offering to Hesus, and that it might appease him&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;you told us so, dear daughter."</p>
+
+<p>"They also know that the blood of a brave man who dies in pledge of
+friendship is a valorous offering to Hesus, and that it might appease
+him."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;you told us so, dear daughter."</p>
+
+<p>"Finally, my father and mother know that the most acceptable of all
+offerings to Hesus and most likely to appease him is the innocent blood
+of a virgin, happy and proud at the thought of offering her blood to
+Hesus, and of doing so voluntarily&mdash;voluntarily&mdash;in the hope that that
+all-powerful god may deliver our beloved fatherland, this dear and
+sacred fatherland of our<a name="page_64" id="page_64"></a> fathers, from foreign oppression!... Thus the
+innocent blood of a virgin will flow this evening to appease the wrath
+of Hesus."</p>
+
+<p>"And her name?" asked Stumpy, "the name of that virgin who is to deliver
+us from war!"</p>
+
+<p>Hena looked towards her father and mother with tenderness and serenity
+and said:</p>
+
+<p>"The virgin who is to die is one of the nine female druids of the Isle
+of Sen. Her name is Hena. She is the daughter of Margarid and Joel, the
+brenn of the tribe of Karnak!"</p>
+
+<p>Deep silence fell upon the family of Joel. None, not one present,
+expected to see Hena travel so soon yonder. None, not one present,
+neither her father, nor her mother, nor her brothers, nor any of her
+other relatives, was prepared for the farewells of the sudden journey.</p>
+
+<p>The children joined their little hands and said weeping:</p>
+
+<p>"What!... Leave us so soon?... Our Hena?... Why do you journey away?"</p>
+
+<p>The father and mother looked at each other and sighed.</p>
+
+<p>Margarid said to Hena: "Joel and Margarid believed that they would have
+to wait for their dear daughter in those unknown worlds, where we
+continue to live and where we meet again those whom we have loved
+here.... But it is to be otherwise. It is Hena who will precede us."</p>
+
+<p>"And perhaps," said the brenn, "our sweet and dear daughter will not
+long have to wait for us&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"May her blood, innocent and pure as a lamb's, appease the wrath of
+Hesus!" added Margarid; "May we soon be able to follow our dear daughter
+and inform her that Gaul is delivered from the stranger."</p>
+
+<p>"And the remembrance of the valiant sacrifice of our daughter shall be
+kept alive in our race," said the father; "so long as the descendants of
+Joel, the brenn of the tribe of Karnak, shall live they will be proud to
+number among their ancestors Hena, the virgin of the Isle of Sen."<a name="page_65" id="page_65"></a></p>
+
+<p>The young maid made no answer. Her eyes wandered with sweet avidity from
+one relative to the other as, at the moment of undertaking a journey,
+the departing one takes a last look at the beloved beings from whom he
+is to be separated for a while.</p>
+
+<p>Pointing through the open door at the moon that, now at her fullest, was
+seen across the evening mist rising large-orbed and ruddy like a burning
+disk, Stumpy cried:</p>
+
+<p>"Hena!... Hena! The moon is rising above the horizon...."</p>
+
+<p>"You are right, Stumpy; this is the hour," she said, unwillingly taking
+her eyes from the faces of her beloved family. An instant later she
+added:</p>
+
+<p>"Let my father and mother and all the members of my family accompany me
+to the sacred stones of the forest of Karnak.... The hour of the
+sacrifice has come."</p>
+
+<p>Walking between Joel and Margarid, and followed by all the members of
+the tribe, Hena walked serenely to the forest of Karnak.<a name="page_66" id="page_66"></a></p>
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h3>
+
+<p class="subhead">THE FOREST OF KARNAK.</p>
+
+<p>The call for assembling that was issued to the tribes at noon, had run
+from mouth to mouth, from village to village, from town to town. It was
+heard all over Breton Gaul. Towards evening the tribes proceeded en
+masse&mdash;men, women and children&mdash;to the forest of Karnak, the same as
+Joel and his family.</p>
+
+<p>The moon, at her fullest on that night, shone radiant amid the stars in
+the firmament. After having marched through the dark and the lighted
+spots of the forest, the assembling multitude finally arrived at the
+shores of the sea. The sacred stones of Karnak rose there in nine long
+avenues. They are sacred stones! They are the gigantic pillars of a
+temple that has the sky for its vault.</p>
+
+<p>In the measure that the tribes drew nearer to the place, their solemnity
+deepened.</p>
+
+<p>At the extremity of the avenue, the three stones of the sacrificial
+altar were ranged in a semi-circle, close to the shore. Behind the mass
+of people rose the deep and brooding forest, before them extended the
+boundless sea, above them spread the starry firmament.</p>
+
+<p>The tribes did not step beyond the last avenue of Karnak. They left a
+wide space between themselves and the altar. The large crowd remained
+silent.</p>
+
+<p>At the feet of the sacrificial stones rose three pyres.</p>
+
+<p>The center one, the largest of the three, was ornamented with long white
+veils striped with purple; it was also ornamented with ash, oak and
+birch-tree branches, arranged in mystical order.<a name="page_67" id="page_67"></a></p>
+
+<p>The pyre to the right was somewhat less high, but was also ornamented
+with green branches besides sheafs of wheat. On it lay the body of
+Armel, who had been killed in loyal combat. It was almost hidden under
+green and fruit-bearing boughs.</p>
+
+<p>The left pyre was surmounted with a hollow bunch of twisted osiers
+bearing the resemblance of a human body of gigantic stature.</p>
+
+<p>The sound of cymbals and harps was presently heard from the distance.</p>
+
+<p>The male and female druids, together with the virgins of the Isle of Sen
+were approaching the sacrificial place.</p>
+
+<p>At the head of the procession marched the bards, dressed in long white
+tunics that were held around their waists by brass belts; their temples
+were wreathed in oak leaves; they sang while playing upon their harps:
+"God, Gaul and her heroes."</p>
+
+<p>They were followed by the ewaghs charged with the sacrifices, and
+carrying torches and axes; they led in their midst and in chains
+Daoulas, the murderer who was to be executed.</p>
+
+<p>Behind these marched the druids themselves, clad in their purple-striped
+white robes, and their temples also wreathed in oak leaves. In their
+midst was Julyan, happy and proud; Julyan who was glad to leave this
+world in order to rejoin his friend Armel, and journey in his company
+over the unknown worlds.</p>
+
+<p>Finally came the married female druids, clad in white tunics with gold
+belts, and the nine virgins of the Isle of Sen, clad in their black
+tunics, their belts of brass, their arms bare, their green chaplets and
+their gold harps. Hena walked at the head of the latter. Her eyes looked
+for her father, her mother and her relatives&mdash;Joel, Margarid and their
+family had been placed in the front rank of the crowd&mdash;they soon
+recognized their daughter; their hearts went out to her.</p>
+
+<p>The druids ranked themselves beside the sacrificial stones. The bards
+ceased chanting. One of the ewaghs than said to the<a name="page_68" id="page_68"></a> crowd, that all who
+wished to be remembered to people whom they had loved and who were no
+longer here, could deposit their letters and offering on the pyres.</p>
+
+<p>A large number of relatives and friends of those who had long been
+traveling yonder, thereupon piously approached the pyres, and deposited
+letters, flowers and other souvenirs that were to re-appear in the other
+worlds, the same as the souls of the bodies that were about to dissolve
+in brilliant flames, were to re-appear in a new body.</p>
+
+<p>Nobody, however, not one single person, deposited aught on the pyre of
+the murderer. As proud and joyful as Julyan was, Daoulas was crestfallen
+and frightened. Julyan had everything to hope for from the continuance
+of a life that had been uniformly pure and just. The murderer had
+everything to fear from the continuance of a life that was stained with
+crime. After all the offerings for the departed ones were deposited on
+the pyres, a profound silence followed.</p>
+
+<p>The ewaghs led Daoulas in chains to the osier effigy. Despite the
+pitiful cries of the condemned man, he was pinioned and placed at the
+foot of the pyre, and the ewaghs remained near him, axes in hand.</p>
+
+<p>Talyessin, the oldest of all the druids, an old man with long white
+beard, made a sign to one of the bards, who thereupon struck his
+three-stringed harp and intonated the following chant, after pointing to
+the murderer:</p>
+
+<p>"This man is of the tribe of Morlech. He killed Houarne of the same
+tribe. Did he kill him, like a brave man face to face with equal
+weapons? No, Daoulas killed Houarne like a coward. At the noon hour,
+Houarne was asleep under a tree. Daoulas approached him on tiptoe, axe
+in hand and killed his victim with one blow. Little Erick of the same
+tribe, who happened to be in a near-by tree picking fruit, saw the
+murder and him who committed it. On the evening of the same day the
+ewaghs seized Daoulas in his tribe. Brought before the druids<a name="page_69" id="page_69"></a> of Karnak
+and confronted by Erick, he confessed his crime. Whereupon the oldest of
+the druids said:</p>
+
+<p>"'In the name of Hesus, <i>He who is because he is</i>, in the name of
+Teutates, who presides over journeys in this world and in the others,
+hear: The expiatory blood of the murderer is agreeable to Hesus.... You
+are about to be born again in other worlds. Your new life will be
+terrible, because you were cruel and cowardly.... You will die to be
+re-born in still greater wretchedness forever and ever through all
+eternity.... Become, on the contrary, from the moment that you are
+re-born, brave and good, despite the sufferings that you will endure and
+you will then die happy, to be re-born yonder, thus forever and ever,
+through all eternity!!!'"</p>
+
+<p>The bard then addressed himself to the murderer, who emitted fearful
+cries of terror.</p>
+
+<p>Thus spoke the venerable druid: "Daoulas, you are about to die ... and
+to meet your victim.... <i>He is waiting for you, he is waiting for you!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>When the bard pronounced these words, a shudder went through the
+assembled crowd. The fearful thought of meeting in the next world alive
+him who was killed in this made them all tremble.</p>
+
+<p>The bard proceeded, turning towards the pyre:</p>
+
+<p>"Daoulas, you are about to die! It is a glorious thing to see the face
+of a brave and just person at the moment when he or she voluntarily
+quits this world for some sacred cause. They love, at the moment of
+their departure to see the tender looks of farewell of their parents and
+friends. Cowards like yourself, Daoulas, are unworthy of taking a last
+look at the just. Hence, Daoulas, you will die and burn hidden in that
+envelop of osier, the effigy of a man, as you have become since the
+commission of the murder."</p>
+
+<p>And the bard cried:</p>
+
+<p>"In the name of Hesus! In the name of Teutates! Glory, glory to the
+brave! Shame, shame on the coward!"<a name="page_70" id="page_70"></a></p>
+
+<p>All the bards struck upon their harps and their cymbals, and cried in
+chorus:</p>
+
+<p>"Glory, glory to the brave! Shame, shame on the coward!"</p>
+
+<p>An ewagh then took up a sacred knife, cut off the murderer's life and
+cast his body inside of the huge osier effigy of a man. The pyre was set
+on fire. The harps and cymbals struck up in chorus, and all the tribes
+repeated aloud the last words of the bard:</p>
+
+<p>"Shame on the coward!"</p>
+
+<p>Soon the murderer's pyre was a raging mass of flame, within which was
+seen for a moment the effigy of a man like a giant on fire. The flames
+lighted the tops of the oaks of the forest, the colossal stones of
+Karnak, and even the vast expanse of the sea, while the moon inundated
+the space with its divine light. A few minutes later there was nothing
+left but a heap of ashes where the pyre of Daoulas had stood.</p>
+
+<p>Julyan was then seen ascending with radiant mien the pyre where lay the
+body of Armel, his friend&mdash;his pledged brother. Julyan had on his
+holiday clothes: a blouse of fine material striped white and blue, held
+around his waist by an embroidered leather belt, from which hung his
+knife. His caped cloak of brown wool was held by a brooch over his left
+shoulder. An oak crown decked his manly head. He held in his hand a
+nosegay of vervain. He looked serene and bold. Hardly had he ascended
+the pyre, when again the harps and cymbals struck up, and the bard
+chanted:</p>
+
+<p>"Who is this? He is a brave man! It is Julyan the laborer; Julyan of the
+family of Joel, the brenn of the tribe of Karnak! He fears the gods, and
+all love him. He is good, he is industrious, he is brave. He killed
+Armel not in hate but in a contest, in loyal combat, buckler on arm,
+sword in hand, like a true Breton Gaul, who loves to display his bravery
+and does not fear death. Armel having departed, Julyan, who had pledged
+brotherhood to him, wishes to depart also and join his friend. Glory to
+Julyan, faithful to the teachings of the druids. He knows<a name="page_71" id="page_71"></a> that the
+creatures of the All-Powerful never die, and his pure and noble blood
+Julyan now offers up to Hesus. Glory, hope and happiness to Julyan! He
+has been good, just and brave. He will be re-born still happier, still
+juster, still braver, and ever onward, from world to world, Julyan will
+be re-born, his soul being ever re-incarnated in a new body the same as
+the body that here puts on new clothes."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Gauls! Ye proud souls, to whom death does not exist! Come, come!
+Remove your eyes from this earth; rise to the sublimity of heaven. See,
+see at your feet the abyss of space, dotted by these myriads of mortals
+as are all of us, and whom Teutates guides incessantly from the world
+that they have lived in towards the world that they are next to inhabit.
+Oh, what unknown worlds and marvelous we shall journey through, with our
+friends and our relatives that have preceded us, and with those whom we
+shall precede!"</p>
+
+<p>"No, we are not mortals! Our infinite lives are numbered by myriads and
+myriads of centuries, just as are numbered by myriads of myriads the
+stars in the firmament&mdash;mysterious worlds, ever different, ever new,
+that we are successively to inhabit."</p>
+
+<p>"Let those fear death who, faithful to the false gods of the Greeks, the
+Romans and the Jews, believe that man lives only once, and that after
+that, stripped of his body, the happy or unhappy soul remains eternally
+in the same hell or the same paradise! Aye! They are bound to fear death
+who believe that when man quits this life he finds <i>immobility in
+eternity</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"We Gauls have the right knowledge of God. We hold the secret of death.
+<i>Man is immortal both in body and soul.</i> Our destiny from world to world
+is to see and learn, to the end that at each of these journeys, if we
+have led wicked and impure lives, we may purify ourselves and become
+better&mdash;still better if we have been just and good; and that thus, from
+new birth to new birth man rises incessantly towards perfection as
+endless as his life!"<a name="page_72" id="page_72"></a></p>
+
+<p>"Happy, therefore, are the brave who voluntarily leave this world for
+other regions where they will ever see new and marvelous sights in the
+company of those whom they have loved! Happy, therefore, happy the brave
+Julyan! He is about to meet again with his friend, and with him see and
+know <i>what none of us has yet seen or known, and what all of us shall
+see and know</i>! Happy Julyan! Glory, glory to Julyan!"</p>
+
+<p>And all the bards and all the druids, the female druids and the virgins
+of the Isle of Sen repeated in chorus to the sound of the harps and the
+cymbals:</p>
+
+<p>"Happy, Happy Julyan! Glory to Julyan!"</p>
+
+<p>And all the tribes, feeling the thrill of curiosity of death and certain
+that they all would eventually become acquainted with the marvels of the
+other worlds, repeated with their thousands of voices:</p>
+
+<p>"Happy Julyan! Happy Julyan!"</p>
+
+<p>Standing erect upon his pyre, his face radiant, and at his feet the body
+of Armel, Julyan raised his inspired eyes towards the brilliant moon,
+opened his blouse, drew his long knife, held up the nosegay of vervain
+to heaven with his left hand, and with his right firmly plunged his
+knife into his breast, uttering as he did so in a strong voice:</p>
+
+<p>"Happy&mdash;happy am I. I am to join Armel!"</p>
+
+<p>The pyre was immediately lighted. Julyan, raised for a last, time his
+nosegay of vervain to heaven, and then vanished in the midst of the
+blinding flames, while the chants of the bards and the clang of harp and
+cymbals resounded far and wide.</p>
+
+<p>In their impatience to see and know the mysteries of the other world, a
+large number of men and women of the tribes rushed towards Julyan's pyre
+for the purpose of departing with him and of offering to Hesus an
+immense hecatomb with their bodies. But Talyessin, the eldest of the
+druids, ordered the ewaghs to restrain and hold these faithful people
+back. He cried out to them:</p>
+
+<p>"Enough blood has flown without that which is still to flow.<a name="page_73" id="page_73"></a> But the
+hour has come when the blood of Gaul should flow only for freedom. The
+blood that is shed for liberty is also an agreeable offering to the
+All-Powerful."</p>
+
+<p>It was not without great effort that the ewaghs prevented the threatened
+rush of voluntary human sacrifices. The pyre of Julyan and Armel burned
+until the flames had nothing more to feed upon.</p>
+
+<p>Again profound silence fell upon the crowd. Hena, the virgin of the Isle
+of Sen, had ascended the third pyre.</p>
+
+<p>Joel and Margarid, their three sons, Guilhern, Albinik and Mikael,
+Guilhern's wife and little children all of whom so dearly loved Hena,
+all her relatives and all the members of her tribe held one another in a
+close embrace, and said to one another:</p>
+
+<p>"There is Hena.... There is our Hena!"</p>
+
+<p>As the virgin of the Isle of Sen stood upon the pyre that was ornamented
+with white veils, greens and flowers, the crowds of the tribes cried in
+one voice: "How beautiful she is!... How holy!"</p>
+
+<p>Joel writes it now down in all sincerity. His daughter Hena was indeed
+very beautiful as she stood erect on the pyre, lighted by the mellow
+light of the moon and resplendent in her black tunic, her blonde hair
+and her green chaplet, while her arms, whiter than ivory, embraced her
+gold harp!</p>
+
+<p>The bards ordered silence.</p>
+
+<p>The virgin of the Isle of Sen sang in a voice as pure as her own soul:</p>
+
+<p>"The daughter of Joel and Margarid comes to offer gladly her life as a
+sacrifice to Hesus!</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, All-Powerful! From the stranger deliver the soil of our father!</p>
+
+<p>"Gauls of Britanny, you have the lance and the sword!</p>
+
+<p>"The daughter of Joel and Margarid has but her blood. She offers it
+voluntarily to Hesus!</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Almighty God! Render invincible the Gallic lance and<a name="page_74" id="page_74"></a> sword! Oh,
+Hesus, take my blood, it is yours ... save our sacred fatherland!"</p>
+
+<p>The eldest of the female druids stood all this while on the pyre behind
+Hena with the sacred knife in her hand. When Hena's chant was ended, the
+knife glistened in the air and struck the virgin of the Isle of Sen.</p>
+
+<p>Her mother and her brothers, all the members of her tribe and her father
+Joel saw Hena fall upon her knees, cross her arms, turn her celestial
+face towards the moon, and cry with a still sonorous voice:</p>
+
+<p>"Hesus ... Hesus ... by the blood that flows.... Mercy for Gaul!"</p>
+
+<p>"Gauls, by this blood that flows, victory to our arms!"</p>
+
+<p>Thus the sacrifice of Hena was consummated amidst the religious
+admiration of the tribes. All repeated the last words of the brave
+virgin:</p>
+
+<p>"Hesus, mercy for Gaul!... Gauls, victory to our arms!"</p>
+
+<p>Several young men, being fired with enthusiasm by the heroic example and
+beauty of Hena sought to kill themselves upon her pyre in order to be
+re-born with her. The ewaghs held them back. The flames soon enveloped
+the pyre and Hena vanished in their dazzling splendor. A few minutes
+later there was nothing left of the virgin and her pyre but a heap of
+ashes. A high wind sat in from the sea and dispersed the atoms. The
+virgin of the Isle of Sen, brilliant and pure as the flame that consumed
+her, had vanished into space to be re-born and to await beyond for the
+arrival of those whom she had loved.</p>
+
+<p>The cymbals and harps resounded anew, and the chief of the bards struck
+up the chant:</p>
+
+<p>"To arms, ye Gauls, to arms!</p>
+
+<p>"The innocent blood of a virgin flowed for your sakes, and shall not
+yours flow for the fatherland! To arms! The Romans are here. Strike,
+Gauls, strike at their heads! Strike hard! See the enemy's blood flow
+like a stream! It rises up to your knees! Courage! Strike hard! Gauls,
+strike the Romans! Still harder!<a name="page_75" id="page_75"></a> Harder still! You see the enemy's
+blood extend like a lake! It rises up to your chests! Courage! Strike
+still harder, Gauls! Strike the Romans! Strike harder still! You will
+rest to-morrow.... To-morrow Gaul will be free! Let, to-day, from the
+Loire to the ocean, but one cry resound&mdash;'To arms!'"</p>
+
+<p>As if carried away by the breath of war, all the tribes dispersed,
+running to their arms. The moon had gone down; dark night set in. But
+from all parts of the woods, from the bottoms of the valleys, from the
+tops of the hills where the signal fires were burning, a thousand voices
+echoed and re-echoed the chant of the bards:</p>
+
+<p>"To arms! Strike, Gauls! Strike hard at the Romans! To arms!"</p>
+
+<p class="dots">* * *</p>
+
+<p>The above truthful account of all that happened at our poor home on the
+birthday of my glorious Hena, a day that also saw her heroic
+sacrifice&mdash;that account has been written by me, Joel, the brenn of the
+tribe of Karnak, at the last moon of October of the first year that
+Julius Cæsar came to invade Gaul. I wrote it upon the rolls of white
+skin that my glorious daughter Hena gave me as a keepsake, and my eldest
+son, Guilhern has attached to them the keepsake he received from
+her&mdash;the mystic gold sickle of the virgin druid priestess. Let the two
+ever remain together.</p>
+
+<p>After me, my eldest son Guilhern shall carefully preserve both the
+writing and the emblem, and after Guilhern, the sons of his sons are
+charged to transmit them from generation to generation, to the end that
+our family may for all time preserve green the memory of Hena, the
+virgin of the Isle of Sen.</p>
+
+<p class="c">(The End.)</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<div class="box3">
+<p class="c">THE INFANT'S SKULL;<br />OR<br />THE END OF THE WORLD.</p>
+
+<p class="c">By EUGENE SUE.</p>
+
+<p class="c"><i>Translated from the original French</i><br />By DANIEL DE LEON.</p>
+
+<p>This is one of that series of thrilling stories by Eugene Sue in which
+historic personages and events are so artistically grouped that, without
+the fiction losing by the otherwise solid facts and without the solid
+facts suffering by the fiction, both are enhanced and combinedly act as
+a flash-light upon the past&mdash;and no less so upon the future.</p>
+
+<p class="c">PRICE, FIFTY CENTS.</p>
+
+<p class="c">New York Labor News Co.<br />2, 4 &amp; 6 New Reade Street<br />New York, N. Y.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="box3">
+<p class="c">THE PILGRIM'S SHELL</p>
+
+<p class="c">OR</p>
+
+<p class="c">FERGAN THE QUARRYMAN</p>
+
+<p class="c">By Eugene Sue.</p>
+
+<p class="c">Translated by Daniel De Leon.</p>
+
+<p class="c">283 pp., on fine book paper, cloth 75 cents.</p>
+
+<p>This great historical story by the eminent French writer is one of the
+majestic series that cover the leading and successive episodes of the
+history of the human race. The novel treats of the feudal system, the
+first Crusade and the rise of the Communes in France. It is the only
+translation into English of this masterpiece of Sue.</p>
+
+<p class="c">The New York Sun says:</p>
+
+<p>Eugene Sue wrote a romance which seems to have disappeared in a curious
+fashion, called "Les Mysteres du Peuple." It is the story of a Gallic
+family through the ages, told in successive episodes, and, so far as we
+have been able to read it, is fully as interesting as "The Wandering
+Jew" or "The Mysteries of Paris." The French edition is pretty hard to
+find, and only parts have been translated into English. We don't know
+the reason. One medieval episode, telling of the struggle of the
+communes for freedom, is now translated by Mr. Daniel De Leon, under the
+title "The Pilgrim's Shell" (New York Labor News Co.). We trust the
+success of his effort may be such as to lead him to translate the rest
+of the romance. It will be the first time the feat has been done in
+English.</p>
+
+<p class="c">NEW YORK LABOR NEWS CO.,<br />2, 4 &amp; 6 New Reade St., New York.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="box3">
+<p class="c">Woman Under Socialism</p>
+
+<p class="c">By August Bebel</p>
+
+<p>Translated from the Original German of the Thirty-third Edition by
+Daniel De Leon, Editor of the New York Daily People, with translator's
+preface and foot notes.</p>
+
+<p class="c">Cloth, 400 pages, with pen drawing of the author.</p>
+
+<p class="c">Price, $1.00</p>
+
+<p>The complete emancipation of woman, and her complete equality with man
+is the final goal of our social development, whose realization no power
+on earth can prevent;&mdash;and this realization is possible only by a social
+change that shall abolish the rule of man over man&mdash;hence also of
+capitalists over working-men. Only then will the human race reach its
+highest development. The "Golden Age" that man has been dreaming of for
+thousands of years, and after which they have been longing, will have
+come at last. Class rule will have reached its end for all time, and
+along with it, the rule of man over woman.</p>
+
+<p class="c">CONTENTS:</p>
+
+<p style="text-indent:0%;">
+WOMAN IN THE PAST.<br />
+  Before Christianity.<br />
+  Under Christianity.<br /><br />
+WOMAN IN THE PRESENT.<br />
+  Sexual Instinct, Wedlock, Checks and Obstructions to Marriage.<br />
+  Further Checks and Obstructions to Marriage, Numerical Proportion of<br />
+    the Sexes, Its Causes and Effects.<br />
+  Prostitution a Necessary Institution of the Capitalist World.<br />
+  Woman's Position as a Breadwinner. Her Intellectual Faculties,<br />
+    Darwinism and the Condition of Society.<br />
+  Woman's Civic and Political Status.<br />
+  The State and Society.<br />
+  The Socialization of Society.<br /><br />
+WOMAN IN THE FUTURE.<br />
+INTERNATIONALITY.<br />
+POPULATION AND OVER-POPULATION.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>NEW YORK LABOR NEWS CO.<br />2-6 New Reade St.<br />New York City</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="box3">
+<p class="c">The Paris Commune</p>
+
+<p>By Karl Marx, with the elaborate introduction of Frederick Engels. It
+includes the First and Second manifestos of the International
+Workingman's Association, the Civil War in France and the
+Anti-Plebiscite Manifesto. Near his close of the Civil War in France,
+turning from history to forecast the future, Marx says:</p>
+
+<p>"After Whit-Sunday, 1871, there can be neither peace nor truce possible
+between the Workingmen of France and the appropriators of their produce.
+The iron hand of a mercenary soldiery may keep for a time both classes
+tied down in common oppression. But the battle must break out in ever
+growing dimensions, and there can be no doubt as to who will be the
+victor in the end&mdash;the appropriating few, or the immense working
+majority. And the French working class is only the vanguard of the
+modern proletariat."</p>
+
+<p class="c">Price, 50 cents.</p>
+
+<p class="c">New York Labor News Co.<br />
+2, 4, &amp; 6 New Reade Street,<br />
+New York City.<br /></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GOLD SICKLE***</p>
+<p>******* This file should be named 31752-h.txt or 31752-h.zip *******</p>
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+</pre>
+</body>
+</html>
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Gold Sickle, by Eugène Sue, Translated by
+Daniel De Leon
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Gold Sickle
+       or Hena, The Virgin of The Isle of Sen. A Tale of Druid Gaul
+
+
+Author: Eugène Sue
+
+
+
+Release Date: March 23, 2010  [eBook #31752]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GOLD SICKLE***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Chuck Greif and the Project Gutenberg Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from scanned images of
+public domain material generously made available by the Google Books
+Library Project (http://books.google.com/)
+
+
+
+Note: Images of the original pages are available through
+      the the Google Books Library Project. See
+      http://books.google.com/books?vid=MCYnAAAAMAAJ&id
+
+
+
+
+
+THE GOLD SICKLE
+
+Or
+
+Hena, The Virgin of The Isle of Sen
+
+A Tale of Druid Gaul
+
+by
+
+EUGENE SUE
+
+Translated from the Original French by Daniel De Leon
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+New York Labor News Company, 1904
+
+Copyright, 1904, by the
+New York Labor News Company
+
+
+
+
+TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE
+
+
+_The Gold Sickle; or, Hena the Virgin of the Isle of Sen_, is the
+initial story of the series that Eugene Sue wrote under the collective
+title of _The Mysteries of the People; or, History of a Proletarian
+Family Across the Ages_.
+
+The scheme of this great work of Sue's was stupendously ambitious--and
+the author did not fall below the ideal that he pursued. His was the
+purpose of producing a comprehensive "universal history," dating from
+the beginning of the present era down to his own days. But the history
+that he proposed to sketch was not to be a work for closet study. It was
+to be a companion in the stream of actual, every-day life and struggle,
+with an eye especially to the successive struggles of the successively
+ruled with the successively ruling classes. In the execution of his
+design, Sue conceived a plan that was as brilliant as it was
+poetic--withal profoundly philosophic. One family, the descendants of a
+Gallic chief named Joel, typifies the oppressed; one family, the
+descendants of a Frankish chief and conqueror named Neroweg, typifies
+the oppressor; and across and adown the ages, the successive struggles
+between oppressors and oppressed--the history of civilization--is thus
+represented in a majestic allegory. In the execution of this superb plan
+a thread was necessary to connect the several epochs with one another,
+to preserve the continuity requisite for historic accuracy, and, above
+all, to give unity and point to the silent lesson taught by the
+unfolding drama. Sue solved the problem by an ingenious scheme--a series
+of stories, supposedly written from age to age, sometimes at shorter,
+other times at longer intervals, by the descendants of the ancestral
+type of the oppressed, narrating their special experience and handing
+the supplemented chronicle down to their successors from generation to
+generation, always accompanied with some emblematic relic, that
+constitutes the first name of each story. The series, accordingly,
+though a work presented in the garb of "fiction," is the best universal
+history extant: Better than any work, avowedly on history, it
+graphically traces the special features of class-rule as they have
+succeeded one another from epoch to epoch, together with the special
+character of the struggle between the contending classes. The "Law,"
+"Order," "Patriotism," "Religion," "Family," etc., etc., that each
+successive tyrant class, despite its change of form, fraudulently sought
+refuge in to justify its criminal existence whenever threatened; the
+varying economic causes of the oppression of the toilers; the mistakes
+incurred by these in their struggles for redress; the varying fortunes
+of the conflict;--all these social dramas are therein reproduced in a
+majestic series of "novels" covering leading and successive episodes in
+the history of the race--an inestimable gift, above all to our own
+generation, above all to the American working class, the short history
+of whose country deprives it of historic back-ground.
+
+It is not until the fifth story is reached--the period of the Frankish
+conquest of Gaul, 486 of the present era--that the two distinct streams
+of the typical oppressed and typical oppressor meet. But the four
+preceding ones are necessary, and preparatory for the main drama, that
+starts with the fifth story and that, although carried down to the
+revolution of 1848 which overthrew Louis Philippe in France, reaches its
+grand climax in _The Sword of Honor; or, The Foundation of the French
+Republic_, that is, the French Revolution. These stories are nineteen in
+number, and their chronological order is the following:
+
+     1. The Gold Sickle; or, Hena, the Virgin of the Isle of Sen;
+     2. The Brass Bell; or, The Chariot of Death;
+     3. The Iron Collar; or, Faustine and Syomara;
+     4. The Silver Cross; or, The Carpenter of Nazareth;
+     5. The Casque's Lark; or, Victoria, The Mother of the Fields;
+     6. The Poniard's Hilt; or, Karadeucq and Ronan;
+     7. The Branding Needle; or, The Monastery of Charolles;
+     8. The Abbatial Crosier; or, Bonaik and Septimine;
+     9. Carlovingian Coins; or, The Daughters of Charlemagne;
+    10. The Iron Arrow-Head; or, The Maid of the Buckler;
+    11. The Infant's Skull; or, The End of the World;
+    12. The Pilgrim's Shell; or, Fergan the Quarryman;
+    13. The Iron Pincers; or, Mylio and Karvel;
+    14. The Iron Trevet; or, Jocelyn the Champion;
+    15. The Executioner's Knife; or, Joan of Arc;
+    16. The Pocket Bible; or, Christian the Printer;
+    17. The Blacksmith's Hammer; or, The Peasant-Code;
+    18. The Sword of Honor; or, The Foundation of the French Republic;
+    19. The Galley-Slave's Ring; or, The Family of Lebrenn.
+
+Long and effectually has the influence of the usurping class in the
+English-speaking world succeeded in keeping this brilliant torch that
+Eugene Sue lighted, from casting its rays across the path of the
+English-speaking peoples. Several English translations were attempted
+before this, in England and this country, some fifty years ago. They
+were all fractional: they are all out of print now: most of them are not
+to be found even in public libraries of either England or America, not a
+wrack being left to them, little more than a faint tradition. Only two
+of the translations are not wholly obliterated. One of them was
+published by Truebner & Co. jointly with David Nutt, both of London, in
+1863; the other was published by Clark, 448 Broome street, New York, in
+1867. The former was anonymous, the translator's identity being
+indicated only with the initials "K. R. H. M." It contains only eight of
+the nineteen stories of the original, and even these are avowedly
+abridgments. The latter was translated by Mary L. Booth, and it broke
+off before well under way--extinguished as if snuffed off by a gale.
+Even these two luckier fragmentary translations, now surviving only as
+curios in a few libraries, attest the vehemence and concertedness of the
+effort to suppress this great gift of Sue's intellect to the human race.
+It will be thus no longer. _The Mysteries of the People; or, History of
+a Proletarian Family Across the Ages_ will henceforth enlighten the
+English-speaking toiling masses as well.
+
+DANIEL DE LEON.
+
+New York, May 1, 1904.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+Translator's Preface                           iii
+
+Chapter 1. The Guest                             1
+
+Chapter 2. A Gallic Homestead                   11
+
+Chapter 3. Armel and Julyan                     20
+
+Chapter 4. The Story of Albrege                 27
+
+Chapter 5. The Story of Syomara                 33
+
+Chapter 6. The Story of Gaul                    39
+
+Chapter 7. "War! War! War!"                     45
+
+Chapter 8. "Farewell!"                          53
+
+Chapter 9. The Forest of Karnak                 66
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE GUEST.
+
+
+He who writes this account is called Joel, the brenn[A] of the tribe of
+Karnak; he is the son of Marik, who was the son of Kirio, the son of
+Tiras, the son of Gomer, the son of Vorr, the son of Glenan, the son of
+Erer, the son of Roderik chosen chief of the Gallic army that, now two
+hundred and seventy-seven years ago, levied tribute upon Rome.
+
+[A] Gallic word for chief.
+
+Joel (why should I not say so?) feared the gods, he was of a right
+heart, a steady courage and a cheerful mind. He loved to laugh, to tell
+stories, and above all to hear them told, like the genuine Gaul that he
+was.
+
+At the time when Caesar invaded Gaul (may his name be accursed!), Joel
+lived two leagues from Alre, not far from the sea and the isle of
+Roswallan, near the edge of the forest of Karnak, the most celebrated
+forest of Breton Gaul.
+
+One evening towards nightfall--the evening before the anniversary of the
+day when Hena, his daughter, his well-beloved daughter was born unto
+him--it is now eighteen years ago--Joel and his eldest son Guilhern were
+returning home in a chariot drawn by four of those fine little Breton
+oxen whose horns are smaller than their ears. Joel and his son had been
+laying marl on their lands, as is usually done in the autumn, so that
+the lands may be in good condition for seed-time in the spring. The
+chariot was slowly climbing up the hill of Craig'h at a place where that
+mountainous road is narrowed between two rocks, and from where the sea
+is seen at a distance, and still farther away the Isle of Sen--the
+mysterious and sacred isle.
+
+"Father," Guilhern said to Joel, "look down there below on the flank of
+the hill. There is a rider coming this way. Despite the steepness of the
+descent, he has put his horse to a gallop."
+
+"As sure as the good Elldud invented the plow, that man will break his
+neck."
+
+"Where can he be riding to in such a hurry? The sun is going down; the
+wind blows high and threatens a storm; and that road that leads to the
+desert strand--"
+
+"Son, that man is not of Breton Gaul. He wears a furred cap and a shaggy
+coat, and his tanned-skin hose are fastened with red bands."
+
+"A short axe hangs at his right and he has a long knife in a sheath at
+his left."
+
+"His large black horse does not seem to stumble in the descent.... Where
+can he be going in such a hurry?"
+
+"Father, the man must have lost his way."
+
+"Oh, my son, may Teutates hear you! We shall tender our hospitality to
+the rider. His dress tells he is a stranger. What beautiful stories will
+he not be able to tell us of his country and his travels!"
+
+"May the divine Ogmi, whose words bind men in golden chains, be
+propitious to us, father! It is long since any strange story-teller has
+sat at our hearth."
+
+"Besides, we have had no news of what is going on elsewhere in Gaul."
+
+"Unfortunately so!"
+
+"Oh, my son, if I were all-powerful as Hesus, I would have a new
+story-teller every evening at supper."
+
+"I would send men traveling everywhere, and have them return and tell
+their adventures."
+
+"And if I had the power of Hesus, what wonderful adventures would I not
+provide for my travelers so as to increase the interest in their stories
+on their return."
+
+"Father, the rider is coming close to us!"
+
+"Yes, he reins in because the road is here narrow, and we bar his
+passage with our chariot. Come, Guilhern, the moment is favorable; the
+passenger must have lost his way; let us offer him hospitality for
+to-night. We shall then keep him to-morrow, and perhaps several other
+days. We shall have done him a good turn, and he will give us the news
+from Gaul and of the other countries that he has visited."
+
+"Besides, it will be a great joy to my sister Hena who is to come home
+to-morrow for the feast of her birthday."
+
+"Oh, Guilhern, I never thought of the pleasure that my beloved daughter
+will have listening to the stranger! He must be our guest!"
+
+"That he shall be, father! Indeed, he shall!" answered Guilhern
+resolutely.
+
+Joel and his son alighted from the chariot, and advanced towards the
+rider. Once close to him, both were struck with the majesty of the
+stranger's looks. Nothing haughtier than his eyes, more masculine than
+his face, more worthy than his bearing. On his forehead and on one cheek
+were visible the traces of two wounds only freshly healed. To judge by
+his dauntless appearance, the rider must have been one of those chiefs
+whom the tribes elect from time to time to lead them in battle. Joel and
+his son were all the more anxious to have him accept their hospitality.
+
+"Friend traveler," said Joel, "night is upon us; you have lost your way;
+the road you are on leads nowhere but to the desert strands; the tide
+will soon be washing over them because the wind is blowing high. To keep
+on your route by night would be dangerous. Come to my house. You may
+resume your journey to-morrow."
+
+"I have not lost my way; I know where I am going to; and I am in a
+hurry. Turn your oxen aside; make room for me to pass," was the brusque
+answer of the rider, whose forehead was wet with perspiration from the
+hurry of his course. By his accent he seemed to be from central Gaul,
+towards the Loire. After having thus addressed Joel, he struck his
+large black horse with both heels in the flanks and tried to draw still
+nearer to the oxen that now completely barred his passage.
+
+"Friend traveler, did you not hear me?" rejoined Joel. "I told you that
+this road led only to the seashore, that night was on, and that I offer
+you my house."
+
+The stranger, however, beginning to wax angry, replied: "I do not need
+your hospitality.... Draw your oxen aside.... Do you not see that the
+rocks leave me no passage either way?... Hurry up; I am in haste--"
+
+"Friend," said Joel, "you are a stranger; I am of this country; it is my
+duty to prevent you from going astray.... I shall do my duty--"
+
+"By Ritha-Gaur, who made himself a blouse out of the beard of the kings
+he shaved!" cried the stranger, now in towering rage. "I have traveled a
+deal since my beard began to grow, have seen many countries, many
+peoples and many strange customs, but never yet have I come across two
+fools like these!"
+
+Learning from the mouth of the stranger himself that he had seen many
+countries, many peoples and many strange customs, Joel and his son, both
+of whom were passionately fond of hearing stories, concluded that many
+and charming must be the ones the stranger could tell, and they felt all
+the more desirous of securing such a guest. Accordingly, so far from
+turning the chariot aside, Joel advanced close to the rider, and said to
+him with the sweetest voice that he could master, his natural voice
+being rather rough:
+
+"Friend, you shall go no further! I wish to be respectful to the gods,
+above all to Teutates, the god of travelers, and shall therefore keep
+you from going astray by making you spend a good night under a good
+roof, instead of allowing you to wander about the strand, where you
+would run the risk of being drowned in the rising tide."
+
+"Take care!" replied the unknown rider carrying his hand to the axe that
+hung from his belt. "Take care!... If you do not forthwith turn your
+oxen aside, I shall make a sacrifice to the gods, and shall join you to
+the offering!"
+
+"The gods cannot choose but protect such a worshipper as yourself,"
+answered Joel, who, smiling, had passed a few words in a low voice to
+his son. "The gods will prevent you from spending the night on the
+strand.... You'll see--"
+
+Father and son precipitated themselves unexpectedly upon the traveler.
+Each took him by a leg, and both being large and robust men, raised him
+erect over his saddle, giving at the same time a thump with their knees
+to his horse's belly. The animal ran ahead, and Joel and Guilhern
+respectfully lowered the rider on his feet to the ground. Now in a wild
+rage, the traveler tried to resist, but before he could draw his knife
+he was held fast by Joel and Guilhern, one of whom produced a strong
+rope with which they firmly tied the stranger's feet and hands--all of
+which was done with great mildness and affability on the part of the
+story-greedy father and son, who despite the furious wrestling of the
+stranger, deposited him on the chariot with increasing respect and
+politeness, seeing they were increasingly struck by the virile dignity
+of his face.
+
+Guilhern then mounted the traveler's horse and followed the chariot that
+Joel led, urging on the oxen with his goad. They were in earnest haste
+to reach the shelter of their house: the gale increased; the roar of the
+waves was heard dashing upon the rocks along the coast; streaks of
+lightning glistened through the darkening clouds; all the signs
+portended a stormy night.
+
+All these threatening signs notwithstanding, the unknown rider seemed
+nowise thankful for the hospitality that Joel and his son had pressed
+upon him. Extended on the bottom of the chariot he was pale with rage.
+He ground his teeth and puffed at his mouth. But keeping his anger to
+himself he said not a word. Joel (it must be admitted) passionately
+loved a story, but he also passionately loved to talk. He turned to the
+stranger:
+
+"My guest, for such you are now, I give thanks to Teutates, the god of
+travelers, for having sent me a guest. You should know who I am. Yes, I
+must tell you who I am, seeing you are to sit down at my hearth;" and
+unaffected by the stranger's gesture of anger, which seemed to say he
+cared not to know who Joel was, the latter proceeded:
+
+"My name is Joel ... I am the son of Marik, who was the son of Kirio ...
+Kirio was the son of Tiras ... Tiras was the son of Gomer ... Gomer was
+the son of Vorr ... Vorr was the son of Glenan ... Glenan, son of Erer,
+who was the son of Roderik, chosen brenn of the confederated Gallic
+army, who two hundred and seventy-six years ago levied tribute upon Rome
+in order to punish the Romans for their treachery. I have been chosen
+brenn of my tribe, which is the tribe of Karnak. From father to son we
+have been peasants; we cultivate our fields as best we can, following
+the example left by Coll to our ancestors.... We sow more wheat and
+barley than rye and oats."
+
+The stranger continued nursing his rage rather than paying any attention
+to these details. Joel continued imperturbably:
+
+"Thirty-two years ago, I married Margarid, the daughter of Dorlern. I
+have from her three sons and a daughter. The elder boy is there behind
+us, leading your good black horse, friend guest ... his name is
+Guilhern. He and several other relatives help me in the cultivation of
+our field. I raise a good many black sheep that pasture on our meadows,
+as well as half-wild hogs, as vicious as wolves and who never sleep
+under a roof.... We have some fine meadows in this valley of Alre.... I
+also raise horses, colts of my spirited stallion Tom-Bras.[B] My son
+amuses himself raising war and hunting dogs. The hunting dogs are of the
+breed of a greyhound named Tyntammar; the ones destined for war are the
+whelps of a large mastiff named Deber-Trud.[C] Our horses and our dogs
+are so renowned that people come more than twenty leagues from here to
+buy them. So you see, my guest, that you might have fallen into a worse
+house."
+
+[B] Ardent.
+
+[C] Man-eater.
+
+The stranger emitted a sigh of suppressed rage, bit what he could reach
+of his long blonde mustache and raised his eyes to heaven.
+
+Joel proceeded while pricking his oxen:
+
+"Mikael, my second son, is an armorer at Alre, four leagues from
+here.... He does not fashion war implements only, but also plow-coulters
+and long Gallic scythes and axes that are highly prized, because he
+draws his iron from the mountains of Arres.... But there is more, friend
+traveler.... Mikael does other things besides. Before establishing
+himself at Alre, he was at Bourges and worked with one of our parents
+who is a descendant of the first artisan who ever conceived the idea of
+alloying iron and copper with block-tin, a composition in which the
+artisans of Bourges excel.... Thus my son Mikael came away a worthy
+pupil of his masters. Oh, if you only saw the things he turns out! You
+would think the horse's bits, the chariot ornaments, the superb casques
+of war that Mikael manufactures to be of silver! He has just finished a
+casque the point of which represents an elk's head with its horns....
+There is nothing more magnificent!"
+
+"O!" murmured the stranger between his teeth, "how true is the saying:
+'The Sword of a Gaul kills but once, his tongue massacres you without
+end!'"
+
+"Friend guest, so far I can bestow no praise upon your tongue, which is
+as silent as a fish's. But I shall await your leisure, when it will be
+your turn to tell me who you are, whence you come, where you are going
+to, what you have seen in your travels, what wonderful people you have
+met, and the latest news from the sections of Gaul that you have
+traversed. While waiting for your narratives, I shall finish informing
+you about myself and family."
+
+At this threat the stranger contorted his members in an effort to snap
+his bonds; he failed; the rope was staunch, and Joel as well as his son
+made perfect knots.
+
+"I have not yet spoken to you of my third son Albinik the sailor,"
+continued Joel. "He traffics with the island of Great Britanny, as well
+as all the ports of Gaul, and he goes as far as Spain carrying Gascony
+wines and salted provisions from Aquitaine.... Unfortunately he has been
+at sea a long time with his lovely wife Meroe; so you will not see them
+this evening at my house. I told you that besides three sons I had a
+daughter ... as to her! Oh, as to her!... See here," added Joel with an
+air that was at once boastful and tender, "she is the pearl of the
+family.... It is not I only who say so, my wife also, my sons, my whole
+tribe says the same thing. There is but one voice to sing the praises of
+Hena, the daughter of Joel ... of Hena, one of the virgins of the Isle
+of Sen."
+
+"What!" cried the traveler sitting up with a start, the only motion
+allowed to him by his bonds, that held his feet tied and his arms
+pinioned behind him. "What? Your daughter? Is she one of the virgins of
+the Isle of Sen?"
+
+"That seems to astonish and somewhat mollify you, friend guest!"
+
+"Your daughter?" the stranger proceeded, as if unable to believe what he
+heard. "Your daughter?... Is she one of the nine druid priestesses of
+the Isle of Sen?"
+
+"As true as that to-morrow it will be eighteen years since she was born!
+We have been preparing to celebrate her birthday, and you may attend the
+feast. The guest seated at our hearth is of our family.... You will see
+my daughter. She is the most beautiful, the sweetest, the wisest of her
+companions, without thereby detracting from any of them."
+
+"Very well, then," brusquely replied the unknown, "I shall pardon you
+the violence you committed upon me."
+
+"Hospitable violence, friend."
+
+"Hospitable, or not, you prevented me by force from proceeding to the
+wharf of Erer, where a boat awaited me until sunset, to take me to the
+Isle of Sen."
+
+At these words Joel broke out laughing.
+
+"What are you laughing about?" asked the stranger.
+
+"If you were to tell me that a boat with the head of a dog, the wings of
+a bird and the tail of a fish was waiting for you to take you to the
+sun, I would laugh as loud, and for the same reason. You are my guest; I
+shall not insult you by telling you that you lie. But I will tell you,
+friend, you are joking when you talk of a boat that is to take you to
+the Isle of Sen. No man, excepting the very oldest druids, have ever or
+ever will set foot on the Isle of Sen."
+
+"And when you go there to see your daughter?"
+
+"I do not step on the isle. I stop at the little island of Kellor. There
+I wait for my daughter, and she goes there to meet me."
+
+"Friend Joel," said the traveler, "you have so willed it that I be your
+guest; I am that, and, as such, I ask a service of you. Take me
+to-morrow in your boat to the little island of Kellor."
+
+"Do you know that the ewaghs watch day and night?"
+
+"I know it. It was one of them who was to come for me this evening at
+the wharf of Erer to conduct me to Talyessin the oldest of the druids,
+who, at this hour, is at the Isle of Sen with his wife Auria."
+
+"That is true!" exclaimed Joel much surprised. "The last time my
+daughter came home she said that Talyessin was on the isle since the new
+year, and that the wife of Talyessin tendered her a mother's care."
+
+"You see, you may believe me, friend Joel. Take me to-morrow to the
+island of Kellor; I shall see one of the ewaghs."
+
+"I consent. I shall take you to the island of Kellor."
+
+"And now you may loosen my bonds. I swear by Hesus that I shall not seek
+to elude your hospitality."
+
+"Very well," responded Joel, loosening the stranger's bonds; "I trust my
+guest's promise."
+
+While this conversation proceeded it had grown pitch dark. But the
+darkness notwithstanding and the difficulties of the road, the chariot,
+conducted by the sure hand of Joel, rolled up before his house. His son,
+Guilhern, who, mounted on the stranger's horse, had followed the van,
+took an ox-horn that was opened at both ends, and using it for a trumpet
+blew three times. The signal was speedily answered by a great barking of
+dogs.
+
+"Here we are at home!" said Joel to the stranger. "Be not alarmed at the
+barking of the dogs. Listen! That loud voice that dominates all the
+others is Deber-Trud's, from whom descends the valiant breed of war dogs
+that you will see to-morrow. My son Guilhern will take your horse to the
+stable. The animal will find a good shelter and plenty of provender."
+
+At the sound of Guilhern's trump, one of the family came out of the
+house holding a resin torch. Guided by the light, Joel led his oxen and
+the chariot entered the yard.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+A GALLIC HOMESTEAD.
+
+
+Like all other rural homes, Joel's was spacious and round of shape. The
+walls consisted of two rows of hurdles, the space between which was
+filled with a mixture of beaten clay and straw; the inside and outside
+of the thick wall was plastered over with a layer of fine and fattish
+earth, which, when dry, was hard as sandstone. The roofing was large and
+projecting. It consisted of oaken joists joined together and covered
+with a layer of seaweed laid so thick that it was proof against water.
+
+On either side of the house stood the barns destined for the storage of
+the harvest, and also for the stables, the sheepfolds, the kennels, the
+storerooms and the washrooms.
+
+These several structures formed an oblong square that surrounded a large
+yard, closed up at night with a massive gate. On the outside, a strong
+palisade, raised on the brow of a deep ditch, enclosed the system of
+buildings, leaving between it and them an alley about four feet wide.
+Two large and ferocious war mastiffs were let loose during the night in
+the vacant space. The palisade had an exterior door that corresponded
+with an interior one. All were locked at night.
+
+The number of men, women and children--all more or less near relatives
+of Joel--who cultivated fields in common with him, was considerable.
+These lodged in the houses attached to the principal building, where
+they met at noon and in the evening to take their joint meals.
+
+Other homesteads, similarly constructed and occupied by numerous
+families who cultivated lands in common, lay scattered here and there
+over the landscape and composed the _ligniez_, or tribe of Karnak, of
+which Joel was chosen chief.
+
+Upon his entrance in the yard of his homestead, Joel was received with
+the caresses of his old war dog Deber-Trud, an animal of an iron grey
+color streaked with black, an enormous head, blood-shot eyes, and of
+such a high stature that in standing up to caress his master he placed
+his front paws upon Joel's shoulders. He was a dog of such boldness that
+he once fought a monstrous bear of the mountains of Arres, and killed
+him. As to his war qualities, Deber-Trud would have been worthy of
+figuring with the war pack of Bithert, the Gallic chieftain who at sight
+of a small hostile troop said disdainfully: "They are not enough for a
+meal for my dogs."
+
+As Deber-Trud looked over and smelled the traveler with a doubtful air,
+Joel said to the animal: "Do you not see he is a guest whom I bring
+home?"
+
+As if he understood the words, Deber-Trud ceased showing any uneasiness
+about the stranger, and gamboled clumsily ahead of his master into the
+house. The house was partitioned into three sections of unequal size.
+The two smaller ones, separated from each other and from the main hall
+by oaken panels, were destined, one for Joel and his wife, the other for
+Hena, their daughter, when she came to visit the family. The vast hall
+between the two served as a dining-room, and in it were performed the
+noon and evening in-door labors.
+
+When the stranger entered the hall, a large fire of beech wood,
+enlivened with dry brush wood and seaweed burned in the hearth, and with
+its brilliancy rendered superfluous the light of a handsome lamp of
+burnished copper that hung from three chains of the same metal. The lamp
+was a present from Mikael the armorer.
+
+Two whole sheep, impaled in long iron spits broiled before the hearth,
+while salmon and other sea fish boiled in a large pewter pot filled with
+water, seasoned with vinegar, salt and caraway.
+
+The panels were ornamented with heads of wolves, boars, cerfs and of two
+wild bulls called _urok_, an animal that began to be rare in the region;
+beside them hung hunting weapons, such as bows, arrows and slings, and
+weapons of war, such as the _sparr_ and the _matag_, axes, sabres of
+copper, bucklers of wood covered with the tough skin of seals, and long
+lances with iron heads, sharpened and barbed and provided with little
+brass bells, intended to notify the enemy from afar that the Gallic
+warrior approached, seeing that the latter disdains ambuscades, and
+loves to fight in the open. There were also fishing nets and harpoons to
+harpoon the salmon in the shallows when the tide goes out.
+
+To the right of the main door stood a kind of altar, consisting of a
+block of granite, surmounted and covered by large oak branches freshly
+cut. A little copper bowl lay on the stone in which seven twigs of
+mistletoe stood. From above, on the wall, the following inscription
+looked down:
+
+          Abundance and Heaven
+        Are for the Just and the Pure.
+            He is Pure and Holy
+    Who Performs Celestial Works and Pure.
+
+When Joel stepped into the house, he approached the copper basin in
+which stood the seven branches of mistletoe and reverently put his lips
+to each. His guest followed his example, and then both walked towards
+the hearth.
+
+At the hearth was Mamm' Margarid, Joel's wife, with a distaff. She was
+tall of stature, and wore a short, sleeveless tunic of brown wool over a
+long robe of grey with narrow sleeves, both tunic and robe being
+fastened around her waist with her apron string. A white cap, cut
+square, left exposed her grey hair, that parted over her forehead. Like
+many other women of her kin, she wore a coral necklace round her neck,
+bracelets inwrought with garnets and other trinkets of gold and silver
+fashioned at Autun.
+
+Around Mamm' Margarid played the children of Guilhern and several other
+of her kin, while their young mothers busied themselves preparing
+supper.
+
+"Margarid," said Joel to his wife, "I bring a guest to you."
+
+"He is welcome," answered the woman without stopping to spin. "The gods
+send us a guest, our hearth is his own. The eve of my daughter's birth
+is propitious."
+
+"May your children when they travel, be received as I am by you,"
+answered the stranger respectfully.
+
+"But you do not yet know what kind of a guest the gods have sent us,
+Margarid," rejoined Joel; "such a guest as one would request of Ogmi for
+the long autumn and winter nights; a guest who in the course of his
+travels has seen so many curious things and wonderful that a hundred
+evenings would not be too many to listen to his marvelous stories."
+
+Hardly had Joel pronounced these words when, from Mamm' Margarid and the
+young mothers down to the little boys and girls, all looked at the
+stranger with the greed of curiosity, expectant of the marvelous stories
+he was to tell.
+
+"Are we to have supper soon, Margarid?" asked Joel. "Our guest is
+probably as hungry as myself; I am hungry as a wolf."
+
+"The folk have just gone out to fill the racks of the cattle," answered
+Margarid; "they will be back shortly. If our guest is willing we shall
+be pleased of his company at supper."
+
+"I thank the wife of Joel, and shall wait," said the unknown.
+
+"And while waiting," remarked Joel, "you can tell us a story--"
+
+But the traveler interrupted his host and said smiling:
+
+"Friend, as one cup serves for all, so does the same story serve for
+all.... The cup will shortly circulate from lip to lip, and the story
+from ear to ear.... But now tell me, what is that brass belt for that I
+see hanging yonder?"
+
+"Have you not also in your country the belt of agility?"
+
+"Explain yourself, Joel."
+
+"Here, with us, at every new moon, the lads of each tribe come to the
+chief and try on the belt, in order to prove that their girth has not
+broadened with self-indulgence, and that they have preserved themselves
+agile and nimble. Those who cannot hitch the belt around themselves, are
+hissed, are pointed at with derision, and must pay a fine. Accordingly,
+all see to their stomachs lest they come to look like a leathern bottle
+on two skittles."
+
+"A good custom. I regret it fell into disuse in my province. And what is
+the purpose of that big old trunk? It is of precious wood and seems to
+have seen many years."
+
+"Very many. That is the family trunk of triumph," answered Joel opening
+the trunk, in which the stranger saw many whitened skulls. One of them,
+sawn in two, was mounted on a brass foot like a cup.
+
+"These are, no doubt, the heads of enemies who have been killed by your
+fathers, friend Joel? With us this sort of family charnel houses has
+long been abandoned."
+
+"With us also. I preserve these heads only out of respect for my
+ancestors. Since more than two hundred years, the prisoners of war are
+no longer mutilated. The habit existed in the days of the kings whom
+Ritha-Gaur shaved of their hair, as you mentioned before, to make
+himself a blouse out of their beards. Those were gay days of barbarism,
+were those days of royalty. I heard my grandfather Kirio say that even
+as late as in the days of his father, Tiras, the men who went to war
+returned to their tribes carrying the heads of their enemies stuck to
+the points of their lances, or trailed by the hair from the
+breast-plates of their horses. They were then nailed to the doors of the
+houses for trophies, just as you see yonder on the wall the heads of
+wild animals."
+
+"With us, in olden days, friend Joel, these trophies were also
+preserved, but preserved in cedar oil when they were the heads of a
+hostile chieftain."
+
+"By Hesus! Cedar oil!... What magnificence!" exclaimed Joel smiling.
+"That is the way our wives reason: 'for good fish, good sauce.'"
+
+"These relics were with us, as with you, the book from which the young
+Gaul learned of the exploits of his fathers. Often did the families of
+the vanquished offer to ransom these spoils; but to relinquish for money
+a head conquered by oneself or an ancestor was looked upon as an
+unpardonable crime of avarice and impiousness. I say with you, those
+barbarous customs passed away with royalty, and with them the days when
+our ancestors painted their bodies blue and scarlet, and dyed their hair
+and beard with lime water to impart to them a copper-red hue."
+
+"Without wronging their memory, friend guest, our ancestors must have
+been unpleasant beings to look upon, and must have resembled the
+frightful red and blue dragons that ornament the prows of the vessels of
+those savage pirates of the North that my son Albinik the sailor and his
+lovely wife Meroe have told us some curious tales about. But here are
+our men back from the stables; we shall not have to wait much longer for
+supper. I see Margarid unspitting the lambs. You shall taste them,
+friend, and see what a fine taste the salt meadows on which they browse
+impart to their flesh."
+
+All the men of the family of Joel who entered the hall wore, like him, a
+sleeveless blouse of coarse wool, through which the sleeves of their
+jackets or white shirts were passed. Their breeches reached down to
+their ankles; and they were shod with low slippers. Several of these
+laborers, just in from the fields, wore over their shoulders a cloak of
+sheep-skin, which they immediately took off. All wore woolen caps, long
+hair cut round, and bushy beards. The last two to enter held each other
+by the arm; they were especially handsome and robust.
+
+"Friend Joel," inquired the stranger, "who are those two young fellows?
+The statues of the heathen god Mars are not better shaped, nor have so
+valiant an aspect."
+
+"They are two relatives of mine; two cousins, Julyan and Armel. They
+love each other like brothers.... Quite recently an enraged bull rushed
+at Armel and Julyan saved Armel at the peril of his own life. Thanks to
+Hesus we are not now in times of war. But should it be necessary to take
+up arms, Julyan and Armel have taken 'the pledge of brotherhood'.... But
+supper is ready.... Come, yours is the seat of honor."
+
+Joel and the unknown guest drew near the table. It was round and raised
+somewhat above the floor which was covered with fresh straw. All around
+the table were seats bolstered with fragrant grass. The two broiled
+muttons, now quartered, were served up in large platters of beechwood,
+white as ivory. There were also large pieces of salted pork and a smoked
+ham of wild boar. The fish remained in the large pot that they had been
+boiled in.
+
+At the place where Joel, the head of the family, took his seat, stood a
+huge cup of plated copper that even two men could not have drained. It
+was before that cup, which marked the place of honor, that the stranger
+was placed with Joel at his left and Mamm' Margarid at his right.
+
+The old men, the young girls and the children then ranked themselves
+around the table. The grown up and the young men sat down behind these
+in a second row, from which they rose from time to time to perform some
+service, or, every time that, passing from hand to hand, beginning with
+the stranger, the large cup was empty, to fill it from a barrel of
+hydromel, that was placed at a corner of the hall. Furnished with a
+piece of barley or wheat bread, everyone received or took a slice of
+broiled or salted meat, which he cut up with his knife, or into which he
+bit freely without the help of knife.
+
+The old war-dog Deber-Trud, enjoying the privileges of his age and long
+years of service, lay at the feet of Joel, who did not forget his
+faithful servitor.
+
+Towards the end of the meal, Joel having carved the wild boar ham,
+detached the hoof, and following an ancient custom, said to his young
+relative Armel, handing it to him:
+
+"To you, Armel, belongs the bravest part! To you, the vanquisher in last
+evening's fight!"
+
+At the moment when, proud of being pronounced the bravest in the
+presence of the stranger, Armel was stretching out his hand to take the
+wild boar's hoof that Joel presented to him, an exceptionally short man
+in the family, nicknamed "Stumpy" by reason of his small stature,
+observed aloud:
+
+"Armel won in yesterday's fight because he was not fighting with Julyan.
+Two bullocks of equal strength avoid and fear each other, and do not
+lock horns."
+
+Feeling humiliated at hearing it said of them, and before a stranger,
+that they did not fight together because they were mutually afraid of
+each other, Julyan and Armel grew red in the face.
+
+With sparkling eyes, Julyan cried: "If I did not fight with Armel it was
+because someone else took my place; but Julyan fears Armel as little as
+Armel fears Julyan; and if you were but one inch taller, Stumpy, I would
+show you on the spot that, beginning with you, I fear nobody--not even
+my good brother Armel--"
+
+"Good brother Julyan!" added Armel whose eyes also began to glisten, "we
+shall have to prove to the stranger that we do not fear each other."
+
+"Done, Armel--let's fight with sabres and bucklers."
+
+The two friends reached out their hands to each other and pressed them
+warmly. They entertained no rancor for each other; they loved each other
+as warmly as ever; the combat decided upon by them was a not uncommon
+outbreak of foolhardiness.
+
+Joel was not sorry at seeing his kin act bravely before his guest; and
+his family shared his views.
+
+At the announcement of the battle, everybody present, even the little
+children and young women and girls felt joyful; they clapped their hands
+smiling and looked at each other proud of the good opinion that the
+unknown visitor was to form of the courage of their family.
+
+Mamm' Margarid thereupon addressed the young men: "The fight ends the
+moment I lower my distaff."
+
+"These children are feasting you at their best, friend guest," said Joel
+to the stranger; "you will, in turn, have to feast them by telling them
+and all of us some of the marvelous things that you have seen in your
+travels."
+
+"I could not do else than pay in my best coin for your hospitality,
+friend," answered the stranger. "I shall tell you the stories."
+
+"Let's hurry, brother Julyan," said Armel; "I have a strong desire to
+hear the traveler. I can never get tired of listening to stories, but
+the story-tellers are rare around Karnak."
+
+"You see, friend," said Joel, "with what impatience your stories are
+awaited. But before starting, and so as to give you strength, you shall
+presently drink to the victor with good wine of Gaul," and turning to
+his son: "Guilhern, fetch in the little keg of white wine from Beziers
+that your brother Albinik brought us on his last trip; fill up the cup
+in honor of the traveler."
+
+When that was done, Joel said to Julyan and Armel:
+
+"Now, boys, fall to with your sabres!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+ARMEL AND JULYAN.
+
+
+The numerous family of Joel, gathered in a semi-circle at one end of the
+spacious hall, impatiently awaited the combat, with Mamm' Margarid
+holding the place of honor. The stranger stood at her right, her husband
+at her left, and two of the smallest children before her on their knees.
+Margarid raised her distaff and gave the signal for the combat to begin;
+the lowering of the distaff was to be the signal for the combat to end.
+
+Julyan and Armel stripped down to the waist, preserving their breeches
+only. Again they clasped hands. Each thereupon slung on his left arm a
+buckler of wood covered with seal-skin, armed himself with a heavy sabre
+of copper, and impetuously assailed each other, being all the more
+spurred by the presence of the stranger, before whom they were eager to
+display their skill and valor. Joel's guest looked more highly delighted
+than anyone else at the spectacle before him, and his face lighted with
+warlike animation.
+
+Julyan and Armel were at it. Their eyes sparkled, not with hatred but
+with foolhardiness. They exchanged no words of anger but of friendly
+cheer, all the while dealing out terrible blows that would have been
+deadly had they not been skillfully parried. At every thrust,
+brilliantly made, or dexterously avoided, the men, women and children in
+the audience clapped their hands, and according as the combat ran,
+cried:
+
+"_Her_ ... _her_ ... Julyan!"
+
+"_Her_ ... _her_ ... Armel!"
+
+Such was the effect of these cries, of the sight of the combat, of the
+clash of arms, that the huge mastiff Deber-Trud, the man-eater, felt
+the ardor of battle seize also himself, and barked wildly looking up at
+his master, who calmed and caressed him with his hand.
+
+Perspiration covered the young bodies of the handsome and robust Julyan
+and Armel. Each other's peers in courage, vigor and agility, neither had
+yet wounded the other.
+
+"Let's hurry, brother Julyan!" said Armel rushing on his companion with
+fresh impetus. "Let us hurry to hear the pretty stories of the
+stranger."
+
+"The plow can go no faster than the plowman, brother Armel," answered
+Julyan.
+
+With these words, Julyan seized his sabre with both hands, stretched
+himself at full length, and dealt so furious a stroke to his adversary
+that, although the latter threw himself back and thereby softened the
+blow, his buckler flew into splinters and the weapon struck Armel in the
+temple. The wounded man staggered for an instant and then fell flat upon
+his back, amid the admiring cries of "_Her_ ... _her_ ... Julyan!" from
+the enraptured by-standers among whom Stumpy was the loudest with the
+cry of "_Her_ ... _her_!"
+
+After lowering her distaff as a sign that the combat was over Mamm'
+Margarid stepped toward the wounded combatant to give him her attention,
+while Joel said to his guest, reaching him the cup:
+
+"Friend guest, you shall drink this old wine to the triumph of Julyan."
+
+"I drink to the triumph of Julyan and also to the valiant defeat of
+Armel!" responded the stranger. "The courage of the vanquished youth
+equals that of the vanquisher.... I have seen many a combat, but never
+have I seen greater bravery and courage displayed! Glory to the family
+of Joel!... Glory to your tribe!"
+
+"Formerly," said Joel, "these festive combats took place among us almost
+every day. Now they are rarer; they have been replaced by wrestling
+matches; but sabre combats better recall the habits of the old Gauls."
+
+Mamm' Margarid shook her head after a second inspection of the wound,
+while Julyan steadying himself against the wall sought to hold up his
+friend. One of the young women hurried with a casket of lint and salves,
+in which was also a little vial of mistletoe water. Armel's wound bled
+copiously; it was staunched with difficulty; the wounded youth's face
+was pale and his eyes closed.
+
+"Brother Armel," said Julyan to him in a cheerful voice, on his knees
+beside the prostrate Armel, "do not break down for so little.... Each
+has his day and his hour.... To-day you were wounded, to-morrow will be
+my turn.... We fought bravely.... The stranger will not forget the young
+men of Karnak and of the family of Joel, the brenn of the tribe."
+
+His face down, his forehead bathed in cold perspiration, Armel seemed
+not to hear the voice of his friend. Mamm' Margarid again shook her
+head, ordered some burnt coal, that was brought her on a little flat
+stone and threw on it some of the pulverized mistletoe bark. A strong
+vapor rose from the little brasier, and Mamm' Margarid made Armel inhale
+it. A little after he opened his eyes, looked around as if he awoke from
+a dream, and said feebly:
+
+"The angel of death calls me.... I shall now live no longer here but
+yonder.... My father and mother will be surprised and pleased to see me
+so soon.... I also shall be happy to meet them."
+
+A second later he added regretfully:
+
+"How I would have liked to hear the pretty stories of the traveler!"
+
+"What, brother Armel!" said Julyan, visibly astonished and grieved. "Are
+you to depart so soon from us? We were enjoying life so well
+together.... We swore brotherhood and never to leave each other!"
+
+"We did so swear, Julyan," Armel answered feebly, "but it is otherwise
+decreed."
+
+Julyan dropped his head upon his two hands and made no answer.
+
+Mamm' Margarid, skillful in the art of tending wounds, an art that she
+learned from a druid priestess her relative, placed her hand on Armel's
+heart. A few seconds later she said to those near her and who, together
+with Joel and his guest, stood around:
+
+"Teutates calls Armel away to take him to those who have preceded us. He
+will soon depart. If any of us has any message for the loved ones who
+have preceded us yonder, and wishes Armel to carry it--let him make
+haste."
+
+Mamm' Margarid thereupon kissed the forehead of the dying young man and
+said to him: "Give to all the members of our family the kiss of
+remembrance and hope."
+
+"I shall give them, Mamm' Margarid, the kiss of remembrance and hope in
+your name," answered Armel in a fainting voice, and added again in a
+pet, "and yet I would so much have liked to hear the pretty stories of
+the traveler!"
+
+These words seemed deeply to affect Julyan, who still holding his
+friend's head looked down upon him with sadness.
+
+Little Sylvest, the son of Guilhern, a child of rosy cheeks and golden
+hair, who held with one hand the hand of his mother Henory, advanced a
+little and addressing the dying relative said:
+
+"I loved little Alanik very much; he went away last year.... Tell him
+that little Sylvest always remembers him, and embrace him for me,
+Armel."
+
+"I shall embrace little Alanik for you, little Sylvest," and Armel added
+again, "and yet I would have liked to hear the pretty stories of the
+traveler!"
+
+Another man of Joel's family said to his expiring kinsman:
+
+"I was a friend of Houarne of the tribe of Morlech, our neighbor. He was
+killed defenceless, while asleep, a short time ago. Tell him, Armel,
+that Daoulas, his murderer, was discovered, was tried and condemned by
+the druids of Karnak and his sacrifice will soon take place. Houarne
+will be pleased to learn of Daoulas' punishment."
+
+Armel signified that he would convey the message to Houarne.
+
+Stumpy, who, not through wickedness but intemperate language, was the
+cause of Armel's death, also drew near with a message to the one about
+to depart, and said:
+
+"You know that at the eighth face of this month's moon old Mark, who
+lives near Glen'han was taken ill; the angel of death told him also to
+prepare for a speedy departure. Old Mark was not ready. He wished to
+assist at the wedding of his daughter's daughter. Not being ready to go,
+old Mark bethought him of some one who might be ready to go in his place
+and that would satisfy the angel of death. He asked the druid, his
+physician, if he knew of some 'substitute.' The druid answered him that
+Gigel of Nouaren, a member of our tribe, would be available, that he
+might consent to depart in the place of old Mark, and that he might be
+induced to do so both out of kindness to Mark and to render himself
+agreeable to the gods, who are always pleased at the sight of such
+sacrifices. Gigel consented freely. Old Mark made him a present of ten
+pieces of silver with the stamp of a horse's head, which Gigel
+distributed among his friends before departing. He then cheerfully
+emptied his last cup and bared his breast to the sacred knife amid the
+chants of the bards. The angel of death accepted the substitute. Old
+Mark attended the wedding of his daughter's daughter, and to-day he is
+in good health--"
+
+"Do you mean to say that you are willing to depart in my stead, Stumpy?"
+asked the dying warrior. "I fear it is now too late--"
+
+"No, no; I am not ready to depart in your stead," Stumpy hastened to
+answer. "I only wish to request you to return to Gigel three pieces of
+silver that I owed him; I could not repay him sooner. I feared Gigel
+might come and demand his money by moonlight in the shape of some
+demon." Saying which Stumpy rummaged in his lamb-skin bag, took out
+three pieces with the stamp of a horse's head, and placed them in the
+pocket of Armel's breeches.
+
+"I shall hand your three pieces of silver to Gigel," said Armel in a
+voice now hardly audible; and for a last time he murmured at Julyan's
+ear: "And yet ... I would ... have liked ... to hear ... the pretty
+stories ... of ... the traveler."
+
+"Be at ease, brother Armel," Julyan answered him; "I shall attentively
+listen to the pretty stories so that I may remember them well; and
+to-morrow ... I shall depart and tell them to you.... I would weary here
+without you.... We swore brotherhood to each other, and never to be
+separated; I shall follow you and continue to live yonder in your
+company."
+
+"Truly ... you will come?" said the dying youth, whom the promise seemed
+to render happy; "will you come ... to-morrow?"
+
+"To-morrow, by Hesus.... I swear to you, Armel, I shall come."
+
+The eyes of the whole family turned to Julyan at hearing the promise,
+and looked lovingly upon him. The wounded youth seemed the most pleased
+of all, and with his last breath said:
+
+"So long, then, brother Julyan ... listen attentively ... to the
+stories.... And now ... farewell ... farewell ... to all of you of our
+tribe," and Armel sought to suit the motion of his hands to his words.
+
+As loving relatives and friends crowd around one of their own when he is
+about to depart on a long journey, during which he will meet people of
+whom they all preserve a cherished remembrance, each now pressed the
+hand of Armel and gave him some tender commission for those of their
+tribe whom he was about to meet again.
+
+After Armel was dead, Joel closed the youth's eyes and had him taken to
+the altar of grey stones, above which stood the copper bowl with the
+seven twigs of mistletoe.
+
+The body was then covered with oak branches taken from the altar, so
+that, instead of the corpse, only a heap of verdure met the eye, with
+Julyan seated close to it.
+
+Finally, the head of the family filled the large cup up to the brim,
+moistened his lips in it and said to the stranger: "May Armel's journey
+be a happy one; he has ever been good and just; may he traverse under
+the guidance of Teutates the marvelous regions and countries that lie
+beyond the grave which none of us has yet traveled over, and which all
+of us will yet see. May Armel meet again those whom we have loved, and
+let him assure them that we love them still!"
+
+The cup went around; the women and young girls expressed their good
+wishes to Armel on his journey; the remains of the supper were removed;
+and all gathered at the hearth, impatient to hear the promised stories
+told by the stranger.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE STORY OF ALBREGE.
+
+
+"Is it a story that you want of me?" asked the unknown guest turning to
+Joel, and seeing the eyes of all fixed upon himself.
+
+"One story?" cried Joel. "Tell us twenty, a hundred! You must have seen
+so much! so many countries! so many peoples! One story only? Ah, by the
+good Ormi, you shall not be let off with only one story, friend guest!"
+
+"Oh, no!" cried the family in chorus and with set determination. "Oh,
+no! We must have more than one!"
+
+"And yet," observed the stranger with a pensive and severe mien, "there
+is more serious work in hand than to tell and listen to frivolous
+stories."
+
+"I understand not what you mean," said Joel no less taken back than his
+family; all turned their eyes upon the stranger in silent amazement.
+
+"No, you do not understand me," replied the stranger sadly.
+"Nevertheless, I shall keep my promise--the thing promised is a thing
+done;" and pointing to Julyan who had remained at the other end of the
+hall near the oak-covered body of Armel he added: "We must see to it
+that that young man has something to tell his brother when he joins him
+beyond."
+
+"Proceed, guest, proceed with your story," answered Julyan, without
+raising his head from his hands; "proceed with your story; I shall not
+lose a word.... Armel shall hear it just as you tell it."
+
+"Two years ago," said the stranger, beginning his story, "while
+traveling among the Gauls who inhabit the borders of the Rhine, I
+happened one day to be at Strasburg. I had gone out of the town for a
+walk along the river bank. Presently I saw a large crowd of people
+moving in the direction of where I stood. They were following a man and
+woman, both young and both handsome, who carried on a buckler, that they
+held by the edges, a little baby not more than three or four months old.
+The man looked restless and somber; the woman pale and calm. Both
+stopped at the river's bank, at a spot where the stream runs especially
+rapid. The crowd also stopped. I drew near and inquired who the man and
+woman were. 'The man's name is Vindorix, the woman's Albrege; they are
+man and wife,' was the answer I received. I then saw Vindorix, whose
+countenance waxed more and more somber, approach his wife and say to
+her:
+
+"'This is the time.'
+
+"'Do you wish it?' asked Albrege. 'Do you wish it?'
+
+"'Yes,' answered the husband; 'I doubt--I want to be certain.'
+
+"'Then, be it so,' said she.
+
+"Thereupon, himself taking the buckler where the little child lay,
+smiling and stretching out its chubby arms to him, Vindorix walked into
+the river up to his waist, raised the buckler and child for a moment
+over his head, and looked back a last time towards his wife, as if to
+threaten her with what he was about to do. With her forehead high and a
+steady countenance, Albrege remained erect at the river bank, motionless
+like a statue, her arms crossed upon her bosom. When her husband now
+turned to her she stretched out her right hand towards him as if to say:
+
+"'Do it!'
+
+"At that moment a shudder ran over the crowd. Vindorix deposited upon
+the stream the buckler on which lay the child, and in that frail craft
+left the infant to the mercy of the eddies."
+
+"Oh, the wicked man!" cried Mamm' Margarid deeply moved by the story as
+were the other hearers. "And his wife!... his wife ... who remained on
+the bank?--"
+
+"But what was the reason of such a barbarity, friend guest?" asked
+Henory, the young wife of Guilhern embracing her two children, little
+Sylvest and little Syomara, both of whom she took on her knees as if
+fearing to see them exposed to a similar danger.
+
+With a gesture the stranger put an end to the interrogatories, and
+proceeded:
+
+"The stream had barely carried away the buckler on which the child lay,
+than the father raised both his trembling hands to heaven as if to
+invoke the gods. He followed the course of the buckler with sullen
+anxiety, leaning, despite himself, to the right when the buckler dipped
+to the right, and to the left when the buckler dipped on that side. The
+mother, on the contrary, her arms crossed over her bosom, followed the
+buckler with firm eyes, and as tranquil as if she had nothing to fear
+for her child."
+
+"Nothing to fear!" cried Guilhern. "To see her child thus exposed to
+almost certain death ... it is bound to go under...."
+
+"That must have been an unnatural mother," cried Henory.
+
+"And not one man in all that crowd to jump into the water and save the
+child!" observed Julyan thinking of his friend. "Oh, that will surely
+anger the heart of Armel, when I tell him that."
+
+"But do not interrupt every instant!" cried Joel. "Proceed, my guest;
+may Teutates, who presides over all journeys made in this world and in
+the others, guard the poor little thing!"
+
+"Twice," the stranger proceeded, "the buckler threatened to be swallowed
+up by the eddies of the rapid stream. Of all present, only the mother
+moved not a muscle. Presently the buckler was seen riding the waters
+like an airy skiff and peacefully following the course of the stream
+beyond the rapids. Immediately the crowd cried, beating their hands:
+
+"'The boat! The boat!'
+
+"Two men ran down the bank, pushed off a boat, and swiftly plying their
+oars, quickly reached the buckler, and took it up from the water
+together with the child that had fallen asleep--"
+
+"Thanks to the gods! 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 gods 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 cocks?" asked a child.
+
+The stranger was being assailed 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
+Marseilles, 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 friendship, 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?"
+
+"Fear not, young man," said the stranger to Julyan, "the religion of
+Hesus is the only true religion; it teaches us that after death we are
+reclad in younger and handsomer bodies."
+
+"I pin my hopes on that!" said Stumpy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE STORY OF SYOMARA.
+
+
+The storm of questions had spent itself and the thirst for fresh stories
+returned among the assembled family of Joel, whose head remarked with
+wonderment: "What a thing traveling is? How much one learns; but we must
+not lag behind our guest. Story for story. Proud Gallic woman for proud
+Gallic woman. Friend guest, ask Mamm' Margarid to tell you the beautiful
+story and deed of one of her own female ancestors, which happened about
+a hundred and thirty years ago when our fathers went as far as Asia to
+found a new Gaul, because you must know that few are the countries on
+earth that their soles have not trod upon."
+
+"After your wife's story," answered the stranger, "and seeing that you
+wish to speak of our own ancestors, I shall also speak of them ... and
+by Ritha Gaur!... never would the time be fitter. While we are here
+telling stories, you do not seem to know what is going on elsewhere in
+the land; you do not know that perhaps at this very moment--"
+
+"Why do you interrupt yourself?" asked Joel wondering at the suddenness
+with which his guest broke off in the middle of the sentence. "What is
+going on while we are here telling stories? What better can we do at the
+corner of our hearth during an autumn evening?"
+
+Instead of answering Joel, the stranger respectfully said to Mamm'
+Margarid:
+
+"I shall listen to the story of Joel's wife."
+
+"It is a very short and simple story," answered Margarid plying her
+distaff. "The story is as simple as the action of my ancestral
+grandmother. Her name was Syomara."
+
+"And in honor of her," said Guilhern breaking in upon his mother and
+proudly pointing the stranger to an eight year old child of surprising
+beauty, "in honor of our ancestral grandmother Syomara, who was as
+beautiful as she was brave, I have given her name to this little girl of
+mine."
+
+"This is indeed a most charming child," remarked the stranger struck by
+the lovely face of little Syomara. "I am sure she will have her
+grandmother's valor in the same degree that she is endowed with her
+beauty."
+
+Henory, the child's mother blushed with joy at these words and said
+smiling to Mamm' Margarid:
+
+"I dare not blame Guilhern for having interrupted you; it brought on the
+pretty compliment."
+
+"The compliment is as sweet to me as to you, my daughter," answered
+Mamm' Margarid; saying which she began her story:
+
+"My grandmother's name was Syomara; she was the daughter of Ronan. Her
+father had taken her into lower Languedoc whither his traffic called
+him. The Gauls of the neighborhood were just preparing for the
+expedition to the East. Their chief, Oriegon by name, saw my
+grandmother, was fascinated by her beauty, won her love and married her.
+Syomara departed with her husband on the expedition to the East. At
+first they triumphed. Afterwards, the Romans, who were ever jealous of
+the Gallic possessions, attacked our fathers. In one of the battles,
+Syomara, who, led thereto both by duty and love, accompanied Oriegon,
+her husband, to battle in a war-chariot, was separated from her husband
+during the fray, taken prisoner, and placed under the guard of a Roman
+officer, who was a miser and a libertine. The Roman, who was captivated
+by the beauty of Syomara, attempted to seduce her; but she repelled his
+advances with contempt. He then surprised his captive during her sleep
+and outraged her--"
+
+"Listen, Joel!" cried the stranger indignantly. "Listen to that!... A
+Roman subjects an ancestor of your wife to such indignity!"
+
+"Listen to the end of the story, friend guest," said Joel; "you will see
+that Syomara is the peer of the Gallic woman of the Rhine."
+
+"The one and the other," Margarid proceeded, "showed themselves true to
+the maxim that there are three kinds of chastity among the women of
+Gaul: The first, when a father says in the presence of his daughter that
+he grants her hand to him whom she loves; the second, when for the first
+time she enters her husband's bed; and the third, when she appears the
+next morning before other men. The Roman had outraged Syomara, his
+prisoner. His passion being satisfied, he offered her freedom upon
+payment of a ransom. She accepted the offer and induced the Roman to
+send her servant, a prisoner like herself, to the camp of the Gauls and
+tell Oriegon or, in his absence, any of his friends, to bring the ransom
+to an appointed place. The servant departed to the camp of the Gauls.
+The miserly Roman, wishing himself to receive the ransom and not share
+it with anyone else, led Syomara alone to the appointed place. The
+friends of Oriegon were there with the gold for the ransom. While the
+Roman was counting the gold, Syomara addressed the Gauls in their own
+tongue and ordered them to kill the infamous man. Her orders were
+executed on the spot. Syomara then cut off his head, placed it in a fold
+of her dress and returned to the camp of her people. Oriegon, who had
+himself been also taken prisoner and managed to escape, arrived in camp
+at the same time as his wife. At the sight of her husband, Syomara
+dropped the head of the Roman at his feet and addressed Oriegon saying:
+'That is the head of a man who outraged me.... There is none but you who
+can say that he possessed me.'"
+
+At the close of her narrative, Mamm' Margarid continued to spin in
+silence.
+
+"Did I not tell you, friend," said Joel, "that Syomara, Margarid's
+grandmother, was the peer of your Gallic woman of the Rhine?"
+
+"And must not the noble name bring good luck to my daughter!" added
+Guilhern tenderly kissing the blonde head of the child.
+
+"That powerful and chaste story is worthy of the lips that told it,"
+said the stranger. "It also proves that the Romans, our implacable
+enemies, have not changed. Avaricious and debauched were they once--and
+are to-day. And seeing that we are speaking of the avaricious and
+debauched Romans and that you love stories," he added with a bitter
+smile, "you must know that I have been in Rome ... and that I saw ...
+Julius Caesar ... the most famous of the Roman generals, as also the most
+avaricious and the most debauched man of all Italy. I would not venture
+to speak of his infamous acts of libertinage before women and young
+girls."
+
+"Oh! Did you see that famous Julius Caesar? What kind of a looking man is
+he?" asked Joel with great inquisitiveness.
+
+The stranger looked at the brenn as if greatly surprised at the
+question, and answered with an effort to suppress his anger:
+
+"Caesar is nearing old age; he is tall of stature; his face is lean and
+long; his complexion pale; his eyes black; his head bald. Seeing the man
+combines in his person all the vices of the worst women of the Romans,
+he is possessed, like them, of extraordinary personal vanity.
+Accordingly, in order to conceal his baldness, he ever carries a chaplet
+of gold leaves on his head. Is your inquisitiveness satisfied, Joel?
+Would you want more details about Caesar's infirmities? That he is
+subject to epileptic fits?... That--"
+
+But the stranger did not finish his sentence. Letting his eyes wander
+over the assembled family of the brenn, he cried with towering rage:
+
+"By the anger of Hesus! Can it be that all of you--as many as you are
+here capable of seizing the sabre and the sword but insatiable after
+idle stories--can it be you do not know that a Roman army, after having
+invaded under the command of Caesar one-half of our provinces, has taken
+winter quarters in the country of Orleans, of Touraine and of Anjou?"
+
+"Yes, yes; we have heard about it," calmly said Joel. "People from
+Anjou, who came here to buy beef and pork, told us about it."
+
+"And it is with such unconcern that you speak of the Roman invasion of
+Gaul?" cried the traveler.
+
+"Never have the Breton Gauls been invaded by strangers," proudly
+answered the brenn of the tribe of Karnak. "We shall remain spotless of
+the taint. We are independent of the Gauls of Piotou, of Touraine, of
+Orleans and of the other sections of the land, just as they are
+independent of us. They have not asked for our help. We are not so
+constituted as to offer ourselves to their chiefs and to fight under
+them. Let everyone guard his own honor and his own province. The Romans
+are in Touraine ... but it is a long way from Touraine to here."
+
+"So that if the pirates of the North were to kill your son Albinik the
+sailor and his brave wife Meroe, it would no wise concern you because
+the murder was committed far from here?"
+
+"You are joking. My son is my son.... The Gauls of provinces other than
+mine are not my sons!"
+
+"Are they not, like yourself, the sons of the same god, as the druid
+religion teaches you? If that is so, are not all the Gauls your
+brothers? And does not the subjugation, does not the blood of a brother
+cry for vengeance? Are you unconcerned because the enemy is not at the
+very gates of your own homestead? On that principle, the hand, even when
+it knows that the foot is gangrened, could say to itself: 'As to me, I
+am well, and the foot is far from the hand--I need not worry over the
+disease.' And the gangrene, not being stopped, rises from the foot to
+the other members, until the whole body perishes."
+
+"Unless the healthy hand take an axe," said the brenn, "and cut off the
+foot from which the evil proceeds."
+
+"And what becomes of the body that is thus mutilated, Joel?" put in
+Mamm' Margarid who all the while had been listening in silence. "When
+the best regions of the country shall have been invaded by the stranger,
+what will then become of the rest of Gaul? Thus mutilated and
+dismembered, how will she defend herself against her enemies?"
+
+"The worthy spouse of my host speaks wisely," said the traveler
+respectfully to Mamm' Margarid; "like all Gallic matrons she holds her
+place at the public council as well as at her hearth."
+
+"You speak truly," rejoined Joel, "Margarid has a brave heart and a wise
+head. Often her opinion is better than mine.... I gladly say so.... But
+this time I am right. Whatever may happen to the rest of Gaul, never
+will the Romans set foot in our old Britanny. There are her rocks, her
+marshes, her woods, her sand banks--above all her Bretons to defend
+her."
+
+At these words of her husband Mamm' Margarid shook her head
+disapprovingly; all the men of the family, however, loudly applauded
+their brenn's words.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE STORY OF GAUL.
+
+
+When the noisy and martial ardor, evoked by the boastful words of the
+brenn of the tribe of Karnak had subsided, the traveler was seen sitting
+in somber silence. He looked up and said:
+
+"Very well, one more and last story, but let this one fall upon the
+hearts of you all like burning brass, seeing that the wise words of this
+household's matron have proved futile."
+
+All looked with surprise at the stranger, who with somber and severe
+mien began his story with these words:
+
+"Once upon a time, as far back as two or three thousand years, there
+lived a family here in Gaul. Whence did it come, to fill the vast
+solitudes that to-day are so populous? It doubtlessly came from the
+heart of Asia, that ancient cradle of the human races, now, however,
+hidden in the night of antiquity. That family ever preserved a type
+peculiar to itself, and found with no other people of the world. Loyal,
+hospitable, generous, vivacious, gay, inclined to humor, loving to tell,
+above all, to hear stories, intrepid in battle, daring death more
+heroically than any other nation, because its religion taught it what
+death was--such were that family's virtues. Giddy-headed, vagabond,
+presumptuous, inconsistent, curious after novelty, and greedier yet of
+seeing than of conquering unknown countries, as easily uniting as
+falling apart, too proud and too fickle to adjust its opinions to those
+of its neighbors, or if consenting thereto, incapable of long marching
+in concert with them, although common and vital interests be at
+stake--such are that family's vices. In point of its virtues and in
+point of its vices, thus has it always been since the remotest
+centuries; thus is it to-day; thus will it be to-morrow."
+
+"Oh, oh! If I am not much mistaken," broke in the brenn smiling, "all of
+us, Gauls though we may be, must have some cousin red with that family."
+
+"Yes," said the stranger, "to its own misfortune--and to the joy of its
+enemies--such has been and such is to-day the character of our own
+people!"
+
+"But at least admit, despite such a character, the dear Gallic people
+has made its way well through the world. Few are the countries where the
+inquisitive vagabond, as you call it, did not promenade his shoes, with
+his nose in the air, his sword at his side--"
+
+"You are right. Such is its spirit of adventure: always marching ahead
+towards the unknown, rather than to stop and build. Thus, to-day,
+one-third of Gaul is in the hands of the Romans, while some centuries
+ago the Gallic race occupied through its headlong conquests, besides
+Gaul, England, Ireland, upper Italy, the banks of the Danube, and the
+countries along the sea border as far east and north as Denmark. Nor yet
+was that enough. It looked as if our race was to spread itself over the
+whole world. The Gauls of the Danube went into Macedonia, into Thrace,
+into Thessaly. Others of them crossed the Bosphorus and the Hellespont,
+reached Asia Minor, founded New Gaul, and thus became the arbiters of
+all the kingdoms of the East."
+
+"So far, meseems," rejoined the brenn, "we have nothing to regret over
+our character that you so severely judge."
+
+"And what is left of those senseless battles, undertaken by the pride of
+the kings who then reigned over the Gauls?" the stranger proceeded
+looking around. "Have not the distant conquests slipped from us? Have
+not our implacable and ever more powerful enemies, the Romans, raised
+all the peoples against us? Have we not been compelled to abandon those
+useless possessions--Asia, Greece, Germany, Italy? That is the net
+result of so much heroism and so much blood! That is the pass to which
+we have been brought by the ambition of the kings, who usurped the power
+of the druids!"
+
+"To that I have nothing to say. You are right. There was no need of
+promenading so far away only to soil the soles of our shoes with the
+blood and the dust of foreign lands. But if I am not mistaken, it was at
+about that time that the sons of the brave Ritha Gaur, who had a blouse
+made for himself of the beards of the kings whom he shaved, seeing in
+these the butchers of the people and not its shepherds, overthrew the
+royalty."
+
+"Yes, thanks to the gods, an epoch of real grandeur, of peace and of
+prosperity succeeded the barren and bloody conquests of the kings.
+Disembarassed of its useless possessions, reduced to rational
+limits--its natural frontiers--the Rhine, the Alps, the Pyrenees and the
+Ocean--the republic of the Gauls became the queen and envy of the world.
+Its fertile soil, cultivated as we so well know how, produced everything
+in abundance; the rivers were covered with merchant vessels; gold,
+silver and copper mines increased its wealth every day; large cities
+rose everywhere. The druids, spreading light in all directions, preached
+union to the provinces, and set the example by convoking once a year in
+the center of Gaul solemn assemblies, at which the general interests of
+the country were considered. Each tribe, each canton, each town, elected
+its own magistrates; each province was a republic which, according to
+the druid plan, merged into the great Republic of the Gauls, and thus
+constituted one powerful body through the union of all."
+
+"The fathers of our grandfathers saw those happy days, friend guest."
+
+"And their sons saw only ruins and misfortune! What has happened? The
+accursed stock of dethroned kings joins the stock of their former and no
+less accursed clients or seigneurs, and all of them, irritated at having
+been deposed of their authority, hope for restoration from the public
+misfortunes, and exploit with infamous perfidy our innate pride and lack
+of discipline, which, under the powerful influence of the druids, were
+being steadily corrected. The rivalries between province and province,
+long allayed, re-awakened; jealousies and hatreds sprang up anew;
+everywhere the structure of union began to crumble. For all this the
+kings do not re-ascend the throne. Many of their descendants are even
+judicially executed. But they have unchained internal feud. Civil war
+flares up. The more powerful provinces seek to subjugate the weaker.
+Thus, towards the end of the last century, the Marseillians, the
+descendants of the exiled Greeks to whom Gaul generously assigned the
+territory on which they built their town, sought to assume the role of
+sovereignty. The province rose against the town; finding herself in
+danger, Marseilles called the Romans to her aid. They came, not to
+sustain Marseilles in her contemplated iniquity, but to themselves take
+possession of the region, a purpose that they succeeded in, despite the
+prodigies of valor with which they were opposed. Established in
+Provence, the Romans built the town of Aix, and thus founded their first
+colony on our soil--"
+
+"Oh, a curse upon the Marseillians!" cried Joel. "It was thanks to those
+sons of Greeks that the Romans gained a foothold in Gaul!"
+
+"By what right can we curse the people of Marseilles? Must not also
+those provinces be cursed which, since the decline of the republic, thus
+allowed one of their sisters to be overpowered and subjugated? But
+retribution was swift. Encouraged by the indifference of the Gauls, the
+Romans took possession of Auvergne, and later of the Dauphine, and a
+little later also of Languedoc and Vivarais despite the heroic defence
+of their peoples, who, besides being divided among themselves, were left
+to their own resources. Thus the Romans became masters of almost all
+southern Gaul; they govern it by their proconsuls and reduce its people
+to slavery. Do the other provinces at last take alarm at these ominous
+invasions of Rome that push ever forward and threaten the very heart of
+Gaul? No! No! Relying upon their own courage, they say as you, Joel, did
+shortly ago: 'The South lies far away from the North, the East lies far
+away from the West.' This notwithstanding, our race, which is heedless
+and presumptuous enough to fail to prepare in advance, and when it is
+still time, against foreign domination, always has the belated courage
+of rebelling when the yoke is actually placed upon its neck. The
+provinces that have been subjugated by the Romans, break out in resolute
+rebellion; these are smothered in their own blood. Our disasters follow
+swiftly upon one another. The Burgundians, incited thereto by the
+descendants of the old kings, take up arms against the Frank-Compte and
+invoke the aid of the Romans. The Frank-Compte, unable to make head
+against such an alliance, requests reinforcements from the Germans of
+the other side of the Rhine. Thus these barbarians of the North are
+taught the road to Gaul, and after bloody battles with the very people
+who invited them, remain masters of both Burgundy and Frank-Compte. Last
+year, the Swiss, encouraged by the example of the Germans, make an
+irruption into the Gallic provinces that had been conquered by the
+Romans. Thereupon, Julius Caesar is appointed proconsul; he hastens from
+Italy; owerthrows the Swiss in their mountains; drives the Germans out
+of Burgundy and Frank-Compte; takes possession of these provinces, now
+exhausted by their long struggles with the barbarians; and to the yoke
+of these now succeeds that of the Romans. It was a change of masters.
+And finally, at the beginning of this year a portion of Gaul shakes off
+its lethargy and scents the dangers that threatens the still independent
+provinces. Brave patriots, wanting neither Romans nor Germans for their
+masters--Galba among the Gauls of Belgium, Boddig-nat among the Gauls of
+Flanders--induce the people to rise in mass against Caesar. The Gauls of
+Vermandois and those of Artois also rise in rebellion. Together they all
+march against the Romans! Oh, it was a great and terrible battle, that
+battle of the Sambre!" cried the unknown traveler with exaltation. "The
+Gallic army awaited Caesar on the left bank of the river. Three times did
+the Roman army cross, and three times was it compelled to recross it,
+fighting up to their waists in the blood-reddened waters. The Roman is
+overthrown, the oldest legions are shattered. Caesar alights from his
+horse, swings his sword, rallies his last cohorts of veterans, that
+already were yielding ground, and at their head charges upon our army.
+Despite Caesar's courage the battle was lost to him, when we saw a fresh
+body arrive to his aid."
+
+"You say 'We saw'?" asked Joel. "Were you at that terrible battle?"
+
+But the unknown visitor proceeded without answering: "Exhausted,
+decimated by a seven hours' fight, we still held out against the fresh
+troops ... we fought to the bitter end ... we fought unto death.... And
+do you know," added the stranger with an expression of profound grief,
+"do you know, you who remained peacefully at home, while your brothers
+were dying for the liberty of Gaul, which is also yours,--do you know
+how many survived of the sixty thousand men in the Gallic army--in that
+battle of the Sambre?... _Not five hundred!_"
+
+"Not five hundred!" cried Joel as if questioning the figures.
+
+"I say so because I am one of the survivors," answered the stranger
+proudly.
+
+"Then the two fresh scars on your face--"
+
+"I received them at the battle of the Sambre--"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+"WAR! WAR! WAR!"
+
+
+A furious barking of dogs in the yard and a distinct noise of hard
+rapping at the gate of the palisade interrupted the stranger's
+narrative. Still laboring under the painful impression of the traveler's
+words, the family of the brenn for a moment imagined their homestead was
+being attacked. The women rose precipitately, the little ones rushed to
+their mothers' arms, the men ran for their arms that hung from the
+walls. But the dogs soon ceased barking, although the rapping at the
+gate continued unabated. Joel said to his family:
+
+"Although they are still rapping, the dogs do not bark. They must know
+who is at the gate."
+
+Saying this, the brenn stepped out. Several of his kinsmen, the stranger
+included, followed him out of prudence. The yard gate was opened and two
+voices were heard outside the palisades crying:
+
+"It is we, friends, ... Albinik and Mikael."
+
+Indeed the two sons of the brenn were distinguished by the light of the
+torches, and behind them their horses, panting for breath and white with
+foam. After tenderly embracing his sons, especially the mariner, who was
+absent over a year on his sea journeys, Joel entered the house with
+them, where they were received with joy and not a little surprise by
+their mother and other relatives.
+
+Albinik the mariner and Mikael the armorer were, like their father and
+their brother, men of large and robust stature. Over their clothes they
+carried a caped cloak of heavy woolen fabric streaming with the rain.
+Upon entering the house, and even before embracing their mother, the new
+arrivals stepped to the altar and approached their lips to the seven
+small twigs of mistletoe that stood dipped in the copper bowl on the
+large stone. They there noticed a lifeless body covered with oak
+branches, near which Julyan still sat.
+
+"Good evening, Julyan," said Mikael. "Who is dead?"
+
+"It is Armel; I killed him this evening in a sword contest," answered
+Julyan; "but as we have both pledged brotherhood to each other, I shall
+join him to-morrow beyond. If you wish it I shall mention you to him."
+
+"Yes, yes. Julyan; I loved Armel and expected to find him alive. In the
+bag on my horse I have a little harpoon head of iron that I forged for
+him; I shall place it to-morrow on the pyre of you two--"
+
+"And you must tell Armel," added the mariner smiling, "that he went away
+too soon; his friends Albinik and Meroe would have told him their last
+experience at sea."
+
+"It is Armel and myself," replied Julyan with a smile, "who will later
+have pretty stories to tell you. Your sea trips will be like nothing to
+the travels that await us in those marvelous worlds that none has seen
+and all will see."
+
+After Margarid's two sons had answered the tender inquiries of their
+mother and family, the brenn said to the unknown traveler:
+
+"Friend, these are my two sons."
+
+"May it please heaven that the suddenness of their arrival may not be
+caused by some evil event," answered the traveler.
+
+"I say so, too, my children," rejoined Joel. "What has happened that you
+come at so late an hour and in such hurry? Happy be your return,
+Albinik, but I did not expect it so soon. But where is the gentle
+Meroe?"
+
+"I left her at Vannes, father. This is what has happened. I returned
+from Spain by the gulf of Gascony on the way to England. The bad weather
+forced us to put in at Vannes. But by Teutates, who presides over all
+journeys by land and sea, here on earth and beyond, I did not
+expect--no, I did not expect to see what I saw in that town. I,
+therefore, left my vessel in port in charge of my sailors with my wife
+as their chief, I took a horse and galloped to Auray. There I gave the
+news to Mikael, and we hastened hither to forewarn you, father."
+
+"And what is it you saw at Vannes?"
+
+"What did I see? All the inhabitants, in revolt, full of indignation and
+rage, like the brave Bretons that they are!"
+
+"And what is the reason of it all, children?" asked Mamm' Margarid
+without leaving her distaff.
+
+"Four Roman officers, without any other escort than four soldiers and as
+calmly insolent as if they were in some enslaved country, came in
+yesterday and commanded the magistrates of the town to issue orders to
+all the neighboring tribes to send to Vannes ten thousand bags of
+wheat--"
+
+"And what else?" asked Joel laughing and shrugging his shoulders.
+
+"Five thousand bags of oats."
+
+"And what else?"
+
+"Five hundred barrels of hydromel."
+
+"Of course," said the brenn laughing louder, "they must also drink--and
+what else?"
+
+"A thousand heads of beef."
+
+"And, of course, the fattest--What else?"
+
+"Five thousand sheep."
+
+"That's right. One soon gets tired of beef only. Is that all, my boy?"
+
+"They also demanded three hundred horses to furnish new equipages to the
+Roman cavalry, besides two hundred wagons of forage."
+
+"And why not? The poor horses must be fed," continued Joel sneeringly.
+"But there must be some more orders. If they begin to issue orders, why
+stop at all?"
+
+"The provisions were to be taken in wagons as far as Poitou and
+Touraine."
+
+"And what is the wide maw that is to swallow up those bags of wheat,
+those muttons, those heads of beef and those barrels of hydromel?"
+
+"Above all," added the traveler, "who is to pay for all those
+provisions?"
+
+"Pay for them!" replied Albinik. "Why, nobody. It is a forced impost."
+
+"Ha! Ha!" laughed Joel.
+
+"And the wide maw that is to gulp up the provisions is none other than
+the Roman army, which is wintering in Touraine and Anjou."
+
+A shudder of rage mixed with disdain ran through the family of the
+brenn. "Well, Joel," the unknown traveler remarked, "do you still think
+that it is a long way from Touraine to Britanny? The distance does not
+seem to me long, seeing that the officers of Caesar come calmly and
+without escort, empty-pursed and swinging high their canes, to provision
+their army here."
+
+Joel no longer laughed; he dropped his head and remained silent.
+
+"Our guest is right," put in Albinik; "these Romans came empty-pursed
+and swinging high their canes. One of them even raised his cane over old
+Ronan, the oldest magistrate of Vannes, who, like you, father, objected
+strongly to the Roman exaction."
+
+"And yet, children, what else can we do but laugh at these demands. To
+levy these provisionings upon us and the neighboring tribes of Vannes;
+to force us to carry the requisitions to Touraine and Anjou with our
+oxen and horses which the Romans will surely keep also, and all that at
+the very season of the late sowing and of our autumn labors; to ruin
+next year's harvest;--why, that is to reduce us to living upon the grass
+that would have fed the cattle that they rob us of!"
+
+"Yes," said Mikael the armorer; "they want to take away our wheat and
+our cattle, and leave the grass to us. By the iron of the lance that I
+was forging this very morning, it shall be the Romans who, under our
+blows, will bite the grass on our fields!"
+
+"Vannes is now preparing to defend herself if attacked," added the
+mariner. "They have begun to throw up trenches in the neighborhood of
+the port. All our sailors are to be armed, and if the Roman galleys
+attack us by sea, never will the sea crows have had a like feast of
+corpses upon our beach."
+
+"While crossing to-night the other tribes," resumed Mikael, "we spread
+the news and sounded the alarm. The magistrates of Vannes have also sent
+out messengers in all direction ordering that fires be lighted from hill
+to hill, and thereby give immediate notice of the imminent danger from
+one end of Britanny to the other."
+
+Without once dropping her distaff, Mamm' Margarid had listened to the
+report given by her sons. When they stopped speaking she calmly said:
+
+"As to those Roman officers, my sons, were they not sent back to their
+army--after a thorough caning?"
+
+"No, mother; they were lodged in jail at Vannes, all except two of their
+soldiers whom the magistrates charged to declare to the Roman general
+that no provisions whatever were to be furnished him, and that his
+officers were to be as hostages."
+
+"It would have been better to give the officers a thorough caning and
+drive them in disgrace out of the town," replied Mamm' Margarid. "That
+is the way thieves are treated, and these Romans tried to rob us."
+
+"You are right, Margarid," said Joel; "they came to rob us--to starve
+us! to carry away our harvests and our cattle!" And Joel, now in a
+towering rage, added: "By the vengeance of Hesus! To think of their
+taking our fine turn-out of six young oxen with skins slick as wolves!
+Our four yokes of black bulls that have such a beautiful white star in
+the center of their foreheads!"
+
+"And our beautiful white heifers with yellow heads!" said Mamm' Margarid
+shrugging her shoulders and never quitting her distaff, "our sheep whose
+fleece is so nice and thick.... Come, a good caning for these Romans!"
+
+"And the powerful horses of the stock of your magnificent stallion
+Tom-Bras," put in the traveler. "They will, after all, have to draw your
+harvest to Touraine, and will then serve to replace the worn-out horses
+of the Roman cavalry.... True, to them, the labor will not be excessive
+... because you will now probably discover that it is not far from
+Touraine to Britanny."
+
+"Well may you mock, friend," said Joel. "You were right, and I confess
+myself to have been wrong. Oh! If only the provinces of Gaul had from
+the start confederated themselves against the first assault of the
+Romans! If united they had put forth but one-half the efforts that they
+put forth separately--we would not now be exposed to the insolent
+demands and to the threats of these heathens! Well may you mock!"
+
+"No, Joel, I will mock no longer," gravely answered the traveler. "The
+danger is near; the hostile camp lies only a twelve day's march from
+here; the refusal of the magistrates of Vannes and the imprisonment of
+the Roman officers--all that means speedy war--a merciless war, as only
+the Romans know how to wage! If we are vanquished it means to us death
+on the battle field, or slavery far away! The slave merchants follow the
+tracks of the Roman army; they are greedy after prey. Whatever survives,
+whether whole or wounded--men, young women, girls, children--all are
+sold at auction like cattle for the benefit of the vanquisher, and are
+forthwith consigned by the thousands to Italy or to Southern Gaul where
+the Romans are settled! Arrived at their destination, the male slaves of
+robust frame are often forced to fight ferocious animals in the circus
+for the amusement of their masters; the young women and girls, even the
+children are subjected to monstrous debaucheries. Such is war with the
+Romans if vanquished!" cried the stranger. "Will you allow yourselves to
+be vanquished? Will you submit to such disgrace? Will you deliver to
+them your wives, your sisters, your daughters and children, ye Gauls of
+Britanny?"
+
+Hardly had the traveler uttered these words when the whole family of
+Joel--men, women, young girls, children--all down to the dwarfy Stumpy,
+rose to their feet and with their eyes shooting fire, their cheeks
+inflamed, cried tumultuously, waving their arms:
+
+"War! War! War!"
+
+Joel's large battle mastiff, fired by these cries, rose on his hind legs
+and laid his fore-paws on the breast of his master, who, while caressing
+his enormous head said:
+
+"Yes, old Deber-Trud, like our tribe you will hunt the Romans.... The
+quarry shall be for you.... Your jaws shall be red with blood!... Wow!
+Wow, Deber-Trud! At the Romans! At the Romans!"
+
+Hearing the well-known war-cry, the mastiff responded with furious
+barks, displaying fangs as redoubtable as a lion's. Hearing Deber-Trud,
+the outside watch-dogs, as well as those locked up in the kennels,
+answered him. Frightful was the war-cry raised by the pack.
+
+"A good omen, friend Joel," observed the traveler. "Your dogs bark death
+to the enemy."
+
+"Yes, yes; death to the enemy!" cried the brenn. "Thanks be to the gods,
+in our Breton Gaul, on the day of peril, the watch-dog becomes a
+war-dog! the draw-horse becomes a war-horse! the ox of the field a
+war-ox! the harvest carts chariots of war! the laborer a warrior! even
+our peaceful and fruitful earth turns to war and devours the stranger!
+at every step he finds a grave in our fathomless marshes, and his
+vessels vanish in the whirlpools of our bays which are more terrible in
+their calm than in the tempest of their fury!"
+
+"Joel," now said Julyan, who had left the body of his friend, "I
+promised Armel to meet him to-morrow yonder--Such a death would be
+pleasant to me.... To die fighting the Romans is a duty.... What shall I
+do?"
+
+"Ask to-morrow one of the druids of Karnak."
+
+"And our sister Hena," said Albinik the mariner to his mother. "It is
+nearly a year I have not seen her.... She is surely still the pearl of
+the Isle of Sen? My wife Meroe charged me to remember her to Hena."
+
+"You will see her to-morrow," answered Mamm' Margarid; and laying down
+her distaff she arose. It was the signal for the family to retire. Mamm'
+Margarid looked around and said:
+
+"Let us retire, my children; it is late; to-morrow at break of day we
+must begin our war preparations;" and turning to the traveler:
+
+"May the gods grant you a good rest and pleasant dreams!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+FAREWELL!
+
+
+Agreeable to his promise, Joel pushed off his boat early the next
+morning, accompanied by his son Albinik the mariner, and took the
+unknown traveler to the island of Kellor, seeing he did not dare to land
+at the sacred precincts of the Isle of Sen. The brenn's guest said a few
+words in a low voice to the ewagh who mounts perpetual guard in the
+island's house. He seemed to be struck with respect and answered that
+Talyessin, the oldest of the living druids, who then was at the Isle of
+Sen together with his wife Auria, expected a traveler since the previous
+evening.
+
+Before leaving Joel, the stranger said to his host: "I hope neither you
+nor your family will forget your resolution of yesterday. This day a
+call to arms will resound from one end of Breton Gaul to the other."
+
+"You may rest assured that I and the rest of my tribe will be the first
+to respond to the call."
+
+"I believe you. The issue now is whether Gaul shall fall into slavery or
+shall rise again to the height of her one-time power and glory."
+
+"But should I not, at this moment when I am to leave you, know the name
+of the brave man who sat at my hearth? The name of the wise man who
+speaks with so much soundness and loves his country so warmly?"
+
+"Joel, my name shall be 'Soldier' so long as Gaul is not free; and if we
+ever meet again, I shall call myself 'Your Friend,' seeing that I am
+that."
+
+Saying these words the unknown traveler stepped into the ewagh's boat
+that was to take him from Kellor to the Isle of Sen. Before the boat,
+which was under charge of the ewagh, put off, Joel asked the latter
+whether he would be permitted to wait at the house for his daughter
+Hena, who was to come on that day to visit the family. The ewagh
+informed him that his daughter would not start for the shore until
+evening. Sorry at not being able to take Hena with him, the brenn
+re-entered his boat and returned alone with Albinik.
+
+Towards noon, Julyan went to consult the druids of the forest of Karnak
+upon whether he should take the immediate and voluntary death which
+would be a pleasure to him, seeing he was to rejoin Armel, or seek death
+in battle against the Romans. The druids answered him that having sworn
+to Armel upon his brotherhood faith to die with him, he should be
+faithful to his promise, and that the ewaghs would bring the body of
+Armel with the usual ceremonies in order to place it upon the pyre where
+Julyan would find his place at moon-rise. Happy at being able so soon to
+join his friend, Julyan was about to leave Karnak, when he saw the
+stranger, who had been the guest of Joel and who now returned from the
+Isle of Sen, approaching through the forest in the company of Talyessin.
+The latter said a few words to the other druids, who forthwith
+surrounded the traveler with great eagerness and marks of respect. The
+younger ones of the druids received him as a brother, the elder ones as
+a son.
+
+Recognizing Julyan, the traveler said to him:
+
+"As you are to return to the brenn of the tribe, wait a little; I shall
+give you a letter for him."
+
+Julyan yielded to the wish of the stranger, who withdrew accompanied by
+Talyessin and other druids. He returned shortly and handed to Julyan a
+little scroll of yellow tanned skin, saying:
+
+"This is for Joel.... This evening, Julyan, when the moon rises we shall
+see each other again.... Hesus loves those who, like you, are brave and
+faithful in their friendship."
+
+Upon arriving at the brenn's house, Julyan learned that the former was
+on the field gathering in the wheat. He went after him and delivered to
+Joel the writing sent by the stranger. It said:
+
+"Friend Joel, in the name of Gaul now in danger, this is what the druids
+expect of you: Command all the members of your family who are at work on
+the fields to cry out to those of the tribe working not far from them:
+The mistletoe and the new year! _Let every man, woman and child, all
+without exception, meet this evening in the forest of Karnak at the rise
+of the moon._ Let those of the tribe who will have heard these words in
+turn repeat them aloud to those of the other tribes who may also be at
+work on the fields, so that the call being repeated from mouth to mouth,
+from one to another, from village to village, from town to town, from
+Vannes to Auray, notify all the tribes to convene this evening at the
+forest of Karnak."
+
+Joel did as ordered by the stranger in the name of the druids of Karnak.
+The call was carried from mouth to mouth, from the nearest to the most
+distant tribes; all were notified to meet that evening in the forest of
+Karnak when the moon rose.
+
+While some of the brenn's family were hurriedly gathering in the wheat
+harvest that still remained heaped on the fields, in order to deposit a
+portion of it in cellars that the laborers were digging on dry ground,
+the women, the girls and even the children, all working under the
+direction of Margarid, were as busily engaged disposing of salted meats
+into baskets, flour into bags, hydromel and wine into pouches; others
+were filling coffers with lint and balsam for wounds; others were
+adjusting broad and strong tent cloths over the chariots. In all wars
+considered dangerous, the tribes threatened by the enemy, instead of
+waiting for, usually went out to meet him. The houses were abandoned;
+the field oxen were hitched to the war-chariots, all of which contained
+the women, the children, the clothes and the provisions of the
+combatants. The horses, ridden by the full grown men of the tribe,
+constituted the cavalry. The young men, being more agile, went on foot
+as an armed escort. The grain was hidden away; the cattle, let loose,
+pastured where they pleased and returned instinctively every evening to
+their usual stables. Generally, the wolves and bears devoured a part.
+The fields remained untended and scarcity followed. Often the combatants
+who went to war in defence of their country, encouraged by the presence
+of their wives and children, and having nothing to expect from the enemy
+but disgrace, slavery or death, drove back the invader beyond their
+frontiers, and returned home to repair the disasters of the fields.
+
+Knowing that his daughter was due at the house, Joel returned home
+towards sun-down. He also expected to be able to take a hand in the
+preparations for the war.
+
+Hena, the virgin of the Isle of Sen, soon arrived. When her father,
+mother and other relatives saw her enter it seemed to them never before
+had she been so beautiful. Never before did her father feel so proud of
+his daughter. The long black tunic that she wore was held around her
+waist by a brass belt, from which, on one side, hung a little gold
+sickle, and on the other a crescent in the shape of the waning moon.
+Hena had dressed herself with special care in honor of the celebration
+of her birthday. A necklace and gold bracelets inlaid with garnets
+ornamented her arms and neck, whiter than the driven snow. When she took
+off her caped cloak it was noticed that she wore, as ever at religious
+ceremonies, a crown of green oak leaves on her blonde hair, plaited in
+braids over her chaste and mild forehead. The blue of the sea, when
+lying calmly under a clear sky, was not purer than the blue of Hena's
+eyes.
+
+The brenn stretched out his arms to his daughter. She ran into them
+joyously and offered him her forehead, as she also did her mother. The
+children of the family loved Hena dearly and contested with each other
+the privilege of being the first to kiss her hands--sought with greed by
+all the little innocent mouths. Even old Deber-Trud gamboled and barked
+with joy at the arrival of his young mistress.
+
+Albinik the mariner was the first to whom Hena offered her forehead to
+kiss after her father and mother; she had not seen her brother for a
+long time. Next came the turn of Guilhern and Mikael and then the swarm
+of children, whom, stooping to them, Hena, sought to hold all together
+in one embrace. The young priestess then tenderly greeted Henory, her
+brother Guilhern's wife, and expressed her regret at not seeing
+Albinik's wife Meroe. Nor were the other relatives forgotten; all, down
+to Stumpy, otherwise everyone's butt, had a kind word from her.
+
+The general exchange of greetings being over, and happy at finding
+herself among her own, in the house where she was born eighteen years
+before, Hena sat down at her mother's feet on the same stool that she
+used to occupy when a child. When she saw her child seated at her feet,
+Mamm' Margarid called the maid's attention to the disorder that reigned
+in the house due to the preparations for war, and she said sadly:
+
+"We should have celebrated this day of your birth with joy and
+tranquility, dear child! Instead, you now find confusion and alarm in
+our house that soon will be deserted.... War threatens."
+
+"Mother is right," answered Hena sighing; "Great is the anger of Hesus."
+
+"And what say you, dear child, you who are a saint," inquired Joel, "a
+saint of the Isle of Sen? What must we do to appease the wrath of the
+All-Powerful?"
+
+"My father and mother honor me too much by calling me a saint," answered
+the young virgin. "Like the druids, myself and my female companions have
+meditated all night under the shadows of the sacred oak-trees at the
+hour of moon rise. We search for the simplest and divinest principles,
+and seek to spread them among our fellow-beings. We adore the
+All-Powerful in His works, from the mighty oak that is sacred to Him,
+down to the humble moss that grows on the rocks of our isle; from the
+stars, whose eternal course we study, down to the insect that is born
+and dies in one day; from the sourceless sea, down to the streamlet of
+water that glides under the grass. We search for the cure of diseases
+that cause pain, and we glorify those among our fathers and mothers who
+have shed lustre upon Gaul. By the knowledge of the auguries and the
+study of the past, we seek to foresee the future to the end of
+enlightening those who are less clear-sighted than ourselves. Finally,
+like the druids, we teach childhood, we inspire the child with an ardent
+love of our common and beloved fatherland--so threatened to-day by the
+wrath of Hesus, a wrath that comes down upon them because they have
+forgotten that _they are all the children of the same God_, and that a
+brother must resent the wound inflicted upon his brother."
+
+"The stranger who was our guest and whom this morning I took to the Isle
+of Sen," replied the brenn, "spoke to us as you do, dear daughter."
+
+"My father and mother may listen as sacred words to the words of the
+Chief of the Hundred Valleys. Hesus and love for Gaul inspire him. He is
+brave among the bravest."
+
+"He! Is he the Chief of the Hundred Valleys?" exclaimed Joel. "He
+refused to give me his name! Do you know it, daughter? Do you know which
+is his native province?"
+
+"He was impatiently waited for yesterday evening at the Isle of Sen by
+the venerable Talyessin. As to his name, all that I am free to say to my
+father and mother is that the day on which our country should be
+subjugated will also be the day when the Chief of the Hundred Valleys
+will see the last drop of his blood flow from his veins. May the wrath
+of Hesus spare us that disastrous day!"
+
+"Oh, my daughter, if Hesus is angry, how are we to appease him?"
+
+"By obeying the law. He has said--_all men are the children of one
+God_. By offering to him human sacrifices.... May those that are to be
+offered to-night calm his wrath."
+
+"The sacrifices of to-night?" asked the brenn; "which are they?"
+
+"Do not my father and mother know that to-night, when the moon rises,
+there will be three human sacrifices at the stones of the forest of
+Karnak?"
+
+"We know," answered Joel, "that all the tribes have been convened to
+appear this evening at the forest of Karnak. But who are the people that
+are to be sacrificed and will be pleasing to Hesus, dear daughter?"
+
+"First of all Daoulas the murderer: he killed Houarne without a fight
+and in his sleep. The druids have sentenced him to die this evening. The
+blood of a cowardly murderer is an expiation agreeable to Hesus."
+
+"And the second sacrifice?"
+
+"Our relative Julyan wishes, out of friendship, to rejoin Armel, whom he
+loyally killed in a contest. This evening, glorified by the chant of the
+bards, he will go, agreeable to his vow, and join Armel in the unknown
+worlds. The blood of a brave man, voluntarily offered to Hesus, is
+agreeable to him."
+
+"And the third sacrifice, dear child?" asked Mamm' Margarid; "Who is
+it?"
+
+Hena did not answer. She dropped her blonde and charming head upon the
+knees of Margarid, remained a while in a revery, kissed her mother's
+hands and said to her with a sweet smile that brought back old
+remembrances:
+
+"How often did not little Hena, when still a child, fall asleep of an
+evening on your knees, mother, while you spun at your distaff, and when
+all of you now present, except Albinik, were gathered at the hearth,
+narrating the virile virtues of our mothers and our fathers of old!"
+
+"It is true, dear daughter," answered Margarid caressingly passing her
+hand over the blonde hair of her child; "it is true. And here among us
+we all loved you so much for your good heart and your infantine grace,
+that when we saw you had fallen asleep on my knees, we all spoke in a
+low voice not to awake you."
+
+Stumpy, who was among the crowd of relatives, put in:
+
+"But who is that third human sacrifice, that is to appease Hesus and
+deliver us from war? Who, Hena, is the third to be sacrificed this
+evening?"
+
+"I shall tell you, Stumpy, when I shall have had a little time to
+meditate upon the past," answered the young maid dreamily, without
+leaving her mother's knees; and passing her hand over her forehead as if
+to refreshen her memory, she looked around, pointed to the stone where
+stood the copper bowl with the seven twigs of mistletoe and proceeded
+saying:
+
+"When I was twelve, do my father and mother remember how happy I was at
+having been selected by the female druids of the Isle of Sen to receive
+in a veil of linen, whitened in the dew of night, the mistletoe which
+the druids cut with a gold sickle at the moment when the moon shed its
+clearest light? Do my father and mother remember how, bringing home the
+mistletoe to sanctify our home, I was taken hither by the ewaghs in a
+chariot decked with flowers and greens while the bards sang the glory of
+Hesus? What tender embraces did not my whole family lavish upon me at my
+return! What a feast it was in our tribe!"
+
+"Dear, dear daughter," said Margarid pressing Hena's head against her
+maternal breast, "if the female druids chose you to receive the sacred
+mistletoe in a linen veil, it was because your soul was as pure as the
+veil."
+
+"It was because little Hena was the bravest of all her companions, she
+almost perished in the attempt to save Janed, the daughter of Wor, who,
+as she was gathering shells on the rocks along the shore of Glen'-Hek,
+fell into the water and was being carried away by the waves," said
+Mikael the armorer, tenderly contemplating his sister.
+
+"It was because, beyond all others, little Hena was sweet, patient and
+kind to the children; it was because, when only twelve, she instructed
+them like at matron at the cottage of the female druids of the Isle of
+Sen," said Guilhern in his turn.
+
+The daughter of Joel blushed with modesty at the words of her mother and
+brothers; but Stumpy insisted:
+
+"But who is that third human sacrifice that is to appease Hesus and
+deliver us from war? Who is it, Hena, who is it to be sacrificed this
+evening?"
+
+"I shall tell you, Stumpy," answered the young maid rising; "I shall
+tell you after I have once more looked at the dear little chamber where
+I used to sleep when, having grown unto maidenhood, I came here from the
+Isle of Sen to attend our family feasts." And stepping towards the door
+of the chamber, she stopped for a moment at the threshold and said:
+
+"What sweet nights have I spent there after retiring for the evening,
+regretful of leaving you! With what impatience did I not rise in the
+morning to meet you again!"
+
+Taking two steps into the little chamber, while her family felt ever
+more astonished at hearing Hena, still so young, thus dwell upon the
+past, the young maid proceeded, taking up several articles that lay upon
+a little table:
+
+"This is the sea-shell necklace that I entertained myself making in the
+evening sitting beside my mother.... These are the little dried twigs
+that resemble trees, and that I gathered from our rocks.... This is the
+net which I used when the tide was going out to catch little fishes
+with; how the sport used to amuse me!... There are the rolls of white
+skin on which, every time I came here, I recorded my joy at meeting my
+relatives and again seeing the house of my birth.... I find everything
+in its place. I am glad of having gathered these young girl's
+treasures."
+
+Stumpy, however, whom these mementoes did not seem to affect, again
+repeated in his sour and impatient voice:
+
+"But who is to be the third human sacrifice that is to appease Hesus
+and deliver us from war? Who, Hena, is to be sacrificed this evening?"
+
+"I shall let you know, Stumpy," answered Hena smiling. "I shall let you
+know after I shall have distributed my little treasures among you
+all,--you among them, Stumpy."
+
+Saying this, the daughter of the brenn motioned to her relatives to
+enter the chamber, and in the midst of the silent astonishment of all
+she gave a souvenir to each. Each, even of the little ones who loved her
+so much and also Stumpy received something. In order to make her gifts
+reach around, she loosened the sea-shell necklace and split up the dry
+twigs, saying in her sweet voice to each:
+
+"Keep this, I pray you, out of friendship for Hena, your relative and
+friend."
+
+Joel, his wife and his three children, to all of whom Hena had not yet
+given aught, looked at one another all the more astonished at what she
+did, seeing that towards the end tears appeared in her eyes although the
+young maid gave no other token of sadness. When all the others were
+supplied, Hena took from her neck the garnet necklace that she wore and
+said to Margarid while kissing her hand:
+
+"Hena prays her mother to keep this out of love for her."
+
+She then took the little rolls of white skin that had been prepared for
+writing on, handed them to Joel and kissing his hand said:
+
+"Hena prays her father to keep this roll out of love for her; he will
+there find her most cherished thoughts."
+
+Detaching thereupon from her arm her two garnet bracelets, Hena said to
+the wife of her brother Guilhern, the laborer:
+
+"Hena prays her sister Henory to wear this bracelet out of love for
+her."
+
+And giving the other bracelet to her brother the mariner she said:
+
+"Your wife, Meroe, whom I love as much for her courage as for her noble
+heart, is to keep this bracelet as a souvenir from me."
+
+Hena then took from her copper belt the little gold sickle and crescent
+that hung from it. She tendered the former to Guilhern the laborer, the
+second to Albinik the mariner, and taking a ring from her finger she
+gave it to Mikael the armorer, saying to the three:
+
+"I wish my brothers to preserve these keepsakes out of love for their
+sister Hena."
+
+All those present remained astonished and holding in their hands the
+gifts that the virgin of the Isle of Sen had delivered to them. They all
+remained standing and so speechless with astonishment that none could
+utter a word, but looked uneasily at one another as if threatened by
+some unknown disaster. Hena finally turned to Stumpy:
+
+"Stumpy," said she, "I shall now let you know who is to be the third
+sacrifice of this evening;" and taking the hands of Joel and Margarid
+she gently led them back into the large hall, whither all the others
+followed. Arrived there, Hena addressed her parents and assembled
+relatives:
+
+"My father and mother know that the blood of a cowardly murderer is an
+expiatory offering to Hesus, and that it might appease him--"
+
+"Yes--you told us so, dear daughter."
+
+"They also know that the blood of a brave man who dies in pledge of
+friendship is a valorous offering to Hesus, and that it might appease
+him."
+
+"Yes--you told us so, dear daughter."
+
+"Finally, my father and mother know that the most acceptable of all
+offerings to Hesus and most likely to appease him is the innocent blood
+of a virgin, happy and proud at the thought of offering her blood to
+Hesus, and of doing so voluntarily--voluntarily--in the hope that that
+all-powerful god may deliver our beloved fatherland, this dear and
+sacred fatherland of our fathers, from foreign oppression!... Thus the
+innocent blood of a virgin will flow this evening to appease the wrath
+of Hesus."
+
+"And her name?" asked Stumpy, "the name of that virgin who is to deliver
+us from war!"
+
+Hena looked towards her father and mother with tenderness and serenity
+and said:
+
+"The virgin who is to die is one of the nine female druids of the Isle
+of Sen. Her name is Hena. She is the daughter of Margarid and Joel, the
+brenn of the tribe of Karnak!"
+
+Deep silence fell upon the family of Joel. None, not one present,
+expected to see Hena travel so soon yonder. None, not one present,
+neither her father, nor her mother, nor her brothers, nor any of her
+other relatives, was prepared for the farewells of the sudden journey.
+
+The children joined their little hands and said weeping:
+
+"What!... Leave us so soon?... Our Hena?... Why do you journey away?"
+
+The father and mother looked at each other and sighed.
+
+Margarid said to Hena: "Joel and Margarid believed that they would have
+to wait for their dear daughter in those unknown worlds, where we
+continue to live and where we meet again those whom we have loved
+here.... But it is to be otherwise. It is Hena who will precede us."
+
+"And perhaps," said the brenn, "our sweet and dear daughter will not
+long have to wait for us--"
+
+"May her blood, innocent and pure as a lamb's, appease the wrath of
+Hesus!" added Margarid; "May we soon be able to follow our dear daughter
+and inform her that Gaul is delivered from the stranger."
+
+"And the remembrance of the valiant sacrifice of our daughter shall be
+kept alive in our race," said the father; "so long as the descendants of
+Joel, the brenn of the tribe of Karnak, shall live they will be proud to
+number among their ancestors Hena, the virgin of the Isle of Sen."
+
+The young maid made no answer. Her eyes wandered with sweet avidity from
+one relative to the other as, at the moment of undertaking a journey,
+the departing one takes a last look at the beloved beings from whom he
+is to be separated for a while.
+
+Pointing through the open door at the moon that, now at her fullest, was
+seen across the evening mist rising large-orbed and ruddy like a burning
+disk, Stumpy cried:
+
+"Hena!... Hena! The moon is rising above the horizon...."
+
+"You are right, Stumpy; this is the hour," she said, unwillingly taking
+her eyes from the faces of her beloved family. An instant later she
+added:
+
+"Let my father and mother and all the members of my family accompany me
+to the sacred stones of the forest of Karnak.... The hour of the
+sacrifice has come."
+
+Walking between Joel and Margarid, and followed by all the members of
+the tribe, Hena walked serenely to the forest of Karnak.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE FOREST OF KARNAK.
+
+
+The call for assembling that was issued to the tribes at noon, had run
+from mouth to mouth, from village to village, from town to town. It was
+heard all over Breton Gaul. Towards evening the tribes proceeded en
+masse--men, women and children--to the forest of Karnak, the same as
+Joel and his family.
+
+The moon, at her fullest on that night, shone radiant amid the stars in
+the firmament. After having marched through the dark and the lighted
+spots of the forest, the assembling multitude finally arrived at the
+shores of the sea. The sacred stones of Karnak rose there in nine long
+avenues. They are sacred stones! They are the gigantic pillars of a
+temple that has the sky for its vault.
+
+In the measure that the tribes drew nearer to the place, their solemnity
+deepened.
+
+At the extremity of the avenue, the three stones of the sacrificial
+altar were ranged in a semi-circle, close to the shore. Behind the mass
+of people rose the deep and brooding forest, before them extended the
+boundless sea, above them spread the starry firmament.
+
+The tribes did not step beyond the last avenue of Karnak. They left a
+wide space between themselves and the altar. The large crowd remained
+silent.
+
+At the feet of the sacrificial stones rose three pyres.
+
+The center one, the largest of the three, was ornamented with long white
+veils striped with purple; it was also ornamented with ash, oak and
+birch-tree branches, arranged in mystical order.
+
+The pyre to the right was somewhat less high, but was also ornamented
+with green branches besides sheafs of wheat. On it lay the body of
+Armel, who had been killed in loyal combat. It was almost hidden under
+green and fruit-bearing boughs.
+
+The left pyre was surmounted with a hollow bunch of twisted osiers
+bearing the resemblance of a human body of gigantic stature.
+
+The sound of cymbals and harps was presently heard from the distance.
+
+The male and female druids, together with the virgins of the Isle of Sen
+were approaching the sacrificial place.
+
+At the head of the procession marched the bards, dressed in long white
+tunics that were held around their waists by brass belts; their temples
+were wreathed in oak leaves; they sang while playing upon their harps:
+"God, Gaul and her heroes."
+
+They were followed by the ewaghs charged with the sacrifices, and
+carrying torches and axes; they led in their midst and in chains
+Daoulas, the murderer who was to be executed.
+
+Behind these marched the druids themselves, clad in their purple-striped
+white robes, and their temples also wreathed in oak leaves. In their
+midst was Julyan, happy and proud; Julyan who was glad to leave this
+world in order to rejoin his friend Armel, and journey in his company
+over the unknown worlds.
+
+Finally came the married female druids, clad in white tunics with gold
+belts, and the nine virgins of the Isle of Sen, clad in their black
+tunics, their belts of brass, their arms bare, their green chaplets and
+their gold harps. Hena walked at the head of the latter. Her eyes looked
+for her father, her mother and her relatives--Joel, Margarid and their
+family had been placed in the front rank of the crowd--they soon
+recognized their daughter; their hearts went out to her.
+
+The druids ranked themselves beside the sacrificial stones. The bards
+ceased chanting. One of the ewaghs than said to the crowd, that all who
+wished to be remembered to people whom they had loved and who were no
+longer here, could deposit their letters and offering on the pyres.
+
+A large number of relatives and friends of those who had long been
+traveling yonder, thereupon piously approached the pyres, and deposited
+letters, flowers and other souvenirs that were to re-appear in the other
+worlds, the same as the souls of the bodies that were about to dissolve
+in brilliant flames, were to re-appear in a new body.
+
+Nobody, however, not one single person, deposited aught on the pyre of
+the murderer. As proud and joyful as Julyan was, Daoulas was crestfallen
+and frightened. Julyan had everything to hope for from the continuance
+of a life that had been uniformly pure and just. The murderer had
+everything to fear from the continuance of a life that was stained with
+crime. After all the offerings for the departed ones were deposited on
+the pyres, a profound silence followed.
+
+The ewaghs led Daoulas in chains to the osier effigy. Despite the
+pitiful cries of the condemned man, he was pinioned and placed at the
+foot of the pyre, and the ewaghs remained near him, axes in hand.
+
+Talyessin, the oldest of all the druids, an old man with long white
+beard, made a sign to one of the bards, who thereupon struck his
+three-stringed harp and intonated the following chant, after pointing to
+the murderer:
+
+"This man is of the tribe of Morlech. He killed Houarne of the same
+tribe. Did he kill him, like a brave man face to face with equal
+weapons? No, Daoulas killed Houarne like a coward. At the noon hour,
+Houarne was asleep under a tree. Daoulas approached him on tiptoe, axe
+in hand and killed his victim with one blow. Little Erick of the same
+tribe, who happened to be in a near-by tree picking fruit, saw the
+murder and him who committed it. On the evening of the same day the
+ewaghs seized Daoulas in his tribe. Brought before the druids of Karnak
+and confronted by Erick, he confessed his crime. Whereupon the oldest of
+the druids said:
+
+"'In the name of Hesus, _He who is because he is_, in the name of
+Teutates, who presides over journeys in this world and in the others,
+hear: The expiatory blood of the murderer is agreeable to Hesus.... You
+are about to be born again in other worlds. Your new life will be
+terrible, because you were cruel and cowardly.... You will die to be
+re-born in still greater wretchedness forever and ever through all
+eternity.... Become, on the contrary, from the moment that you are
+re-born, brave and good, despite the sufferings that you will endure and
+you will then die happy, to be re-born yonder, thus forever and ever,
+through all eternity!!!'"
+
+The bard then addressed himself to the murderer, who emitted fearful
+cries of terror.
+
+Thus spoke the venerable druid: "Daoulas, you are about to die ... and
+to meet your victim.... _He is waiting for you, he is waiting for you!_"
+
+When the bard pronounced these words, a shudder went through the
+assembled crowd. The fearful thought of meeting in the next world alive
+him who was killed in this made them all tremble.
+
+The bard proceeded, turning towards the pyre:
+
+"Daoulas, you are about to die! It is a glorious thing to see the face
+of a brave and just person at the moment when he or she voluntarily
+quits this world for some sacred cause. They love, at the moment of
+their departure to see the tender looks of farewell of their parents and
+friends. Cowards like yourself, Daoulas, are unworthy of taking a last
+look at the just. Hence, Daoulas, you will die and burn hidden in that
+envelop of osier, the effigy of a man, as you have become since the
+commission of the murder."
+
+And the bard cried:
+
+"In the name of Hesus! In the name of Teutates! Glory, glory to the
+brave! Shame, shame on the coward!"
+
+All the bards struck upon their harps and their cymbals, and cried in
+chorus:
+
+"Glory, glory to the brave! Shame, shame on the coward!"
+
+An ewagh then took up a sacred knife, cut off the murderer's life and
+cast his body inside of the huge osier effigy of a man. The pyre was set
+on fire. The harps and cymbals struck up in chorus, and all the tribes
+repeated aloud the last words of the bard:
+
+"Shame on the coward!"
+
+Soon the murderer's pyre was a raging mass of flame, within which was
+seen for a moment the effigy of a man like a giant on fire. The flames
+lighted the tops of the oaks of the forest, the colossal stones of
+Karnak, and even the vast expanse of the sea, while the moon inundated
+the space with its divine light. A few minutes later there was nothing
+left but a heap of ashes where the pyre of Daoulas had stood.
+
+Julyan was then seen ascending with radiant mien the pyre where lay the
+body of Armel, his friend--his pledged brother. Julyan had on his
+holiday clothes: a blouse of fine material striped white and blue, held
+around his waist by an embroidered leather belt, from which hung his
+knife. His caped cloak of brown wool was held by a brooch over his left
+shoulder. An oak crown decked his manly head. He held in his hand a
+nosegay of vervain. He looked serene and bold. Hardly had he ascended
+the pyre, when again the harps and cymbals struck up, and the bard
+chanted:
+
+"Who is this? He is a brave man! It is Julyan the laborer; Julyan of the
+family of Joel, the brenn of the tribe of Karnak! He fears the gods, and
+all love him. He is good, he is industrious, he is brave. He killed
+Armel not in hate but in a contest, in loyal combat, buckler on arm,
+sword in hand, like a true Breton Gaul, who loves to display his bravery
+and does not fear death. Armel having departed, Julyan, who had pledged
+brotherhood to him, wishes to depart also and join his friend. Glory to
+Julyan, faithful to the teachings of the druids. He knows that the
+creatures of the All-Powerful never die, and his pure and noble blood
+Julyan now offers up to Hesus. Glory, hope and happiness to Julyan! He
+has been good, just and brave. He will be re-born still happier, still
+juster, still braver, and ever onward, from world to world, Julyan will
+be re-born, his soul being ever re-incarnated in a new body the same as
+the body that here puts on new clothes."
+
+"Oh, Gauls! Ye proud souls, to whom death does not exist! Come, come!
+Remove your eyes from this earth; rise to the sublimity of heaven. See,
+see at your feet the abyss of space, dotted by these myriads of mortals
+as are all of us, and whom Teutates guides incessantly from the world
+that they have lived in towards the world that they are next to inhabit.
+Oh, what unknown worlds and marvelous we shall journey through, with our
+friends and our relatives that have preceded us, and with those whom we
+shall precede!"
+
+"No, we are not mortals! Our infinite lives are numbered by myriads and
+myriads of centuries, just as are numbered by myriads of myriads the
+stars in the firmament--mysterious worlds, ever different, ever new,
+that we are successively to inhabit."
+
+"Let those fear death who, faithful to the false gods of the Greeks, the
+Romans and the Jews, believe that man lives only once, and that after
+that, stripped of his body, the happy or unhappy soul remains eternally
+in the same hell or the same paradise! Aye! They are bound to fear death
+who believe that when man quits this life he finds _immobility in
+eternity_."
+
+"We Gauls have the right knowledge of God. We hold the secret of death.
+_Man is immortal both in body and soul._ Our destiny from world to world
+is to see and learn, to the end that at each of these journeys, if we
+have led wicked and impure lives, we may purify ourselves and become
+better--still better if we have been just and good; and that thus, from
+new birth to new birth man rises incessantly towards perfection as
+endless as his life!"
+
+"Happy, therefore, are the brave who voluntarily leave this world for
+other regions where they will ever see new and marvelous sights in the
+company of those whom they have loved! Happy, therefore, happy the brave
+Julyan! He is about to meet again with his friend, and with him see and
+know _what none of us has yet seen or known, and what all of us shall
+see and know_! Happy Julyan! Glory, glory to Julyan!"
+
+And all the bards and all the druids, the female druids and the virgins
+of the Isle of Sen repeated in chorus to the sound of the harps and the
+cymbals:
+
+"Happy, Happy Julyan! Glory to Julyan!"
+
+And all the tribes, feeling the thrill of curiosity of death and certain
+that they all would eventually become acquainted with the marvels of the
+other worlds, repeated with their thousands of voices:
+
+"Happy Julyan! Happy Julyan!"
+
+Standing erect upon his pyre, his face radiant, and at his feet the body
+of Armel, Julyan raised his inspired eyes towards the brilliant moon,
+opened his blouse, drew his long knife, held up the nosegay of vervain
+to heaven with his left hand, and with his right firmly plunged his
+knife into his breast, uttering as he did so in a strong voice:
+
+"Happy--happy am I. I am to join Armel!"
+
+The pyre was immediately lighted. Julyan, raised for a last, time his
+nosegay of vervain to heaven, and then vanished in the midst of the
+blinding flames, while the chants of the bards and the clang of harp and
+cymbals resounded far and wide.
+
+In their impatience to see and know the mysteries of the other world, a
+large number of men and women of the tribes rushed towards Julyan's pyre
+for the purpose of departing with him and of offering to Hesus an
+immense hecatomb with their bodies. But Talyessin, the eldest of the
+druids, ordered the ewaghs to restrain and hold these faithful people
+back. He cried out to them:
+
+"Enough blood has flown without that which is still to flow. But the
+hour has come when the blood of Gaul should flow only for freedom. The
+blood that is shed for liberty is also an agreeable offering to the
+All-Powerful."
+
+It was not without great effort that the ewaghs prevented the threatened
+rush of voluntary human sacrifices. The pyre of Julyan and Armel burned
+until the flames had nothing more to feed upon.
+
+Again profound silence fell upon the crowd. Hena, the virgin of the Isle
+of Sen, had ascended the third pyre.
+
+Joel and Margarid, their three sons, Guilhern, Albinik and Mikael,
+Guilhern's wife and little children all of whom so dearly loved Hena,
+all her relatives and all the members of her tribe held one another in a
+close embrace, and said to one another:
+
+"There is Hena.... There is our Hena!"
+
+As the virgin of the Isle of Sen stood upon the pyre that was ornamented
+with white veils, greens and flowers, the crowds of the tribes cried in
+one voice: "How beautiful she is!... How holy!"
+
+Joel writes it now down in all sincerity. His daughter Hena was indeed
+very beautiful as she stood erect on the pyre, lighted by the mellow
+light of the moon and resplendent in her black tunic, her blonde hair
+and her green chaplet, while her arms, whiter than ivory, embraced her
+gold harp!
+
+The bards ordered silence.
+
+The virgin of the Isle of Sen sang in a voice as pure as her own soul:
+
+"The daughter of Joel and Margarid comes to offer gladly her life as a
+sacrifice to Hesus!
+
+"Oh, All-Powerful! From the stranger deliver the soil of our father!
+
+"Gauls of Britanny, you have the lance and the sword!
+
+"The daughter of Joel and Margarid has but her blood. She offers it
+voluntarily to Hesus!
+
+"Oh, Almighty God! Render invincible the Gallic lance and sword! Oh,
+Hesus, take my blood, it is yours ... save our sacred fatherland!"
+
+The eldest of the female druids stood all this while on the pyre behind
+Hena with the sacred knife in her hand. When Hena's chant was ended, the
+knife glistened in the air and struck the virgin of the Isle of Sen.
+
+Her mother and her brothers, all the members of her tribe and her father
+Joel saw Hena fall upon her knees, cross her arms, turn her celestial
+face towards the moon, and cry with a still sonorous voice:
+
+"Hesus ... Hesus ... by the blood that flows.... Mercy for Gaul!"
+
+"Gauls, by this blood that flows, victory to our arms!"
+
+Thus the sacrifice of Hena was consummated amidst the religious
+admiration of the tribes. All repeated the last words of the brave
+virgin:
+
+"Hesus, mercy for Gaul!... Gauls, victory to our arms!"
+
+Several young men, being fired with enthusiasm by the heroic example and
+beauty of Hena sought to kill themselves upon her pyre in order to be
+re-born with her. The ewaghs held them back. The flames soon enveloped
+the pyre and Hena vanished in their dazzling splendor. A few minutes
+later there was nothing left of the virgin and her pyre but a heap of
+ashes. A high wind sat in from the sea and dispersed the atoms. The
+virgin of the Isle of Sen, brilliant and pure as the flame that consumed
+her, had vanished into space to be re-born and to await beyond for the
+arrival of those whom she had loved.
+
+The cymbals and harps resounded anew, and the chief of the bards struck
+up the chant:
+
+"To arms, ye Gauls, to arms!
+
+"The innocent blood of a virgin flowed for your sakes, and shall not
+yours flow for the fatherland! To arms! The Romans are here. Strike,
+Gauls, strike at their heads! Strike hard! See the enemy's blood flow
+like a stream! It rises up to your knees! Courage! Strike hard! Gauls,
+strike the Romans! Still harder! Harder still! You see the enemy's
+blood extend like a lake! It rises up to your chests! Courage! Strike
+still harder, Gauls! Strike the Romans! Strike harder still! You will
+rest to-morrow.... To-morrow Gaul will be free! Let, to-day, from the
+Loire to the ocean, but one cry resound--'To arms!'"
+
+As if carried away by the breath of war, all the tribes dispersed,
+running to their arms. The moon had gone down; dark night set in. But
+from all parts of the woods, from the bottoms of the valleys, from the
+tops of the hills where the signal fires were burning, a thousand voices
+echoed and re-echoed the chant of the bards:
+
+"To arms! Strike, Gauls! Strike hard at the Romans! To arms!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The above truthful account of all that happened at our poor home on the
+birthday of my glorious Hena, a day that also saw her heroic
+sacrifice--that account has been written by me, Joel, the brenn of the
+tribe of Karnak, at the last moon of October of the first year that
+Julius Caesar came to invade Gaul. I wrote it upon the rolls of white
+skin that my glorious daughter Hena gave me as a keepsake, and my eldest
+son, Guilhern has attached to them the keepsake he received from
+her--the mystic gold sickle of the virgin druid priestess. Let the two
+ever remain together.
+
+After me, my eldest son Guilhern shall carefully preserve both the
+writing and the emblem, and after Guilhern, the sons of his sons are
+charged to transmit them from generation to generation, to the end that
+our family may for all time preserve green the memory of Hena, the
+virgin of the Isle of Sen.
+
+
+(The End.)
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+THE INFANT'S SKULL; OR THE END OF THE WORLD.
+
+By EUGENE SUE.
+
+_Translated from the original French_ By DANIEL DE LEON.
+
+This is one of that series of thrilling stories by Eugene Sue in which
+historic personages and events are so artistically grouped that, without
+the fiction losing by the otherwise solid facts and without the solid
+facts suffering by the fiction, both are enhanced and combinedly act as
+a flash-light upon the past--and no less so upon the future.
+
+PRICE, FIFTY CENTS.
+
+New York Labor News Co. 2, 4 & 6 New Reade Street New York, N. Y.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE PILGRIM'S SHELL
+
+OR
+
+FERGAN THE QUARRYMAN
+
+By Eugene Sue.
+
+Translated by Daniel De Leon.
+
+283 pp., on fine book paper, cloth 75 cents.
+
+This great historical story by the eminent French writer is one of the
+majestic series that cover the leading and successive episodes of the
+history of the human race. The novel treats of the feudal system, the
+first Crusade and the rise of the Communes in France. It is the only
+translation into English of this masterpiece of Sue.
+
+The New York Sun says:
+
+Eugene Sue wrote a romance which seems to have disappeared in a curious
+fashion, called "Les Mysteres du Peuple." It is the story of a Gallic
+family through the ages, told in successive episodes, and, so far as we
+have been able to read it, is fully as interesting as "The Wandering
+Jew" or "The Mysteries of Paris." The French edition is pretty hard to
+find, and only parts have been translated into English. We don't know
+the reason. One medieval episode, telling of the struggle of the
+communes for freedom, is now translated by Mr. Daniel De Leon, under the
+title "The Pilgrim's Shell" (New York Labor News Co.). We trust the
+success of his effort may be such as to lead him to translate the rest
+of the romance. It will be the first time the feat has been done in
+English.
+
+NEW YORK LABOR NEWS CO., 2, 4 & 6 New Reade St., New York.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Woman Under Socialism
+
+By August Bebel
+
+Translated from the Original German of the Thirty-third Edition by
+Daniel De Leon, Editor of the New York Daily People, with translator's
+preface and foot notes.
+
+Cloth, 400 pages, with pen drawing of the author.
+
+Price, $1.00
+
+The complete emancipation of woman, and her complete equality with man
+is the final goal of our social development, whose realization no power
+on earth can prevent;--and this realization is possible only by a social
+change that shall abolish the rule of man over man--hence also of
+capitalists over working-men. Only then will the human race reach its
+highest development. The "Golden Age" that man has been dreaming of for
+thousands of years, and after which they have been longing, will have
+come at last. Class rule will have reached its end for all time, and
+along with it, the rule of man over woman.
+
+CONTENTS:
+
+    WOMAN IN THE PAST.
+      Before Christianity.
+      Under Christianity.
+    WOMAN IN THE PRESENT.
+      Sexual Instinct, Wedlock, Checks and Obstructions to Marriage.
+      Further Checks and Obstructions to Marriage, Numerical Proportion of
+        the Sexes, Its Causes and Effects.
+      Prostitution a Necessary Institution of the Capitalist World.
+      Woman's Position as a Breadwinner. Her Intellectual Faculties,
+        Darwinism and the Condition of Society.
+      Woman's Civic and Political Status.
+      The State and Society.
+      The Socialization of Society.
+    WOMAN IN THE FUTURE.
+    INTERNATIONALITY.
+    POPULATION AND OVER-POPULATION.
+
+NEW YORK LABOR NEWS CO. 2-6 New Reade St. New York City
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Paris Commune
+
+By Karl Marx, with the elaborate introduction of Frederick Engels. It
+includes the First and Second manifestos of the International
+Workingman's Association, the Civil War in France and the
+Anti-Plebiscite Manifesto. Near his close of the Civil War in France,
+turning from history to forecast the future, Marx says:
+
+"After Whit-Sunday, 1871, there can be neither peace nor truce possible
+between the Workingmen of France and the appropriators of their produce.
+The iron hand of a mercenary soldiery may keep for a time both classes
+tied down in common oppression. But the battle must break out in ever
+growing dimensions, and there can be no doubt as to who will be the
+victor in the end--the appropriating few, or the immense working
+majority. And the French working class is only the vanguard of the
+modern proletariat."
+
+Price, 50 cents.
+
+New York Labor News Co.
+2, 4, & 6 New Reade Street,
+New York City.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GOLD SICKLE***
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