ON THE SWAN'S ROUTE.
Eidiol, his son, his daughter, and Rustic the Gay, back from Rouen two
days past, were congregated in the evening at their humble home in
Paris. More than ever did they now realize the void made at their hearth
by the death of Martha, good housekeeper that she was. The street was
silent; the night dark. A rap was heard at the door. Rustic opened it
and Gaëlo, accompanied by Shigne, now his wife, stepped in, with their
cloaks closely wrapped over their armor. The old skipper had not met the
young couple since the night when they returned to Eidiol's house, in
order there to await the return of Count Rothbert, who departed in hot
haste to Compiegne in order to inform Charles the Simple of the pirate's
will.
"Good father," said Gaëlo to Eidiol, "my wife and I have come to bid you
good-bye and to bring you tidings that will no doubt cheer your heart. I
heard you deplore the sudden disappearance of a daughter, the first born
of all your children. She is not dead. I have seen her--"
"My daughter!" cried the old skipper in wonderment and clasping his
hands. "What! Jeanike is alive! You have seen her?"
"Where is our sister?" cried Anne and Guyrion at once. "Where can we see
her?"
"She is near Ghisèle, the wife of Rolf, Duke of Northmandy."
"Can it be possible!" again exclaimed Eidiol with increasing
astonishment. "And how does she come to be near Ghisèle?"
"According to her vague recollections, your daughter was carried off by
some of those mendicants who kidnap children in order to sell them. She
was disposed of to the intendant of the royal domain. It therefore
happened that she lived and grew up in Kersey-on-the-Oise. Later she was
married to a serf of the place. Jeanike was soon afterwards attached to
the palace among the domestics. There she gave birth to two children, a
boy, who now is a forester serf of the forest of Compiegne, and a girl
whom she had at her breast at the same time that the Queen-mother nursed
Ghisèle. The Queen having died of fright on the occasion of one of the
Northman descents upon Kersey, the baby was placed in charge of Jeanike,
whose own baby thus shared its nourishment with the princess. Jeanike,
as the princess' foster-mother, was afterwards manumitted; but she never
left the side of the poor creature, who to-day is the wife of Rolf."
"What a strange accident!" said Eidiol deeply moved. "But why did not
Jeanike accompany you hither? Did you not inform her that we were
relatives and that I lived in Paris?"
"Ghisèle is on her deathbed. The horror that Rolf inspires in her is
carrying her to the grave. She has requested your daughter not to leave
her. Jeanike could not refuse."
"Oh, brother!" said Anne the Sweet weeping with joy and sorrow, "the
sister whom we find again is also full of compassion for that unhappy
King's daughter."
"The woman who is cowardly enough to share the bed of a man whom she
hates deserves Ghisèle's fate," put in the Beautiful Shigne with savage
pride. "There must be no pity for despicable hearts!"
"Alas!" exclaimed Anne the Sweet timidly without venturing to raise her
eyes to the female warrior, "what could the unfortunate Ghisèle do?"
"Kill Rolf!" promptly answered the heroine. "And if she did not deem her
hand firm enough to strike the blow, she should have killed herself--"
"Gaëlo!" interrupted the old skipper, "your wife speaks like our mothers
of old, who preferred death to the shame of slavery. But how did you
happen to recognize my daughter?"
"After the ceremony of the marriage and of the investiture of the
Duchies of Northmandy and Brittany Rolf went to supper. He drank to the
point of intoxication and started for his wife's chamber. However little
I commiserate the royal races, the fate of Ghisèle touched me. I made
Rolf understand that his wife should be notified of his visit, and
taking the mission upon myself, I ordered a servant to conduct me to
Ghisèle's apartment. Her nurse received me. We were considering how, at
least for this first night, she might conceal the young bride, so as to
save her from the maudlin brutalities of Rolf. While speaking with
Jeanike, my eyes accidentally fell upon the words '_Brenn_--_Karnak_'
burnt into her arm which, as is the custom with the domestics, was half
bare--"
"I understand the rest!" broke in Eidiol. "Recognizing--"
"Yes; I soon was convinced that Jeanike was your daughter. I told her
so! Imagine her joy at the revelation! Unfortunately kept near the
bedside of the dying Ghisèle, Jeanike could not fly to you, as she
wanted. But you will soon see her, together with her daughter Yvonne and
her son Germain, the forester serf, provided he can obtain leave for a
day. And now, adieu. I depart happy at the thought that I leave in your
heart a good souvenir of myself, seeing that I have returned your
daughter to you. That souvenir will remain in your midst."
"Where are you going, Gaëlo?"
"I return to the land of the North with my beloved Shigne."
"And what do you purpose to do in that distant region?"
"War!" boldly answered the heroine wife. "Gaëlo and I are not of the
number of the cowards, who, forgetful of their vow never to sleep under
a roof, desert the combat of the ocean to live on land, as Rolf and his
companions are doing."
"Charles the Simple bestowed also the Duchy of Brittany upon Rolf.
Vainly did I predict to him that that region will be the grave of his
best followers, if they ever try to invade it. He has persisted in his
plans of conquest, and wished to give me the command of the fleet which
he intends sending to the coast of Armorica in order to take possession.
I could not dissuade him."
"And you refused to take charge of such a mission, my worthy Gaëlo?"
"Yes. But how singular are the events that accompany the Frankish
conquest of Gaul! One of our ancestors, Amael, the favorite of Charles
Martel, served the Franks. He knew how to atone for his error when
Charles proposed to him to invade Brittany, the sacred cradle of our
family. A century later, my grandfather, my own father and now myself
have, out of hatred for the Franks, fought against them, and now Rolf
proposes to me to be the leader in his war against Armorica. Oh!
Although ridden by the priests and oppressed by seigneurs of the Breton
race, Armorica still is free when compared with the other provinces of
Gaul. Sooner than seek to invade Brittany I would defend its existing
vestiges of freedom against the Northmans themselves."
"And what prevents you from obeying that generous prompting and going to
Brittany?"
"Old man!" put in the Beautiful Shigne. "Rolf's men are of my race.
Would you, for instance, fight the men of Brittany?"
"I can not but approve of your resolution," answered Eidiol upon a
moment's reflection.
"And now, before a last adieu," said Gaëlo placing a sealed roll in the
old skipper's hands, "keep these parchments. You will there find the
narrative of the adventures that have led to my wedding Shigne. You will
also find there some details on the customs of the Northman pirates, and
of the stratagem by the aid of which my companion and myself seized the
abbey of St. Denis. If, obedient to the behest of our ancestor Joel, you
or your son should some day write a chronicle intended to continue the
history of our family, you may narrate my life and join to the narrative
the iron arrowhead that you extracted from my wound. Our names will thus
be handed down to our descendants."
"Gaëlo, your wishes shall be fulfilled," answered the old skipper,
deeply moved. "However obscure my life has until now been, I always had
it in mind to narrate the events that have happened since the Northman
pirates made their first appearance under the walls of Paris. I shall
now do so, bringing the narrative down to the marriage of Rolf with the
daughter of Charles the Simple, and I shall supplement the story with
the notes that you have furnished me."
After a last and tender embrace, Gaëlo and the Beautiful Shigne left the
house of Eidiol. Their two _holkers_--one manned by the champions of
Gaëlo, the other by the Buckler Maidens--awaited the couple at the port
of St. Landry. With sails spread and swollen to the wind, the two light
craft speedily descended the Seine and took the azure route of the swans
across the billows of the northern sea.
EPILOGUE
I, Eidiol, wrote the preceding chronicle shortly after the departure of
Gaëlo. I used the notes he left me in the matters that relate to his
previous adventures, to the life of the Northman pirates and to the
Buckler Maidens.
The day after Gaëlo's departure I sailed to Rouen to meet my beloved
Jeanike. With joy I embraced her two children, Yvonne and Germain the
forester. After the tender pleasures of our first meeting Jeanike
narrated to me her conversation with Ghisèle, the conversation of the
latter with her father, and lastly the conversation of both with the
Archbishop of Rouen at the castle of Compiegne. My daughter had
overheard every word, and I have thus been enabled to reproduce with
accuracy all the facts connected with the marriage of the pirate Rolf
and Ghisèle, the ill-starred and now expiring daughter of King Charles.
I finished this narrative to-day, the eleventh day of August, in the
year 912, a happy day, because this morning I entrusted the fate of Anne
the Sweet to Rustic the Gay.
Alas, only my poor wife Martha was wanting to complete the joy at our
hearth.
THE END.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] "Often the fury of the Northmans was inspired less by their Odinic
fanaticism than by the vengeance of the revolted slave and by the rage
of the turn-coat"--Michelet, _History of France_, Vol. I, p. 395.
[2] "During these disastrous times [the Northman wars] the serf became
free, the free man became reduced to the estate of serf; they made a
valet of the lord, and a lord of the valet."--Abbon, _Siege of Paris by
the Northmans_, Vol. I, p. 5. Collected History of France.
[3] See "The Branding Needle" and "The Abbatial Crosier," of this
series.
[4] For the career of the notorious Fredegonde, see "The Branding
Needle," the seventh of this series.
[5] Vortigern appears as one of the leading characters in "The
Carlovingian Coins, or, The Daughters of Charlemagne," which immediately
precedes the present work.
[6] See the opening volume of this series, "The Gold Sickle."
[7] See "The Poniard's Hilt," number six of the series.
[8] Albinik, one of the sons of Joel, figures in the second volume of
this series, "The Brass Bell."