THE PRIESTESS ELWIG.
I expected to see some hideous old hag; I was mistaken. Elwig was young,
tall and endowed with savage beauty. Her grey eyes, shielded under a
pair of naturally reddish eyebrows of the same color as her hair,
glistened like the steel of the long knife that she was armed with. Her
eagle-beaked nose and high forehead imparted to her an aspect at once
savage and imposing. She was clad in a long tunic of a somber hue. Her
bare neck and arms were heavily laden with copper necklaces and
bracelets, that clinked upon one another as she walked, and upon which
she cast coquettish glances as she approached me. On her thick reddish
hair, that fell upon and parted on both sides of her shoulders, she wore
a scarlet coif that was a ridiculous imitation of the charming headgear
used by the women of Gaul. In short, I thought I noticed in the strange
creature the evidence of that mixture of puerile pride and vanity so
peculiar to barbarous peoples.
Standing a few paces from her, Riowag seemed to contemplate the
priestess with profound admiration. Despite his black dye and the red
tattoo under which his face disappeared, his features seemed to me to
betoken a violent love, and his eyes sparkled with joy when, twice in
succession, pointing at me, Elwig turned her face to her lover with a
smile upon her lips, in token, no doubt, of thankfulness for the
offering that he brought her. I also noticed on the bare arms of the
infernal priestess two tattoo marks that brought back to my mind some
reminiscences of the war we had been waging with the Franks.
One of the two marks represented two talons of a bird of prey; the
other, a red serpent.
With her knife in her hand, Elwig again turned towards me and fastened
her large grey eyes upon me with ferocious satisfaction, while the black
warriors contemplated her with looks of fear and superstition.
"Woman," I said to the priestess, "I came here unarmed, an oak branch in
my hand, and bearing a message of peace to the grand chiefs of your
hordes.--I was fallen upon and bound fast.--I am in your power--you can
kill me--if such be your pleasure--but before you do, have me presented
to one of your chiefs.--The interview that I request is of as much
importance to the Franks as to the Gauls. It is Victorin himself and his
mother Victoria the Great who have sent me hither."
"You are sent by Victoria?" cried the priestess with a singular air.
"Victoria, who is said to be so very beautiful?"
"Yes, I am sent by her who is called the Mother of the Camps."
Elwig reflected, and after a long silence she raised her hands over her
head, brandished her knife, and pronounced some mysterious words in a
voice that sounded at once threatening and inspired. Thereupon she
motioned to the black warriors to retire.
They all obeyed, walking slowly back towards the thicket that surrounded
the clearing.
Only Riowag remained a few steps from the priestess. Turning towards him
she pointed with an imperious gesture towards the wood in which the
other black warriors had disappeared. Seeing that the captain did not
obey her summons, she raised her voice, and again pointed to the wood.
Riowag then obeyed and left in turn.
I remained alone with the priestess. I was left bound, lying at the foot
of the statue of the under gods. Elwig squatted down upon her haunches
near me and asked:
"You were sent by Victoria to speak with the Frankish chiefs?"
"I said so before."
"You are one of Victoria's officers?"
"I am one of her soldiers."
"Does she cherish you?"
"She is my foster-sister, I am as a brother to her."
These words seemed to cause Elwig to reflect anew. She remained silent
for a while, and then resumed:
"Would Victoria weep over your death?"
"As one would weep over the death of a faithful servant."
"She surely would give much to save your life?"
"Is it ransom you want?"
Elwig again relapsed into silence, and resumed with a mixture of
embarrassment and cunning that struck me forcibly:
"Let Victoria come and ask my brother for your life. He will grant it to
her.--But listen, Victoria has a great reputation for beauty; handsome
women love to deck themselves with the Gallic jewelry that is so
celebrated.--Victoria must have superb ornaments, seeing she is the
mother of the chief of your country.--Tell her to cover herself with her
richest jewelry; it will please my brother's eyes.--He will be all the
more gracious, and will grant your life to her."
I immediately surmised the snare that the priestess of hell was laying
for me with the clumsy cunning natural to barbarians. Wishing to make
certain, I observed without referring to her last words:
"It seems that your brother is a powerful chief."
"He is more than a chief," Elwig answered proudly; "he is a king."
"We also, in the days of our barbarism, had kings. What is your
brother's name?"
"Neroweg, surnamed the Terrible Eagle."
"You carry on your arms two figures, one representing a red serpent, the
other the talons of a bird of prey. What do those emblems mean?"
"The fathers of our fathers in our royal family have always worn these
signs of valor and subtlety. The eagle's talons denote valor; the
serpent subtlety. But let us drop my brother," added Elwig with somber
impatience. My digression seemed to displease her. "Will you induce
Victoria to come here?"
"One word more on your royal brother.--Does he not carry on his forehead
the identical symbols that you carry on your arms?"
"Yes," she replied with increasing impatience. "Yes, my brother carries
an eagle's talon over each eye-brow, and the red serpent on a head-band
over his forehead. Kings wear a head-band. But we have spoken enough of
Neroweg--quite enough--"
I thought I noticed on Elwig's features an ill dissembled sentiment of
hatred when she pronounced his name. She proceeded:
"If you do not wish to die, write to Victoria to come to our camp
ornamented with her most precious jewels. She shall repair alone to a
place that I shall designate to you--a secluded spot that I know--I
shall come for her and shall lead her to my brother to solicit your life
from him--"
"Victoria to come alone to this camp?--I have come hither, relying upon
the sacredness of the truce;--I carried the bough of peace in my hand,
and yet one of my companions was killed, another was wounded, and to cap
the climax of treachery, I am delivered to you bound hand and foot to be
put to death--"
"Victoria may bring a small escort with her."
"Which would be unquestionably massacred by your men!--The scheme is too
transparent!"
"You, then, wish to die!" cried the priestess gnashing her teeth in
actual or simulated rage, and threatening me with her knife. "The fire
will be shortly kindled under the caldron.--I shall have you plunged
alive into the magic water, and you shall boil in it until you are
dead.--Once more, and for the last time, make your choice.--Either you
shall die in tortures, or you will write to Victoria to repair to our
camp decked in her richest ornaments!--Choose!" she added with redoubled
fury and again threatening me with her knife. "Choose--or you die!"
I knew there was no more thievish, covetous or vainglorious race than
this breed of Franks. I noticed that Elwig's large grey eyes glistened
with cupidity every time she mentioned the magnificent ornaments, that,
as she imagined, the Mother of the Camps surely possessed. The
ridiculous accoutrement of the priestess; the profusion of valueless
gewgaws that she wore with a savage woman's coquetry, in order, no
doubt, to appear pleasing to the eye of Riowag, the captain of the black
warriors; above all, her persistence in demanding of me that Victoria
come to the Frankish camp covered with rich jewels;--everything
justified the conclusion that Elwig aimed at drawing my foster-sister
into an ambush in order to slay her and rob her of her jewels. The
clumsy scheme did not do credit to the ingenuity of the priestess of the
nether regions. Nevertheless, her cupidity might be turned to my
service. I answered her in a tone of indifference:
"Woman, you mean to kill me if I do not induce Victoria to come here?
You are free to kill me--boil my flesh and bones--you will thereby lose
more than you think for, seeing that you are the sister of Neroweg, the
Terrible Eagle, one of the greatest kings of all your hordes!"
"What would I lose?--"
"Magnificent Gallic ornaments!"
"Ornaments!--What ornaments?" cried Elwig doubtfully, although her eyes
snapped with greed.
"Do you imagine that, in sending her foster-brother to convey a message
to the kings of the Franks, Victoria the Great did not prepare, as a
pledge of truce, rich presents for the wives and sisters who accompany
them, and for those whom they left behind in Germany?"
Elwig leaped to her feet with one bound, hurled her knife away, clapped
her hands, and emitted loud peals of laughter that sounded like a crazy
woman's transports. Thereupon she crouched down again beside me, and
said in a voice broken with childish breathlessness:
"Presents? You bring presents with you?--Where are they?"
"Yes, I bring with me presents fit to dazzle an empress--gold necklaces
studded with carbuncles, ear pendants of pearls and rubies, gold
bracelets, belts and crowns that are so loaded with precious stones
that they glitter in all the colors of the rainbow.--All these
masterpieces of our most skilled Gallic goldsmiths I have brought with
me for presents.--And seeing that your brother Neroweg, the Terrible
Eagle, is the most powerful king of all your hordes, the bulk of all
those riches--those bracelets, those necklaces and other jewels--would
have fallen to you."
Elwig listened to me open-mouthed, her hands clasped together, without
endeavoring to hide either the admiration or unbridled greed that the
enumeration of such treasures kindled in her breast. Suddenly, however,
her features assumed an expression of mingled doubt and anger. She rose,
ran to her knife, and returning with it in her hands, raised it over me
crying:
"You either lie, or you are mocking me!--Where are those treasures?"
"In a safe place.--I foresaw that I might be killed and plundered before
I was able to fulfil the orders of Victoria and her son."
"Where did you put that treasure in safety?"
"It remained in the bark that brought me to this side of the river.--My
companions rowed back from the shore and cast anchor beyond the reach of
the arrows of your hordes."
"We also have barks moored at the other end of the camp. I shall order
your companions to be pursued--I shall have the treasures!"
"You deceive yourself!--As soon as my companions see the enemy's barks
approach from a distance, they will suspect foul play. Seeing that they
have a long lead, they will be able to regain the opposite shore of the
Rhine without any danger whatever.--Such will be the only fruit of the
treachery practiced by your people upon me.--Come, woman! Have me
boiled for your infernal auguries! Perhaps my bones, bleached in your
caldron, may be transformed into magnificent ornaments!"
"I want the treasures!" replied Elwig struggling against her lingering
suspicions. "Since you did not carry the jewels about you, when would
you have given them to the kings of our hordes?"
"When I left the jewels in the bark I expected I would be received as an
envoy of peace, and that as such I would be escorted back to the river
bank. My companions would then have returned to the shore to receive me,
and I would have taken the presents out of the bark and distributed them
among the kings in the name of Victoria and her son."
The priestess looked upon me for a while with darkling eyes. She seemed
to yield alternately to mistrust and to the promptings of cupidity.
Finally, however, the latter sentiment evidently prevailed. She took a
few steps away, and with a strong voice pronounced the bizarre name of a
person who was not until then upon the scene.
Almost instantly a hideous old hag with grey hair and clad in a
blood-bespattered robe issued from the cavern. She was, no doubt, the
active priestess at the inhuman sacrifices. She exchanged a few words in
a low voice with Elwig and forthwith vanished in the surrounding wood,
in the direction that the black warriors had followed.
Again dropping on her haunches beside me, the priestess said in a low
and muffled voice:
"Since you wish to speak with my brother, King Neroweg, I have sent for
him.--He will soon be here--but you shall not mention a word to him
concerning the jewels."
"Why keep him in the dark concerning them?"
"Because he would keep them to himself."
"What!--He!--Your own brother!--Would he not share the jewels with you,
his sister?"
A bitter smile contracted Elwig's lips. She resumed:
"My brother came near cutting off my arm with a blow of his axe a few
weeks ago, simply because I merely wished to touch part of his booty."
"Is that the way brothers and sisters behave towards one another among
the Franks?"
"Among the Franks," Elwig answered with a face of deepening rancor, "the
mother, sister and wives of a warrior are his first slaves."
"His wives!--Has he, then, several?"
"As many as he can capture and feed--the same as he has as many horses
as he can buy."
"What! Does not a sacred and eternal union join the husband to the
mother of his children, as with us Gauls?--What! Sisters, wives and
mothers--all are slaves? Blessed of the gods is Gaul, my own country,
where our mothers and wives, venerated by all, proudly take their seat
in the nation's councils and where their advice, often wiser than that
of their husbands and sons, not infrequently prevails."
Palpitating with cupidity, Elwig made no answer to me, and resumed the
thread of her dominant thoughts.
"You will, accordingly, not mention the jewels to Neroweg. He would keep
them all for himself. You will wait until it is dark to leave the camp.
I shall accompany you. You will give me the jewels, all the presents--to
me alone!"
And again bursting into almost insane peals of laughter, she added:
"Gold bracelets! Necklaces of pearls! Ear pendants studded with rubies!
Diadems full of precious stones! I shall look grand as an empress! Oh,
how beautiful I shall be in the eye of Riowag!"
Elwig thereupon cast disdainful glances at the copper bracelets that she
rattled as she shook her arms, and repeated:
"I shall look very beautiful to Riowag!"
"Woman," I said to her, "your advice is prudent. We shall have to wait
until it is night for us to leave the camp together and regain the river
bank."
And, to the end of still further enlisting Elwig's confidence in me by
seeming to take an interest in her vainglorious greed, I added:
"But if your brother sees you decked with such magnificent ornaments,
will he not take them away from you?"
"No," she promptly answered with a strange and sinister look. "No, he
will not take them!"
"If Neroweg the Terrible Eagle is of as violent a temperament as you
claim, if he came near cutting off your arm for having wished merely to
touch part of his booty," I suggested, surprised at her answer, and
anxious to fathom her thoughts, "what will prevent your brother from
seizing the jewels?"
Elwig held up to me her large knife with an expression of calm ferocity
that made me shiver, as she answered:
"When I shall have the treasure--to-night, I shall enter my brother's
hut--I shall share his bed, as usual--and when he is asleep I shall kill
him--"
"Your own brother!" I cried with a shudder and hardly believing what I
heard, although the insight that the priestess gave into the shocking
immorality prevalent among the Franks was nothing new to me. "How! You
share your own brother's bed?"
The priestess seemed no wise disconcerted by my question, and answered
with a somber mien:
"I have shared my brother's bed since the day that he violated me. It is
the fate of almost all the sisters of the Frankish kings who follow them
in war. Did I not tell you that their wives, their sisters and their
mothers are the first slaves of the warriors? What female slave is there
who, willingly or unwillingly, does not share her master's bed?"
"Hold your tongue, woman!" I cried interrupting her. "Hold your tongue!
Your monstrous words might draw a thunderbolt upon our heads!"
And without being able to add another word I contemplated the creature
with horror. Such a mixture of debauchery, greed, barbarism and, withal,
stupid frankness, seeing that Elwig unbosomed herself to me, a man whom
she then saw for the first time in her life, upon her fratricidal
intentions--that fratricide, preceded by incest, which this priestess of
a sanguinary cult was subjected to and who shared her brother's bed
while she at the same time surrendered herself to another man--all that
filled me with horror, notwithstanding I had often heard accounts of the
abominable morals of the barbarians beyond the Rhine.
Elwig seemed not to concern herself about the cause of my silence nor of
the evident disgust that she filled me with. She mumbled some
unintelligible words, and counted the copper bracelets that her arms
were loaded with. She presently said to me pensively:
"Do you think I shall have nine fine bracelets studded with precious
stones to replace these? Could they all go into a little bag that I
shall keep concealed under my robe when I return to the hut of the king,
my brother? Why do you not answer my questions?"
The cold, I should almost say naive, ferocity of the woman redoubled the
disgust that the monster inspired in me. Again I remained silent, and
she cried aloud:
"Why do you not answer me? You promised me the jewels!"
But seeming to be suddenly struck by a new thought she added with
terror:
"I told him all! Suppose he tells it all again to Neroweg! My brother
would kill us both, me and Riowag! The thought of the treasure bereft me
of my senses!"
And again she started to call, turning her face towards the cavern.
A second old hag, no less hideous than the first, hobbled out holding in
her hand the bone of an ox from which hung a partly boiled shred of meat
at which she gnawed with her toothless gums.
"Come quick to me," the priestess said to her, "and leave your bone
there."
The old hag obeyed unwillingly, grumbling like a dog whose meat is taken
away from him. She laid the bone on one of the projecting rocks at the
entrance of the grotto, and drew near, wiping her lips.
"Gather some dry, good branches and roots of trees and kindle a fire
with them under the brass caldron," the priestess said to the old woman.
The latter returned into the cavern, and brought out all the things that
she was ordered. Soon a bright fire burned under the caldron.
"Now," Elwig said to the old woman, pointing her finger at me as I lay
stretched out upon the earth at the feet of the statue of the
subterranean deity, with my hands pinioned behind my back and my feet
bound fast, "kneel down upon him."
I could make not the slightest motion. The old hag planted herself on
her knees upon my breast-plate, and said to the priestess:
"What must I do next?"
"Make him put out his tongue."
I then understood that, carried away at first by her savage greed into
making dangerous confidences to me, Elwig now reproached herself for
having heedlessly mentioned her amours and her fratricidal intentions,
and could think of no better way to compel my silence on these subjects
towards her brother than to cut off my tongue. The project was more
easily conceived than it could be executed. I clenched my teeth with all
my might.
"Tighten your fingers on his throat!" Elwig commanded the hag. "He will
then open his mouth and stick his tongue out. I shall then cut it off."
With her knees firmly planted upon my cuirass, the hag leaned forward so
close to me that her hideous face almost touched mine. I shut my eyes
with disgust. Presently I felt the crooked yet nervous fingers of the
priestess' assistant tighten at my throat. For a while I struggled
against suffocation and did not unlock my teeth; but, as Elwig had
foreseen, I soon felt almost smothered and unconsciously opened my
mouth. Elwig immediately thrust in her fingers in order to seize my
tongue. I bit her so savagely that she withdrew her hand screaming with
pain. At that moment I saw the black warriors and Riowag reissue from
the wood whither they had withdrawn at the priestess' orders. Riowag
approached on a run, but he stopped undecided what to do at the sight of
a troop of Franks who arrived from the opposite side and stepped into
the clearing. One of these called out in a hoarse and imperious voice:
"Elwig! Elwig!"
"The king, my brother!" gasped the priestess, who was on her knees
beside me.
It seemed to me that she looked for the knife that she had dropped
during her struggle with me.
"Fear not! I shall be dumb. You shall have the treasure all for
yourself," I whispered to Elwig, fearing lest, in her terror, the woman
plunge the knife into my throat. I sought to secure her support at all
hazard, and to contrive a means of escape by inciting her cupidity.
Whether Elwig trusted my word, or whether her brother's presence stayed
her hand, she cast a significant glance at me, and remained on her knees
at my side, with her head drooping upon her chest as if absorbed in
revery. The old hag having risen to her feet, my breast-plate was
relieved of her weight; I could again breathe freely; and I saw the
Terrible Eagle standing before me, escorted by several other Frankish
kings, as the chiefs of those marauding hordes styled themselves.