THE BISHOP OF LIMBURG.
Preceding his suite, that consisted of Eginhard, Amael, Vortigern and
the newly-created clerk Bernard, the Emperor left the school-room and
hobbled his way along a winding gallery. Encountering at one of the
sharp and rather dark turns a young and handsome female slave, Charles
addressed her with the same familiarity that he ever used towards the
innumerable women of all conditions that stocked the palace. The Emperor
chucked her under the chin, put his arm around her waist, and was about
to carry his libertine freedom even further when, recollecting that,
despite the darkness of the spot, he might be seen by the men in his
suite, he motioned to the female slave that she withdraw, and laughing,
observed to Amael: "Charles likes to show himself accessible to his
subjects."
"And above all to the female ones," retorted the aged Breton. "But I
know that the priest's holy-water sprinkler will readily absolve you of
all your sins."
"Oh, the pagan of a Breton; the pagan of a Breton!" murmured the Emperor
as he hobbled along and presently entered the basilica of
Aix-la-Chapelle, contiguous to the palace.
Vortigern and his grandfather were both dazzled by the indescribable
magnificence of the temple, where all the attendants at the imperial
palace were now gathered. At a distance Vortigern discerned, seated near
the choir and among the numerous concubines of Charles, the Emperor's
daughters and grand-daughters, clad in brilliant apparel, with the
blonde and charming Thetralde close to her sister Hildrude. The Emperor
took his accustomed seat at the chanter's desk among the sumptuously
dressed choristers. One of these respectfully offered the Emperor an
ebony baton, with which he beat time and gave the signal for the several
chants in the liturgy. A little before the end of each stanza Charles,
by way of signal, would raise his shrill voice and emit a gutteral cry,
so strange and weird, that, on one of these occasions, Vortigern, whose
eyes had accidentally encountered the large blue eyes of Thetralde
obstinately fixed upon him, could hardly keep from laughing outright. So
ridiculous was the figure cut by the Emperor, that despite the imposing
appearance of the ceremony and despite the embarrassment into which the
glances of Thetralde threw him, the youth's sense of decorum was
severely taxed.
The mass being over, Charles said to Amael: "Well, now, seigneur Breton,
admit that, at a pinch, however much of a fighter I may be, I would make
a passable clerk and a good chaunter."
"I am not skilled in such matters. Yet I am free to tell you that, as a
singer, the cries you uttered were frequently more discordant than those
of the sea-gulls along our Brittany beach. Moreover, to me it looks as
if the head of an Empire should have better things to do than to sing
mass."
"You will ever remain a barbarian and an idolater," cried the Emperor,
stepping out of the basilica. At that moment, and still under the
portico of the monumental building, a dignitary of the court pushed
himself forward and bowing low, said to Charles:
"August Prince, magnanimous Emperor, tidings have just been received of
the death of the Bishop of Limburg."
"Oh! Oh! Only now? That surprises me greatly. People are so hot after
the quarry of bishoprics that the death of a bishop is always announced
two or three days in advance. Did the deceased bishop die in the odor of
sanctity? Did he commend himself to the next world by the founding of
pious establishments, or by rich bequests to the poor?"
"August Prince, it is said that he bequeathed only two pounds of silver
to the poor."
"How light a viaticum for so long a journey!" exclaimed a voice. It
proceeded from Bernard, the poor and learned pupil whom Charles had just
appointed clerk of his own chapel, and who, agreeable to the orders of
the Emperor, had kept close to his master since they left the Palatine
school.
Charles turned abruptly towards the young man, who, crimson with
confusion, already regretted the boldness of his language and was
trembling at every limb. "Follow me!" said Charles with severity; and
observing that other dignitaries of the court took the call as if
addressed to themselves, he added: "No, only the two Bretons, Eginhard
and the young clerk. The rest of you may keep yourselves in readiness
for the hunt that we shall start upon in a few minutes."
The brilliant crowd kept itself aloof, and the Emperor regained the
gallery of the palace accompanied only by Vortigern, Amael, Eginhard and
the poor Bernard, the last more dead than alive. The clerk walked last,
fearing that he had angered the Emperor by his stinging sally on the
niggardliness of the deceased bishop. The surprise of the young clerk
was, accordingly, great when, arrived at the extremity of the gallery,
Charles half turned to him, and with beaming eyes, said:
"Draw near, draw near! Do you really think the Bishop of Limburg left
too little money for the poor?"
"Seigneur, pardon my inadvertent boldness!"
"Answer. If I bestow that bishopric upon you, would you, the day you
appear before God, have a better record for liberality than the Bishop
of Limburg?"
"August Prince," answered the clerk, his head swimming at the thought of
such unheard-of good fortune, and dropping on his knees: "It rests with
God and your will to decide my fate."
"Arise. I appoint you Bishop of Limburg. But follow me. It will be well
for you to learn, from personal observation, the greed with which
bishoprics are striven for. The riches that they entail may be judged
from the ardor with which their possession is pursued. And yet, once
won, the cupidity of the incumbents, so far from being assuaged, seems
whetted. Do you remember, Eginhard, that insolent Bishop of Mannheim?
When, at the time of one of my campaigns against the Huns, I left him
near my wife Hildegarde, did not the worthy feel so inflated with the
friendship that my wife showed him, that he carried his audacity to the
point of demanding from her as a gift the gold wand that I use as a
symbol of my authority, for the purpose, as that impudent bishop
declared, of using it for a cane? By the King of the Heavens! The
sceptre of Charles, of the Emperor, is not so readily to be converted
into a walking stick for the bishops of his empire!"
"You are in error, Charles," put in Amael. "Sooner or later, the bishops
will use your sceptre for a baton by means of which to drive peoples
and kings as may suit themselves."
"By the hammer of my grandfather! I will break the bishops' mitres on
their own heads if ever they dare to usurp my power!"
"No; you will do no such thing, and for the simple reason that you stand
in fear of them. As a proof, behold the vast estates and the flatteries
that you shower upon them."
"I, fear the bishops!" cried the Emperor; and turning to Eginhard: "Is
that matter of the rat settled with the Jew?"
"Yes, seigneur," answered Eginhard, smiling. "The bishop closed the
bargain yesterday."
"That happens in time to prove to you that I am not afraid of the
bishops, seigneur Breton--I, flatter them? When, on the contrary, I miss
no opportunity to give them severe or gentle lessons wherever they
deserve reproof. As to the worthy ones, I enrich them; and even then I
look twice before bestowing upon them lands and abbeys belonging to the
imperial domains. And the reason is plain. With this or that abbey or
farm I am certain of securing to myself some soldier vassal greatly more
faithful than many a count or bishop."
Thus pleasantly chatting, the Emperor regained his palace, and in the
company of Vortigern, Amael, Eginhard and the freshly appointed Bishop
of Limburg, re-ascended the steep spiral staircase that led to his
private apartment. Hardly had Charles entered his observatory when one
of his chamberlains announced to him:
"August Emperor, several of the leading officers in the palace have
solicited the honor of being admitted to your presence in order to lay a
pressing request before you--the noble lady, Mathalgarde (she was one of
the numerous concubines of Charles) also called twice on the same
errand. She awaits your orders."
"Let the petitioners come in," answered Charles to the chamberlain, who
immediately left the room. Addressing the young clerk, now bishop, with
a jovial yet impressive air, Charles pointed to the curtain of the door,
near which his usual seat was located, and said: "Hide yourself behind
that curtain, young man; you are about to learn the number of rivals
that the death of a bishop raises. It will aid your education."
The young clerk had barely vanished behind the curtain, before the
chamber was invaded by a large number of the palace familiars, officers
and seigneurs at court. Urging their own claims, or the claims of the
clients whom they recommended, the mob deafened the Emperor's ears with
their clamor. Among these was a bishop magnificently robed, and of
haughty, imperious mien. He elbowed himself forward into Charles'
presence as fast as he could.
"This is the bishop of the rat," Eginhard whispered to the Emperor. "The
price he paid the Jew was ten thousand silver sous. The Jew scrupulously
reported the amount to me, as you ordered."
"Bishop of Bergues, have you not enough with one bishopric?" Charles
cried out to the haughty prelate. "Do you come to solicit a second?"
"August Prince--I have come to pray you that you grant me the bishopric
of Limburg, just vacant, in exchange for that of Bergues."
"Because the former is richer?"
"Yes, seigneur; and if I obtain it, the share of the poor will only be
all the larger."
"Now, all of you, listen to me attentively," the Emperor cried, pointing
his finger at the bishop and in a tone of severity: "Knowing the
passionate love of this prelate for frivolous and ruinous curiosities,
which he purchases at prodigious prices, I ordered the Jew Solomon to
catch a rat in his house, the vilest looking rat ever caught in a
rat-trap, to embalm the beast in precious aromatics, to wrap it up in
oriental materials embroidered in gold, to offer it to the Bishop of
Bergues as a most rare rat imported from Judea upon a Venetian vessel,
and to sell it to the prelate as the most prodigious and miraculous of
rats."
A loud outburst of laughter broke from the throats of all the
dignitaries in the audience, except the Bishop of Bergues, who
shamefacedly cast down his eyes. "Now, then," proceeded Charles, "do you
know what price the Bishop of Bergues paid for that prodigious rat? _Ten
thousand silver sous!_ The Jew reported to me the amount--which will be
distributed among the poor!" Charles stopped for a moment, and presently
resumed with heightened severity: "Ye bishops, have a care! It should be
your duty to be the fathers, the purveyors of the poor, and not to show
yourselves greedy of vain frivolities. Yet here you are, doing exactly
the opposite. More than all other mortals are you given to avarice and
idle cupidity! By the King of the Heavens, take a care! The Emperor's
hand raised you, it may also pull you down. Keep that in mind."
As Charles was uttering these last words, the courtiers were seen to
part and make way for Mathalgarde, one of the Emperor's concubines. The
woman, a dame of surpassing beauty, approached Charles with a confident
air and said to him gracefully:
"My kind Seigneur, the bishopric of Limburg is vacant. I have promised
it to a clerk who is under my protection, not doubting your kind
approval."
"Dear Mathalgarde, I have bestowed the bishopric upon a young man--a
very learned and deserving young man; I could not think of taking it
back from him."
Mathalgarde was not disconcerted. Assuming the most insinuating voice at
her command, she seized one of the Emperor's hands and proceeded
tenderly: "August Prince, my gracious master, why bestow the bishopric
so ill by giving it to a young man, perhaps a child. I conjure you,
grant the bishopric to my clerk."
Suddenly a plaintive voice that proceeded from behind the curtain fell
upon the startled ears of the attendants: "Seigneur Emperor, be
firm--allow not that a mortal tear from your hands the power that God
has placed in them. Be firm, Seigneur." It was the voice of poor
Bernard, who, fearing Charles was about to allow himself to be seduced
by the caressing words of Mathalgarde, wished to remind him of his
promise. The Emperor immediately rolled back the curtain, behind which
the clerk stood, took him by the hand, drew him forward, and presenting
him to the audience, said: "This is the new Bishop of Limburg!" Before
the audience could recover from their stupor Charles said to Bernard in
a voice loud and piercing enough to be heard by all present: "Do not
forget to distribute abundant alms--it will some day be your viaticum on
that long journey from which man never returns."
The beautiful Mathalgarde, whose hopes had thus been rudely dashed,
reddened with anger and abruptly left the apartment. The other
courtiers, along with the Bishop of Bergues, speedily followed the
chagrined woman, no less disappointed than herself.
"Seigneur Breton," the Emperor said, as soon as the chamber was cleared,
and motioning Amael to approach the door, which he opened wider to step
out upon the balcony and enjoy the pleasant warmth of the autumn sun,
"do you still think Charles is of a mood to allow the bishops to use his
sceptre for a baton with which to drive him and his people?"
"Charles, should it please you this evening, the experiences of the day
being over, to accord me a short interview, I shall then express to you
sincerely my thoughts upon all that I have seen here. I shall praise
what seems good to me--and I shall censure the evil."
"Then you see evil here!"
"Here--and elsewhere."
"How 'elsewhere'?"
"Do you imagine that your palace and your city of Aix-la-Chapelle, this
favorite residence of yours, is all there is of Gaul?"
"What do you say of Gaul! I have just traversed the North of those
regions. I have been as far as Boulogne, where I had a lighthouse
erected for the protection of the ships. Moreover--" but breaking off,
the Emperor pointed in the direction of that portion of the courtyard
that the balcony commanded, saying: "Look yonder--listen!"
Amael saw near one of the galleries a young man, robust and tall of
stature, wearing a thick black beard, and clad in the robes of a bishop.
Two of his slaves had just brought out to him a gentle horse, as befits
a prelate, and led the animal near a stone bench in order to aid their
master in mounting. But the young bishop, having noticed two women
looking at him from a nearby casement, and no doubt wishing to give
them a proof of his agility, impatiently ordered his attendants to take
the horse from the bench. Thereupon, disdaining even the help of a
stirrup, he seized the animal's mane with one hand and gave so vigorous
a jump that he had great difficulty to keep his saddle, lest he fall
over on the other side. The perilous leap attracted the Emperor's
attention to the prelate, and he called out to him in his shrill,
squeaky voice: "Eh! Eh! You, there, my nimble prelate. One word with
you, if you please!" The young man looked up, and recognizing Charles,
respectfully bowed his head.
"You are quick and agile; you have good feet, good arms and a good eye.
The quiet of our empire is every day disturbed by wars. We stand in
great need of 'clerks' of your kidney. You shall stay with us and share
with us our fatigues, seeing you can mount a horse so nimbly. I shall
bestow your bishopric upon someone who is less sprightly. You shall take
your place among my men-at-arms."
The young bishop lowered his head in confusion. He looked at the Emperor
with a suppliant eye. But the latter's attention was speedily drawn from
the discomfited prelate by the distant barking of a large pack of
hounds, and the reveille of hunting trumps.
"It is my hunting-train," exclaimed the Emperor. "We shall depart for
the hunt, seigneur Breton. This evening we shall continue our chat.
Return with your grandson to your apartment. You will be served the noon
meal. After that you will both join me. I am curious to see whether this
youngster is as good a horseman as report makes him. Moreover, although
the exercise of the chase is a frivolous pastime, you may, perhaps, find
that Charles the Fighter makes good use even of frivolities. Be off now
to dinner--and then, to horse!"