AT THE MORT.
From the start of the hunt, the Emperor of the Franks had rushed
headlong on the heels of the hounds. Amael, at first somewhat uneasy at
the disappearance of his grandson in the midst of so large a concourse
of cavaliers, was taken by accident towards that part of the forest
whither the stag was leading the hounds from cover to cover. Amael even
had the opportunity to assist, shortly before nightfall, at the killing
of the stag, which, exhausted with fatigue after four hours of
breathless running, turned at bay before the hounds when they had
reached him at last, and strove to defend himself against them with the
aid of the magnificent spread of antlers that crowned his head. The
Emperor had not for a moment lost track of the hounds. He followed them
speedily at the mort, together with a few others of the hunters. Jumping
from his horse, he ran limping towards the animal at bay that already
had gored several hounds with his sharp horns. Choosing with an
experienced eye the opportune moment, Charles drew his hunting knife,
and, rushing upon the desperate animal, plunged the weapon into the stag
just above its shoulder, threw it down and then abandoned it to the
hounds, that fiercely precipitated themselves upon the warm quarry and
devoured it amidst the sonorous fanfare of the hunters' horns that thus
announced the close of the chase and called their scattered fellows to
reassemble. With his bloody knife in his hand, and after having
contemplated with lively satisfaction the wild pack now red at their
nozzles and contending with one another for the shreds of the stag's
flesh, the Emperor's eyes fell upon Amael, to whom he called out gaily:
"Eh, seigneur Breton--am I not a bold hunter?"
"You will pardon my sincerity, but I find that at this moment the
Emperor of the Franks, with his long knife in his hand, and his boots
and coat spattered with blood, looks more like a butcher than like an
illustrious monarch."
"I feel happy, nevertheless, and consequently inclined to be indulgent,
seigneur Breton," replied the Emperor, laughing; then, lowering his
voice, he observed to Amael: "Now, see how the clothes of the seigneurs
of my court look."
In fact, most of the Emperor's seigneurs and officers, now hastening in
on horseback to his presence from all sides of the thickets in response
to the horns, presented an appearance that contrasted sadly with that
which they had presented a few hours before. Magnificently attired at
the start of the hunt, those seigneurs, who looked so resplendent in
their rich tunics of silk, now presented a sight that was as ridiculous
as it was pitiful. The embroideries on their tunics, at first so rich in
color, were now frayed, soiled with mud, and torn by the branches of the
trees and the thorns of the briars; the feathers that floated proudly
from their caps, now drooped, wet, broken and draggled, resembling long,
dislocated, and limp fish-bones; the boots of oriental leather had
vanished under a thick coat of slush, and not a few of them, torn by the
thorns, exposed their owners' hose, not infrequently also their skin
itself. They shivered and looked distressed. Charles, on the contrary,
simply and warmly dressed in his thick sheep-skin coat, which reached
down over his boots of rough leather, and his head covered with his
badger-skin bonnet, rubbed his hands with a cunning look of satisfaction
in his eyes at the sight of his courtiers shivering with the cold and
the wet. After contemplating the spectacle for a moment, Charles made a
sign of intelligence to Amael and said to him in an undertone:
"Just before breaking ranks for the hunt, I recommended you to observe
the magnificence of the costumes of these coxcombs, who are as vain as
Asiatic peacocks, and even more devoid of brains than the bird whose
spoils they wear. Look at them now--the fine fellows!" Amael smiled
approvingly, while the Emperor, shrugging his shoulders, turned to the
seigneurs with his squalling voice: "Oh, ye most foolish of people,
which is at this moment the most precious and useful of all our raiment?
Mine, which I bought with barely a sou? Or yours, which you have had to
pay for through the nose?"
At this judicious raillery, the courtiers remained silent and confused,
while the Emperor, placing both his hands on his spacious paunch, roared
out aloud.
"Charles," Amael said to him unheard by the others, "I prefer to hear
you speak with that sly wisdom than to see you disemboweling stags."
But the Emperor did not answer the aged Breton. He suddenly interrupted
the discourse, extending his hand towards a group of nearby serfs, and
crying out:
"Oh! Look at that pretty girl!"
Amael followed with his eyes the direction indicated by Charles and saw
amid several of the woodcutter slaves of the forest who had been
attracted by curiosity to see the hunt, a young girl barely covered in
rags, but of remarkable beauty. A much younger child of about ten or
eleven years held her by the hand. A poor old woman, as wretchedly clad
as the girl, was in the company of the two. The Emperor of the Franks,
whose large eyes glistened like carbuncles with the fire of lust,
repeated, addressing Amael:
"By the cape of St. Martin! The girl is beautiful. Is it that your
hundred years on your back render you insensible to the sight of such
rare beauty, seigneur Breton? What a beautiful girl!"
"Charles, the misery of that creature strikes me more strongly than her
beauty."
"You are very commiserate, seigneur Breton--so am I. Linen and silk
should clothe so charming a figure. No doubt she is the daughter of some
woodman slave. I can tell you, one runs at times across wonderfully
beautiful girls in the forest. More than once I have dropped the chase
in the middle of the heat to pursue another scent. But in honor to
truth, I have never seen such a charmer before. It must be her good star
that brought her across the path of Charles." Without removing his eyes
from the young girl, Charles called to one of the seigneurs in his
suite: "Eh! Burchard. Come here; I have orders for you."
The seigneur Burchard quickly alighted from his horse and hastened to
obey the call of the Emperor. The latter, moving a few steps away from
Amael, whispered a few words in the ear of the seigneur, who, showing
himself greatly honored with the mission given him by his master, bowed
respectfully, and, leading his horse by the bridle, approached the old
woman and the two younger girls who stood by her, motioned to them to
follow him, and vanished with his charge behind the group of hunters. A
deep flush colored the cheeks of Amael; he puckered his brows, and his
features became expressive of as much indignation as disgust. At that
same instant Amael noticed that the Emperor was looking about him with a
certain degree of uneasiness and calling out aloud:
"Where are my little girls? Can they have lost track of the hunt?"
"August Emperor," said one of the officers, "Richulff, who accompanied
your august daughters, told me that when the rain began to fall some of
them concluded to return to Aix-la-Chapelle, while the others decided to
seek the shelter of the pavilion, where you ordered supper to be held
ready."
"Think of the timorous bodies! I wager that my little Thetralde is not
among the Amazons who are afraid of a drop of water, and who hastened
back to the palace. As they are all safe, I shall not worry. Let us
hasten to the pavilion ourselves, because I am ravenously hungry." And
remounting his horse, the Emperor added: "We shall find at the pavilion
the damsels who have preferred to sup with their father. The
stout-hearted lasses shall be well feasted, and I shall bestow rich
presents upon them."
Seeing that Charles was manifesting some slight uneasiness on the score
of his daughters, Amael, in turn, began to feel preoccupied with regard
to Vortigern, whom, for some time, he had been searching for with his
eyes among the groups of the approaching knights. As his eyes fell upon
Octave, who just then came running in at a gallop, the aged Breton
inquired from him with no little anxiety:
"Octave, have you seen my grandson anywhere?"
"We parted company almost at the very start of the hunt."
"He is not with us," proceeded Amael with increasing uneasiness. "Night
is here and he is not familiar with the paths of the forest."
"Oh! Oh! seigneur Breton," put in the Emperor of the Franks, who,
immediately upon remounting his horse, had drawn near the aged man and
overheard his question to the young Roman, "you seem to feel uneasy
about your youngster. Well, what if he should have lost his way this
evening? He will find it again to-morrow. Do you fear he will die of one
night spent in the forest? Is not hunting the school of war? Come, come!
Be at ease. Besides, who knows," added Charles with a roguish air.
"Mayhap he encountered some pretty woodcutter's daughter in some of the
huts of the forest. It is like his years. You surely do not mean to make
a monk of him? Pretty lassies are meant for handsome lads."