"Despite my dread of women"s hoods, I would have gone and seen the poor old soldier," answered the captain. "Certes, I would have gone, seeing that my presence would render death sweeter to him."
"Well, I did what you would have done, Marion. I followed the unknown woman; we arrived at a rickety house; it was dark; the door opened; my female guide seized my hand; led by her, I took a few steps in the darkness. Suddenly the glare of lights fell upon my eyes and dazed me.
The three captains of the Beziers legions and other officers surrounded me. The veiled woman dropped her wraps, and I recognized--"
"One of the cursed Bohemian girls!" cried the captain. "Ha! I told you so, Victorin! Women"s hoods hide frightful things!"
"Frightful? Alas, no, Marion! I had not the courage to shut my eyes. I was immediately surrounded from all sides; the other Bohemian girl ran out of a room and joined my captors. The doors were locked. I was dragged to a seat of honor at a banquet table. Kidda placed herself at my right, Flora at my left; and before me, upon a table loaded with eatables, rose one of the kegs of old and divine nectar, as the accursed fellows informed me; and--"
"And day surprised you in that fresh orgy," said Victoria interrupting her son. "You thus forgot amidst the pleasures of the table and debauchery the hour that summoned you to me! Is that an excuse?"
"No, dear mother, it is a confession--I was weak--but as truly as Gaul is free, I would have come dutifully home to you, but for the ruse by which I was misled and kept away. Will you not be indulgent towards me, mother, this once? I pray you!" saying which Victorin again knelt down before my foster-sister. "Be not so severe! I know my faults! Age will cure me! I am still too young, and my blood is still too warm. The ardor of pleasure often carries me away, despite myself--and yet, you know, mother, I would give my life for you--"
"I believe you--but yet you will not sacrifice to me your insensate and evil pa.s.sions--"
"When one sees Victorin so respectful and repentant at his mother"s feet," I whispered to Marion, "would one think he is the celebrated general, so dreaded by the enemies of Gaul--the general, who, at the age of twenty-two already has won five great battles?"
"Victoria," said Tetrik in his kind and insinuating voice, "I also am a father and inclined to indulgence. Besides, in my hours of recreation, I am a poet, and I wrote an ode to Youth. How could I be severe? I love Victorin"s brilliant qualities so much, that I find it hard to censure him! Could you be insensible to the tender words of your son? His only crime is his youth. As he said, years will cure that--and his affection for you, his deference to your wishes will hasten the cure--"
As the Governor of Gascony was saying these words, a great noise was heard outside of the house, and the cry was soon heard:
"To arms! To arms!"
Victoria, who was seated, quickly rose to her feet, together with Victorin.
"They cry to arms!" repeated Captain Marion anxiously, and listened.
"The Franks must have broken the truce!" I cried in turn. "Yesterday one of their chiefs threatened me with a speedy attack upon our camp; I did not believe they would put their threat so quickly into action."
"A truce is never broken before its expiration, without notice is given in advance," observed Tetrik.
"The Franks are barbarians; they are capable of any act of treachery,"
cried Victoria rushing to the door.
It opened before an officer covered with dust, and so breathless that he could not at first utter a word.
"Do you not belong to the post of the camp"s vanguard, four leagues from here?" the young general asked the officer; he knew personally all the officers of the army. "What has happened?"
"A large number of rafts, loaded with troops and towed by barks, hove in sight towards the middle of the Rhine, when, upon orders of the commander of the post, I rode hither at full speed to bring the news to you, Victorin. By this hour the Frankish hordes must have disembarked.
The post that I left is too weak to resist a whole army, and must have fallen back upon the camp. While crossing the camp I cried to arms! The legions and cohorts are forming in all haste."
"It is the barbarians" answer to the message that Schanvoch took to them," said the Mother of the Camps to Victorin.
"What answer did the Franks give you?" the young general asked me.
"Neroweg, one of the princ.i.p.al kings of their army, rejected all idea of peace," I said to Victorin. "The barbarians are set upon invading Gaul and subjugating us. I threatened their chief with a war of extermination. He answered me insolently that the sun would not rise six times before he would fall upon our camp, set fire to our tents, pillage our baggage and carry off Victoria the Great--"
"If they are on the march upon us, we have not a minute to spare!" cried Tetrik in a fright addressing the young general, who, calm and collected, with his arms crossed over his chest, was reflecting in silence. "We must act, and act quickly!"
"Before acting," answered Victorin, "we must reflect."
"But," replied the governor, "suppose the Franks move with forced marches upon the camp?"
"So much the better!" Victorin said impatiently. "So much the better! We shall let them draw near to us!"
Victorin"s answer astonished Tetrik, and I must admit, I would myself have been astonished and even alarmed at hearing the young general speak of temporizing in the presence of an imminent attack, had I not had innumerable proofs of his unerring judgment. His mother made a sign to the governor not to disturb her son in his meditation upon the plan of battle, which, undoubtedly, he was revolving in his mind, and said to Marion:
"You arrived this morning from your trip to the inhabitants on the other side of the Rhine, who are so often pillaged by these barbarians. What is the plan of those tribes?"
"Too weak to act single-handed, they are ready to join us at the first call. Fires, that we are to light either by day or night on the hill of Berak, will give them the signal. There will be men on the watch for them. The moment the signal is given they will start on the march. One of our best captains shall head a troop of picked soldiers across the river and effect a junction with them, while the bulk of our army shall simultaneously operate upon this side."
"The plan is excellent, Captain Marion," observed Victoria approvingly.
"Especially at this juncture, such an alliance is of great service to us. Your eyes have, as usual, seen rightly."
"If one has good eyes, he must seek to put them to the best use possible," the captain answered with his wonted affability. "That is what I said to my friend Eustace."
"What friend is that?" asked Victoria. "Whom do you refer to?"
"I refer to a soldier--my old companion at the anvil. I took him with me on the journey that I am now back from. Thus, instead of ruminating over my little projects all to myself, I uttered them aloud to my friend Eustace. He is discreet; by no means a fool; true enough, he is as peevish as the devil, and he often grumbles at me, whereat I profit not a little."
"I am aware of your friendship for that soldier," replied Victoria.
"Your affection does you honor."
"To love an old friend is a simple and natural matter. I said to him: "Do you see, Eustace, one day or other those Frankish skinners will undertake a decisive attack upon us. In order to protect their retreat, they will leave a body of reserve to protect their camp and wagons. That reserve will not be too large a morsel for our allied tribes to swallow, especially if they are reinforced by a picked legion in command of one of our own captains. So that if those skinners are beaten on this side of the Rhine, their retreat will be cut off on the other side of the river." What I then foresaw is coming about to-day. The Franks are attacking us; I think we should forthwith send word to the allied tribes, and follow that with some picked troops, commanded by a captain of energy, prudence and skill--"
"That captain will be yourself, Marion," Victoria quickly put in interrupting the captain.
"I? Very well! I know the country. My plan is quite simple. While the Franks are marching upon us, I shall cross the Rhine, and there burn their wagons and cut the reserve to pieces. Let Victorin deliver battle on our side of the river; the Franks will then try to re-cross the Rhine; there they will find me and my friend Eustace ready to meet them with something else than a glad hand to help them disembark. And their hopes will be dashed when they learn that camp, reserves and wagons have all gone up in flames."
"Marion," replied my foster-sister after having carefully listened to the captain, "victory is certain if you carry out the plan with your customary bravery and coolness."
"I have great good hopes. My friend Eustace said to me in a more than usually querulous voice: "Your plan is not so very stupid; it is not so very stupid." I know from experience that the approval of Eustace has always brought me good luck."
"Victoria," Tetrik approached saying in a low voice and no longer able to control his uneasiness, "I am not a man of war. I repose complete confidence in the military genius of your son. But an enemy twice as strong as ourselves is drawing nearer by the minute--and Victorin, still absorbed in his meditations, decides nothing, orders nothing!"
"He told you rightly that before acting, one must think," answered Victoria. "The power of calm reflection, at the moment of danger, is the sign of a wise and prudent captain. Would it not be folly to run blindly ahead of danger?"
Suddenly Victorin clapped his hands, leaped to his mother"s neck, embraced her and cried:
"Mother--Hesus inspires me. Not one of the barbarians who crossed the river will escape, and the peace of Gaul will be a.s.sured for many years.
Your project is excellent, Captain Marion; it fits in with my own plan of battle, as if we had jointly conceived it!"
"What! Did you hear me?" asked the astonished captain. "I thought you were wrapped up in your own thoughts!"
"However absorbed a lover may seem to be, he always overhears what is said of his sweetheart, my brave Marion," was Victorin"s mirthful answer. "My sovereign mistress is war!"
"Again that pest of profligacy!" Captain Marion whispered to me. "Alack!
It pursues him even in his thoughts of battle!"