It so happened that Turpin, who occasionally recalled to mind that he
was Archbishop of Rheins, was at that time in the vicinity, making a
pastoral visit to the churches under his jurisdiction. But his dignity
of peer of France, and his martial spirit, which caused him to be
reckoned among the "preux chevaliers" of his time, forbade him to
travel without as large a retinue of knights as he had of clergymen.
One of these was thirsty, and knowing the fountain on the borders of
which Ogier was reposing, he rode to it, and was struck by the sight of
a knight stretched on the ground. He hastened back, and let the
Archbishop know, who approached the fountain, and recognized Ogier.
The first impulse of the good and generous Turpin was to save his
friend, for whom he felt the warmest attachment; but his archdeacons
and knights, who also recognized Ogier, reminded the Archbishop of the
oath which the Emperor had exacted of them all. Turpin could not be
false to his oath; but it was not without a groan that he permitted his
followers to bind the sleeping knight. The Archbishop's attendants
secured the horse and arms of Ogier, and conducted their prisoner to
the Emperor at Soissons.
The Emperor had become so much embittered by Ogier's obstinate
resistance, added to his original fault, that he was disposed to order
him to instant death. But Turpin, seconded by the good Dukes Namo and
Salomon, prayed so hard for him that Charlemagne consented to remit a
violent death, but sentenced him to close imprisonment, under the
charge of the Archbishop, strictly limiting his food to one quarter of
a loaf of bread per day, with one piece of meat, and a quarter of a cup
of wine. In this way he hoped to quickly put an end to his life without
bringing on himself the hostility of the King of Denmark, and other
powerful friends of Ogier. He exacted a new oath of Turpin to obey his
order strictly.
The good Archbishop loved Ogier too well not to cast about for some
means of saving his life, which he foresaw he would soon lose if
subjected to such scanty fare, for Ogier was seven feet tall, and had
an appetite in proportion. Turpin remembered, moreover, that Ogier was
a true son of the Church, always zealous to propagate the faith and
subdue unbelievers; so he felt justified in practising on this occasion
what in later times has been entitled "mental reservation," without
swerving from the letter of the oath which he had taken. This is the
method he hit upon.
Every morning he had his prisoner supplied with a quarter of a loaf of
bread, made of two bushels of flour, to this he added a quarter of a
sheep or a fat calf, and he had a cup made which held forty pints of
wine, and allowed Ogier a quarter of it daily.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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