His brothers tried to dissuade him, but it was useless. That same day Maugis took his staff and stole away, making his escape undiscovered from Montaubon, by means of the same subterranean passage he had used to escape the wrath of Charlemagne when Montaubon was besieged. Alone, by himself, with no more cares of state, disembarrassed of the burden of his renown, Maugis plodded through the country northward, nourishing himself with herbs and roots and drinking the pure water from the springs he passed on his way, finding life more pleasant a hundred times than in the midst of his court. His footsteps were directed toward the ancient city of Mouzon, in the Ardennes, where he intended to abide for a time in the old house where he had spent some of his boyhood days under the tutorship of that wise man of the East, that learned pundit whom his father had rescued from death in the wars of the Saracens, and from whom Maugis had drawn the occult powers he had used when driven to the last resource by the emperor. He hoped here to rest awhile in the society of the good monks of the great Abbey. He would search for his cousin Renaud, who, likewise, had retired from the world, to end his days in solitary meditation and prayer. [Illustration: CATHEDRAL DOOR, MOUZON.] Maugis spent two years in Mouzon, in the ancient house that had been his boyhood home. He made diligent inquiry for his cousin Renaud, but neither the monks nor any one else could tell him anything, except that some time agone he had been seen passing through the city by the old Roman road, which led into and through the vast forests of the Ardennes. So one day Maugis once more took up his staff, and deserting his home in the ancient city, he too walked far out on the old Roman road until the forests swallowed him up. As he made his weary way through the vast solitudes, one day he approached a hermitage; a strange hope animated him. Had God directed his steps to the resting place of his cousin Renaud? He searched about thoroughly, and at last discovered his cousin some distance away in a solitary place, lying on the moss and absorbed in a book. He came upon his cousin so quietly that he did not hear him, and he stood and contemplated him for some time in silence, but suddenly raising his eyes Renaud became aware of the presence of a stranger. “Can this be Maugis?” he said to himself, “once so strong and so straight, and now so bent and so feeble, but a shadow of his former self?” But he soon overcame his incertitude and sprang up and clasped Maugis in his arms, who said: “My dear Renaud! what pleasure I have to see you, you little know. We will never be separated again.” It was a long time before Renaud recovered from his joy, and though each was very desirous to live solitary in pursuance of their vows to God, they finally decided, however, that they would situate themselves so as to see each other every day.