some diabolical suggestion, might commit the enormity of contemning the orders of his spiritual father, the noble Gondowald, chamberlain of the glorious Queen Brunhild, was commissioned by the illustrious princess to cause the orders of the bishop of Chalon to be carried out, by force, if need be, through the armed men that he would carry with him. Hardly had the monk laborer finished reading the missive than Gondowald added with a haughty and threatening air: "I, the chamberlain of the glorious Queen Brunhild, our very excellent and very redoubtable mistress, am commissioned by her to inform you that if you and yours should have the audacity to disobey the orders of the bishop, as may happen, judging from the insolent murmurs that I have just heard, I shall have you and the most recalcitrant of your fellows tied to the tails of the horses of my riders, and shall thus take you to Chalon, quickening your steps with the shafts of our lances over your backs." In fact, the reading of the bishop's missive was several times interrupted by the murmurs of the monk laborers and of the colonists, and these murmurs swelled to such proportions that the intervention of Loysik became necessary in order to hear the bishop's letter to the end. But when the Frank Gondowald defiantly uttered his insolent threats, the crowd answered with an explosion of furious cries intermixed with jeers and sneers. Ronan, the Master of the Hounds and several other old time Vagres were not among the last to murmur against the usurpatory pretensions of the Bishop of Chalon, who proposed to appropriate to himself the goods of the monk laborers and the colonists, and trample down their every right. Although age had whitened their heads and paled their faces, the Vagres felt their old fighting blood boil in their veins. Ever a man of action, Ronan quickly reverted to his early profession and whispered to the Master of the Hounds: "Pick out thirty resolute men, take them to the arsenal, arm yourselves and run to the punt so as to cut off the retreat of the Franks. I shall take charge of what is to be done here. By the faith of a Vagre, I feel myself grown younger by fifty years!" "And I, Ronan, while the insolent missive was being read, and especially when the valet of that infamous Queen dared to threaten us, my hand looked for a sword at my side." Immediately the two old Vagres started to work among the crowd of colonists and monks; they moved hither and thither, whispering in the ears of the men whom they were choosing, and each of whom vanished successively amidst the increasing uproar, that Loysik's firm and sonorous voice was hardly able to dominate as he answered the archdeacon: