"How dare you invoke such a charter in my presence! A charter of him who was Fredegonde's father-in-law! A charter of the grandfather of Clotaire II, the son of Fredegonde and no less a mortal enemy of mine than his mother herself! You dare mention to me a charter signed by the grandfather of a man whom I shall pursue into his grave! Insensate old man! I would burn down the tree that lent its shade to Fredegonde's son! I would have the spring poisoned that quenched that man's thirst! In your instance, the question is not about inanimate objects, but of men, women and children who owe their freedom to the grandfather of Fredegonde's son. It is in my power to make their souls and bodies, their whole generation, writhe with pain! Oh, no later than to-morrow all the inhabitants of that accursed valley will be sent as slaves to the savage tribes that have come from Germany. It will be but an advance payment on the pillage that was promised them." "Very well. You will send troops to the Valley. They will force their way in, arms in hand; they will crush our inhabitants despite any resistance that they may offer, and however heroic. Men, women and children will know how to die. After a stubborn fight, your soldiers will find upon their entrance into the Valley only corpses and ashes. But you seem to forget that war has been declared between you and Fredegonde's son, that the moment is critical, and that you require all your available forces in order to resist your enemies. Execrated by the people, execrated by the seigneurs, the leading ones of whom have already joined the standard of Clotaire II, you are hardly certain of the loyalty of your own army, seeing that you have been obliged to call savage tribes to your aid and to allure them with the prospect of pillage. You seem to forget that, guided by an unerring instinct, and seeing the power of the mayors of the palaces on the ascendant, the people look upon these as the natural enemies of the Frankish Kings and are ready to revolt in support of the former. Despite the heroic resistance that they will offer, our people of the Valley will be crushed. I admit it. But do you imagine that the surrounding populations, however timid and cowed they may be, will remain impassive when they will see people of their own race slaughtered to the last man in the defense of their freedom? The horror of conquest, the hatred for slavery, the unbearable hardships of poverty have more than once driven people steeped in deeper degradation than our own to serious and stubborn revolt. To-morrow, who knows! some frightful insurrection may break out against you, called into being by the voice of the grandees who abhor you." "And are the seigneurs, perchance, not the enemies of your race as much as the kings?"