"I come with a just petition to you." "If it is at all in my power, the matter is granted." "Are you a friend of King Clotaire? Have you any influence with him?" "If you have any favor to prefer to him, you could hardly arrive at a better time." "I come for no favors from the King--I come for justice. Here is a charter given by his grandfather Clotaire I. As a matter of law, it requires no confirmation, seeing that the concession is absolute. But the Bishop of Chalon is giving us trouble. He is laying claims upon the goods of the monastery, upon those of the inhabitants of the Valley, and, as a consequence, upon their freedom, notwithstanding both their goods and their freedom are guaranteed by this charter.--Would you be willing to request Clotaire, who is now the King of Burgundy, to attach his seal to the charter issued by his grandfather, in order to insure its enforcement?" "Is that all you wish to ask of the King?--The King honors the memory of his glorious grandfather too highly to fail to confirm a charter issued by that great Prince. Clotaire must now be in his tent. Wait for me here, my father in Christ. I shall be back soon." During the short absence of the Frankish seigneur, Loysik could hear the uproar of the impatient crowd and warriors calling aloud for Brunhild. Duke Roccon returned quickly with the old charter of Clotaire I, to which Clotaire II had attached his seal under the following freshly written words: "We will it, and we so order all our leudes, dukes, counts and bishops, that the above charter, signed by our glorious grandfather Clotaire, be upheld in force and respected in all its provisions in the present and in the future, and we do so in the belief that we thereby do honor to our glorious ancestor. And those who are to succeed me will uphold this donation inviolate, if they wish to share the life everlasting, and if they wish to be saved from the everlasting flames. Whoever in any manner does violence to this donation, may the gateman of heaven diminish his share of heaven; whoever may add to the donation, may the gateman of heaven add something unto him." The aged monk inquired from the duke who it was that wrote the last words to the charter, and was not a little surprised to hear that it was the Bishop of Troyes. "You must, then, have said nothing to the King concerning the pretensions of the Bishop of Chalon--" "I did not consider that necessary. I said to Clotaire: 'I request you to confirm this charter, which your grandfather granted to a holy man of God.' 'I can refuse nothing to my loyal servitors,' he answered, and he charged the bishop to write what was proper. That being done, the King attached his royal seal under the writing." "Roccon," said the venerable monk, "I thank you--adieu--" But recollecting himself, Loysik added: