"Your son near you! Then you are as stupid as you are scoundrelly. Ah, do you imagine that it is for your paternal contentment that your master has burdened himself with that wolf-cub? Do you know what your master said to me? 'I have only one means of subduing that savage beast you sold me, you egregious cheat.--The chances are, that madman loves his little one. I'll keep the wolf-whelp in a cage, and the son will answer to me for the father's docility.--At the father's first, and least offence, he will see the tortures which he will make his cub suffer, under my very eyes.'" I paid no further attention to what the "horse-dealer" said--I was at least sure of seeing you, or of knowing that you were near me, my child. That will help me to bear the awful grief caused to me by the fate of my little daughter Syomara, who, two days later, was carried into Italy on board the galley of the patrician Trymalcion. * * * * * My father Guilhern was not granted time to finish his narrative. Death--oh, what a death!--death overtook him the very day after he traced the above last lines. I preserve them together with the little brass bell that my father got from the "horse-dealer." The narrative of the sufferings of our race, I, Sylvest, shall continue in obedience to my father Guilhern, the same as he obeyed the behest of his father Joel the brenn of the tribe of Karnak. Hesus was merciful to you, O, my father.--You died ignorant of the life of your daughter Syomara-- It is left to me to narrate my sister's fate. THE END. FOOTNOTES: [1] A short distance from the town of St. Nazaire, which is still in existence. [2] The patriotism of the Russians in burning Moscow in order to starve and drive out Napoleon's army is justly admired. But how much more admirable was the heroic patriotism of these old Gauls! Not only Brittany, but almost a third of Gaul was delivered to the flames. See Caesar, _De Bello Gallico_, lib. VII, ch. XIV. Also Amedee Thierry, _History of the Gauls_, vol. III, p. 103: "The Chief of the Hundred Valleys was heard with calm and resignation. Not a murmur interrupted him, not an objection was raised against the heavy sacrifice which he demanded. It was with one voice that the heads of the tribes voted the ruin of their fortunes and the scattering of their families. This terrible remedy was at once applied to the country which they feared would be occupied by the enemy ... On every hand one perceived nothing but the fire and smoke of burning habitations. In the light of these flames, across the ruins and the ashes of their homes, an innumerable population wended their way towards the frontier, where shelter and food awaited them. Their sorrow and suffering was not without consolation, since it would lead to the safety of their country." [3] The shark. [4] A Gallic war cry, signifying "Strike at the head--down with them." [5] A troop composed of cavalry (_mahrek_) and footmen (_droad_).