The Poniard's Hilt; Or, Karadeucq and Ronan. A Tale of Bagauders and VagresSue, Eugène
History
The Poniard's Hilt; Or, Karadeucq and Ronan. A Tale of Bagauders and Vagres
Sue, Eugène
France -- History -- To 987 -- Fiction
Who is he who is celebrating night mass in the bishop's chapel? The wax
candles are lighted on the altar with all the gorgeousness of an Easter
Sunday. Their brilliant light illumines the near vault, while the rest
of the chapel is thrown into the shade, down to the Gothic main
entrance, that now and then a ruddy gleam flickers through like the
reflection of an extinguishing bonfire. What bonfire was that? It was
the bonfire of the episcopal villa in flames.
Was, then, the villa set on fire by the Vagres? Certes; for what other
reason should they have brought along torches and straw?
In the center of the yard the riches of the bishop lie in a high
heap--gold and silver vases, holy chalices, together with drinking
goblets, Bible cases of precious wood, together with platters of the
banquet table, patines, together with bowls used for cooling the
bishop's wine; good sized and ripped-up bags, from which silver and gold
sous roll out; costly cloth, purple and blue, that but awaited the
tailor's scissors; warm and rare furs, some black as crows, others white
as doves. In the way of trophies, the axes, bucklers and pikes of the
leudes, who ran away out of fear for the devil, are stacked up at the
four corners of the superb heap of booty. Gold, silver, steel, the
brilliant colors of the cloths--they all scintillate and sparkle, each
with its own lustre, and all with the resplendence that is so pleasing
to the eye of the Vagre.
The Vagres are there! They are in the holy chapel of the episcopal
villa, where they do that which all Vagres do after they have drunk
their fill, ravaged and pillaged. Some are snoring at the foot of the
altar exhausted by their labors or overcome by the fumes of wine; others
balance themselves on their unsteady limbs and cast loving glances at
the wealth which they are about to scatter on their route and that will
make so many poor people happy. The Vagres of Ronan are ever faithful to
the sacred commandments of the Vagrery:
"Let us take from the rich and give to the poor. The Vagre who preserves
a sou for the morrow ceases to be a Vagre, a 'Wolf's-head,' a 'wand'ring
man.' He ever divides the booty of the previous evening among the poor,
so that he be compelled to pillage fresh renegade bishops, and Frankish
oppressors of old Gaul. Nor peace nor truce to the oppressors!"
And as to those other Vagres, who lean against the shafts of the
pillars, or are seated on the step of the altar near the snorers--their
eyes are as steady as their limbs; have they perchance, not also tasted
the old wines of the episcopal villa?
Oh! They did drink, twice, ten times more than the others; but they are
veterans at the trade, old Vagres, sturdy customers who drain a pouch at
one gulp, and immediately after are able to walk with steady step over a
beam across the conflagration that they have lighted in the burg of a
Frank, or the villa of a bishop.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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