CHAPTER IV.
THE STORY OF ALBREGE.
"Is it a story that you want of me?" asked the unknown guest turning toJoel, and seeing the eyes of all fixed upon himself.
"One story?" cried Joel. "Tell us twenty, a hundred! You must have seenso much! so many countries! so many peoples! One story only? Ah, by thegood Ormi, you shall not be let off with only one story, friend guest!"
"Oh, no!" cried the family in chorus and with set determination. "Oh,no! We must have more than one!"
"And yet," observed the stranger with a pensive and severe mien, "thereis more serious work in hand than to tell and listen to frivolousstories."
"I understand not what you mean," said Joel no less taken back than hisfamily; all turned their eyes upon the stranger in silent amazement.
"No, you do not understand me," replied the stranger sadly."Nevertheless, I shall keep my promise--the thing promised is a thingdone;" and pointing to Julyan who had remained at the other end of thehall near the oak-covered body of Armel he added: "We must see to itthat that young man has something to tell his brother when he joins himbeyond."
"Proceed, guest, proceed with your story," answered Julyan, withoutraising his head from his hands; "proceed with your story; I shall notlose a word.... Armel shall hear it just as you tell it."
"Two years ago," said the stranger, beginning his story, "whiletraveling among the Gauls who inhabit the borders of the Rhine, Ihappened one day to be at Strasburg. I had gone out of the town for awalk along the river bank. Presently I saw a large crowd of peoplemoving in the direction of where I stood. They were following a man andwoman, both young and both handsome, who carried on a buckler, that theyheld by the edges, a little baby not more than three or four months old.The man looked restless and somber; the woman pale and calm. Bothstopped at the river's bank, at a spot where the stream runs especiallyrapid. The crowd also stopped. I drew near and inquired who the man andwoman were. 'The man's name is Vindorix, the woman's Albrege; they areman and wife,' was the answer I received. I then saw Vindorix, whosecountenance waxed more and more somber, approach his wife and say toher:
"'This is the time.'
"'Do you wish it?' asked Albrege. 'Do you wish it?'
"'Yes,' answered the husband; 'I doubt--I want to be certain.'
"'Then, be it so,' said she.
"Thereupon, himself taking the buckler where the little child lay,smiling and stretching out its chubby arms to him, Vindorix walked intothe river up to his waist, raised the buckler and child for a momentover his head, and looked back a last time towards his wife, as if tothreaten her with what he was about to do. With her forehead high and asteady countenance, Albrege remained erect at the river bank, motionlesslike a statue, her arms crossed upon her bosom. When her husband nowturned to her she stretched out her right hand towards him as if to say:
"'Do it!'
"At that moment a shudder ran over the crowd. Vindorix deposited uponthe stream the buckler on which lay the child, and in that frail craftleft the infant to the mercy of the eddies."
"Oh, the wicked man!" cried Mamm' Margarid deeply moved by the story aswere the other hearers. "And his wife!... his wife ... who remained onthe bank?--"
"But what was the reason of such a barbarity, friend guest?" askedHenory, the young wife of Guilhern embracing her two children, littleSylvest and little Syomara, both of whom she took on her knees as iffearing to see them exposed to a similar danger.
With a gesture the stranger put an end to the interrogatories, andproceeded:
"The stream had barely carried away the buckler on which the child lay,than the father raised both his trembling hands to heaven as if toinvoke the gods. He followed the course of the buckler with sullenanxiety, leaning, despite himself, to the right when the buckler dippedto the right, and to the left when the buckler dipped on that side. Themother, on the contrary, her arms crossed over her bosom, followed thebuckler with firm eyes, and as tranquil as if she had nothing to fearfor her child."
"Nothing to fear!" cried Guilhern. "To see her child thus exposed toalmost certain death ... it is bound to go under...."
"That must have been an unnatural mother," cried Henory.
"And not one man in all that crowd to jump into the water and save thechild!" observed Julyan thinking of his friend. "Oh, that will surelyanger the heart of Armel, when I tell him that."
"But do not interrupt every instant!" cried Joel. "Proceed, my guest;may Teutates, who presides over all journeys made in this world and inthe others, guard the poor little thing!"
"Twice," the stranger proceeded, "the buckler threatened to be swallowedup by the eddies of the rapid stream. Of all present, only the mothermoved not a muscle. Presently the buckler was seen riding the waterslike an airy skiff and peacefully following the course of the streambeyond the rapids. Immediately the crowd cried, beating their hands:
"'The boat! The boat!'
"Two men ran down the bank, pushed off a boat, and swiftly plying theiroars, quickly reached the buckler, and took it up from the watertogether with the child that had fallen asleep--"
"Thanks to the gods! The child is saved!" exclaimed almost in chorus thefamily of Joel, as if delivered from a painful apprehension.
Perceiving that he was about to be again interrupted by fresh questions,the stranger hastened to resume his narrative.
"While the buckler and child were being taken from the water, its fatherVindorix, whose face was now as radiant with joy as it was somber untilthen, ran to his wife, and stretching out his arms to her said:"
"'Albrege!... Albrege!... You told me the truth.... You were faithful!'"
"But repelling her husband with an imperious gesture, Albrege answeredhim proudly: 'Certain of my honor, I did not fear the trial.... I feltat ease on my child's fate. The gods could not punish an innocent womanwith the loss of her child.... But ... _a woman suspected is a womanoutraged_.... I shall keep my child. You never more shall see us, norhim, nor me.... You have doubted your wife's honor!'"
"The child was just then brought in triumph. Its mother threw herselfupon it, like a lioness upon her whelp; pressed it closely to her heart;so calm and peaceful as she had been until then, so violent was she nowwith the caresses that she showered upon the baby, with whom she nowfled away."
"O, that was a true daughter of Gaul!" said Guilhern's wife. "A womansuspected is a woman outraged. Those are proud words.... I like to hearthem!"
"But," asked Joel, "is that trial one of the customs of the Gauls alongthe Rhine?"
"Yes," answered the stranger; "the husband who suspects his wife ofhaving dishonored his bed, places the baby upon a buckler and exposes itto the current of the river. If the child remains afloat, the wife'sinnocence is proved; if it sinks under the waves, the mother's crime isconsidered established."
"And how was that brave wife clad, friend guest?" asked Henory. "Did shewear a tunic like ours?"
"No," answered the stranger; "the tunics in that region are very shortand of two colors. The corsage is generally blue, the skirt red. Thelatter is often embroidered with gold and silver thread."
"And their head-gear?" asked one of the young girls. "Are they white andcut square like our own?"
"No; they are black and bell-shaped, and they are also embroidered ingold and silver."
"And the bucklers?" queried Guilhern. "Are they like ours?"
"They are longer, and they are painted with lively colors, usuallyarranged in squares. Red and white is a very common combination."
"And the marriages, how are they celebrated?" inquired another younggirl.
"And the cattle, are they as fine as ours?" an old man wanted to know.
"And have they like us brave fighting cocks?" asked a child.
The stranger was being assailed with such a shower of questions thatJoel said to the questioners:
"Enough; enough.... Let our friend regain his breath. You are screamingaround him like a flock of sea-gulls."
"Do they pay, as we do, t
he money they owe the dead?" asked Stumpy,despite Joel's orders to cease questioning the stranger.
"Yes; their custom and ours is the same as here," answered the stranger;"and they are not idolaters like a man from Asia whom I met atMarseilles, and who claimed that, according to his religion, wecontinued to live after death, but not clad in human shape, according tohim we were clad in the form of animals."
"_Her!_ ... _Her!_" cried Stumpy in great trouble. "If it were as thoseidolatrous people claim, then Gigel, who departed instead of old Mark,may be now inhabiting the body of a fish; and I would have sent himthree pieces of silver with Armel who might now be inhabiting the bodyof a bird. How could a bird deliver silver pieces to a fish. _Her!_ ..._Her!_"
"Our friend told you that that belief is idolatry, Stumpy," put in Joelwith severity; "your fear is impious."
"It must be so," said Julyan sadly. "What would I become who am toproceed to-morrow to meet Armel by oath and out of friendship, were I tofind him turned into a bird while I may be turned into a stag of thewoods or an ox of the fields?"
"Fear not, young man," said the stranger to Julyan, "the religion ofHesus is the only true religion; it teaches us that after death we arereclad in younger and handsomer bodies."
"I pin my hopes on that!" said Stumpy.