The Iron Pincers or Mylio and Karvel Part 12

KARVEL (to Goose-Skin)--"n.o.ble guest, take my brother's word. If he has charmed with his chants the ears of the rich, you have charmed those of the poor. You will certainly move their hearts as well if you sing to them of the frightful ills that our country is threatened with by the Crusade that is being preached against us."

GOOSE-SKIN--"Worthy host, may I never in my life again touch a tankard of wine, if I know what to sing upon such a theme."

FLORETTE (timidly)--"Mylio--if I dared--"

MYLIO--"Speak, dear child!"

FLORETTE--"I heard you on the road say that that wicked monk of Citeaux, Abbot Reynier, from whose clutches I escaped, thanks to you, Mylio, is one of the chiefs of the Crusade. It seems to me that if Master Goose-Skin would narrate in a song the story of how that wicked monk, who is one of the chief agents of this war which they have started in the name of G.o.d, meant to ruin a poor serf girl--"

GOOSE-SKIN (clapping his hands gleefully)--"Florette is right! 'The Fritter of the Abbot of Citeaux!' That shall be the t.i.tle of the song.

You remember, Mylio, the words of Sir Ribald when he told you he meant to make a speedy call at the mill of Chaillotte? Ha! By my hurdy-gurdy!

I shall salt the song. I shall pepper it so generously that even people with palates no better than a whale's, once they shall have tasted my song will be seized with a furious appet.i.te to despatch the sycophants!

The hypocrites! Devoured with concupiscence, they now propose to ma.s.sacre people in the name of the Savior of the world!"

MYLIO--"Excellent! Excellent, my old Goose-Skin! Instil in your verses the indignation of your soul, and your song will be good for ten thousand soldiers in the defense of Languedoc. (To Florette) Your excellent judgment has served you well, dear girl. Your straightforward and childlike heart is justly in revolt at the horrible spectacle of the hypocrisy of these proud, greedy and debauched priests, who now threaten to exterminate the people of this country while they invoke the name of Jesus, the G.o.d of love and forgiveness. (To Morise and Karvel) I shall be back on the day of danger. If my love for Florette has inspired me with disgust for my barren and dissolute life, the remembrance of both you, Morise, and you Karvel, has brought me back here. I wish that my marriage with her who is to be the companion of my life be consecrated by your and your wife's presence. To marry under your auspices, is not that to pledge myself to take you for my model?"

KARVEL (profoundly moved, takes the hands of Florette and Mylio, joins them in his own, and says in a tremulous voice)--"Your marriage will be inscribed to-morrow in the register of our city magistrates. Mylio, my brother, Florette, my sister, you whom the mysterious bonds of the heart already unite, I take to witness the thoughts of your souls and the words of your lips, be ye forevermore one! Henceforth rejoice at the same joys, suffer the same pains, console each other in the same hopes, share with each other the daily toils that will worthily provide you with your daily bread. If, happier than Morise and myself, you should live again in your children, strive by precept and by example to develop in them their original goodness. Bring them up in the love of work, of justice and of right, to the end that, faithful to the morals of Christ, one of the wisest men that humanity has produced, they be indulgent towards those whom ignorance, neglect or misery have led astray. For all such let them have a ready pardon, instruction, love and charity.

"But also habituate their young souls to be awake to and to entertain a horror for oppression and iniquity. Habituate your children to the thought that some day they may have to suffer, to struggle and perhaps to die in the defense of their rights. Teach them that, if clemency towards the weak and the suffering is a virtue, resignation to the violent acts of an oppressor is an act of cowardice, is a crime!

Saturate their souls in the hatred for injustice; then, on the day of trial, your children will be found ready and resolute. Let them repose unshakable faith in the future, in the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of Gaul, our motherland.

"Finally, impart to your children this virile druid conviction--'Man, immortal and infinite like G.o.d, proceeds from one world to another, eternally reviving body and soul in those innumerable stars that s.h.i.+ne in the firmament.' Impart to them this st.u.r.dy belief, and they will be, as our fathers were during the heroic epoch of our history, healed of the disease of death.

"And now, Mylio, my brother, and Florette, my sister, may your union be what the ardent wishes of my heart desire for it! May the ills that threaten this country leave you unscathed! Oh, believe us, Florette, you will be doubly cherished by us, because, thanks to you, our brother has come back to us, and my wife and myself have gained a sister in you."

At the end of these words, Karvel the Perfect presses Florette and Mylio to his heart and holds them long in his embrace. With her forehead leaning on the shoulder of her husband, Morise partakes of the deep emotion that thrills him and the bridal couple. Goose-Skin himself can not hold back a tear which he wipes away with the point of his thumb.

But speedily recovering his habitual good spirits, the old juggler cries out:

"Oxhorns! Master Karvel, excuse the sincerity of old Goose-Skin, but he is of the impression that in the south, as well as the north of Gaul, there is no wedding without a repast. I therefore demand for this evening the wedding feast; to-morrow the marriage will be entered in the city's register; and day after to-morrow Mylio and I will depart to preach the anti-Crusade in our fas.h.i.+on. (Addressing Morise) Oh! Dame Virtue, see how you have mastered me! Ordinarily I am as craven as a hare, and yet, to please you, I shall take the road and preach war with my music-box. But, G.o.d wills it. I feel so furiously inclined to sing my war song, that my throat is dry in advance. It will have to be very thoroughly moistened."

KARVEL (smiling)--"It fortunately happens, merry guest, that we have in the house a cask of Montpelier wine. We shall forthwith broach it."

MORISE (to Goose-Skin)--"And I have in yonder cupboard a ham of Aragon that is worthy of serving as a mace to the famous knight Shrove-Tuesday, whose defeat you dreamed!"

GOOSE-SKIN--"Oh! Dear Dame Virtue, you will think you are dreaming, yourself, when you see me play my jaws and swallow your victuals."

KARVEL--"You may exercise your jaws also upon a brace of superb capons that our farmer brought us yesterday. And we also have a trout, quite worthy of serving knight Shrove-Tide for mount."

GOOSE-SKIN--"That is a feast worthy of a chapter of canonesses!"

KARVEL (to Goose-Skin, and pointing to Mylio, who is speaking to Florette in a low voice)--"The prodigal son has returned, must we not kill the fatted calf?"

MYLIO (to Florette in a low and fervid tone)--"And now, at last, my sweet friend, my charming Florette, you are really my wife!"

FLORETTE (contemplating her husband with tender love and tears in her eyes)--"Mylio, all I have in my heart, my love, my life I give you. It is little--in exchange for the happiness that I owe you!"

GOOSE-SKIN (interrupting the lovers)--"What is that you are prattling about in that languorous voice? Rather sing my song, little Florette, sing it in a joyous voice:

"Robin loves me, Robin has me!

Robin wished me--he shall have me!"

CHAPTER V.

SONG ON THE CRUSADE AGAINST THE ALBIGENSIANS.

Behold them, the priests at their head, Behold them, the Cath'lic Crusaders!

The red cross on their b.r.e.a.s.t.s, And the Christ on their lips, The f.a.got in one hand, The sword in the other!

Behold them in our dear land of Languedoc!

Behold them, the Cath'lic Crusaders, Behold them, the priests at their head!

What wrong have we done to these priests?

Oh, what wrong have we done unto them!

From all the quarters of old Gaul, They rush into Albigeois, the Cath'lic Crusaders.

At their head march the legate of the Pope, and Reynier, the Abbot of Citeaux, And with them many a bishop and many an archbishop: The Archbishop of Sens, and he of Rheims, The Bishop of Cahors, and he of Limoges; The Bishop of Nevers, and he of Clermont; The Bishop of Agde, and he of Autun.

What wrong have we done to these priests?

Oh, what wrong have we done unto them!

The Knighthood is numerous also: Simon, bloodthirsty Count of Montfort, their commander.

Him follow the Count of Narbonne and the Count of St. Paul, The Viscount of Turenne and Adhemar of Poitiers, Bertrand of Cardaillac and Bertrand of Gordon, The Count of Le Forez and he of Auxerre, Peter of Courtenay and Foulques of Bercy, Hugues of Lascy and Lambert of Limoux, Neroweg of the Templars' Order, Also knight Gerard of Lancon, And many more! So many more!

What an army! What an army!

Twenty-thousand knights, all cased in iron.

Two hundred thousand footmen, strollers, serfs and vagabonds.

From near and far, all, to the call of the priests, They have come to deluge in blood our Languedoc.

They have come from Auvergne and from Burgundy, From Rouergue and from Poitou, From Normandy and from Saintogne, From Lorraine and from Brittany.

Over hills and over valleys, by the land and by the water They have come, and still they come.

They all approach with the cry: "To the heretics, death!"

Behold them, the priests at their head, Behold them, the Cath'lic Crusaders!

The red cross on their b.r.e.a.s.t.s, The Christ on their lips, The f.a.got in one hand, The sword in the other!

Behold them in our dear land of Languedoc!

Behold them, the Cath'lic Crusaders, Behold them, the priests at their head!

What wrong have we done to these priests?

Oh, what wrong have we done unto them!

CHAPTER VI.

SONG ON THE BUTCHERY OF CHa.s.sENEUIL.

Here they are, before Cha.s.seneuil, the Catholic Crusaders, Before Cha.s.seneuil, the fortified town!

Behind their high walls' shelter, men, women and children Have sought refuge from burgs and from hamlets.