arik, leaned down over her saddle, whispered a few words to him, and
casting a last look at Broute-Saule she departed at a gallop without
bestowing upon the kneeling slaves and colonists the benediction that
the poor wretches expected from their abbess.

CHAPTER IV.

IN SIGHT OF THE ABBEY.

Upon leaving the convent of St. Saturnine, Berthoald took with his men
the road to the abbey of Meriadek. The march of the troop was delayed by
the condition in which they found two of the bridges on their route; the
roads, moreover, were in such a state that the carts containing the
booty of the warriors, together with the Arabian and Gallic women whom
they had captured in the environs of Narbonne, frequently sank to the
axles of the wheels in the mud.

Two days after Broute-Saule had been delivered to the claws and beak of
the sparrow-hawk, Berthoald and his men arrived near Nantes. The sun was
going down, night was near. The young chief on horseback rode a few
paces ahead of his companions, among whom were several fresh recruits
raised by Charles from the other side of the Rhine--men as savage and
fierce as the first soldiers of Clovis, and, like them, dressed in skins
and wearing their hair tied at the top of their heads--just as, more
than two centuries before, Neroweg, one of the leudes of the Frankish
king, had worn his. The other warriors were casqued and cuirassed.
Berthoald was reserved, almost haughty towards the men of his band. They
grumbled at his coolness and general bearing towards them. But the
ascendency of his courage, his redoubtable physical strength, his rare
dexterity in arms, the promptitude of his war expedients, finally, the
high favor that he enjoyed with Charles held the savage men of war in
control. Accordingly, Berthoald rode alone at the head of his troop.
Often, since his departure from the abbey of St. Saturnine, he had
dropped into a reverie at the thought of the charming Septimine. He was
thinking of the young girl when Richulf, one of his men, rode up to his
chief and said to him:

"According to the information that we gathered on the way, our abbey
must lie hereabouts. If you will, let us interrogate the slaves that we
see on the fields."

Awakening from his reverie, Berthoald made an affirmative sign with his
head, and the two hastened the pace of their horses.

"As for me," said Richulf, a sort of German giant of an enormous girth,
"I am enjoying in advance the face that our abbo