a surprised face Septimine seemed to beseech the indulgence of
the mother, of this Gallic mother who felt so justly and so painfully
mortified at her son.

"From the moment that all peril to me was over," Amael began, "my mother
has not spoken to me during this long journey, either by day or night;
she has refused the support of my arm, preferring that of this poor
girl, who saved her life. My mother's severity is just, I cannot
complain of it, though it pains me.... May the truthful account of my
faults, the confession of my errors, and my sincere repentance merit her
pardon."

"A mother always forgives," said Septimine timidly, looking at
Rosen-Aer, but the latter answered in a tremulous and grave voice,
without deigning to look at Amael:

"My son's abandonment has torn my heart; a prey to unceasing and ever
renewing anxieties on his behalf, I gave myself up alternately to
despair and to insane hope.... These torments have lasted long years. I
can pardon my son for having caused them; but what is not in my power to
pardon is his criminal alliance with the oppressors of our race, with
those accursed Franks, who enslaved our fathers, outraged our mothers,
and who continue to hold our children in bondage!"

"My crime is great. But I swear to you, mother, that long before I saw
you again remorse gnawed at my heart. It is ten years since I left the
valley of Charolles, where I lived happily with my family. But I yielded
to curiosity, to an overpowering thirst for adventure. I believed that
beyond our own confines I was to see an entirely new world. One evening
I left, but not without shedding many a tear, not without turning more
than once to take a parting look at our valley."

"In my youth," said the old man, "my father often told me how Karadeucq,
one of our ancestors, also left his family to run what then was called
the 'Bagaudy'--to tramp free through the woods and lie in ambush for
our oppressors. May, Rosen-Aer, the remembrance of our ancestor soften
your heart towards your son."

"The Bagauders and the Vagres warred against the Romans and then against
the Franks; they did not ally themselves with our oppressors, and fight
on their side, as my son has done."

"Your reproaches are merited, mother! You will see in the course of my
account that I often made them to myself. Almost immediately upon
quitting the valley I fell into the hands of a band of Franks. They were
on their way back from Auvergne and were t