raveling north. They made me a
slave. Their chief kept me for a time to oversee and tend his horse, and
to furbish his weapons. I had the instinct of war. The sight of arms or
of a fine horse always fascinated me since childhood. You know it,
mother."

"Yes, your holidays were those on which the colonists of the valley
exercised themselves in arms ... or ran races on horseback."

"Led a slave by that Frankish chief, I never sought to flee. He treated
me kindly. Besides, it was to me a pleasure to polish armors and to ride
on the march. At least, and at last, I was seeing a new country....
Alas, quite new! The fields were ravaged, the harvest was neglected, the
frightful distress of the subjugated populations of the districts that
we traversed contrasted cruelly with the independent and happy life of
the inhabitants of our valley. It was on such occasions that, thinking
of our happy region, of you, and of my father, tears dropped from my
eyes, and my heart felt like breaking. Occasionally, the thought came to
me of running away from the Franks and returning to you. But the fear of
a severe reprimand held me back."

"I would have felt the same way, had I committed the same fault," said
Septimine, who listened to Amael's report with tender interest. "I
never would have dared to return to my family."

"After being more than a year with the Frankish chief, I had become a
good groom, and I could master the most spirited horses. By cleaning the
weapons I had learned to handle them. The Frank died. I was to be sold
with all his other slaves. A Jew named Mordecai, who traveled over Gaul
as a trafficker in slaves, happened to be in Amiens at the time; he
inspected my deceased master's slaves. He bought me and told me in
advance that he was to sell me to a rich Frankish seigneur named
Bodegesil, Duke of the country of Poitiers. The seigneur, said the Jew,
owned the finest horses and the finest armors imaginable. 'If you flee'
said the Jew to me, 'I would lose a fat sum of money, because I bought
you for a large amount, knowing I could dispose of you to the seigneur
Bodegesil at a good profit. If you run away you will lose a chance of
making your fortune. Bodegesil is a generous seigneur. Serve him
faithfully and he will take you to war with him whenever he is called to
take the field with his men, and we have seen in these days of war more
than one manumitted slave become a count.' The Jew's words fired my
ambition, pride into