en took to the palace one of the two chairs and hid the other--"

"Ho! Ho!" said one of the young slaves laughing. "The good Eloi did as
millers do who are sharp, artful and not very scrupulous. He drew double
pay for one bag--"

"Wait, my boys, wait before you judge our venerable master. Charmed at
the elegance and delicacy of the artisan's work, Clotaire II issued
orders on the spot to recompense him generously. Eloi thereupon showed
the second chair to Bobbon saying: 'This is what I spent the rest of
your gold in so as to lose nothing of the stuff. I have acted as you
would have wished.'"

"You are right, Father Bonaik, we were too quick in judging the good
Eloi."

"That act of probity, so honorable in the poor artisan, was the start
of his future fortune. Clotaire II wished to attach him to his court as
a goldsmith. It was then that Eloi achieved his finest productions:
vases of chiseled gold ornamented with rubies, pearls and diamonds;
pieces of furniture of solid silver and admirable design and set off
with chiseled stone; reliquaries, curtain pins, Bible cases encrusted
with carbuncles.... I saw the chalice of enameled gold more than a foot
high that he made for the abbey of Chelles. It was a miracle in enamel
and gold."

"It is enough to dazzle one to hear you tell of such beautiful works,
Father Bonaik."

"Oh, children, this room could not contain the masterpieces of that one
artisan, the glory of Gallic artisanship. The coins that he has struck
as the minter of Clotaire II, of Dagobert and of Clovis II have
admirable reliefs: they are gold thirds of a sou of a superb stamp. Eloi
succeeded in all the branches of the goldsmith's art. He excelled, like
the goldsmiths of Limoges, in the incrustation of enamel and the setting
of precious stones; he also excelled, as did the goldsmiths of Paris, in
statuaries of hammered gold and silver. He chiseled jewelry as
delicately as the jewelers of Metz. The cloths of woven gold thread
manufactured under his eyes and after his designs, were not less
magnificent than those of Lyon. My boys, what a hard worker was Eloi.
Ever at his forge from earliest dawn, ever with his leathern apron on
his loins, and the file, the hammer or the burin in his hand. He often
did not leave his workshop until a late hour in the night, and had ever
at his side his favorite apprentice, a Saxon named Thil. I knew that
Thil. He was then an old man, and he also was a great artist. They
should