there grounded, for the tide is falling. To
attempt to disembark is to commit suicide; you are surrounded on all
sides by moving quicksands like the one in which your soldier and his
axe have just been swallowed up. Remain on board of your ships.
To-morrow they will be floated again by the rising tide. And to-morrow,
battle--battle to the finish. The Gaul will have once more showed that
NEVER DID BRETON COMMIT TREASON, and that if he glories in the death of
his enemy, it is because he has killed his enemy fairly."

Then Albinik and Meroe, leaving the interpreter terrified by their
words, turned in haste to the town of Vannes to give the alarm, and to
warn the crews of the Gallic fleet to prepare for combat on the morrow.

On the way, Albinik's wife said to him:

"The heart of my beloved husband is more noble than mine. I wished to
see the Roman fleet destroyed by the sea-rocks. My husband wishes to
destroy it by the valor of the Gauls. May I forever be proud that I am
wife to such a man!"

CHAPTER VI.

THE EVE OF BATTLE.

It was the eve of the battle of Vannes; the battle of Vannes which,
waged on land and sea, was to decide the fate of Brittany, and,
consequently, of all Gaul, whether for liberty or enslavement. On this
memorable evening, in the presence of all the members of our family
united in the Gallic camp, except my brother Albinik, who had joined the
Gallic fleet in the bay of Morbihan, my father Joel, the brenn of the
tribe of Karnak, addressed me, his eldest born, Guilhern the laborer,
who now writes this account. He said to me:

"To-morrow, my son, is the day of battle. We shall fight hard. I am
old--you are young. The angel of death will doubtless carry me hence
first; perhaps to-morrow I shall meet in the other life my sainted
daughter Hena. Here, now, is what I ask of you, in the face of the
misfortunes which menace our country, for to-morrow the fortunes of war
may go with the Romans. My desire is that as long as our stock shall
last, the love of old Gaul and sacred memories of our fathers shall be
ever kept fresh in our family. If our children should remain free men,
the love of country, the reverence for the memory of their ancestors,
will all the more endear their liberty to them. If they must live and
die slaves, these holy memories will remind them, from generation to
generation, that there was a time when, faithful to their gods, valiant
in war, independent and happy, masters of the