ons--all vanquished, but none subjugated. From one moment to the
other they may rise anew, and, what is graver still, menace the very
heart of your Empire. As to us, on the contrary, all that we demand is
to live free; we never think of going beyond our frontiers."

"Who guarantees to me that, once my troops, are out of your infernal
country, you will not forthwith resume your armed excursions and attacks
against the Frankish forces that are bivouacked on this side of your
borders?"

"The other provinces are Gallic like ourselves. Our duty bids us to
provoke them, and to aid them to break the yoke of the Frankish kings.
But the thoughtful people among us are of the opinion that the hour for
revolt has not yet come. For the last four centuries the Catholic
priests have moulded the minds of the people to slavery. Alas, centuries
will pass before they re-awaken from their present stupor. You admit
that it is dangerous for you to be compelled to keep a portion of your
best troops tied up in Brittany. Recall your army. I give you my word as
a Breton, and I am, moreover, authorized to make the pledge in the name
of our tribes, that, so long as you live, we shall not go out of our
frontiers."

"By the King of the Heavens! The joke is rather too harsh. Do you take
me for a fool? Do I not know that, if I grant you a truce by withdrawing
my troops, you will take advantage of it to prepare anew for war after
my death? But we shall always know how to suppress your uprisings."

"Yes, we shall certainly take up arms if your sons fail to respect our
liberties."

"And you really expect me--me, the vanquisher, to consent to a shameful
truce? To consent to withdraw my forces from a country that it has cost
me so much trouble to overcome?"

"Very well; leave, then, your army in Brittany, but depend upon it that,
within a year or two, new insurrections will break out."

"Insane old man! How dare you hold such language to me when you, your
grandson, and four other Breton chiefs are my hostages! Oh! I swear by
the everlasting God, your head will drop at the first sign of an
insurrection. Do not lean too heavily upon the good nature of the old
Charles. The terrible example I made of the four thousand prisoners whom
I took from the revolted Saxons should be proof enough to you that I
recoil before no act of necessity. Only the dead are not to be feared."

"The Breton chiefs who remained on the way by reason of their wounds,
and who wi