long and short of it
is that he does not wish to part with them. He adores them, and, except
he goes to war, he always has them near him during his journeys, along
with his concubines--or, if you prefer the term, his 'dainties.' The
word may be less shocking to your prudery. You must know that after
having successively married and discarded his five wives, Desiderata,
Hildegarde, Fustrade, Himiltrude and Luitgarde, the Emperor provided
himself with an assortment of dainties, from which assortment I shall
mention to you incidentally the juicy Mathalgarde, the sugary
Gerswinthe, the tart Regina, the toothsome Adalinde--not to mention many
other saints on this calendar of love. For you must know that the great
Charles resembles the great Solomon not in wisdom only; he resembles him
also in his love for _seraglios_, as the Arabs call them. But, by the
way of the Emperor's daughters. Listen to a little tale. Imma, one of
these young princesses, was a charming girl. One fine day she became
smitten with Charles' archchaplain, named Eginhard. An archchaplain
being, of course, arch-amorous, Imma received Eginhard every night
secretly in her chamber--to discuss chapel affairs, I surmise. Now,
then, it so happened that during one winter's night there fell so very
much snow that the ground was all covered. A little before dawn,
Eginhard takes his departure from his lady-love; but just as he is about
to climb down from the window--an ordinary route with lovers--he beholds
by the light of a superb full moon that the ground is one sheet of white
snow. To himself he thinks: 'Imma and I are lost! I cannot get out
without leaving the imprint of my steps in the snow'--"

"And what did he do?" asked Vortigern, more and more interested in the
story that threw an undefined sense of uneasiness in his heart. "How
did the two escape from their perilous plight, the poor lovers!"

"Imma, a robustious doxy, a girl both of head and resolution, descends
by the window, bravely takes the archchaplain on her back, and, without
tripping under the beloved burden, crosses a wide courtyard that
separates her quarters from one of the corridors of the palace. Although
weighted down by an archchaplain, Imma had such small feet that the
traces left by them could not choose but keep suspicion away from
Eginhard. Unfortunately, however, as you will discover when you arrive
at Aix-la-Chapelle, the Emperor is possessed of a demon of curiosity,
and has had his pa