August, already began to crimson the horizon.

"Morvan," said Abbot Witchaire, "day is about to dawn. I can wait no
longer. What is your answer to the messenger of Louis the Pious?"

"Priest, my answer will not burden your memory: RETURN AND TELL THE KING
THAT WE WILL PAY HIM TRIBUTE--IN IRON."

"You want war! Very well, you shall have it without mercy or pity!"
cried the abbot furiously, and leaping on his horse which the monks held
ready for him he added, turning again to the Chief of the Chiefs:
"Brittany will be laid waste with fire and sword! Not a house will be
left standing! The last day of this people has arrived!"

As the priest uttered these words, his gestures seemed to call down
curses and anathemas upon the Breton chief. Angrily putting the spurs to
his horse and followed by the two monks, the prelate rode rapidly away.

The abbot had hardly been a quarter of an hour on the road, when he
heard the gallop of an approaching horse behind him. Turning, he saw a
rider coming towards him at full speed. It was Vortigern. The abbot drew
in his reins, yielding to a last ray of hope. "May your coming be
propitious. Morvan regrets, I hope, the insensate resolution that he
took?"

"Morvan regrets that in your hurry you and your two monks should have
departed without a guide. You might easily lose your way in our
mountains. I am to accompany you as far as the city of Guenhek. There I
shall furnish you with a safe guide for the rest of the journey; he will
take you to our frontiers."

"Young man, you are, I am told, the brother of Morvan's wife. I conjure
you, in the name of the safety of Brittany, to endeavor to change the
insensate and fatal resolution of this man who happens to be the chief
of your nation."

"Monk, the fires lighted last night on our mountains, and which, no
doubt, you must have seen, were the signals of alarm, given to our
tribes to prepare for war. Your King wants war--let his will be done.
But, now, answer me a question. You come from the court at
Aix-la-Chapelle. Could you tell me what has become of the daughters of
the Emperor Charles?"

The abbot cast a look of surprise at Vortigern: "What is it to you what
may have become of the Emperor's daughters?"

"It is now about eight years ago that I accompanied my grandfather to
Aix-la-Chapelle. I there saw the daughters of Charles. That is the
reason for my curiosity concerning them."

"The daughters of Charles have been consigned to nunne