are fully able to appreciate you. I can assure you
that I, who know the court and its ways, had I only your youth, your
good looks, your wound, your graceful horsemanship and your renown as a
Breton, would guarantee myself the lover of all those beauties, and that
within a week."

CHAPTER II.

THE COURTYARD OF THE PALACE.

The conversation between the young Roman and Vortigern was at this point
interrupted by Amael, who, turning back to his grandson and extending
his arm towards the horizon said to him:

"Look yonder, my child; that is the Queen of the cities of the Empire of
Charles the Great--the city of Aix-la-Chapelle."

Vortigern hastened to join his grandfather, whose eyes he now, perhaps
for the first time, sought to avoid with not a little embarrassment.
Octave's words sounded wrong on his ears, even dangerous; and he
reproached himself for having listened to them with some pleasure.
Having reached Amael, Vortigern cast his eyes in the direction pointed
out by the old man, and saw at still a great distance an imposing mass
of buildings, close to which rose the high steeple of a basilica.
Presently, he distinguished the roofs and terraces of a cluster of
houses dimly visible through the evening mist and stretching out along
the horizon. It was the Emperor's palace and the basilica of
Aix-la-Chapelle. Vortigern contemplated with curiosity the, to him, new
panorama, while Hildebrad, who had cantered ahead to make some inquiries
from a cartman coming from the city, now returned to the Bretons,
saying:

"The Emperor is hourly expected at the palace. The forerunners have
announced his approach. He is coming from a journey in the north of
Gaul. Let's hasten to ride in ahead of him so that we may salute him on
his arrival."

The riders quickened their horses' steps, and before sunset they were
entering the outer court of the palace--a vast space surrounded by many
lodges of variously shaped roofs and architecture, and furnished with
innumerable windows. Agreeable to a unique plan, with many of these
structures the ground floor was wholly open and had the appearance of a
shed whose massive stone pillars supported the masonry of the upper
tiers of floors. A crowd of subaltern officers, of servants, and slaves
of the palace, lived and lodged under these sheds, open to the four
winds of heaven and heated in winter by means of large furnaces that
were kept lighted night and day. This bizarre architecture wa