, I ran
away from my family of the Gallic race, and then located in Burgundy.
After many untoward events, I joined a band of determined men. I then
was twenty years of age. I took a Frankish name and claimed to be of
that race in order to secure the protection of Charles Martel.[B] To the
end of interesting him all the more in my lot I offered him my own sword
and the swords of all my men, just a few days before the battle of
Poitiers. At that battle I saved his life. After that, loaded with his
favors, I fought under his orders five years longer."

"And what happened then?"

"Then--ashamed of my imposition, and still more ashamed of fighting on
the side of the Franks, I left Charles Martel to return into Brittany,
the cradle of my family. There I became a field laborer."

"By the cape of St. Martin, you then turned rebel!" exclaimed the
Emperor in his squeaky voice, which then assumed the tone of a
penetrating treble. "I now see the wisdom of those who chose you for an
hostage, you, the instigator and the soul of the uprisings and even wars
that broke out in Brittany during the reign of Pepin, my father, and
even under my own reign, when your devil-possessed countrymen decimated
my veteran bands!"

"I fought as well as I could in our wars."

"Traitor! Loaded with favors by my grandfather, yet were you not afraid
to rise in arms against his son and me?"

"I felt remorse for only one thing--and that was to have merited the
favor of your grandfather. I shall ever reproach myself for having
fought on his side instead of against him."

"Old man," cried the Emperor, purple with rage, "you have even more
audacity than years!"

"Charles--let us stop here. You look upon yourself as the sovereign of
Gaul. We Bretons do not recognize your claims. These claims you hold,
like all other conquerors, from force. To you might means right--"

"I hold them from God!" again cried the Emperor, this time stamping the
floor with his foot and breaking in upon Amael. "Yes! I hold my rights
over Gaul from God, and from my good sword."

"From your sword, from violence, yes, indeed. From God, not at all. God
does not consecrate theft, whether a purse or an empire be involved.
Clovis captured Gaul. Your father and grandfather plundered of his crown
the last scion of that Clovis. Little does that matter to us, Bretons,
who refuse to obey either the stock of Clovis or that of Charles Martel.
You dispose over an innumerable army; already