udged
from the ardor with which their possession is pursued. And yet, once
won, the cupidity of the incumbents, so far from being assuaged, seems
whetted. Do you remember, Eginhard, that insolent Bishop of Mannheim?
When, at the time of one of my campaigns against the Huns, I left him
near my wife Hildegarde, did not the worthy feel so inflated with the
friendship that my wife showed him, that he carried his audacity to the
point of demanding from her as a gift the gold wand that I use as a
symbol of my authority, for the purpose, as that impudent bishop
declared, of using it for a cane? By the King of the Heavens! The
sceptre of Charles, of the Emperor, is not so readily to be converted
into a walking stick for the bishops of his empire!"

"You are in error, Charles," put in Amael. "Sooner or later, the bishops
will use your sceptre for a baton by means of which to drive peoples
and kings as may suit themselves."

"By the hammer of my grandfather! I will break the bishops' mitres on
their own heads if ever they dare to usurp my power!"

"No; you will do no such thing, and for the simple reason that you stand
in fear of them. As a proof, behold the vast estates and the flatteries
that you shower upon them."

"I, fear the bishops!" cried the Emperor; and turning to Eginhard: "Is
that matter of the rat settled with the Jew?"

"Yes, seigneur," answered Eginhard, smiling. "The bishop closed the
bargain yesterday."

"That happens in time to prove to you that I am not afraid of the
bishops, seigneur Breton--I, flatter them? When, on the contrary, I miss
no opportunity to give them severe or gentle lessons wherever they
deserve reproof. As to the worthy ones, I enrich them; and even then I
look twice before bestowing upon them lands and abbeys belonging to the
imperial domains. And the reason is plain. With this or that abbey or
farm I am certain of securing to myself some soldier vassal greatly more
faithful than many a count or bishop."

Thus pleasantly chatting, the Emperor regained his palace, and in the
company of Vortigern, Amael, Eginhard and the freshly appointed Bishop
of Limburg, re-ascended the steep spiral staircase that led to his
private apartment. Hardly had Charles entered his observatory when one
of his chamberlains announced to him:

"August Emperor, several of the leading officers in the palace have
solicited the honor of being admitted to your presence in order to lay a
pressing request before you