s--all,
shall hasten to see it, so wondrous shall it be."

"My son," replied the abbot, "you have lost your senses. If you are
resolved to have this girl in wedlock, your property and person will
escheat to the chapter of the abbey."

"Yes, my lord, I am devoted to this poor girl, and more touched by her
misery and truly Christian heart, than by her personal perfections. But
I am," said he, with tears in his eyes, "yet more astonished at your
hardness, and I say it, though I know my fate is in your hands. Yes, my
lord, I know the law. Thus, if my goods must fall into your possession,
if I become a serf, if I lose my home and my citizenship, I shall yet
keep the skill developed by my culture and my studies, and which lies
here," he added, touching his forehead, "in a place where God alone,
besides myself, is master. And your whole abbey cannot purchase the
creation of my brain. You will have my body and my wife, but nothing can
give you my genius, not even tortures, for I am stronger than iron is
hard, and more patient than suffering is great."

Having said this, the goldsmith, enraged at the calmness of the abbot,
who seemed resolved to secure the good man's doubloons to the abbey,
dealt such a blow with his fist on an oaken chair, it flew in pieces as
if struck by a sledge-hammer.

"See, my lord, what a serf you will have, and how of an artificer of
divine things you will make a draught-horse."

"My son," replied the abbot, calmly, "you have wrongfully broken mine
oaken chair and lightly judged my heart. This girl belongs to the abbey,
and not to me. I am the faithful administrator of the rights and usages
of this glorious monastery. Although I may, indeed, liberate this girl
and her heirs, I owe an account to God and to the abbey. Now, since
there has been here an altar, serfs and monks, id est, from time
immemorial, never has there been an instance of a burgess becoming the
property of the abbey by marriage with a serf. Hence, need there is of
exercising this right, that it may not be lost, effete and obsolete, and
fall into desuetude, the which would occasion troubles manifold. And
this is of greater advantage for the state and for the abbey than your
boxes, however beautiful they may be, seeing that we have a fund which
will enable us to purchase jewels and bravery, and that no money can
establish customs and laws. I appeal to my lord, the king's chamberlain,
who is witness of the pains infinite our sovereign