ride before we reach the
abbey of Meriadek."

"You could not reach the place until late to-night."

"Is that abbey as rich as they claim?"

"It is rich.... But why do you ask?"

"Why?" said the soldier with a merry smile, "because Bertchram and we
are to take possession of the abbey, which the good Charles has bestowed
upon us."

"But I heard it said that Charles had bestowed the monastery and all its
dependencies upon one Berthoald."

During this conversation the other riders had joined their vanguard,
followed by several carts drawn by mules and a few horses led by the
bridle. The carts were loaded with baggage. Bertchram rode at the head
of the main body. He was an elderly warrior of rude and stupid
physiognomy. Amael took a few steps toward the count. The latter
suddenly stopped his horse, dropped the reins, and rubbed his eyes as if
he could not believe the evidence of their sense. He contemplated the
son of Rosen-Aer for a few seconds in utter amazement, and then cried:
"Berthoald! Count Berthoald!"

"Yes, it is I.... Good-day to you, Bertchram!"

Bertchram alighted from his horse and ran toward the young man to
contemplate him closer. "It is he ... and no mistake! And what are you
doing here, valiant count, in the company of these beggars?"

"Speak not so loud. I am on a mission from Charles."

"Bareheaded in that way? Without arms, your clothes soiled with mud and
almost in rags?"

"It is a disguise that I have assumed."

"You are a wily customer! Whenever the good Charles had some delicate
matter in hand, it was always you he charged with it, because you are
more subtle than any of us others. Charles always said to me:
'Bertchram, you would be a terrible man if your brain were as powerful
as your fist!' You probably do not know that I am the bearer of a
message to you?"

"What is the message about?"

"Simply this, that I come to replace you as abbot at the abbey of
Meriadek."

"Charles is master, he can give and take back again."

"Do not look upon the substitution as a disgrace, Berthoald! Far from
it! Charles raises you to the rank of duke, and he reserves for you the
command of his vanguard in the war he is about to undertake against the
Frisians. 'Upon the word of the Hammerer,' he said to us, 'I was a fool
in confining to an abbey one of my youngest captains, and at this season
when wars break out so unexpectedly; it is now, when I have not
Berthoald at my side, that I feel how much