stifying her desire to be alone with him. "O king
and glory of the mighty Britons, dear spouse of mine, what tidings
bringeth this stranger? Is it peace, or is it war?" "This stranger,"
answered Morvan with a smile, "is an envoy of the Franks; but bring he
peace or bring he war, is the affair of men alone; as for thee, content
thee with thy woman's duties." Thereupon Ditcar, perceiving that he was
countered, said to Morvan, "Sir king, 'tis time that I return; tell me
what answer I am to take back to my sovereign." "Leave me this night to
take thought thereon," replied the Breton chief, with a wavering air.
When the morning came, Ditcar presented himself once more to Morvan, whom
he found up, but still half-drunk, and full of very different sentiments
from those of the night before. It required some effort, stupefied and
tottering as he was with the effects of wine and the pleasures of the
night, to say to Ditcar, "Go back to thy king, and tell him from me that
my land was never his, and that I owe him nought of tribute or
submission. Let him reign over the Franks; as for me, I reign over the
Britons. If he will bring war on me, he will find me ready to pay him
back."

The monk returned to Louis the Debonnair, and rendered account of his
mission. War was resolved upon; and the emperor collected his troops,
Allemannians, Saxons, Thuringians, Burgundians, and Aquitanians, without
counting Franks or Gallo-Romans. They began their march, moving upon
Vannes; Louis was at their head, and the empress accompanied him, but he
left her, already ill and fatigued, at Angers. The Franks entered the
country of the Britons, searched the woods and morasses, found no armed
men in the open country, but encountered them in scattered and scanty
companies, at the entrance of all the defiles, on the heights commanding
pathways, and wherever men could hide themselves and await the moment for
appearing unexpectedly. The Franks heard them, from amidst the heather
and the brushwood, uttering shrill cries, to give warning one to another,
or to alarm the enemy. The Franks advanced cautiously, and at last
arrived at the entrance of the thick wood which surrounded Morvan's
abode. He had not yet set out with the pick of the warriors he had about
him; but, at the approach of the Franks, he summoned his wife and his
domestics, and said to them, "Defend ye well this house and these woods;
as for me, I am going to march forward to collect my