before the invaders, carrying their
valuables in their flight, and now await with indescribable agony the
issue of this last battle.

Weep! Weep, Brittany! and yet be proud of your glory! Your sons, crushed
down by numbers, resisted to their last breath; all have fallen wounded
or dead in defence of their freedom!

The river is fordable for infantry at only one place. The monk who
accompanies Neroweg points out the passage to the troops of Louis the
Pious. They cross it immediately after the annihilation of the cavalry
of Morvan. The Armoricans who are drawn up on the opposite bank of the
Scoer heroically defend the ground inch by inch, man to man, ever
falling back toward the fortified enclosure that is the last refuge of
our families. Marching over heaps of corpses, the soldiery of Louis the
Pious finally assail the fortified enclosure, all its defenders having
been killed or wounded. The enclosure is taken. According to their
custom, the Franks slaughter the children, put the women and maids to
the torture of infamous treatment, and lead them away captive to the
interior of Gaul. Ermond the Black, a monk and familiar of Louis the
Pious in this impious war, wrote its account in Latin verse. The death
of Morvan is narrated in the poem as follows:

"Then presently the cry runs through the ranks
That Morvan's head, the Breton chieftain's head,
Has been brought in unto the Frankish King:
To see it haste the Franks; they shout with joy
At prospect to behold the grisley sight.
From hand to hand the bloody head is passed,
Marred with the sword that hewed it from its trunk.
Witchaire the Abbot next is called upon
T' identify the member, if it be
The head of Morvan, that redoubted chief.
He pours some water on the matted front,
He laves it, wipes the hair from off its brow,
And cries ''Tis Morvan--'tis his Gallic lour!'"

Thus Brittany, once lost to the Franks, is placed anew under their
sway.

EPILOGUE

Vortigern, the grandson of Amael, wrote this account of the war of the
Franks against Brittany. Left for dead on the banks of the Scoer, he did
not recover his senses until a day and a night had passed after the
defeat of the Bretons. Some Christian druids, led to the spot by
Caswallan, who had escaped the massacre, came to the field of battle to
gather the wounded who might still be alive. Vortigern was of the
number. From them he learned that