The two young girls, one of whom was br.i.m.m.i.n.g over with happiness while the other staggered under the weight of her grief, stepped into the Queen's apartment. The Jew humbly bowed before Brunhild, left by the same door that he had entered, and closed behind him the leather curtain that masked the issue to the spiral staircase.

Brunhild and her confidante were left alone.

CHAPTER II.

QUEEN AND CONFIDANTE.

"Madam," said Chrotechilde to Brunhild, "for whom do you intend the one of the two female slaves whom you expect to buy?"

"You really ask me?"

"Yes, madam--"

"Chrotechilde, age seems to dull your powers of penetration--perhaps I may have to look for some other confidante."

"Madam, please explain yourself--"

"I mean to test how far the present dullness that seems to have come over you may go."

"Truly, madam, I am at a loss to understand you--"

"Tell me, Chrotechilde, did not my son Childebert, when he died a.s.sa.s.sinated by Fredegonde, leave me the guardianship of his two sons, my grandchildren, Thierry and Theudebert?"

"Yes--madam--but I was speaking of the two female slaves--and not of your children."

"At what age was my grandson Theudebert a father?"

"At thirteen--at that age he had a son from Bilichilde, the dark-complexioned slave with green eyes, for whom you paid a big price.

I still see her wild looks, as uncommon as her style of beauty. For the rest, she had a nymph's waist, and wavy and jet-black hair that reached the floor. I never in my life saw such hair. But why do you look so somber?"

"The vile slave! Did not that miserable Bilichilde gain a fatal ascendency over my grandson Theudebert, despite the many other concubines that we furnished him?"

"Indeed, madam! So fatal was the ascendency that she gained over him, that she caused us to be driven out of Metz, both you and me, and led prisoners as far as Arcis-on-the-Aube, the boundary of Burgundy, the kingdom of your other grandson, Thierry. But all that is an old story, madam, that is dead and should be forgotten, together with the princ.i.p.al actors in it. Bilichilde is no more; she was last year strangled to death by your grandson, the savage idiot Theudebert himself, who pa.s.sed from love to hatred; afterwards, beaten at the battle of Tolbiac by his brother, whom you hurled at his head, he was himself shorn of his hair and stabbed to death; finally, his five-year-old son had his skull broken against a stone. Accordingly, that score was thoroughly settled.

Were you not amply revenged?"

"No; with me, hatred survives vengeance, it survives death itself, as the dagger survives the murder. No; my vengeance is not yet complete."

"You are not reasonable. To hate beyond the grave is childish at your age."

"And is your mind not yet enlightened by what we have just said?"

"With regard to the two handsome slaves?"

"Yes, with regard to the two pretty girls."

"No, madam, I cannot yet fathom your thoughts."

"Let us, then, proceed, seeing that you have become so obtuse. Tell me, what was the nature of Theudebert, before we gave him Bilichilde for companion?"

"Violent, active, resolute, head-strong and above all proud. At eleven years he already felt the proud ardor of his royal blood. He used to say loftily: 'I am the King of Austrasia! I am master!'"

"And two years after he possessed the dark-complexioned slave with the green eyes and curly hair, whom you so judiciously chose for him, what was then the nature of my grandson? Answer me, Chrotechilde."

"Oh, madam, Theudebert was unrecognizable. Unnerved, irresolute and languid, he had no will except to go from his bed to table, and from table to bed with his concubines. He hardly had enough spirit to hunt with falcons, a woman's amus.e.m.e.nt; the hunt of wild animals he could not think of, it was too tiring. I was not at all surprised at the change.

From being robust, pert and loving noisy games since his early childhood, he became sickly, weak, puny, dreamy, and preferred darkened rooms as if the light of the sun hurt his eyes. In short, he had given promise of becoming a man of large size, but he died stunted and almost beardless."

"It was that I aimed at, Chrotechilde. Precocious debauchery unnerves the soul as much as it does the body. Accordingly Theudebert's issue was not born with vitality enough to survive."

"True enough; I never saw such puny children--but what else could be expected from a dwarfish and almost imbecile father?"

"And yet, as early as his twelfth year, Theudebert used to say haughtily: 'I am the King of Austrasia! I am master!'"

"Yes, but afterwards, whenever you sought to converse with him upon matters of state, and you called his attention to his being King, the boy would regularly answer you in his languid voice and with his eyes half shut: 'Grandmother, I am King of my women, of my amphoras of old wine and of my falcons! Reign in my stead, grandmother; reign in my name, if you please!'"

"And it did please me, Chrotechilde. I reigned in Austrasia for my grandson Theudebert until the day when that vile slave Bilichilde, availing herself of her influence over the imbecile King, drove me from Metz--drove out me--Brunhild!"

"Ever the remembrance of that occurrence! Again does the storm gather over your forehead! Again your eyes shoot lightning! But, by the heavens, madam; the slave has been strangled, the imbecile and his son are both dead--they have both been killed and lie in their graves. I even forgot that, in order to complete the hecatomb of those malefic animals, Quintio, the stewart of the palace and Duke of Champagne, who took an improper part in the affair of Metz, was put to death upon your orders. What more can you wish? Besides, in exchange for the Austrasia that you lost, did you not gain a Burgundy? If Theudebert drove you from Metz, did you not take refuge here, in Chalon, near your other grandson Thierry? Enervated and besotted through overindulgence with the women that we furnished him with, did you not drive him to undertake a merciless war against his own brother, whom he overcame at Toul and Tolbiac, and who, after these defeats, was himself, together with his son put to death, as I reminded you a minute ago? Thus revenged for being exiled from Metz, have you not ever since held sway over Thierry and actually reigned in his stead? When Aegila, the stewart of the palace, made you apprehensive by reason of his growing influence over your grandson, you promptly rid yourself of Aegila, and you subst.i.tuted him with your lover Protade, who thereupon became the mayor of the palace--"

"But they killed him, Chrotechilde--they killed him--they killed my lover, my Protade!"

"Come, madam; we are here among ourselves; admit that a Queen never suffers any dearth of lovers. You need only choose among the handsomest, the youngest, the most appetizing n.o.bles of the court. Moreover, madam, without meaning to make you any reproaches on that score, if they did kill your Protade, did you not in turn kill their Bishop Didier?"

"Perchance he did not merit his fate?"

"Never was punishment more condign! The wily prelate! He schemed to supplant us in our amorous manoeuvres! Why, the fellow plotted the marriage of your grandson to the Spanish princess, in order to s.n.a.t.c.h him from the voluptuous life in which we kept him, and thereby withdraw him from your domination! And what happened to the tonsured schemer?

The current of the Chalaronne washed his corpse down the stream, while the Spanish woman, upon whom he reckoned in order to evict you and, by means of her, to rule Thierry and through Thierry Burgundy, that Spanish woman has been repudiated by your grandson, she went back to her own country only six months after her wedding, and we have appropriated her dower. Finally, Thierry died this year of a dysentery," added the hag with a horrid smile, "and so you now are absolute mistress and sovereign Queen of this country of Burgundy, seeing that Sigebert, the eldest son of Thierry, your great-grandson, is now only eleven years old. We must prevent these kinglets from dying out, else Fredegonde's surviving son would fall heir to their kingdoms. All that is needed is that they vegetate, in order that you may reign in their stead. Well, madam, they vegetate. But all this takes us far away from the young female slave whom you wish to buy from Samuel."

"On the contrary, Chrotechilde, the review leads us directly to the slave."

"In what manner?"

"There can no longer be any doubt about it; age is softening your brains; formerly so quick to grasp my purposes, it is now fully a quarter of an hour that you have been giving me distressful proofs of your waning intellect."

"I, madam?"

"Yes; in former days, instead of asking me what I intended doing with one of Samuel's slaves, you would have guessed on the spot. I have been able to convince myself at leisure of the senility of your understanding--it is sad, Chrotechilde."

"As sad to me as to you, madam. But deign to explain yourself, I pray you. For me to hear is to obey."

"What! Dullard! You know that I have the guardianship of my great-grandchildren, and yet you stupidly ask me what I propose to do with one of the two pretty slaves! Do you now understand?"

"Oh! Yes! I now begin to understand, madam; but yet your reproaches were unmerited. You forget that Sigebert is not yet eleven."

"All the better! The debauch will begin so much earlier."