CHAPTER IV.
Ditovix and his warriors had done their duty bravely; the tribes of the Val d'Avon regarded them as saviours, and when the unfortunate besieged went back to their devastated homes, they cheerfully divided the little that remained to them with the new-comers.
In the enemy's camp were found provisions, the fruits of pillage, and upon the bodies of the slain a little gold, and arms; and all this was equally distributed. But winter was approaching, the fodder that had been collected was dispersed, the animals lost or consumed, the stores of grain destroyed. The means of subsistence had to be procured from the merchants, and the allies to be fed. Scarcity prevailed in this valley, so prosperous a month before. Its saviours were exacting, and began to ask where was that wealth and plenty which had been promised them.
Quartered in the Oppidum with the warriors of Sigild, the followers of Ditovix assumed a domineering air on the strength of the service rendered to the inhabitants of the Val d'Avon, and whose importance they were incessantly magnifying. Quarrels arose continually, and it needed all the influence which Sigild had acquired among his people to moderate their angry feelings.
Ditovix abstained from interference in these disputes. When assistance had been asked—he would say to Sigild,—his men had been promised wealth of all kinds; how could he remonstrate with them if they were left to die of want?
Ditovix had brought a thousand warriors to aid the inhabitants of the Val d'Avon; and, in spite of the losses suffered during the action, a month after the dispersion of the enemy's army the number of these auxiliaries was found to have unaccountably increased.
The Druids then interfered; they represented to Ditovix that though he and his warriors had saved the families of the valley from total destruction, they were reduced to poverty; that if they died of hunger the same fate would befal his men, since there was nothing left to give them; and that in the common interest it was necessary to come to some understanding.
Then Ditovix adopted a different attitude. "I should be willing to take my warriors back," said he, "but I cannot. They would refuse to follow me, and would give themselves up to excesses of all kinds. I can scarcely prevent their proceeding from murmurs to violence. I had to promise much to induce them to come, and they must be satisfied. Fighting has been their constant occupation—for the most part in the countries beyond the mountains. They are not fitted for tilling the soil or tending cattle. What do you propose?"—"What do you ask?" said the Druids. "I will call together the leading men among them, and explain the state of things; and will let you know what they want."