"Now they are coming! Do you hear the three bugle blasts?"
"It is the signal agreed upon. Quick, now, quick! Let us unfasten the punt and cross over to the other side."
The ropes were unfastened; pushed by Placidus and Felibien by means of long poles the punt arrived at the opposite bank. Mounted on a mule a man awaited them on the opposite shore. He was a Catholic priest. His face was hard and imperious. At his side was a Frankish chief on horseback and escorted by about a score of riders cased in iron. A wagon filled with baggage, drawn by four oxen and followed by several slaves on foot attended the Frankish chief.
"Reverend archdeacon," said Placidus to the man on horseback and in the black robe, "we began to despair of your arrival; but you are still on time. The whole colony—men, women, girls and children—is assembled at the monastery, and only God knows the abominations that are taking place there under the very eyes of Loysik, who incites these sacrilegious excesses!"
"These scandals are about to come to an end and to receive condign punishment, my sons. Can the horses of these riders and the wagon that carries my baggage be risked in that punt?"
"Reverend archdeacon, the cavalry is too numerous for one trip; we shall have to make three or four passages before they can all be transported to the opposite bank."
"Gondowald," said the archdeacon to the Frankish chief, "how would it be if we leave your horses and my mule and wagon temporarily on this side of the river? We could march straight upon the monastery with your horsemen following you on foot."
"Whether on foot or on horseback, they will be enough to execute the orders of my glorious mistress, Queen Brunhild, and to dust with the shafts of their lances the backs of those monks of Satan and of those rustic plebs if they dare offer any resistance."
"Reverend archdeacon, we who know what the monks and people of the Valley are capable of, we are of the opinion that, should they rebelliously resist the orders of our holy bishop of Chalon, twenty warriors will not suffice to overpower them."
Gondowald cast a disdainful look at the priest, and did not even consent to make an answer.