In fact, the reading of the bishop's missive was several times interrupted by the murmurs of the monk laborers and of the colonists, and these murmurs swelled to such proportions that the intervention of Loysik became necessary in order to hear the bishop's letter to the end. But when the Frank Gondowald defiantly uttered his insolent threats, the crowd answered with an explosion of furious cries intermixed with jeers and sneers.
Ronan, the Master of the Hounds and several other old time Vagres were not among the last to murmur against the usurpatory pretensions of the Bishop of Chalon, who proposed to appropriate to himself the goods of the monk laborers and the colonists, and trample down their every right. Although age had whitened their heads and paled their faces, the Vagres felt their old fighting blood boil in their veins. Ever a man of action, Ronan quickly reverted to his early profession and whispered to the Master of the Hounds:
"Pick out thirty resolute men, take them to the arsenal, arm yourselves and run to the punt so as to cut off the retreat of the Franks. I shall take charge of what is to be done here. By the faith of a Vagre, I feel myself grown younger by fifty years!"
"And I, Ronan, while the insolent missive was being read, and especially when the valet of that infamous Queen dared to threaten us, my hand looked for a sword at my side."
Immediately the two old Vagres started to work among the crowd of colonists and monks; they moved hither and thither, whispering in the ears of the men whom they were choosing, and each of whom vanished successively amidst the increasing uproar, that Loysik's firm and sonorous voice was hardly able to dominate as he answered the archdeacon:
"The Bishop of Chalon has no right to impose upon this community either special rules or an abbot. We elect our chiefs ourselves and of our free will, in the same manner that we adopt such rules as we are willing to follow, provided they be Christian. Such was the former and original law that presided at the foundation of all the cloisters of Gaul. The bishops exercise over us only the spiritual jurisdiction that they exercise upon all other lay members. We are here the masters of our goods and of our persons, by virtue of a charter of the late King Clotaire, which expressly forbids his dukes, counts and bishops to incommode us. You speak of councils. One can find anything he wants in those councils, good and evil, what is just and what is unjust. My memory has not yet left me. This is what the council of 611 says upon this very subject:
"'We have learned that certain bishops wrongfully establish their own relatives or favorites as abbots in monasteries, and procure for them iniquitous advantages, in order to acquire through violence all that can be extracted from the monastery by the agent whom they have placed there.'"
The archdeacon bit his lips, and a volley of hisses drowned his voice as he attempted to make answer.
"That language, the language I have quoted to you as held by that council of 611, is the language of justice," Loysik proceeded to say; "and I recognize in no council, in no prelate, in no King, in no Pope the right to dispossess honorable and industrious people of their goods, their lands and their freedom, all of which they hold by virtue of their natural rights, which are anterior and superior to all authority."
"I say that your monastery is a new Babylon, a modern Gomorrah!" cried the archdeacon. "The Bishop of Chalon was so informed; I wished to convince myself by personal observation. I see women and young girls in this place which should be consecrated to austerity, to prayer and to seclusion. I see all the evidences of an unclean orgy, which was doubtlessly intended to be prolonged until morning—under your own eyes, in this monastery!"