"Who can tell whether he will be back to-day?"
"You must remember that his horses are fresh; Brunhild's are exhausted with the march. It is impossible that he should have failed to overtake the Queen at the foot of the Jura mountains, into which she will not dare to risk herself. The constable may be back with her from one moment to another."
"Warnachaire, I am in a hurry to be done with it; such a blow will be of little moment to Brunhild; why delay it to wait for her to witness? It should be done quickly."
Saying this, the young King made a sign to the two men, who thereupon stepped towards the three children on the straw pallet. The sleep of childhood is so profound that little Merovee was not yet awakened by the noise. His two brothers, however, crouched back into the remotest corner of the pallet, stunned and frightened, especially at the sinister faces of the two men clad in hide jackets. The two cowering children held each other in a close embrace, trembling and without uttering a word. At a second sign from Clotaire II, one of the two men, he who carried the coil of rope, unwound it and stepped closer to the children, while his companion drew from his belt a long, straight and sharp knife, of the kind that is used by butchers; he slightly tested the freshly sharpened edge of the blade with the tip of his thumb, while Fredegonde's son urged the executioners on with the impatient order:
"Move on, slaves; hurry up!"
The executioner made to the King a sign with his hand, as if to say: "You need not fear, I shall be quick about it." In the meantime his assistant had come within reach of the children, who, livid and dumb with terror, trembled so convulsively that their teeth were heard to chatter. The executioner's assistant placed a hand on each, and without turning his head asked:
"Which first? The taller, the smaller, or the one asleep?"
"Begin with the eldest," answered Clotaire II in a hollow imperious voice. "Hurry up! Hurry up!"
The two children retreated still farther back into the corner in which the pallet was placed and did not loosen their hold upon each other.
"Mercy!" cried Sigebert in a smothered and plaintive voice. "Mercy for my brother! Mercy for me!"