"Do not budge! Master Clement is giving his lessons, is he?"
"Yes, my august Prince!"
"Remain where you are," and addressing Amael: "Seigneur Breton, you shall now visit a school that I have founded. It is under the direction of Master Clement, a famous teacher, whom I have summoned from Scotland. The sons of the principal seigneurs of my court come here, in obedience to my orders, to study at this school, together with the poorest of my attendants."
"This is well done, Charles—I congratulate you on that!"
"And yet it is Charles the Fighter that has done this good thing—let us go in;" and turning to Vortigern: "Well, my young man, you who cannot sing mass, open your eyes and ears at their widest; you are about to see pupils of your own age, and of all conditions."
The Palatine school, directed by the Scotchman Clement, into whose precincts the two Bretons followed the Emperor, held about two hundred pupils. All rose at their benches at the sight of Charles, but he motioned to them to resume their seats, saying:
"Be seated, my boys; I prefer to see you with your noses in your books, than in air, under the pretext of respect for me." And seeing that Master Clement, the director of the school, was himself about to descend from his high desk, Charles cried out to him: "Remain on your throne of knowledge, my worthy master; here I am only one of your subjects. I only wanted to cast a glance over the work of these boys, and to learn from you whether they have made any progress during my absence. Let the boys come forward, one by one, with the copy-books in which to-day's work is being done."
The Emperor prided himself not a little on his literacy. He sat down on a stool near the chair of Master Clement, and carefully examined the copy-books brought to him. It appeared that the pupils who were the sons of noble or rich parents, exhibited to the Emperor mediocre, or even poor work, while, on the other hand, the poorer pupils, or those whose parents were of lower rank, exhibited such excellent work that Charles, turning to Amael, said: "If you were as proficient in letters as myself, seigneur Breton, you would be able to appreciate, as I do, these manuscripts that I have just been looking over. The sweetest flavor of science is exhaled by these writings." Thereupon addressing the scholars who had distinguished themselves, the Emperor said impressively: "I give you great praise, my children, for the zeal you display in carrying out my wishes; strive after perfection, and I shall endow you with rich bishoprics and magnificent abbeys." The Emperor stopped and turned towards the lazy noblemen's sons and the sons of the idle rich; his brow puckered, and casting upon them an angry look, he cried out: "As to you, the sons of my Empire's principal men, as to you, dainty and prim lads, who, resting upon your birth and fortune, have neglected my orders and your studies, preferring play and idleness—as to you," the Emperor proceeded in a voice of ever heightening anger, and smiting the table with his cane, "as to you, look for admiration from other quarters than mine. I care nothing for your birth and your fortune! Listen to my words and keep them firm in your minds: if you do not hasten to make amends for your negligence by constant application, you will never receive aught from me!"
The rich idlers dropped their eyes all of a tremble. The Emperor rose and said to a young clerk, named Bernard, barely twenty years of age, the excellence of whose work had attracted Charles' attention: "And you, my lad, you may now follow me. I appoint you from to-day a clerk in my chapel, nor will the evidence of my protection end there."
The Emperor looked satisfied with himself. With a complaisant air he turned to Amael: "Well now, seigneur Breton, you have seen Charles the Fighter, emulating in his humble capacity of man, the acts of our Lord God when on earth. He separates the wheat from the chaff, he places the just at his right, the wicked at his left. If you ever return to Brittany, you will tell the school-masters of your country that Charles is not altogether a bad superintendent of the schools that he has founded."