"Yes, that is my demand."
"But what fate do you reserve for your father?"
"His own bodyguard came near cutting him to pieces just before the war with the Saxons. Are you aware of that?"
"Such a rumor did reach us."
"Well, then, my plan is to have my brothers killed; to declare that my father died in the war with the Saxons; and then to pronounce myself King of Gaul in his place."
"But when he returns from Saxony with his army, what will you do then?"
"I shall take the field against him at the head of my leudes, and I shall kill him—just as he killed his nephews."
"I am thinking of what may happen to me. If in the war with your father you go down, and I am found mixed up in the affair—it will go ill with me. I would then be stripped as a traitor of all the lands that I hold in benefice, only my salic lands would be left to me."
"Do you expect to win in a game without taking any risks?"
"I would much prefer that! But listen, Chram. Let the counts and dukes of Poitou, Limousin and Anjou take your side against your father, then I and my leudes will obey your mouth. But I shall not openly declare myself in your favor until the others shall have first taken up arms openly."