"How much is your bear worth?"
"He is priceless to me."
"Whatever sum you may fix will be counted out to you, in case your bear is killed."
The King's words were received by the acclamations of the Franks, and allayed the quarrel that was on the point of breaking out. Karadeucq, however, without rising from his knees, cried:
"Great King, no sum can repay me for my bear; mercy, beg the count to desist from his project."
"The dogs! Here are the dogs!"
"In all my life I have not seen such mastiffs!" exclaimed Chram with admiration. "Count, if your whole pack is similarly fitted out, it will rival mine, which I considered matchless."
"What flanks! What enormous paws! Ha, Chram, if you only heard their voices, the bellowing of a bull is like the song of a nightingale beside their barking when they are on the tracks of a wild boar. I am justly proud of my dogs."
"I wager that one of them will be enough to kill the bear as truly as my name is Spatachair."
"Come, tie the bear to one of the beams, old mountebank, and let us begin." "I told you, if your beast is killed, I shall pay whatever sum you may say, royally and without chaffering."