“Now even though there be a lack of that which strengthens, namely bread, there is perhaps no lack of that which maketh glad, namely wine, in the cellars of Orleans; for our hope is set on a thriving vineyard and not on a fig-tree dried up. Wherefore Jonathan, the counsellor of David, a man of letters,[192] sends unto Zabdi, saying: Let us get up early: let us see how well the vineyard of Sorech thrives: to them that chant the treaders’ cry therein the streams of the cellarer are dispersed abroad. But now that the storehouse is opened with the key of love, let this verse be sung by the ruler of the vineyard in the towers of Orleans:[193] Eat with me, my friends; drink, and drink abundantly: come ye and take wine and milk without price. My throat is as the best wine meet for the drinking of my beloved, to be tasted by his lips. I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine.
“It must not be replied—I have put off my coat, how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet, how shall I defile them?[194] I cannot rise and give to thee.[195] If by chance the three loaves are not at hand, which were lacking in the store-houses of Gibeon,[196] by the blessing of Christ the seven water-pots are full of the best wine, which has been kept till now. Who does not know that some of this wine, according to the command of the Virgin’s Son,[197] is to be borne to the ruler of the feast of the city of Tours? But remember this: You must not put new wine into old skins. No one, having drunk old wine, straightway desireth new; for he saith—The old is better.
“Blessed is he that speaks to an attentive ear.”
Tours was not in Alcuin’s time the bright place which it is now. When Karl endeavoured to persuade Alcuin to accompany him to Rome in 779, Alcuin begged that he might be excused. The journey was long, and he wished to remain at Tours. It is evident that Karl in his reply spoke of the splendours of Rome and contrasted them with “the smoky dwellings” of Tours.
This is what Alcuin had said to the king:—
Ep. 118. A.D. 799.
“Now about that long and laborious undertaking of going to Rome. I cannot in any way think that this poor little body of my frailty—weak and shattered with daily pains—could accomplish the journey. I should have earnestly desired to do it, if I had had the strength. I therefore entreat the most clement benevolence of your paternity that you leave me to aid your journey by the faithful and earnest prayers of myself and of those who with me serve God at St. Martin’s.”
Karl’s answer we have not got. Alcuin’s rejoinder to it contains this passage:—
Ep. 119. A.D. 799.