"There was that within, Sire, told me you knew somewhat of my daughter." Gontran smiled.
"Good people," said he to the happy parents, "Bertille will go back with you to Châlon, and there, if I know aught of maids' minds, she will tell you all. Be happy, then; for God has given you a daughter after His Own Heart." Then, turning to the assembly, he spoke thus:
"Lords, since the fatal passage of the Huns across our land, our walls have lain in ruin. We must needs raise them again. In so doing, let us preserve the memory of Bertille's triumph. Three bands of gilded stone shall be built within the wall, to serve it for a girdle; and to remind all descendants to whom our fair city may pass, of the honour due to beauty, to courage, and to virtue."
Loud rang the applause from all the townspeople, when, that very evening, Bertille and her parents returned to their home. The family of dead Amalon were forbidden by Gontran, on pain of extinction, to molest further either parents or daughter, and soon, around the new walls of the royal city of Châlon, ran a triple girdle of gold—the three crowns we see to-day upon the arms of the town.
Footnotes:
[114] De Barante. Tome I.
[115] François Fertiault's "Bertille" Feuilleton de Paris, 1848.