CHAPTER II.
THE ANNUAL CELEBRATION.
The monastic establishment of Charolles was a large sized and solidstone building, without any ornamentation whatever. Besides the cells ofthe monks, it contained within its precincts a granary, a chapel, ahospital for the male patients of the valley, and a school for youngchildren. During the fifty years of the existence of the settlement, themonk laborers re-elected Loysik every year their superior, and, astrange thing in these days, they all remained lay, Loysik having everwarned them against rashly binding themselves by eternal vows andconfounding themselves with the clergy. The monks of the monastery ofCharolles lived under rules which they established for themselves andrigorously observed. The discipline of the Order of St. Benoit, whichwas adopted by a large number of the monasteries of Gaul, seemed toLoysik, by reason of some of its statutes, to either annihilate or atleast, degrade human conscience, reason and dignity. If, for instance,the superior ordered a monk to do a thing that was physicallyimpossible, then the monk, after having humbly informed his chief of theimpossibility of what was demanded of him, was in duty bound to bowbefore the order. Another of the statutes provided literally: "It is notallowed to a monk to have his own body and will under his own command."Worst of all it was formally forbidden a monk "to either defend orprotect his fellow monk, even though they be united by the bonds ofconsanguinity." Such a voluntary renunciation of the tenderest andself-respecting impulses; such an abnegation of conscience and of humanreason, carried to the point of imbecility; such passive obedience,which turns man into a soulless machine, a species of corpse, seemedtoo absurd to Loysik, and he resisted the invasion of Charolles by therules of the Order of St. Benoit, however generally accepted theyotherwise were in Gaul.
Loysik presided over the labors of the monastery, and himself took partin them until with old age his strength no longer permitted him to doso. He tended the sick, and assisted by several other brothers he taughtthe children of the inhabitants of the valley. In the evening, after thehard work of the day, he gathered the brothers around him; in summer,under the vault of the gallery that surrounded the inside yard of thecloister; in winter, in the refectory. There, faithful to the traditionsof his family, he narrated to his brothers the glories of ancient Gaul,and the deeds of the valiant heroes of olden times, thus keeping alivein the hearts of all the sacred cult of the fatherland, and combatingthe feeling of discouragement that often seized upon the firmest spiritsat the sight of the abject plight in which all the Gallic provincessubject to Frankish rule found themselves.
The community had thus lived peacefully and industriously for many yearsunder the direction of Loysik. Rarely had he occasion to restore harmonyamong the brothers. Nevertheless, a few ferments of fleeting dissension,speedily, however, allayed by the ascendency of the aged monk laborer,manifested themselves ever and anon. The following was the source ofthese untoward events:
Although absolutely free and independent in all that concerned itsinternal regulations, the election of its superior, the disposition ofthe yield of the land which it cultivated, nevertheless the monastery ofCharolles was subject to the jurisdiction of the diocese of the bishop;moreover, the prelate had the right to place at the monastery thepriests of his own choice to read mass, administer communion and theother sacraments, and officiate in the chapel of the monastery which wasalso the place of religious worship for the other inhabitants of theValley of Charolles. Loysik submitted to these requirements which thetimes imposed, in order to insure the tranquility of his brothers and ofthe other inhabitants of the Valley. But the priests, who thus enteredthe bosom of the lay cloister, sought more than once to sow discordamong the monk laborers, saying to some that they devoted too littletime to prayer, urging others to enter the church and becomeecclesiastical monks, and thus share the power of the clergy. More thanonce did these underhanded manoeuvres reach the ears of Loysik who wouldthen firmly address these concocters of dissension in these terms:
"Who labors prays. Jesus of Nazareth severely condemns the do-nothingswho will not move with one of their fingers the heavy burdens andgrievous to be borne which they lay on their brothers' shoulders and fora pretence make long prayers. We want no idlers here. We are allbrothers, and the children of one God. Whether a monk be lay orecclesiastic they are all alike, provided they live Christian lives. Ifany there be who, having done his full share in the work of thecloister, chooses to employ in prayer the leisure that man needs afterwork, he is free to do so--as free as are other members of our communityto employ their leisure in the cultivation of flowers, in reading, inconversation with their friends, in fishing, in promenading, in singing,in designing manuscripts, or in any other accomplishment, including theexercise of arms, seeing that we live in days when it is often necessaryto repel force with force, and defend one's own life and the lives ofhis family against violence. Accordingly, in my eyes, he who, afterwork, seeks honest recreation, is as worthy as he who employs hisleisure in prayer. Only idlers are impious! We despise all those whorefuse to work."
Loysik was so universally venerated and the community was so happy andthriving that the outside priests never succeeded in permanentlydisturbing its quiet and harmony. Moreover, Loysik owned both the landand the buildings of the monastery by virtue of an authentic charterissued to him by King Clotaire. Accordingly, the prelates of Chalonfound themselves obliged to respect his rights, while they neverdesisted from pursuing their ends through perfidious means.
On this day the colony and community of Charolles had a holiday. Themonk laborers strove to give the best possible reception to theirfriends of the Valley, who, agreeable to a long established custom, cameto thank Loysik for the happy life that they owed him, these descendantsof Vagres, brave devils whom the monk's word had converted. Only once ayear was the freely adopted rule suspended that interdicted theadmittance of women to the cloister. The monks were setting up longtables wherever any could be placed, in the refectory, in the hallswhere they worked at several manual industries, under the open galleriesthat ran around the inner courtyard, and even in the yard itself, which,on such solemn and festive occasions, was over-roofed by sheets of linenheld fast with cords. In fact, there were tables even in the hall ofarms. What! An arsenal in a monastery? Yes. The arms of the Vagres, thefounders of the colony and the community, had all been depositedthere--a wise measure, advised by Loysik, and which the monk laborersand colonists appreciated at the time when the troops of Chram attackedthe Valley. No similar occurrence had happened again since then, but thearsenal was carefully kept and increased. Twice each month, both in thevillage and the community, the men exercised themselves in the handlingof arms, an ever useful precaution in these days, Loysik would say, whenone might from one moment to another be called upon to repel some armedband of the Frankish seigneurs.
The monk laborers were engaged setting up tables everywhere. On thetables they placed with innocent pride the fruits of their labors--goodwheat bread made of wheat of their own harvesting, generous wine yieldedby their own vineyard, quarters of beef and mutton coming from theirown cattle yards, fruits and vegetables raised in their own gardens,milk of their own cows, honey from their own hives. They owed thisabundance to their daily labor; they now enjoyed its sight and thecomfort it afforded both them and their friends. Nothing morelegitimate! Besides, the monks experienced profound satisfaction inproving to their old friends of the Valley that they also were goodhusbandmen, skilful vintners, experienced horticulturists and competentshepherds.
Occasionally it would also befall--the devil ever is at his wickedwork--that at some of these anniversary celebrations, when the women andmaids were admitted to the otherwise forbidden precincts of themonastery, some monk laborer discovered, by the impression produced uponhim by some pretty girl, that his fondness for the austere freedom ofcelibacy was rather premature. On such occasions the swain would openhis heart to Loysik. The latter always insisted upon three months ofreflection on the part of the brother, and in the event of hispersisting in his conjuga
l vocation Loysik was speedily seen strollinginto the village leaning upon his cane. There he would converse with theparents of the maid upon the advisability of the match; and it rarelyhappened but that a few months later the colony numbered one morehousehold and the community one brother less, while Loysik would say:"Here is one more evidence of my being right in not accepting eternalvows from my monks."
The preparations for the reception had long been finished in theinterior of the monastery, and the sun was on the point of setting whenthe laborer monks heard a loud noise outside. The whole colony wasarriving. At the head of the crowd marched Ronan and the Master of theHounds, Odille and the Bishopess. They were the four oldest inhabitantsof the Valley. A few old Vagres, but younger than these followed behindthem; then came the children, the grandchildren, the great-grandchildrenof that once so disorderly and so redoubted Vagrery.
Informed of the approach of his friends, Loysik stepped to the gate ofthe monastery to receive them. Like all the other brothers of thecommunity, the venerable monk was clad in a robe of coarse brown wool,held around his waist by a leather belt. His head was now completelybald; his long snow-white beard fell upon his chest; his bearing wasstill erect, his eyes clear, although he was beyond eighty; only hisvenerable hands were slightly agitated by a tremor. The crowd halted;Ronan approached, took his brother's hand, and addressed to him thesewords:
"Loysik, it is to-day fifty-one years ago that a troop of determinedVagres stood awaiting your arrival on the border of Burgundy. You cameto us; you spoke wise words to us; you preached to us the virile virtuesof labor and of the domestic hearth; and you thereupon put us incondition to put those virtues into practice by offering to our troopthe free enjoyment of this valley. A year later, that is now fifty yearsago, our budding colony celebrated the first anniversary of itsfoundation in this region; and to-day we come--we, our children and thechildren of our children--once again to say to you through my mouth: 'Weare happy, thanks to you, brother; eternal gratitude and friendship toLoysik!'"
"Yes, yes!" echoed the crowd. "Eternal acknowledgment to Loysik--respectand gratitude for our friend, our good father!"
The old monk laborer was deeply moved; sweet tears rolled down from hiseyes; he made a sign that he wished to speak; and in the midst ofprofound silence he uttered these words:
"Thanks to you, my friends, my brothers, to those of you who lived fiftyyears ago, and to you others who have not known the frightful times thatwe older ones have experienced, except from the accounts given to you byyour parents--thanks for the joy that you afford me this day. Afterhaving made themselves feared by their valor, the founders of thiscolony have made themselves beloved and respected by approvingthemselves men and women who loved work, were peaceful and honored thefamily. A happy accident willed it that, in the very midst of thedisasters of civil war that for so many years have been desolating ourcountry, Burgundy should be spared these misfortunes, the fruits of amurderous conquest. Let us bless the name of God, who allows us to livehere in peace and freedom. But, alas! everywhere else in Gaul, even inthis province, our brothers continue under the yoke of slavery. Neverforget that. While awaiting the still distant day of the ultimateenfranchisement of our brothers, your savings, together with the savingsof the community, have this year also enabled us to ransom a few slavefamilies. Here they are. Love them as we love one another. They also arechildren of Gaul, disinherited, as we ourselves were fifty-one yearsago."
When Loysik finished saying these words, several families, consisting ofmen, women, children, together with a few aged couples, issued from themonastery weeping with joy. The colonists were emulous of one another asto which of them should harbor the new arrivals until they could providefor themselves. It required Loysik's intervention, always respected, inorder to calm the kind and zealous rivalry of the colonists in thetender of their services. With his wonted wisdom he distributed the newcolonists among the older ones.
Every year and shortly before these annual celebrations, Loysik left thecolony with a sum more or less large, the fruit of the joint savings ofthe colonists and the community set aside for the ransom of slaves. Afew resolute and well-armed monk laborers would then accompany Loysik toChalon-on-the-Saone, where, towards the beginning of the autumn, a largemarket of human Gallic flesh was held under the presidency of the countand the bishop of that city, the capital of Burgundy. From the marketplace the splendid palace of Queen Brunhild could be seen. Loysik wouldbuy as many slaves as the money that he carried with him would permit,but always regretting to find that the ecclesiastical slaves were toohigh for his purse. The bishops always sold them at double the price ofany other. Occasionally, thanks to his persuasive eloquence, Loysikwould obtain from some Frankish and less barbarous seigneur than hisfellows the gift of a few slaves, and thus increased still more thenumber of his new colonists, who, the moment they touched the soil ofthe Valley of Charolles, received a hearty welcome, enjoyed theopportunity to work together with the well-being that flows therefrom,and, above all, regained their freedom.
After the newly enfranchised slaves were distributed among theinhabitants of the Valley, monk laborers and colonists, men, women andchildren went to table. What a banquet!
"Our feasts in Vagrery were nothing compared with this!" exclaimedRonan. "Not so, Master of the Hounds?"
"Do you remember, among others of our then sumptuous repasts, the famoussupper at our lair in the defile of Allange?"
"Where Bishop Cautin officiated as our cook?"
"Odille, do you remember that strange night when I saw you for the firsttime, on the occasion of the burning down of the villa of my thenhusband, the bishop?"
"Certainly, Fulvia, I do remember it; and also the open-handedness withwhich the Vagres distributed the booty among the poor."
"Loysik, it was during that night that I first learned that you and Iwere brothers."
"Ah, Ronan, how very brave was not our father Karadeucq! What couragedid he not display together with our friend the Master of the Hounds inorder to liberate us from the ergastula in the burg of Count Neroweg!"
"Do you remember? Do you all remember?"--once that subject was broached,these questions flew inexhaustible from the lips of the old friends.Thus Ronan, Loysik, the Master of the Hounds, Odille, the Bishopess, allof whom sat together at a table, chatted merrily, while the youngerguests enjoyed chattering about the present. The joy was great andgeneral on that evening at the monastery of Charolles.
In the middle of the celebration one of the monk laborers said to acompanion:
"What has become of our two priests, Placidus and Felibien? Theirabsence alarms me."
"Those pious men found, perhaps, the feast too profane. They offered thetwo men on guard at the lodge where the punt lands to take their placesthis evening, in order that our brothers might assist at thecelebration."
"Somehow, I mistrust that breed!"