The Casque's Lark; or, Victoria, the Mother of the Camps

by Eugène Sue

  CHAPTER IV.

  THE PRIESTESS ELWIG.

  I expected to see some hideous old hag; I was mistaken. Elwig was young,tall and endowed with savage beauty. Her grey eyes, shielded under apair of naturally reddish eyebrows of the same color as her hair,glistened like the steel of the long knife that she was armed with. Hereagle-beaked nose and high forehead imparted to her an aspect at oncesavage and imposing. She was clad in a long tunic of a somber hue. Herbare neck and arms were heavily laden with copper necklaces andbracelets, that clinked upon one another as she walked, and upon whichshe cast coquettish glances as she approached me. On her thick reddishhair, that fell upon and parted on both sides of her shoulders, she worea scarlet coif that was a ridiculous imitation of the charming headgearused by the women of Gaul. In short, I thought I noticed in the strangecreature the evidence of that mixture of puerile pride and vanity sopeculiar to barbarous peoples.

  Standing a few paces from her, Riowag seemed to contemplate thepriestess with profound admiration. Despite his black dye and the redtattoo under which his face disappeared, his features seemed to me tobetoken a violent love, and his eyes sparkled with joy when, twice insuccession, pointing at me, Elwig turned her face to her lover with asmile upon her lips, in token, no doubt, of thankfulness for theoffering that he brought her. I also noticed on the bare arms of theinfernal priestess two tattoo marks that brought back to my mind somereminiscences of the war we had been waging with the Franks.

  One of the two marks represented two talons of a bird of prey; theother, a red serpent.

  With her knife in her hand, Elwig again turned towards me and fastenedher large grey eyes upon me with ferocious satisfaction, while the blackwarriors contemplated her with looks of fear and superstition.

  "Woman," I said to the priestess, "I came here unarmed, an oak branch inmy hand, and bearing a message of peace to the grand chiefs of yourhordes.--I was fallen upon and bound fast.--I am in your power--you cankill me--if such be your pleasure--but before you do, have me presentedto one of your chiefs.--The interview that I request is of as muchimportance to the Franks as to the Gauls. It is Victorin himself and hismother Victoria the Great who have sent me hither."

  "You are sent by Victoria?" cried the priestess with a singular air."Victoria, who is said to be so very beautiful?"

  "Yes, I am sent by her who is called the Mother of the Camps."

  Elwig reflected, and after a long silence she raised her hands over herhead, brandished her knife, and pronounced some mysterious words in avoice that sounded at once threatening and inspired. Thereupon shemotioned to the black warriors to retire.

  They all obeyed, walking slowly back towards the thicket that surroundedthe clearing.

  Only Riowag remained a few steps from the priestess. Turning towards himshe pointed with an imperious gesture towards the wood in which theother black warriors had disappeared. Seeing that the captain did notobey her summons, she raised her voice, and again pointed to the wood.

  Riowag then obeyed and left in turn.

  I remained alone with the priestess. I was left bound, lying at the footof the statue of the under gods. Elwig squatted down upon her haunchesnear me and asked:

  "You were sent by Victoria to speak with the Frankish chiefs?"

  "I said so before."

  "You are one of Victoria's officers?"

  "I am one of her soldiers."

  "Does she cherish you?"

  "She is my foster-sister, I am as a brother to her."

  These words seemed to cause Elwig to reflect anew. She remained silentfor a while, and then resumed:

  "Would Victoria weep over your death?"

  "As one would weep over the death of a faithful servant."

  "She surely would give much to save your life?"

  "Is it ransom you want?"

  Elwig again relapsed into silence, and resumed with a mixture ofembarrassment and cunning that struck me forcibly:

  "Let Victoria come and ask my brother for your life. He will grant it toher.--But listen, Victoria has a great reputation for beauty; handsomewomen love to deck themselves with the Gallic jewelry that is socelebrated.--Victoria must have superb ornaments, seeing she is themother of the chief of your country.--Tell her to cover herself with herrichest jewelry; it will please my brother's eyes.--He will be all themore gracious, and will grant your life to her."

  I immediately surmised the snare that the priestess of hell was layingfor me with the clumsy cunning natural to barbarians. Wishing to makecertain, I observed without referring to her last words:

  "It seems that your brother is a powerful chief."

  "He is more than a chief," Elwig answered proudly; "he is a king."

  "We also, in the days of our barbarism, had kings. What is yourbrother's name?"

  "Neroweg, surnamed the Terrible Eagle."

  "You carry on your arms two figures, one representing a red serpent, theother the talons of a bird of prey. What do those emblems mean?"

  "The fathers of our fathers in our royal family have always worn thesesigns of valor and subtlety. The eagle's talons denote valor; theserpent subtlety. But let us drop my brother," added Elwig with somberimpatience. My digression seemed to displease her. "Will you induceVictoria to come here?"

  "One word more on your royal brother.--Does he not carry on his foreheadthe identical symbols that you carry on your arms?"

  "Yes," she replied with increasing impatience. "Yes, my brother carriesan eagle's talon over each eye-brow, and the red serpent on a head-bandover his forehead. Kings wear a head-band. But we have spoken enough ofNeroweg--quite enough--"

  I thought I noticed on Elwig's features an ill dissembled sentiment ofhatred when she pronounced his name. She proceeded:

  "If you do not wish to die, write to Victoria to come to our campornamented with her most precious jewels. She shall repair alone to aplace that I shall designate to you--a secluded spot that I know--Ishall come for her and shall lead her to my brother to solicit your lifefrom him--"

  "Victoria to come alone to this camp?--I have come hither, relying uponthe sacredness of the truce;--I carried the bough of peace in my hand,and yet one of my companions was killed, another was wounded, and to capthe climax of treachery, I am delivered to you bound hand and foot to beput to death--"

  "Victoria may bring a small escort with her."

  "Which would be unquestionably massacred by your men!--The scheme is tootransparent!"

  "You, then, wish to die!" cried the priestess gnashing her teeth inactual or simulated rage, and threatening me with her knife. "The firewill be shortly kindled under the caldron.--I shall have you plungedalive into the magic water, and you shall boil in it until you aredead.--Once more, and for the last time, make your choice.--Either youshall die in tortures, or you will write to Victoria to repair to ourcamp decked in her richest ornaments!--Choose!" she added with redoubledfury and again threatening me with her knife. "Choose--or you die!"

  I knew there was no more thievish, covetous or vainglorious race thanthis breed of Franks. I noticed that Elwig's large grey eyes glistenedwith cupidity every time she mentioned the magnificent ornaments, that,as she imagined, the Mother of the Camps surely possessed. Theridiculous accoutrement of the priestess; the profusion of valuelessgewgaws that she wore with a savage woman's coquetry, in order, nodoubt, to appear pleasing to the eye of Riowag, the captain of the blackwarriors; above all, her persistence in demanding of me that Victoriacome to the Frankish camp covered with rich jewels;--everythingjustified the conclusion that Elwig aimed at drawing my foster-sisterinto an ambush in order to slay her and rob her of her jewels. Theclumsy scheme did not do credit to the ingenuity of the priestess of thenether regions. Nevertheless, her cupidity might be turned to myservice. I answered her in a tone of indifference:

  "Woman, you mean to kill me if I do not induce Victoria to come here?You are free to kill me--boil my flesh and bones--you will thereby losemore than you think for, seeing that you are the sister of Neroweg, theTerrib
le Eagle, one of the greatest kings of all your hordes!"

  "What would I lose?--"

  "Magnificent Gallic ornaments!"

  "Ornaments!--What ornaments?" cried Elwig doubtfully, although her eyessnapped with greed.

  "Do you imagine that, in sending her foster-brother to convey a messageto the kings of the Franks, Victoria the Great did not prepare, as apledge of truce, rich presents for the wives and sisters who accompanythem, and for those whom they left behind in Germany?"

  Elwig leaped to her feet with one bound, hurled her knife away, clappedher hands, and emitted loud peals of laughter that sounded like a crazywoman's transports. Thereupon she crouched down again beside me, andsaid in a voice broken with childish breathlessness:

  "Presents? You bring presents with you?--Where are they?"

  "Yes, I bring with me presents fit to dazzle an empress--gold necklacesstudded with carbuncles, ear pendants of pearls and rubies, goldbracelets, belts and crowns that are so loaded with precious stonesthat they glitter in all the colors of the rainbow.--All thesemasterpieces of our most skilled Gallic goldsmiths I have brought withme for presents.--And seeing that your brother Neroweg, the TerribleEagle, is the most powerful king of all your hordes, the bulk of allthose riches--those bracelets, those necklaces and other jewels--wouldhave fallen to you."

  Elwig listened to me open-mouthed, her hands clasped together, withoutendeavoring to hide either the admiration or unbridled greed that theenumeration of such treasures kindled in her breast. Suddenly, however,her features assumed an expression of mingled doubt and anger. She rose,ran to her knife, and returning with it in her hands, raised it over mecrying:

  "You either lie, or you are mocking me!--Where are those treasures?"

  "In a safe place.--I foresaw that I might be killed and plundered beforeI was able to fulfil the orders of Victoria and her son."

  "Where did you put that treasure in safety?"

  "It remained in the bark that brought me to this side of the river.--Mycompanions rowed back from the shore and cast anchor beyond the reach ofthe arrows of your hordes."

  "We also have barks moored at the other end of the camp. I shall orderyour companions to be pursued--I shall have the treasures!"

  "You deceive yourself!--As soon as my companions see the enemy's barksapproach from a distance, they will suspect foul play. Seeing that theyhave a long lead, they will be able to regain the opposite shore of theRhine without any danger whatever.--Such will be the only fruit of thetreachery practiced by your people upon me.--Come, woman! Have meboiled for your infernal auguries! Perhaps my bones, bleached in yourcaldron, may be transformed into magnificent ornaments!"

  "I want the treasures!" replied Elwig struggling against her lingeringsuspicions. "Since you did not carry the jewels about you, when wouldyou have given them to the kings of our hordes?"

  "When I left the jewels in the bark I expected I would be received as anenvoy of peace, and that as such I would be escorted back to the riverbank. My companions would then have returned to the shore to receive me,and I would have taken the presents out of the bark and distributed themamong the kings in the name of Victoria and her son."

  The priestess looked upon me for a while with darkling eyes. She seemedto yield alternately to mistrust and to the promptings of cupidity.Finally, however, the latter sentiment evidently prevailed. She took afew steps away, and with a strong voice pronounced the bizarre name of aperson who was not until then upon the scene.

  Almost instantly a hideous old hag with grey hair and clad in ablood-bespattered robe issued from the cavern. She was, no doubt, theactive priestess at the inhuman sacrifices. She exchanged a few words ina low voice with Elwig and forthwith vanished in the surrounding wood,in the direction that the black warriors had followed.

  Again dropping on her haunches beside me, the priestess said in a lowand muffled voice:

  "Since you wish to speak with my brother, King Neroweg, I have sent forhim.--He will soon be here--but you shall not mention a word to himconcerning the jewels."

  "Why keep him in the dark concerning them?"

  "Because he would keep them to himself."

  "What!--He!--Your own brother!--Would he not share the jewels with you,his sister?"

  A bitter smile contracted Elwig's lips. She resumed:

  "My brother came near cutting off my arm with a blow of his axe a fewweeks ago, simply because I merely wished to touch part of his booty."

  "Is that the way brothers and sisters behave towards one another amongthe Franks?"

  "Among the Franks," Elwig answered with a face of deepening rancor, "themother, sister and wives of a warrior are his first slaves."

  "His wives!--Has he, then, several?"

  "As many as he can capture and feed--the same as he has as many horsesas he can buy."

  "What! Does not a sacred and eternal union join the husband to themother of his children, as with us Gauls?--What! Sisters, wives andmothers--all are slaves? Blessed of the gods is Gaul, my own country,where our mothers and wives, venerated by all, proudly take their seatin the nation's councils and where their advice, often wiser than thatof their husbands and sons, not infrequently prevails."

  Palpitating with cupidity, Elwig made no answer to me, and resumed thethread of her dominant thoughts.

  "You will, accordingly, not mention the jewels to Neroweg. He would keepthem all for himself. You will wait until it is dark to leave the camp.I shall accompany you. You will give me the jewels, all the presents--tome alone!"

  And again bursting into almost insane peals of laughter, she added:

  "Gold bracelets! Necklaces of pearls! Ear pendants studded with rubies!Diadems full of precious stones! I shall look grand as an empress! Oh,how beautiful I shall be in the eye of Riowag!"

  Elwig thereupon cast disdainful glances at the copper bracelets that sherattled as she shook her arms, and repeated:

  "I shall look very beautiful to Riowag!"

  "Woman," I said to her, "your advice is prudent. We shall have to waituntil it is night for us to leave the camp together and regain the riverbank."

  And, to the end of still further enlisting Elwig's confidence in me byseeming to take an interest in her vainglorious greed, I added:

  "But if your brother sees you decked with such magnificent ornaments,will he not take them away from you?"

  "No," she promptly answered with a strange and sinister look. "No, hewill not take them!"

  "If Neroweg the Terrible Eagle is of as violent a temperament as youclaim, if he came near cutting off your arm for having wished merely totouch part of his booty," I suggested, surprised at her answer, andanxious to fathom her thoughts, "what will prevent your brother fromseizing the jewels?"

  Elwig held up to me her large knife with an expression of calm ferocitythat made me shiver, as she answered:

  "When I shall have the treasure--to-night, I shall enter my brother'shut--I shall share his bed, as usual--and when he is asleep I shall killhim--"

  "Your own brother!" I cried with a shudder and hardly believing what Iheard, although the insight that the priestess gave into the shockingimmorality prevalent among the Franks was nothing new to me. "How! Youshare your own brother's bed?"

  The priestess seemed no wise disconcerted by my question, and answeredwith a somber mien:

  "I have shared my brother's bed since the day that he violated me. It isthe fate of almost all the sisters of the Frankish kings who follow themin war. Did I not tell you that their wives, their sisters and theirmothers are the first slaves of the warriors? What female slave is therewho, willingly or unwillingly, does not share her master's bed?"

  "Hold your tongue, woman!" I cried interrupting her. "Hold your tongue!Your monstrous words might draw a thunderbolt upon our heads!"

  And without being able to add another word I contemplated the creaturewith horror. Such a mixture of debauchery, greed, barbarism and, withal,stupid frankness, seeing that Elwig unbosomed herself to me, a man whomshe then saw for the first
time in her life, upon her fratricidalintentions--that fratricide, preceded by incest, which this priestess ofa sanguinary cult was subjected to and who shared her brother's bedwhile she at the same time surrendered herself to another man--all thatfilled me with horror, notwithstanding I had often heard accounts of theabominable morals of the barbarians beyond the Rhine.

  Elwig seemed not to concern herself about the cause of my silence nor ofthe evident disgust that she filled me with. She mumbled someunintelligible words, and counted the copper bracelets that her armswere loaded with. She presently said to me pensively:

  "Do you think I shall have nine fine bracelets studded with preciousstones to replace these? Could they all go into a little bag that Ishall keep concealed under my robe when I return to the hut of the king,my brother? Why do you not answer my questions?"

  The cold, I should almost say naive, ferocity of the woman redoubled thedisgust that the monster inspired in me. Again I remained silent, andshe cried aloud:

  "Why do you not answer me? You promised me the jewels!"

  But seeming to be suddenly struck by a new thought she added withterror:

  "I told him all! Suppose he tells it all again to Neroweg! My brotherwould kill us both, me and Riowag! The thought of the treasure bereft meof my senses!"

  And again she started to call, turning her face towards the cavern.

  A second old hag, no less hideous than the first, hobbled out holding inher hand the bone of an ox from which hung a partly boiled shred of meatat which she gnawed with her toothless gums.

  "Come quick to me," the priestess said to her, "and leave your bonethere."

  The old hag obeyed unwillingly, grumbling like a dog whose meat is takenaway from him. She laid the bone on one of the projecting rocks at theentrance of the grotto, and drew near, wiping her lips.

  "Gather some dry, good branches and roots of trees and kindle a firewith them under the brass caldron," the priestess said to the old woman.

  The latter returned into the cavern, and brought out all the things thatshe was ordered. Soon a bright fire burned under the caldron.

  "Now," Elwig said to the old woman, pointing her finger at me as I laystretched out upon the earth at the feet of the statue of thesubterranean deity, with my hands pinioned behind my back and my feetbound fast, "kneel down upon him."

  I could make not the slightest motion. The old hag planted herself onher knees upon my breast-plate, and said to the priestess:

  "What must I do next?"

  "Make him put out his tongue."

  I then understood that, carried away at first by her savage greed intomaking dangerous confidences to me, Elwig now reproached herself forhaving heedlessly mentioned her amours and her fratricidal intentions,and could think of no better way to compel my silence on these subjectstowards her brother than to cut off my tongue. The project was moreeasily conceived than it could be executed. I clenched my teeth with allmy might.

  "Tighten your fingers on his throat!" Elwig commanded the hag. "He willthen open his mouth and stick his tongue out. I shall then cut it off."

  With her knees firmly planted upon my cuirass, the hag leaned forward soclose to me that her hideous face almost touched mine. I shut my eyeswith disgust. Presently I felt the crooked yet nervous fingers of thepriestess' assistant tighten at my throat. For a while I struggledagainst suffocation and did not unlock my teeth; but, as Elwig hadforeseen, I soon felt almost smothered and unconsciously opened mymouth. Elwig immediately thrust in her fingers in order to seize mytongue. I bit her so savagely that she withdrew her hand screaming withpain. At that moment I saw the black warriors and Riowag reissue fromthe wood whither they had withdrawn at the priestess' orders. Riowagapproached on a run, but he stopped undecided what to do at the sight ofa troop of Franks who arrived from the opposite side and stepped intothe clearing. One of these called out in a hoarse and imperious voice:

  "Elwig! Elwig!"

  "The king, my brother!" gasped the priestess, who was on her kneesbeside me.

  It seemed to me that she looked for the knife that she had droppedduring her struggle with me.

  "Fear not! I shall be dumb. You shall have the treasure all foryourself," I whispered to Elwig, fearing lest, in her terror, the womanplunge the knife into my throat. I sought to secure her support at allhazard, and to contrive a means of escape by inciting her cupidity.

  Whether Elwig trusted my word, or whether her brother's presence stayedher hand, she cast a significant glance at me, and remained on her kneesat my side, with her head drooping upon her chest as if absorbed inrevery. The old hag having risen to her feet, my breast-plate wasrelieved of her weight; I could again breathe freely; and I saw theTerrible Eagle standing before me, escorted by several other Frankishkings, as the chiefs of those marauding hordes styled themselves.