The Casque's Lark; or, Victoria, the Mother of the Camps
Page 27
EPILOGUE.
The narrative of my father Amael's great-grandfather Schanvoch on theevents that transpired in Gaul--after the death of Victoria the Great,during the time that, living retiredly in Brittany on the fields of ourancestors that he bought back from a Roman colonist, he quietly spenthis life with his son Alguen and his second wife Sampso--ends here.
While it is true that Gaul was again a province of Rome, nevertheless,all the practical franchises, that we reconquered so dearly byinnumerable insurrections, and paid for with the blood of our fathers,have remained to us. None has dared, none will dare to deprive us ofthem. We shall preserve our laws and customs; we shall enjoy our fullrights as citizens. Our incorporation with the Empire, the impost thatwe pay into the fisc, and our name of "Roman Gaul"--these are the onlyevidences of our dependence. Such a chain may not be heavy; but, lightas it be, a chain it is. I doubt not that some day we shall be able tobreak it. The apprehensions that weighed upon my great-great-grandfatherSchanvoch's mind and that continue to weigh upon mine do not arise fromthat quarter. No! The dangers that we apprehend--if faith is to beattached to the prediction made by Victoria upon her death-bed; thedanger, that has filled us with dread for the future, rises from theonce more swelling number of the Frankish hordes on the other side ofthe Rhine, and in the dark machinations of the bishops of the newreligion.
My great-great-grandfather Schanvoch died peaceably in our house,situated near the sacred stones of Karnak. He left the narrative that hewrote, and the casque's lark, given him by Victoria, together with theprevious narratives of our family and the relics that accompany them, tohis son Alguen. After a long and peaceful life Alguen died, threehundred and forty years after our ancestress Genevieve saw Jesus ofNazareth perish on the cross. Alguen's son Roderik, my grandfather,inherited from his father both our family records and relics, and aquiet, peaceful and contented life, all of which he bequeathed to hisson, my father Amael, who in turn bequeathed them to me, Gildas.
I then, Gildas, make this entry to-day in our family annals threehundred and seventy-five years after the death of Jesus. I feel sad onthis occasion. My father had intended to add a few words to our familyannals. He postponed doing so from day to day, seeing there was nothingthat he desired to make particular mention of to our descendants, hislife being the uneventful one of a quiet, industrious and obscurehusbandman. Two days ago my father died. He died in our own house, nearthe stones of Karnak, after a short illness.
The frightful predictions of Victoria, the illustrious foster-sister ofmy ancestor Schanvoch, have not been verified. May they never be! Gaulcontinues a dependence of the Roman Emperors. Occasionally a travelerreaches these parts, penetrating into these remote regions of our oldArmorica. From them we have learned that, in some of the other provincesthere have been several popular uprisings of considerable strength andgenerally called "Bagaudies." These uprisings must have taken placeshortly after the death of my ancestor Schanvoch. Brittany has remainedfree from the revolts of the "Bagauders." The region enjoys profoundtranquility. The impost that we pay into the emperor's fisc is not tooheavy. We live peacefully and free.
Several of our ancestors, during the darksome days of their enslavementto Rome, and when they were steeped in ignorance and misery, recorded onour family parchments that such was the leaden uniformity of their days,spent by them from dawn to dusk, in oppressive labors, that they hadnothing to say except: "I was born, I have lived and I shall die in thesorrows of slavery." May it please the gods that the happiness of thegenerations that are to follow me be in turn, so uniform, that each ofmy descendants may, as I do now, have nothing to add to our familychronicles but these lines with which I shall close my narrative:
"I have lived happy, peaceful and obscure in our Armorican Brittanycultivating our ancestral fields with the help of my family. I shalldepart from this world without fear or regret when it will please Hesusto call me away to live again in yonder unknown worlds."
I am now aged eighteen years. The family relics in my possession consistof Hena's gold sickle, Guilhern's little brass bell, Sylvest's ironcollar, Genevieve's silver cross, and the casque's lark of Schanvoch.
THE END.
FOOTNOTES
[1] The Frankish chiefs, at the time of the conquest, daubed their hairwith tallow mixed with crushed limestone, to make their hair a glaringreddish-yellow. Such was the beauty of the period.
[2] Ardent, or Fiery. See "The Brass Bell," the second work of thisseries.
[3] For the source of these recollections, see the third volume of thisseries, entitled "The Iron Collar."
[4] The color of the Gallic emblem was crimson red.