"Friends, you need not fear; my bear is not wicked; he is quite tame."
He thereupon called to his bear as he pulled in the animal's chain, and said:
The bear promptly obeyed the call, drew near and modestly sat down on his haunches; he then raised his head submissively up to his master, who, as he stood before the animal, half hid him from the slaves. Feeling reassured, the latter resumed their way and, out of prudence, walked a few paces ahead of the mountebank at what they considered a safe distance from the bear.
"Friends, what large residence is that which I see yonder, girt by a fosse?"
"It is the burg of our master, Count Neroweg."
"Chram, the son of the King of the Franks, arrived there this morning with his bodyguard; we come from the pond where we caught this mess of fish for to-night's supper."
"As true as my beard is grey that is a good windfall for a poor man like me. I shall be able to amuse the noble seigneurs exhibiting my bear and monkey to them. Do you believe, my children, that I shall be allowed admission to the burg?"
"Oh, we do not know. Strangers are not usually allowed to cross the fosse of the burg, without special permission from the seigneur count. The draw-bridge is guarded by day, and raised at night.
"Nevertheless, last winter, I know, another exhibitor of trained animals visited the burg, and the seigneur count was greatly entertained with their performances. He may not refuse to tender a similar entertainment to his royal guest."
"Perhaps not. If he does, then the evening's entertainment will help to while away the time of the seigneurs until to-morrow morning's spectacle."
"What spectacle is that to be, my friends?"
"The four people who were sentenced to-day will be executed--Ronan the Vagre, the hermit-laborer, a renegade monk who joined the Vagrery; a little female slave, their accomplice; and the bishopess, an accursed witch; they say she once was the wife of our blessed bishop Cautin."
"Oh, have they been capturing Vagres in this region, my friends? And so they were all sentenced to-day?"
"The _mahl_ assembled at noon. The King's son and our holy bishop were present. Ronan the Vagre and the hermit-laborer were first put to the torture."
"Then they must have denied that they had run the Vagrery, did they?"