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was of difficult access
early in the year, and AEmilius hoped to persuade him to rest in the
villa till after Pentecost, and then to bless the nuptials of Columba
AEmilia, the last unwedded daughter of the house, with Titus Julius
Verronax, a young Arvernian chief of the lineage of Vercingetorix,
highly educated in all Latin and Greek culture, and a Roman citizen
much as a Highland chieftain is an Englishman. His home was on an
almost inaccessible peak, or PUY, which the Senator pointed out to the
Bishop, saying--
"I would fain secure such a refuge for my family in case the tyranny of
the barbarians should increase."
"Are there any within the city?" asked the Bishop. "I rejoice to see that
thou art free from the indignity of having any quartered upon thee."
"For which I thank Heaven," responded the Senator. "The nearest are
on the farm of Deodatus, in the valley. There is a stout old warrior
named Meinhard who calls himself of the King's Trust; not a bad old
fellow in himself to deal with, but with endless sons, followers, and
guests, whom poor Deodatus and Julitta have to keep supplied with
whatever they choose to call for, being forced to witness their riotous
orgies night after night."
"Even so, we are far better off than our countrymen who have the
heathen Franks for their lords."
"That Heaven forbid!" said AEmilius. "These Goths are at least
Christians, though heretics, yet I shall be heartily glad when the circuit
of Deodatus's fields is over. The good man would not have them left
unblest, but the heretical barbarians make it a point of honour not to
hear the Blessed Name invoked without mockery, such as our youths
may hardly brook."
"They are unarmed," said the Bishop.

"True; but, as none knows better than thou dost, dear father and friend,
the Arvernian blood has not cooled since the days of Caius Julius
Caesar, and offences are frequent among the young men. So often has
our community had to pay 'wehrgeld,' as the barbarians call the price
they lay upon blood, that I swore at last that I would never pay it again,
were my own son the culprit."
"Such oaths are perilous," said Sidonius. "Hast thou never had cause to
regret this?"
"My father, thou wouldst have thought it time to take strong measures
to check the swaggering of our young men and the foolish provocations
that cost more than one life. One would stick a peacock's feather in his
cap and go strutting along with folded arms and swelling breast, and
when the Goths scowled at him and called him by well-deserved names,
a challenge would lead to a deadly combat. Another such fight was
caused by no greater offence than the treading on a dog's tail; but in
that it was the Roman, or more truly the Gaul, who was slain, and I
must say the 'wehrgeld' was honourably paid. It is time, however, that
such groundless conflicts should cease; and, in truth, only a barbarian
could be satisfied to let gold atone for life."
"It is certainly neither Divine law nor human equity," said the Bishop.
"Yet where no distinction can be made between the deliberate murder
and the hasty blow, I have seen cause to be thankful for the means of
escaping the utmost penalty. Has this oath had the desired effect?"
"There has been only one case since it was taken," replied AEmilius.
"That was a veritable murder. A vicious, dissolute lad stabbed a
wounded Goth in a lonely place, out of vengeful spite. I readily
delivered him up to the kinsfolk for justice, and as this proved me to be
in earnest, these wanton outrages have become much more rare.
Unfortunately, however, the fellow was son to one of the widows of the
Church--a holy woman, and a favourite of my little Columba, who
daily feeds and tends the poor thing, and thinks her old father very
cruel."
"Alas! from the beginning the doom of the guilty has struck the

innocent," said the Bishop.
"In due retribution, as even the heathen knew." Perfect familiarity with
the great Greek tragedians was still the mark of a gentleman, and then
Sidonius quoted from Sophocles--
Compass'd with dazzling light, Throned on Olympus's height, His front
the Eternal God uprears By toils unwearied, and unaged by years; Far
back, through ages past, Far on, through time to come, Hath been, and
still must last, Sin's never-changing doom.
AEmilius capped it from AEschylus--
But Justice holds her equal scales With ever-waking eye; O'er some her
vengeful might prevails When their life's sun is high; On some her
vigorous judgments light In that dread pause 'twixt day and night, Life's
closing, twilight hour. But soon as once the genial plain Has