THE HUNT IN THE WOOD OF PUELLE

RELATED BY THE MINSTREL OF LORRAINE[1]

Charles the Hammer was dead, and his young son Pepin was king of
France. Bego of Belin was his dearest friend, and to him he had given
all Gascony in fief. You would have far to go to find the peer of the
valiant Bego. None of King Pepin's nobles dared gainsay him. Rude in
speech and rough in war, though he was, he was a true knight, gentle
and loving to his friends, very tender to his wife and children, kind
to his vassals, just and upright in all his doings. The very flower of
knighthood was Bego.

Bitter feuds had there been between the family of Bego and that of
Fromont of Bordeaux. Long time had these quarrels continued, and on
both sides much blood had been spilled. But now there had been peace
between them for ten years and more, and the old hatred was being
forgotten.

One day Bego sat in his lordly castle at Belin; and beside him was his
wife, the fair Beatrice. In all France there was not a happier man.
From the windows the duke looked out upon his broad lands and the rich
farms of his tenants. As far as a bird could fly in a day, all was
his; and his vassals and serving-men were numbered by the tens of
thousands. "What more," thought Bego, "could the heart of man wish or
pray for?"

His two young sons came bounding into the hall,--Gerin, the elder born,
fair-haired and tall, brave and gentle as his father; and Hernaudin,
the younger, a child of six summers, his mother's pet, and the joy of