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"They are, good old man; they are; I have seen them at work." "The Bagauders are, then, numerous armed troops?" "Karadeucq, my pet, do not excite yourself listen without interrupting." "Bad boy, he can only think of battles, revolts and adventures!" And the poor woman added in a low voice in Araim's ear: "Was there any occasion for the peddler to mention such matters before my son? Alas!
The Bagauders fought furiously and without neither mercy or pity; they pillaged churches and episcopal villas, exacted ransom from the bishops, hung from the trees the most perverse of the priests who fell into their hands, rifled the coffers of the royal tax-collectors, and slew whatever Frank came in their way. But, as fast as they took from the rich, they gave to the poor.
They generously distributed among these the plunder of the rich prelates and Frankish counts, and set free all the chained slaves whom they found. Ah! By Aëlian and Aman, the patrons of the Bagauders, the life of those gay and brave fellows is a noble and happy one.
"My father was about seventeen years of age when one day his family extended hospitality to a peddler during a stormy night. The peddler's trade took him all over Gaul; he knew and he told them of the country's trials; he also spoke of the life of adventure led by the Bagauders.
After a few days' march the two reached Anjou and met a troop of Bagauders. Young, robust and daring, my father was an acceptable recruit. He joined the band, and long live the Bagaudy! Raiding from province to province, he came as far as Auvergne, which he never left. The country was favorable for his pursuit forests, mountains, rocks, caverns, torrents, extinct volcanos!
"Was it in Anjou that you met that troop of Bagauders?" "Yes, in Anjou in a forest about eight leagues from Angers, whither I was then bound " "Do you notice my pet Karadeucq? Look at him! See how his eyes sparkle and his cheeks burn. Truly, if he does not dream of little Korrigans to-night, he will surely dream of Bagauders. Am I wrong, my lad?"
"Yes, I did, and so did your mother see how sad she looks." But the "bad boy," as the poor woman called him, already seeming in thought to be running the Bagaudy, cast inquisitive and ardent looks at the peddler, and asked: "Did you ever see the Bagauders? Were there many of them? Had they already run any raids against the Franks and bishops? Is it long since you saw them?"
The man considered Karadeucq a good prize and sought to take him as a slave to Tulle. Your father resisted, beat the agent, and fled and rejoined the Bagauders. The young slave became a mother she gave birth to a son " "I then have a brother!" "The son of a female slave is born a slave and belongs to his mother's master.
"Three weeks ago, on my way hither, as I crossed Anjou. One day I missed my road in the forest. Night fell upon me. After having walked a long, long while, and going astray ever deeper in the woods, I noticed at a distance a bright light that issued from a cavern. I ran thither. There I found about a hundred lusty Bagauders.
In his strong arms the loving belles forget full soon the cacochymic bishop or the brutified duke!" "Long live the Vagre's love!" "You are in rollicking mood " "Aye, Simon, we are about to put a bishop's house to the sack!" "You will be hanged, burned, quartered!" "No more nor less so than Aman and Aëlian, our prophets, Bagauders in their days as we are Vagres in ours.
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