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A shriek was heard among the women, and Sidonius stepped forth and demanded the amount of wehrgeld. "That must be for King Euric to decide," returned Meinhard. "He will fix the amount, and it will be for Odo to choose whether he will accept it. The mulct will be high, for the youth was of high Baltic blood, and had but lately arrived with his father from the north!" "Enough," said Verronax.
That is one of the calumnies set afloat by infidels who pretend that Catholics worship images. You can, however, show penitence, sincerity and gratitude by giving. Any one can see that this is quite a different thing from buying an indulgence. This gift you made was similar to the "Wehrgeld," or money compensation made to the injured or kinsmen of those who had been slain.
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."
Therefore did I withhold these comrades of Odorik from rushing on thee in their fury; but none the less art thou in feud with Odo, the father of Odorik, who will require of thee either thy blood or the wehrgeld." "Wehrgeld I have none to pay," returned Verronax, in the same calm voice. "I have sworn!" said AEmilius in a clear low voice, steady but full of suppressed anguish.
Meanwhile AEmilius had reached Euric, and had made him understand the substitution. Old Odo knew no Latin, and it was the King, an able orator in both tongues, who expounded all in Gothic, showing how Lucius AEmilius had offered his life in the stead of his friend, and how Verronax had hurried to prevent the sacrifice, reiterating, almost in a tone of command, the alternative of the wehrgeld.
The wehrgeld, for example, or composition for the homicide of a relative, which occupies so large a space in German jurisprudence, formed no part of the family domain, and descended according to rules of succession altogether different.
Sidonius, who knew himself to have some interest with Euric, would fain have gone with them, but his broken health rendered a rapid journey impossible, and he hoped to serve the friends better by remaining to console the two women, and to endeavour to collect the wehrgeld in case it should be accepted.
The master punishes them when he chooses, kills them with impunity, and sells them and theirs like so many cattle. The slave has no personality, and consequently no wehrgeld peculiar to himself: he is a thing. The wehrgeld belongs to the master as a compensation for the loss of his property.
"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."
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