Maugis, ye sorcerer from ye ancient French : a wonderful tale from ye writings of ye mad savant of ye Maison Maugis in ye olde citie of Mouzon, France
despair. Maugis could not free himself from his deathlike grip, and
the nearer death approached the firmer became his hold. For a long
time the nearly exhausted Maugis struggled to rid himself of the body
of the now drowned man, his movements impeded by the clinging corpse,
which, with the swiftness of the current, contributed to destroy him.
With a supreme effort he raised his voice to call for help, but he was
answered only by the frantic cries of the two young women.
Little by little his strength diminished, his eyesight failing, and
with eyes closed he heard faintly the prayers of the two frightened
girls for the safety of the man who had so bravely come to their
rescue. Then he sank slowly down to the bottom. He appeared once more
at the surface of the water, as if to protest against meeting the same
death as a villain who had committed so many crimes during his life,
and then he once more disappeared, never again to return to life.
* * * * *
The death of Maugis would have never become known if the two young
girls had not recounted their adventure to some fishermen. They told
how Pinabel, in love with one of them, had surprised them bathing, and
had seized and bound the one to whom he was indifferent in order that
he might more readily accomplish his purpose with the other. They told
them, moreover, that Pinabel, having become an outcast, had placed
himself at the head of a band of malefactors, who recently had captured
a château in the vicinity, killing all the people who inhabited it.
The fishermen searched a long time for the body of Maugis, and finally
recovered it, with the corpse of Pinabel still attached; then they
recognized him as the hermit they had seen in the neighborhood. They
laid his remains out tenderly, and carried them to his hermitage, from
which he was finally interred in the same grave as Renaud.
Never would it have become known just who the religious men were who
lived in the forest had they not found the following inscription upon
the tomb of Renaud, written by Maugis himself:
+-------------------------------------+
| MAUGIS DE MONTAUBON, |
| +Duc de Aymon+. |
| AUX NAMES REVERSES DE SON COUSIN, |
| RENAUD, DUC DE BEUVES. |
| _En Memoire de Leur Amitie._ |
+-------------------------------------+
They also found in the grotto of Maugis the portrait of Yolande. He had
written underneath her name and his own. It was incontestable proof of
his identity.
The news of the combat and its sad ending reached Cologne. Seigneur de
Burie, who had formerly known Maugis and Renaud, visited the hermitage
to assure himself that the tomb contained all that remained of the
heroic Maugis and Renaud, which having done, he fell on his knees and
prayed with fervor. Immediately upon his return he sent the clergy of
Cologne to exhume the precious remains and bring them to Cologne, where
they were deposited in the cathedral with great pomp and ceremony,
their bier being watched by knights continuously while they laid in
state.
In the meantime the tidings were sent to Paris. The emperor, on hearing
the sad news, ordered the entire court in mourning, and indeed the
mourning was not a mere outward seeming, for there was sorrow in every
heart.
The sons of Maugis and his brothers were plunged into the most profound
grief. Some days afterward an imposing retinue proceeded to Cologne and
brought with them the remains of the two heroes. When they had reached
the suburbs of Paris they were met by Charlemagne himself, and escorted
into the city. There the most magnificent funeral ceremonies were held,
after the completion of which the Aymon family proceeded with the two
bodies onward to Montaubon, their final resting place, where they were
placed under a magnificent tomb.
To give testimony to his grief and friendship, after the emperor had
accompanied them as far as Orleans, he returned to Paris, and ordered
that the arms and escutcheons of Pinabel be destroyed, and that
everything should be obliterated that was connected with a name which
called forth so much execration.
THE END.
Transcriber’s Notes:
• Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
• Text enclosed by pluses is in small caps (+small caps+).
• Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected.
• Redundant title page removed.