Pepin

“ Of the world’s censure! What you call my soul
Flees as a shy girl that escapes pursuit.
BONIFACE.
Take your shame meekly. Do not let your eyes
Grow wild and hostile!
[Boniface, who has seen Pepin approaching, withdraws to the back of the hall, stands before the Crucifix in mute prayer, and then passes out, looking back at the brothers. Pepin is a short, stout man, with florid complexion and much vehemence of manner. He wipes the perspiration from his face and addresses Carloman without looking at him.]
{6}
PEPIN.
Woden, what a sight! ”

“ Pepin remained behind. He lapsed into that bullet-constructed vacancy in Mr. Peacock’s Dance Hall, while his light companions of the theater set their faces eastward, singing:
“The sun is always shining on Broadway.”
One can imagine a war that would have obliterated, but not one that would have conquered Dodge. Mere force could never have brought it to its knees; and yet within a week it had unconditionally surrendered to the melodious genius of Mr. Pepin. He enraptured Dodge. It took him to its heart; it would have defended him to the latest gasp. Mr. Pepin repayed this local worship. ”

“ The unstable breed, whose mercurial condition was influenced by every breath of wind, shook with apprehension, but Pepin came to the rescue. To be called "a thing" by an Indian was an insult that cut into the quick of his nature. He had taken off his slouch hat, and was leaning forward with his two hands grasping the long stick he usually carried. Antoine was squatted meditatively on his haunches alongside him. Pepin now drew himself up; his face became transfigured with rage; he took a step or two towards the head man, and shook his stick threateningly. ”

“ See how I make you my confidant, even going so far"—and here the Abbé bent over until his mouth was almost at Pepin's ear—"even going so far as to ask you what part people think I have played in bringing about madame's refusal to go to the palace."
Pepin scratched his head. "The Abbé is measuring his own neck," said he; "it will pay me to frighten him." And then he gave his answer.
"Corbleu! Monsieur l'Abbé", what's the good of hiding things. All the world knows why the king is refused. Your holy words—Mother of God! they moved even me." ”

“ They said to His Holiness:
“Holy father, who ought to be the king of France—the man who has the title, or the man who has the power and does all the duties of king?”
“Certainly,” replied the Pope, “the man who has the power and does the duties.”
“Then, surely,” said they, “Pepin ought to be the king of the Franks; for he has all the power.”
The Pope gave his consent, and Pepin was crowned king of the Franks; and thus the reign of Childeric ended and that of Pepin began. ”

“ When Pepin gave me this programme to read he was much younger than at present. Some slight success in another vein diverted him from the production of panoramic and select romance, and the experience of not having tried to carry out his programme has naturally made him more biting and sarcastic on the failures of those who have actually written romances without apparently having had a glimpse of a conception equal to his. ”

“ In fact, Pope Stephen’s hysterical orations to Pepin must be received with extreme caution. No Catholic historian of that age cares to examine the truth of a fact which makes for him; nothing is too bad to say of an enemy: and really the man who would forge a letter from St. Peter might dare to tell a few lesser falsehoods into the bargain. Pepin cannot but obey so august a summons; and again he is in Italy, and the Lombards dare not resist him. ”

“ Pepin stretched out his hand. The Abbé covered the money with his palms.
"If," he continued, "you are able to do a service for me."
Pepin drew back his hand.
"By the Mass," said he, "you know how to plague a man."
"Indeed, my son, that would be an ill thing to do. But the labourer must prove worthy of his hire; and, first, I would know if you ride with de Guyon to-morrow?"
"Dieu! he would fare ill without me!"
"And at the palace you are to find the king, alone, eh?"
Pepin made another grimace. The Abbé drew his chair still nearer. ”

“ PEPIN MAKES A BARGAIN. DeGuyon rode away from the Château aux Loups at dawn on the morning of the Saturday. It was not until High Mass was done on the Sunday that Gabrielle de Vernet had news of him. At that hour, Pepin the guide came galloping into the courtyard of the château, crying loudly to have audience of its mistress, and of the venerable Abbé who counselled her.
"Mass or no mass," said he to the stableman, "I have a word for them which will not wait, even though I cry it from the pulpit. ”

“ How Pépin contrived to spend the long hours which his daily walk and his short lessons left at his disposal, only Pépin knew. He talked rarely with the servants, — “a thing,” his father told him, “that no gentleman would wish to do;” and other children never entered at the de Villersexel door, “for,” said the Comte, “children sow unfortunate ideas and spread disease.”
But there were compensations. One was the full-length portrait over the chimney-piece in the dining-room. ”

“ He is all right. And even if anything should happen to him, it is not Pepin that has the hard heart—he might even console Mam'selle. He will not exactly promise that, but he may come to it. Perhaps Mam'selle will remember in the house when the good mother told how you would like to marry Pepin, and he said you would not do. Well, Pepin has considered well since then, and he has thought that if you tried to suit him, you might"
"It is too great an honour, Pepin. If you expect any one in this world to be as good and kind to you as your mother, you will find you have made a great mistake. ”

“ Disgraceful Chilperic, and proclaim as King
Pepin, our doughty servant.
CARLOMAN.
[starting] Pepin—King!
[turning aside again]
Why should this news so knock to enter—why?
It seems to make me open a shut door:
I see the Rhone, I see my father’s roof,
The gay French faces!—Pepin, King!
BONIFACE.
I hear
Your will with joy. It is a deadly peril
To France that she is governed by a man
No better than an image, golden-haired
But lifeless as a stone. The very people
Laugh at the word, a King. ”

“ His royal master was a devout theologian, without any interest in politics. Pepin asked the Pope for advice. The Pope who was a practical person answered that the "power in the state belonged to him who was actually possessed of it." Pepin took the hint. He persuaded Childeric, the last of the Merovingians to become a monk and then made himself king with the approval of the other Germanic chieftains. ”

“ Douglas was pressing some gold into the old dame's hand, but Pepin saw it.
"Ah, non!" he said. "There are bad Engleesh and there are good Engleesh, and there are bad French, but there are also good French. The girl is a good girl, but if Pepin cannot marry her he will at least not take her gold." ”

“ If one who takes himself for the telegraphic centre of all American wires is to be confined as unfit to transact affairs, what shall we say to the man who believes himself in possession of the unexpressed motives and designs dwelling in the breasts of all sovereigns and all politicians? And I grieve to think that poor Pepin, though less political, may by-and-by manifest a persuasion hardly more sane, for he is beginning to explain people's writing by what he does not know about them. ”

“ Also, the musical taste of Dodge was elevated by Mr. Pepin. In this taste improvement, Mr. Pepin showed himself equipped of tact, and a wary wit. He played selections from “Trovatore” and “Martha,” and rendered Mendelssohn’s “Spring Song,” and “Old Madrid.” But he renamed them—in favour of local colour, probably—“Midnight Along the Arkansas,” “Two Black Bears,” “The Fieste at Santa Fé,” and “Daybreak On the Plains.” ”

“ Barrin' Katie, you're the only gal I'd like for Pepin. I reckon we'll just stow you away quietly like, and then afterwards you kin be his wife."
But the prospect so alarmed Dorothy that her heart seemed to stop beating again. At the same moment Pepin showed signs of fatigue, and the music stopped abruptly. Antoine, however, in a fit of absent-mindedness, kept on waltzing around on his own account, until Pepin gave him a crack over the head and brought him to his senses.
"Come hyar, Pepin," cried the old dame. "Mam'selle is took wid you. I think she'd make you a good wife, my sweet one." ”

“ When Carloman became a monk (747) , Pepin was left as the sole ruler of all France, but still under a phantom Merovingian king. In 751, with the consent of the Franks in their annual assembly, two churchmen were sent to Rome to ask Pope Zacharias, acting in the capacity of an international arbiter, whether the real king ought not to take the name of king. The Pope answered in the affirmative, and thus authorised the usurpation. [304:2] Thus a new prerogative of the Holy See came into active existence. The next year the assembly of Soissons elected Pepin and his wife King and Queen of France. ”

“ I asked in astonishment. "What scheme is on foot?"
"The men hold high revelry to-night," he answered. "Pepin, who came up only a few moments ago, brought us each an entire outfit of new clothing, and told me that the Count sails to-morrow with all his men; that on his return he would resign command to one of his crew, and depart for the great region from whence he came, to return here no more. I asked him whether we were to go with the Count on his cruise to-morrow, and he replied yes, that only the natives would remain behind. ”

“ These are sometimes to be seen in the pictures of another Benedictine abbess, St. Gertrude (13) the Great (13th century) , but they have been transferred, by mistake, to her from St. Gertrude, of Nivelle, whose proper attribute they are.
Pepin, of Landen, the first of the three famous Pepins, was mayor of the palace to three kings in succession—Clothaire II. (613) and Dagobert I. (628) , kings of France; and Sigebert II. (638) , king of Austrasia only. Pepin is conspicuous among the men of his time for his ability and integrity. His wife was St. ”

“ Which Pepin, a Cf. Purg. xx. 53 and the Commentators. faithful and loving son of Holy Church, received him with great honour, and afterwards with all his forces with the said Pope Stephen came into Italy, in the year of Christ 755, and fought great battles 755 a.d. with the said Telofre,-51- king of the Lombards. In the end, by force of arms and of his folk, the said Telofre was overcome and defeated by the good King Pepin, and he obeyed the command of the Pope and of Holy Church, and made all amends, just as he and his cardinals chose to devise ”

“ Pepin of Landen his grandfather being son of Carloman, the first mayor of his family, grandson of Charles count of Hesbay near Liege, the descendant of Ferreol, formerly præfectus-prætorio of the Gauls. St. Plechelm survived Pepin of Herstel seventeen years, is called by Bollandus bishop of Oldenzel and Ruremund, and died on the 15th of July, 732. He was buried in our lady’s chapel in the church, on the mountain of St. Peter, now called of St. ”

“ When he had planted the gospel there with great success he retired to St. Peter’s Mount near Ruremund, but continued to make frequent missions among the remaining infidels. Prince Pepin, who though he had formerly fallen into adultery, led afterward a penitential and Christian holy life, went every year from his castle of Herstal to confess his sins to his holy pastor after the death of St. ”

“ Guardian angels keep your holy feet out of yonder bog. Dieu! I thought that I had lost you."
Now the Abbé's feet were not holy; they were only swollen with the gout; Pepin knew well enough that the venerable man was not lost. The truth was that the artful guide found himself in such a pretty net, that he had led the priest three good leagues out of his way, while he himself reconsidered his position. "For," said he, "if I carry this Abbé to the palace, the king will learn that I have been lying ”

“ They were faint and loose-lipped with travel.
“Courage, little Pepa!” said Caron. “There is no wit-sharpener like adversity. The hungry mouse has the keenest scent.”
It was odd, in the face of his caressing diminutive, that he held himself ostentatiously the smaller of the pair. He seemed to love to show the other’s stature fine and full by comparison. Pepino, in fact, was rather tall, with a faun-like roundness in his thighs and soft olive face. ”

“ Thence to Sir W. Pen, who I found ill again of the gout, he tells me that now Mr. Castle and Mrs. Martha Batten do own themselves to be married, and have been this fortnight. Much good may it do him, for I do not envy him his wife. So home, and there my wife and I had an angry word or two upon discourse of our boy, compared with Sir W. Pen's boy that he has now, whom I say is much prettier than ours and she the contrary. It troubles me to see that every small thing is enough now-a-days to bring a difference between us. ”

“ At this rather impertinent order, Peppino raised his torch to the face of Danglars, who hastily withdrew that he might not have his eyelashes burnt. His agitated features presented the appearance of pale and hideous terror. "The man is tired," said the captain, "conduct him to his bed." ”

“ Pippin was like that, he thought. An Israelite without guile; the child of the slums, the young desperado; Pippin the Kid, alias Moonlighter, alias Jack-o'-lantern. Strange and true, and blessed! Out of the mouths of babes—gutter babes as well as those of Christian homes! But how absurd, how utterly unreasonable, this very crystalline quality made the boy! He had thought that once he found the girl, all would be plain sailing. He had actually expected Mary to start with him, hand in hand like two children, that very morning for Cyrus Poor Farm, thirty miles away. ”