Historical Setting: 610 C.E., Vosges Mountains
I don’t have to wonder over this message very long. Here is Gabe sharing Greg’s horse, and following is Galliard.
Greg tells me he and Gaillard were on the river path and there was Gabe, running this way in a terrible hurry.
“We got your message,” I told Gabe, “But what does it mean?”
Greg speaks for his brother as they dismount.
“Gabe is anxious to immediately follow the tracks of a wagon and a battalion of soldiers, going south from Luxeuil.”
“And you have to go too, Papa!” Interjects Gabe.
Gaillard speaks to Gabe with his always, gentle calm, “It is okay now, Brother Gabriel. We won’t need the fresh tracks to know where the soldiers took him. I already have an idea of that. And we need to take our time and make a good plan for this.”
Gabe is still riled. He argues, “Surely you can’t just guess where he is! They’ve taken him someplace in secret!”
Gaillard answers, “They’re undoubtedly following orders from King Theodoric – and they were going south you say? It has to be to Besançon – the Roman fortress where the king’s soldiers train. And that happens to be the archdiocese that sends you those pesky Frankish bishops.”
Gabe argues, “But it wasn’t the King! He and his men were visiting Luxeuil, the King was meeting with the Father to try to make amends. Then, when he realized he couldn’t change the mind of Father Columbanus over a moral-spiritual issue, he just left with some of his men. But he left behind the nobleman Baudulf, along with the rest of the soldiers, and that was who carried off the Father in the night.” [Footnote]
Gaillard affirms, “Of course, Baudulf is the noble lord of Besançon. Of course they were following the King’s order to take the Holy man there. It’s a dreary place with dank, dark old barracks, still with its old Roman rusting chains hammered to the walls to hold lots of prisoners. And who would be better prison guards than battalions of young soldiers in training all just chomping at the bit of justice to behead any culprit said to be escaping the chains? Any slip of a novice soldier’s sword could eliminate the need for trial and the wait for execution. If we follow the captive abbot to Besançon, we have to have a good plan.”
Gabe adds, “The Father asked for, ‘Ezra.’”
[Footnote] The arrest and imprisonment of Columbanus is described by Hagiographer, Jonas, Life of St. Columbine #34. trans. & ed. Dana Munro, A.M. (reprint Original sources of European History)
(Continues Tuesday, October 24)
Lazarus Ink 