Siegfried hesitated to attack a town so well defended.

He demanded to enter alone and have an interview with the bishop, Gozlin.

"Take pity on thyself and thy flock," said he to him; "let us but pass through this city; we will in no wise touch the town; we will do our best to preserve for thee and Count Eudes, all your possessions." "This city," replied the bishop, "hath been confided unto us by the Emperor Charles, king and ruler, under God, of the powers of the earth.

He hath confided it unto us not that it should cause the ruin but the salvation of the kingdom.

If peradventure these walls had been confided to thy keeping, as they have been to mine, wouldst thou do as thou biddest me ?" "If ever I do so," answered Siegfried, "may my head be condemned to fall by the sword and serve as food to the dogs! But if thou yield not to our prayers, so soon as the sun shall commence his course, our armies will launch upon thee their poisoned arrows; and when the sun shall end his course, they will give thee over to all the horrors of famine; and this will they do from year to year." The bishop, however, persisted, without further discussion; being as certain of Count Eudes as he was of himself.