cleansed.’  Then Charles, of all kings the wisest, understanding the state of affairs said to him:  ‘If I empty I can also fill.’  And he added:  ’You may have that estate which lies close to your bishopric, and all your successors may have it until the end of time.’  In the same journey, too, he came to a bishop who lived in a place through which he must needs pass.  Now on that day, being the sixth day of the week, he was not willing to eat the flesh of beast or bird; and the bishop, being by reason of the nature of the place unable to procure fish upon the sudden, ordered some excellent cheese, rich and creamy, to be placed before him.  And the most self-restrained Charles, with the readiness which he showed everywhere and on all occasions, spared the blushes of the bishop and required no better fare; but taking up his knife cut off the skin, which he thought unsavoury and fell to on the white of the cheese.  Thereupon the bishop, who was standing near like a servant, drew closer and said:  ’Why do you do that, lord emperor?  You are throwing away the very best part.’  Then Charles, who deceived no one, and did not believe that anyone would deceive him, on the persuasion of the bishop put a piece of the skin in his mouth, and slowly ate it and swallowed it like butter.  Then approving of the advice of the bishop, he said:  ‘Very true, my good host,’ and he added:  ’Be sure to send me every year to Aix two cartloads of just such cheeses.’  And the bishop was alarmed at the impossibility of the task and, fearful of losing both his rank and his office, he rejoined:  ’My lord, I can procure the cheeses, but I cannot tell which are of this quality and which of another.  Much I fear lest I fall under your censure.’  Then Charles, from whose penetration and skill nothing could escape, however new or strange it might be, spoke thus to the bishop, who from childhood had known such cheeses and yet could not test them:  ‘Cut them in two,’ he said, ’then fasten together with a skewer those that you find to be of the right quality and keep them in your cellar for a time and then send them to me.  The rest you may keep for yourself and your ¸clergy and your family.’  This was done for two years, and the king ordered the present of cheeses to be taken in without remark:  then in the third year the bishop brought in person his laboriously collected cheeses.  But the most just Charles pitied his labour and anxiety and added to the bishopric an excellent estate whence he and his successors might provide themselves with corn and wine.[22]

We may feel sorry for the poor flustered bishop collecting his two cartloads of cheeses; but it is possible that our real sympathy ought to go to Bodo, who probably had to pay an extra rent in cheeses to satisfy the emperor’s taste, and got no excellent estate to recompense him.