the Frankish kings, from Constantinople to reign over them. With the aid of three famous generals, Mummol of Burgundy, Boson of Austrasia, and Didier of Soissons, who were disgusted with their respective courts, he made rapid progress towards the crown, the principal cities falling into his power. Gontran, however, combined against him with the Austrasians, adopting their king Childebert, his nephew, as his heir. The Aquitanians, alarmed by this alliance, abandoned Gondebaud, who shut himself up in the town of Comminges, where his life was sold for money, and he was slain with arrows by the very men who had invited him to take refuge in the town. Shortly after this event Gontran died, and Childebert took possession of Burgundy.

But Childebert was not satisfied with the kingdom of Burgundy. He was now ambitious of becoming sole master of France, and accordingly invaded Neustria with a large army, to cut off the power of Fredegonde. He entered the country A.D. 593, near Soissons, and, fearless of the enemy, the horses of his army were let loose to pasture with bells at the neck, as was the usage in those days, while the soldiers, in detached parties, were pillaging the country. Fredegonde hearing this, supplied her want of strength by stratagem. She advanced at the head of her army in the night, placed her cavalry in the van with bells, and directed each soldier to carry large branches of trees in their hands. Those who remained in the camp of Childebert were asleep, and the sentinels were careless. They supposed, moreover, that the bells they heard were those of their own horses; but when, in the twilight, they at length discerned

what they conceived to be a wood approaching their camp, they were alarmed, and the Neustrians falling upon them while thus agitated, made a dreadful slaughter. Thirty thousand are said to have fallen. Childebert did not long survive this defeat he died A.D. 596, leaving two infant sons, Theodebert and Thierri.

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At this time the whole of Gaul had children for its kings. These were, Clotaire, Theodebert, and Thierri.

CLOTAIRE II., THEODEBERT II., AND
THIERRI II.

Clotaire reigned in Neustria; Theodebert in Austrasia; and Thierri in Burgundy. The first of these infant kings was under the guardianship of his mother, Fredegonde; the two latter, under that of their grandmother, Brunehaut.

Thus all France was under the dominion of two women, equally ambitious of power, and jealous of each other. Both enterprising, and zealous to signalize themselves, they soon raised armies to contend with each other for the mastery. Fredegonde took possession of Paris, and ravaged the country along the Seine. Brunehaut hastened thither with her army, and a battle ensued near Laon, where a dreadful carnage was made, and Fredegonde obtained a complete victory. This occurred A.D. 596.

From the character of these two women, there is little doubt but that France would have been deluged with blood, through their animosities and ambition, for many a long year; but in the succeeding year, A.D. 597, and in the height of her

prosperity, Fredegonde died, and Brunehaut was left to act upon the stage with infants. The infamous part she took in state affairs has blotted many a page,- -it may well be passed over here. That human being who endeavours to corrupt the morals of youth-especially those of his own household-deserves the execration of mankind. So, also, do those who sow strife among brethren. Actuated by ambition, these were the dark deeds of Brunehaut, while yet her grandsons were in their nonage; and these led to rapine and the slaughter of their species, and, finally, to the death of Theodebert, and an infant son, by the command of Thierri his brother.

On the death of his brother, Thierri united under him the kingdom of Austrasia to that of Burgundy; but he did not long enjoy this empire; he died of a dysentery, a distemper frequent in those ages, A.D. 613, in the twentysixth year of his age, and the seventeenth of his reign.

Thierri left four sons, but they being illegitimate, Clotaire II. united the whole monarchy of the Franks under his sway, after an ineffectual attempt on the part of Brunehaut to procure the coronation of her grandson Sigebert. This led to her death. Her subjects preferred Clotaire to Sigebert, and by them was she betrayed: her grandchildren and herself fell into the hands of the son of Fredegonde, who avenged himself as his mother would have done. She was exhibited

as a spectacle, and exposed to the insults of the soldiery; and then tied alive to the tail of an untrained horse, by which she was torn to pieces. She died unwept, unpitied; for the death of ten

kings, and many a civil war, with numerous other crimes, were laid to her charge. Many of these, however, may have been groundless; and the manner of her death shows that those who condemned her were no less ferocious than herself. Ferocity was, indeed, the characteristic of the age; and the indulgence of it was encouraged by those professing to be ministers of religion, whose duty it was to soften the asperities of mankind. But riches and power were more than ever the request of the Romish clergy; hence it was that Brunehaut, in proportion to her crimes, was lavish of her wealth to the church. "Her religious zeal," says a French writer, "led her to lavish immense sums on the clergy, and to build a prodigious number of churches and monasteries." Some of these still retain her name, and they stand, not as monuments of piety, but of that lamentable bigotry which made her regardless of the duties she owed to God and man.

The accession of Clotaire gave peace to the empire. He had no rival to contend with, and his own disposition was peaceful. He allowed each of the three kingdoms to retain a mayor of the palace, as a vestige of royalty and mark of distinction. Beyond this, the facts of his reign are almost unknown. Under his reign, however, the church acquired much authority. The bishops began to sit in the council of the leudes; and the two aristocracies, that of the chiefs, and that of the clergy, drew up a constitution, one of whose principal articles provided that the bishops should be the sole judges of their own body. From that time the church advanced with rapid strides towards her high dominion.

The prelates of France had, indeed, been gradually increasing their power and influence for a series of ages, and during the reigns of Clotaire, Theodebert, and Thierri, they held no mean station in society, as will be seen by the following circumstance. Gregory, who had been a voluntary missionary into England, having succeeded to the popedom, appointed Augustin, prior of the convent of St. Andrew's, at Rome, to proceed on a mission to that country. This was probably in compliance with the request of Bertha, sister or daughter of Caribert 1., and queen of Ethelbert, the king of Kent, who was a member of the Romish communion, and who had stipulated at her marriage for the liberty of professing her own religion, and had already several priests and a bishop in her train. But, be that as it may, Augustin and his companions departed upon their journey, and reached Aix, in Provence. Here they were dismayed by accounts of the ferocity of the AngloSaxons, and they sent to Gregory to ask permission to return. In his reply the pontiff adjured them to persevere in their enterprise; and, to facilitate their success, he wrote letters in their behalf to the three kings and the prelates of France, through whose interest and aid they proceeded onward, and landed in the isle of Thanet, where he preached before Ethelbert and his queen, and obtained permission to instruct their subjects in the Romish faith, with a promise that they should be secured from all molestation.

Clotaire 11. died A.D. 628, leaving two sons, who came into the possession of his kingdom.