Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/121

Rh princess was stolen by the Danes or Normans, who ravaged all the maritime coasts of Europe, pillaged the houses of the inhabitants, and carried into captivity all they met with. She was taken to France, bought by Archambaud, mayor of the palace, and made cup-bearer at his table. The youth, the beauty, and modest graces of the young slave, awakened the warmest admiration in the bosom of her master: he gave her her liberty, and, on the death of his wife, offered her his hand. But, remembering her high birth, Batilda thought that of a subject unworthy of her. Yet she refused it with such address, that the pride which influenced her was not suspected. He redoubled his importunities, to avoid which she retired to a more distant situation, which she never left, till he took another wife. Visiting this lady, she was seen by the young king, who fell passionately in love with her. At that time they were not scrupulous about alliances. Clovis espoused the fair Batilda, whose beauty raised her to the throne, and whose merit deserved it. She became a mother to the poor and a consolation to the distressed; shewing her power only by her beneficence.

After the death of the king, Batilda was regent and guardian of her children; Clothair III. Childeric II. and Thierry III. She governed the kingdom wisely during the minority of the first; but suspicions, jealousies, and fatal enmities arising between her ministers, she became disgusted with the court and its intrigues, and executed a project she had long formed, of retiring into an