Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/295

Rh fame made an impression on the heart of Clovis, who asked her in marriage, and she was carried to him in a kind of waggon drawn by oxen, and married at Soissons. Being a christian, her eldest son was baptized, by the king's consent; but, on his death, Clovis murmured loudly, yet permitted her to have the second baptized in like manner; this likewise fell ill, and the king became furious, saying, it would die like its brother, in consequence of being devoted to her god; but the child recovered, and he began to entertain more favourable ideas of the christian religion; for in 496, Clovis being engaged in a bloody battle with the Germans, he found his troops begin to give way, when, lifting up his eyes to heaven, he exclaimed; "God of my queen Clotilda, if thou grant me victory, I here vow to receive baptism, and hereafter to worship no other god than you." Having said this, he rallied his forces, again led them to the charge, forced through the enemy's battalion, and put them to flight. He fulfilled his vow; himself, his sister, and 3000 of his subjects were baptized: and though this conversion in him was only nominal, and affected no change in his manners, it was the means of establishing the christian religion in France. He died 511; his four sons succeeded him.

Clodomir II. was killed in battle, and his three children were brought up under the inspection of their virtuous grandmother; but their barbarous and ambitious uncle, having by artifice got them in his power, threw off the mask of affection, and sent a sword and pair of scissars to Clotilda, the guardian of their youth; the princess, in a transport of grief, inconsiderately exclaimed, "that she would rather see them committed to the earth than shut up in a cloister." Her words were