Page:History of the Franks.djvu/129

 THE FOURTH BOOK 97 road they had come the previous year, and the two divisions united in the territory of Avignon. It was then harvest time, and that country had its crops chiefly in the open fields and the inhabitants had not stored any of them. When the Saxons came they divided the crops among them and gathered and threshed the grain and used it, leaving nothing to those who had done the work. But after the harvest had been used up and they came to the shore of the river Rhone in order to cross the torrent and present themselves in the kingdom of king Sigibert, Mummolus met them and said : "You shall not cross this torrent. Behold, you have devastated the land of my lord the king, you have gathered the crops, plun- dered the herds, burned the houses, cut down the oHve groves and vineyards. You shall not go up unless you first satisfy those whom you have left in want; otherwise you shall not escape my hands, but I shall draw my sword against you and your wives and little ones and avenge the wrong done to my lord king Gunthram." Then they were very much afraid and gave many thousand pieces of coined gold as a ransom, and were allowed to cross, and thus they came to Clermont. It was then springtime. They brought there pieces of bronze engraved like gold, and any one seeing them would have no doubt that it was gold tested and weighed; for it was colored by some device or other. And a good many were deceived by the false appearance and gave gold and received bronze and became poor. And they went on to king Sigibert and were settled in the land they had left. [43. Albinus, governor of Provence, seizes archdeacon Vir- gilius on Christmas day in the church for failing to punish his men ; Albinus is fined. 44. Three Lombard chiefs invade Gaul but are defeated and driven back into Italy by Mummolus. 45. Mummolus recovers Tours and Poitiers for Sigibert from Chilperic] 46. As I am about to speak of the death of Andarchius, it seems best to tell first of his birth and native place. He was a slave of the senator Felix as they say, and being assigned to attend his young master he entered with him upon the study of letters and became distinguished for his learning. For he was fully instructed in the works of Virgil, the books of the Theodosian law, and the art of calculation. Being puffed up with such knowledge he began to hold his masters in contempt, and devoted himself to