Page:History of the Franks.djvu/206

 174 HISTORY OF THE FRANKS saying: ''Give up that murderess who strangled my aunt ^ and killed my father and uncle and also slew my cousins with the sword." But he answered : "In the court which we hold we decide everything and consider what ought to be done." For he was supporting Fredegunda and used often to invite her to dinner, promising that he would be her strongest defender. And one day when they were dining together the queen rose and said farewell but was detained by the king, who said: ''Eat something more." But she replied : "Pardon me, pray, my lord, for according to the custom of women I must rise because of having conceived." Upon hearing this he was amazed, knowing that it was the fourth month since she had borne a son, but he permitted her to rise. Now the leading men of Chilperic's kingdom, like Ansoald and the rest, gathered about his son, who, as we have stated, was four months old and was named Clothar, and they exacted oaths in the cities that formerly looked to Chilperic to be faithful to king Gunthram and his nephew Clothar. And king Gunthram by process of justice restored all that king Chilperic's followers had wrongfully taken from various sources, and he himself gave much to the churches, and he gave effect to the wills of the dead which had contained bequests to churches and had been broken by Chilperic, and he was generous to many and gave much to the poor. 8. But inasmuch as he had no trust in the men among whom he had come, he guarded himself with armed men, and never went to church or to the other places he took pleasure in visiting without a strong guard. And so one Lord's day, when the deacon had called for silence among the people for the hearing of the mass, the king rose and addressed the people : "I adjure you, men and women who are present, to think it worth while to keep unbroken faith with me, and not to kill me as you lately did my brothers, and to allow me for three years at least to help my nephews who have become my adopted sons. For it may perchance happen if I die while they are little that you will perish at the same time — may the eternal Deity not allow it — since there will be no one of our family strong enough to protect you." When he said this all the people poured forth prayers to the Lord for the king. ^ Galsuenta. See p. 90.