Page:History of the Franks.djvu/268

 236 HISTORY OF THE FRANKS ment by Gregory. 14. Story of the drunken priest Theodulf who falls off the wall of Angers and is killed.] 15. The scandal which by the help of the devil had arisen in the monastery at Poitiers was growing worse every day and Chrodield ^ was sitting all pre- pared for strife, having gathered to herself, as I have said above, murderers, sorcerers, adulterers, run-away slaves and men guilty of all other crimes. And so she gave orders to them to break into the monastery at night and drag the abbess from it. But the latter heard the uproar coming and asked to be carried to the chest con- taining the relics of the holy cross ^ — for she was painfully troubled with gout — thinking that she would be kept safe by their aid. Accordingly ^ when the men had entered and lit the candles and were hurrying with weapons ready here and there through the monastery looking for her, they went into the oratory and found her lying on the ground before the chest of the holy cross. There- upon one who was fiercer than the rest, having come on purpose to commit this crime, namely, to cleave the abbess in two with the sword, was given a knife stab by another, the divine providence aiding in this, I suppose. The blood gushed out and he fell to the ground without fulfilling the vow he had foolishly made. Meantime Justina,^ the prioress, and the other sisters had taken the cloth of the altar which was before the Lord's cross and covered the abbess with it, putting the lights out at the same time. But the men came with drawn swords and spears and tore the nuns' clothes and almost crushed their hands and seized the prioress instead of the abbess, since it was dark, and pulled her robes off and tore her hair down and dragged her out and carried her off to place her under guard at St. Hilary's Church ; but, as the dawn was coming on, they perceived when near the church that it was not the abbess, and presently they told the woman to return to the monastery. They returned, too, and seized the abbess and dragged her away and confined her near St. Hilary's Church in a place where Basina ^ lodged, setting guards at the door so that no one should give aid to the captive. At the next twilight they entered the monastery ^ Daughter of king Charibert. She had seceded from the monastery with a large following of nuns and was at this time at St. Hilary's church in Poitiers. 2 The monastery was called the monastery of the Holy Cross. 2 Cf. Bonnet, p. 306. * Gregory's niece, s One of Chrodield's faction, daughter of king Chilperic.