Page:Horse shoes and horse shoeing.djvu/185

Rh Clotilde in the name of Clodowig, by the sou d'or and the denier d'argent, according to the Salic custom, and after a plaid (court) held at Chalons, between the knights of Burgundy and the French envoys. These last led away Clotilde in a basterne, a covered chariot drawn by oxen.' The same author describing the entry of the young chief Sighismer into Lyons when about to marry the daughter of the King of Burgundy, writes: 'His hair resembled the gold of his vestments; his complexion was as dazzling as the scarlet of his dress; his skin equalled in whiteness the silk with which his robes were trimmed. He came on foot, surrounded by a troop of chiefs of tribes and a cortège of companions terrible to look upon, even in time of peace. Their feet were covered by velvet boots; their limbs were naked, and their vestments were so short and narrow that they scarcely reached the knee. They wore gowns of green silk bordered with scarlet, and carried glaives suspended from their shoulders by rich baldricks, curved lances, throwing hatchets (haches de jet), and double bucklers of iron and copper beautifully polished.'

When the Frankish kings imposed tribute on the Saxons, whom they had vanquished, the impost levied was cows. 'In 632, the Saxon deputies took the oath on their weapons, according to the custom of their nation, to defend the Austrasian frontier until such time as the king (Dagobert) should abolish the tribute imposed upon them and their ancestors by the Frankish kings since the reign of Clotaire I.; then the army would be disbanded.