Page:History of the Franks.djvu/194

1 62 HISTORY OF THE FRANKS slipped between two planks of the bridge and his leg was broken and he was taken. His hands were tied behind his back and he was put in prison. The king ordered the physicians to attend him in order that when cured of his wounds he might be executed with prolonged torture. He was taken to one of the estates of the fisc but his wounds putrefied and he was dying when the queen ordered him to be laid on the ground on his back. Then a great bar of iron was placed under his neck and they struck his throat with another. And so after living an always perfidious Hfe he died a just death. [33. List of prodigies. 34. Death of Chilperic's infant son Theodoric] 35. In the meantime the queen was told that the boy who had died had been taken away by evil arts and enchantments, and that Mummolus the prefect, whom the queen had long hated, had a share in the death of her son Theodoric. And it happened that while Mummolus was dining at home one from the king's court complained that a boy whom he loved had been attacked by dysentery. And the prefect said to him : *'I have an herb at hand a draught of which will soon cure a sufferer from dysentery no matter how desperate the case." This was reported to the queen and she was the more enraged. Meantime she apprehended some women of Paris and plied them with tortures and strove to force them by blows to confess what they knew. And they admitted that they practised magic and testified that they had caused many to die, adding what I do not allow any one to believe : We gave your son, O Queen, in exchange for Mummolus the prefect's life." Then the queen used severer torture on the women and caused some to be drowned and delivered others over to fire, and tied others to wheels where their bones were broken. And then she retired with the king to the villa of Compiegne' and there disclosed to him what she had heard of the prefect. The king sent his men and ordered him summoned, and after examining him they loaded him with chains and subjected him to torture. He was hung to a beam with his hands tied behind his back and there asked what he knew of the evil arts, but he confessed nothing of what we have told above. Nevertheless he told how he had often received from these women ointments and potions to secure for him the favor of the king and