Page:History of the Franks.djvu/209

THE SEVENTH BOOK 177 15. While queen Fredegunda was living in the church at Paris, Leonard, formerly an officer of the household, who then came from Toulouse, went to her and began to tell her of the abuse and insults offered to her daughter, saying: "At your command I went with queen Riguntha and I saw her humiHation and how she was plundered of her treasures and everything. And I escaped by flight and have come to report to my mistress what has happened," On hearing this she was enraged and ordered him despoiled in the very church and she took away his garments and the belt which he had as a gift from king Chilperic and ordered him out of her presence. The cooks and bakers, too, and whoever she learned of as returning from this journey, she left beaten, plundered, and maimed. She tried to ruin by wicked accusations to the king. Nectar, brother of bishop Baudegysil, and she said he had taken much from the treasury of the dead king. Moreover she said he had taken from the storehouses sides of meat and a great deal of wine, and she requested that he should be bound and thrust into prison darkness. But the king's patience and his brother's help prevented this. She did many foolish things and did not fear God in whose church she was taking refuge. She had with her at the time a judge, Audo, who had assisted in many wrongdoings in the time of the king. For together with Mummolus the prefect he subjected to the state tax many Franks who in the time of king Childebert the elder were free born. After the king's death he was despoiled by them and stripped, so that he had nothing left except what he could carry away. For they burned his house and would have taken his life if he had not fled to the church with the queen. [16. Praetextatus returns to the bishopric of Rouen.] 17. Promo tus had been made bishop in Chateaudun by order of king Sigibert and had been removed after that king's death on the ground that the town was a parish of Chartres — and judgment had been given against him to the effect that he should perform only the functions of a priest. He now came to the king and begged to receive again his ordination as bishop in the town mentioned. But Pappalus, bishop of Chartres, opposed him and said: "It is my parish," pointing especially to the decision of the bishops, and Promotus could obtain nothing more from the king than