Page:History of the Franks.djvu/244

212 HISTORY OF THE FRANKS ants who had come with him rushed away. Chramsind stripped the garments from his lifeless body and hung it on a picket of the fence and mounted his horse and went to the king. He entered the church and threw himself at the king's feet and said : "I beg for my life, O glorious king, because I have killed men who slew my kinsmen secretly and plundered all their property." But when the case was gone into in detail queen Brunhilda was displeased that Sichar, who was under her protection, had been killed in such a way, and she became angry at Chramsind. When he saw that she was against him he went to Bouges, a village in the territory of Bourges where his kinsmen lived, because it was in Gunthram's kingdom. And Tranquilla, Sichar's wife, left her sons and her hus- band's property in Tours and Poitiers and went to her kinsmen at Pont-sur-Seine and there married again. Sichar was twenty years old when he died. He was in his lifetime a fickle, drunken, murderous person, who offered insults to many when he was drunk. Later Chramsind returned to the king and it was decided that he must prove that Sichar had killed his kinsmen. This he did. But since queen Brunhilda had placed Sichar under her protection, as we have said, she ordered Chramsind's property to be confiscated. But later it was returned by the court official Flavian. In addi- tion he went to Agen and got a letter from Flavian directing that no one should touch him. Flavian had received his property from the queen. 20. In that year, which was also the thirteenth of king Childe- bert, I went to visit him at the city of Metz, and received orders to go on an embassy to king Gunthram. I found him at Chalon and said : O famous king, your glorious nephew Childebert sends you many greetings and offers endless thanks to your goodness because he is continually reminded by you to do the things that please God and are acceptable to you and of advantage to the people. As regards the matters of which you spoke together he promises to fulfil everything and engages not to break any of the agreements which are made in writing between you." And the king said to this : " I do not offer him like thanks, because his prom- ises to me are being broken. My part of Senlis is not surrendered ; the men whom I wished to go for my good, since they are my ene- mies, they have not let go. And in what sense do you mean that