[35. Syagrius avenges wrongs done to his father by killing Syrivald.]
[AU]36. After this king Theodobert began to be sick. And the physicians gave him much care; but he did not get well because the Lord was already bidding him be summoned. And so after a very long illness he died of his infirmity. And as the Franks hated Parthenius intensely, because he had subjected them to tribute in the time of the king just mentioned, they began to attack him. He saw that he was in danger, and fled from the city, and humbly begged two bishops to conduct him to the city of Trèves, and check the sedition of the frenzied people by their preaching. While they were on their way he was lying on his bed at night, and suddenly he made a loud cry in his sleep, saying: “Ho! Ho! Help, you who are here, and assist one who is perishing.” By this shouting those who were there were awakened, and they asked him what the matter was. He answered: “Ausanius, my friend, and my wife Papianella, whom I slew long ago, were summoning me to judgment, saying: ‘Come to defend yourself, since you are going to plead with us in the presence of the Lord.’” Now he had slain his innocent wife and his friend some years before, under the influence of jealousy. Accordingly, the bishops approached the city just mentioned, and since they could not calm the sedition among the rebellious people, they wished to hide him in the church, placing him in a chest, and strewing above him vestments which were used in the church. The people came in, and after searching every corner of the church, went out in a rage when they found nothing. Then one said suspiciously: “Behold a chest in which our enemy has not been sought for.” And when the guards said that there was nothing in it except that it contained furniture of the church, they demanded the key, saying: “Unless you quickly unlock it we will break it open ourselves.” Finally the chest was unlocked, the linen cloths were removed, and they found him and dragged him out, rejoicing and saying: “God has delivered our enemy into our hands.” Then they struck him with their fists, and spat on him, and tying his hands behind his back, they stoned him to death beside a column. He was very voracious in eating, and what he ate he digested speedily, taking aloes in order to be made hungry soon again…. And so he perished, meeting this kind of end.
37. In that year the winter was a grievous one and more severe than usual, so that the streams were held in the chains of frost and furnished a path for the people like dry ground. Birds, too, were affected by the cold and hunger, and were caught in the hand without any snare when the snow was deep.
Now from the death of Clovis to the death of Theodobert there are reckoned thirty-seven years. When Theodobert died in the fourteenth year of his reign, Theodoald his son reigned in his stead.
Here ends the Third Book.
FOOTNOTES:
[51] ad ilicem. Not in the Vulgate. Gregory probably used in part a rude popular version of the Scriptures. See Bonnet, p. 61.
[52] Reading invisibilem for indivisibilem.
[53] Reading for incestator, instecator. Bonnet, Le Latin de Gregoire de Tours, p. 454, 5.
HERE BEGIN THE CHAPTERS OF THE FOURTH BOOK