[72] Vol. vii. p. 35.
[73] Carlyle, French Revolution, vol. III. p. 194.
[74] Hincmar (Archbishop of Reims, 9th century) tells us that S. Remy, who was at Reims at the time, received a spiritual revelation from the Holy Spirit, at the very moment of Clovis' death.
Many early sculptures and frescoes commemorate the life and deeds of Clovis, at Reims, at Rome, and at Siena, but they are all of much later date than the king.
Grégoire of Tours gives a picturesque account of the last days of Clotilde: "La reine Chrotechilde après la mort de son mari, vint à Tours: et là servant Dieu dans la basilique de Saint-Martin, avec une grande chasteté et une extrême bonté, elle demeura en ce lieu tous les jours de sa vie, et visita rarement Paris.... Pleine de jours et riche en bonnes œuvres, elle mourut à Tours du temps de l'évêque Injuriosus. Elle fut transportée à Paris, suivie d'un chœur nombreaux qui chantait des hymnes, et ensevelie par ses fils, les rois Childebert et Clotaire, dans le sanctuaire de la basilique de Saint-Pierre, à côté du roi Clovis. Elle avait construit cette basilique où repose aussi la très bienheureuse Geneviève."
[75] The finding of the statue of Clovis was the reward of well-doing. The Cardinal de la Rochefoucault, desiring to honour the old king and the founder of the abbey, set up a fine marble image in the place of the old stone one "mangé et difformé d'antiquité" This the Revolution destroyed; but the old stone statue, which was shunted to the crypt, was found later on, and sent to S. Denis—an illustration of the exaltation of the humble; in this case, a clumsy gentleman with long hair, with his feet upon a feeble-looking lion. Although not contemporary with Clovis, the work and design prove it to be not later than the 12th century. A Latin epitaph once accompanied the statue in its old resting-place:
HIC EST illustrissimus rex Ludovicus qui et Clodoveus ante
baptismum est dictus
Francorum rex quintus sed verus christianus qui ab Anastasio
imperatore consul et Augustus est creatus
Hunc sanctus Remigius baptisavit et in baptismate ejus angelus
ampullam sacri chrismatis detulit
Vi Aquitania arianos expulit et totam illam terram usque ad
montes Pirenaeos subjugavit
Huic per Viennam fluvium cervus miræ magnitudinis viam
ostendit
Post quem rex ac milites vadum transierunt et in ejus adventu
muri Angolismae civitatis corruerunt
Alamanniam Tornigiam et Burgundiam tributarias fecit et terram
adjacentem transivit
Parisiis sedem regni constituit ecclesiam istam fundavit in
honore apostolorum Petri et Pauli
monitis sanctissimae et non satis commendandae Clotildis uxoris
suae et beatae Genovefae
quam sanctus Remigius dedicavit in qua post laudabilia opera
Rex sepultus est
A quatuor filiis suis regibus Theodorico Clodomiro Childeberto et
Clotario
Anno Domini V. XIII regni sui XXX.
[76] Dibden
[77] The American in Paris, 1838.
[78] Victor Hugo.