impressed the young mind of Thierry with its savage grandeur, and that he fancied he could hear the shout of the forty thousand barbarians, and the pealing clang of their arms, as the riders raised and lowered their white shields in cadenced accordance with the metre, striking their iron-clad chests with the blades of their javelins.

And I pored over the vast collections of Duchesne and Dom Bouquet, and of Adrien of Valois; and from many unexpected sources I was able to extract fresh evidence concerning the long-forgotten existence and actions of those tenants of the graves of Envermeu. And existing monuments of various kinds, to the examination of which I had been led in the course of my researches, still farther confirmed the truth of suppositions, at first merely lucky guesses, which had been suggested by my previous archæological experience. These researches, and the discovery of other testimony, and of other minute details by cotemporary writers, all curiously supporting and confirming each other, resulted in the collection of a vast mass of evidence, which I have since reduced to a regularly consecutive form, and moulded into the narrative that I am about to read to you; for I will not trust myself to a vivâ voce recital, as there are many details to be narrated, the value and interest of which entirely depend upon their complete accuracy.

43

THE FIELD OF MAY.

TOWARDS the middle of the fifth century, the north-western and central portions of Gaul exhibited a singular and striking contrast with the southern provinces of that fine country, where the ancient name of Gaul was still preserved, and the inhabitants were still termed Romans; while, towards the north, the Frankish influence and population had become predominant, and the name Francia, or France—that is, the country of the Francs-distinguished it from the more southern districts. The greater part of Aquitaine, however, and even the city of Marseilles, formed actually a part of the Frankish kingdom, for both the Romans and Visigoths of that region had been reduced to partial subjection.

But it was in the north-western portion of Gaul that the great nucleus of Teutonic power was concentrated, and where the conquest was most complete and settled. In those extensive provinces, the Germanic conquerors, confusing the rights of sovereignty with those of property, had appropriated vast tracts of the most fertile land to their own personal uses, cultivating them with great energy, and establishing a system of considerable order, for their own profit; as is very curiously shown by the details of

several important capitularies. Thus, instead of discovering the Childeberts and Chilperics seated in the ancient imperial palaces of the great Gaulish cities, we find them travelling from one to another of the vast residences which they erected on their extensive farms. And when, with their retinues and retainers they had consumed all the accumulated provisions of one such establishment, they proceeded to another; and soon, to a third, fourth, or fifth. It was thus that they moved, in barbaric state, from Braine to Vitry, from Vitry to Compiegne, from Compiegne to Attigny, and from Attigny to Vermerie; or to some other of these royal farms, each of which had its great rustic palace, and its far stretching districts of forest, preserved for the royal sport of hunting.

It was in the great rustic halls of these immense farms that the Frankish Kings held their court, in barbaric splendour and magnificence. The towns were not suited to the habits of these Germanic warriors, and were confided to the care of Counts, or local governors, in whose offices originated the almost independent power long afterwards possessed by feudal Lords of the settled French monarchy.

The towns, and their habits and associations, where Roman civilization was still to some extent preserved, were irksome to these semi-barbaric chieftains; and they were also ill-suited to the vast assemblages which, at stated periods, such as the Field

of May, and the great autumnal hunt, it was the custom of the Frankish monarchs to gather about them.

After the death of Clotaire I., the territory of the Franks, which, besides Gaul, included a large portion of Germany, was divided into four separate kingdoms, by his four sons. But Caribert dying, the three remaining brothers made a new allotment, which resulted in the formation of the great Austrasian and Neustrian divisions, called by the Franks, Oster-rike and Neoster-rike, or the eastern and western kingdoms, and also of a third division, called the kingdom of Orleans, which included all the Burgundian territory, and the provinces towards the Mediterranean.

Chilperic had Neustria, comprising central and western Gaul and the Belgic districts to the confines of Batavia. Sigbert took Austrasia, comprising Auvergne and the north-east of Gaul and Germany, as far as the Saxon and Sclavonic frontiers; while to Gonthram was assigned the kingdom of Orleans. The most curious feature of this allotment was the singular subdivision of the towns. Paris was divided into three shares; and neither of the brothers could enter that city without the concurrence of both the others. Senlis and Marseilles, and other great cities, were similarly divided; but generally only into two parts, the separately deputed governors of which did not fail to discover endless cause of dispute, often terminating

in bloodshed, and invariably in the oppression and plunder of the inhabitants.

Tranquillity was thus often interrupted, and wars were engendered between the brothers, which led to frequent marauding excursions into each other's dominions, when Chilperic held one spring his Field of May, at his favourite palace of Braine. This residence was situated on the site of the present village of the same name, near the banks of a small clear river, a few leagues from Soissons, in the midst of a fertile country, and in the immediate vicinity of a noble forest.

Here, the royal barbarian, in the pride of youth and strength and limitless power, held in rude pomp his regal state. Hunting, fishing, or swimming with his Frank Lords, or Leudes, as they were termed; or selecting numerous mistresses from among the daughters of the Fiscalins; or espousing additional consorts, whenever it was his taste and supreme will to gratify the vanity of some favourite concubine, by adding her name to the list of royal wives, through the medium of the Frankish marriage ceremony of the ring and the denarius.

But the young Frank was not without intellectual tastes, though they necessarily partook of the semibarbarism of his day. His father, Clotaire, had caused him to be educated in many of the accomplishments of the age, which still lingered among the churchmen, and the Gallo-Romans of the south. And the young