The Branding Needle, or The Monastery of Charolles

ere seated, the conversation continued animated and lively. At this moment the subject was the atrocities that took place in the gloomy palace of Queen Brunhild. The happy inhabitants of the

emselves concerned in any adventure of the frightful nature of the one that c

let us first sum up the facts in a few words. Clotaire died not long after he had his son Chram, together with th

red Gregory; "we are

asia and resided in Metz, and Chilperic was left King of Neustria, occupying the royal residence of Soissons, our conque

he Nero of Gaul, one of whose edicts closed with these words: 'Le

eeing that both Charibert and Gontran died childless, the former in 566, the latter in 593. Al

of Brunhild and Fredegonde. These two names seem

order to enjoy the company of the slave with utter freedom, he cast off his wife Andowere, who soon thereupon died, in a convent. But Chilperic presently tired of Fredegonde also, and, anxious to emulate his brother Sigebert, who married a princess of royal blood named Brunhild, the daughter of Athanagild, a King of Germanic stock like the Franks, and whose ancestors conquered Spain as Clovis did Gaul, he asked and obtained the hand of Brun

by that Frankish count, whose family still lives in Auvergne," remarke

d her husband Chilperic indul

rocity, animated by an insatiable ambition, and endowed with an intelligence of such high grade that it would have equalled genius had she only not applied her extraordinary faculties to the blackest deeds-Brunhild could not choose but create for herself a fame at which the world grows pale. She first set her cap to revenge Galeswinthe, who was strangled to death by Chilperic at the instigation of Fredegonde. A frightful feud broke out, accordingly, between the two women who now were mortal enemies, and each of whom reigned with her husband over a part o

y, I would be ready to see in the conflict between those two women, who thus blasted the families that they joined, a positive punishment sen

onsters ever find ready t

hrew their reasoning into disorder by means of philters that she herself concocted; by means of these she rendered them frenetic, and then she would hurl them against the appointed victims. It was by such means that she contrived the assassination of King Sigebert, Brunhi

spewed out of hell-Fredegonde-s

the one Queen, as well as the other, had an interest in putting Chilperic out of the way-Brunhild in order to avenge

finally overtake t

Catholic priests and she was buried in consecrated ground in the basilica of St. Germain-des-Pres at Paris. In the language of the paneg

in such strong contrast to the morals of the inhabitants of the Valley, that these good people im

rst to break the s

Chilperic, is the grandson of Clotaire the elder, the slay

follows. His mother Fredegonde bequeathed to him the implacable hatred with which she was herself animated a

befall Gaul, with the renewa

crimes of Fredegonde pale before those of Brunhild, ou

imes of Brunhild su

head reel with dizziness. One's mind feels over-burdened and tires in the effort to follow the bloody thread that alone can lead

es of Fredegonde are as naught beside Brunhild's. If you only knew what is going on at this very hour in the magnificent castle of Chalon-on-the-Saone, where the old

runhild," replied Loysik with a shudder; but turning to his brother he proceeded to say: "Ronan, out of respect

ity of narrating the misdeeds of Queen Brunhild, who, neverthele

someone was knocking at the outer gate of the monastery, and that a voice from