runhilda in which she
had so nearly secured the assistance of Merowig against Fredegond and
his father. He at once ordered his miserable son, whose intellect was
incapable of ambitious schemes, and whose only fault had been an
unconsidered passion, to be stripped of his arms, and to have the long
hair cut from his head that was a mark of royal blood. The later
adventures of the wretched Merowig, an exile and an outlaw, hunted
through his father's kingdom, are too intricate to follow. After a
long imprisonment in the sanctuary of Tours Cathedral, he escaped only
to be murdered by the emissaries of the implacable Fredegond in a
farmhouse north of Arras. Meanwhile his wife, Brunhilda, had long ago
been set free to go from Rouen to Austrasia. She was safer across the
border, while the follies of another Merowig might make her dangerous.
Her flight, at this unexpected opportunity of freedom, was so rapid
that she left the greater part of her baggage and treasure with the
Bishop of Rouen, who was once more unwise enough to compromise himself
in order to be of service to his godchild's wife. For Pretextatus not
only supplied Merowig with money in his various efforts to escape, but
was so careless in his demands upon the friendship of the surrounding
nobles, and in scattering bribes to gain them over, that his
treasonable practices soon came to the ears of Hilperik. That
avaricious and perpetually needy ruler was not long in securing the
remainder of the treasure of which tidings had so opportunely reached
him, and he then immediately summoned Pretextatus to answer before a
solemn ecclesiastical council in Paris, as to his relations with
Brunhilda, and his disposition of the money she had left with him. The
celebrated trial that followed, of which Gregory of Tours was at once
the historian and the noblest figure, was ended by the brutal
interference of Fredegond, who could not be patient with the law's
delays, and forced the Bishop of Rouen to fly for refuge to the island
of Jersey where he lived in exile for some years, until the time
arrived for Fredegond's full vengeance to be consummated.

That time was marked, as was every crisis in the blood-stained career
of Fredegond, by a murder. The weak and effeminate King himself fell a
victim, and was slain (in 584) by unknown assassins as he was out
hunting. In the confusion and lawlessness that ensued, Pretextatus
returned from exile to Rouen, and Fredegond, who had placed hersel