ne person
than to be perpetually at strife, thyself and thine, with all the
Franks.' And Gondebaud did send forthwith a troop in chase to fetch back
Clotilde with the carriage and all the treasure; but she, on approaching
Villers (where Clovis was waiting for her), in the territory of Troyes,
and before passing the Burgundian frontier, urged them who escorted her
to disperse right and left over a space of twelve leagues in the country
whence she was departing, to plunder and burn; and that having been done
with the permission of Clovis, she cried aloud, 'I thank thee, God
omnipotent, for that I see the commencement of vengeance for my parents
and my brethren!'"

The kingdom to which Clovis welcomed his queen was not large. It
comprised no more than the island of the Batavians, and the dioceses of
Tournay and Arras. Nevertheless, this marriage was of exceeding
importance in the history of Europe, for by virtue of his qualities
Clovis was destined to go far in conquest, and to establish the
beginning of a great nation; and the question of his conversion, whether
to Arianism or to Catholicism, was fairly certain to be answered by his
matrimonial alliance. The time had come when political wisdom provided
the most effective argument against paganism.

It was not at once, however, that Clotilde was able to bring about the
conversion of her husband. The most she could accomplish was to gain his
consent, after the birth of their first son, to the baptism of the
latter. The child dying a few days afterward, serious misgivings arose
in the king's mind as to whether he had not been ill advised in
permitting the Christian rite. But Clotilde's second son also was
baptized, and fell sick. Said Clovis: "It cannot be otherwise with him
than with his brother; baptized in the name of your Christ, he is going
to die." The child lived, and thereby Clotilde was placed to better
advantage in attacking her husband's mind with her Christian arguments.
He was brought to the point of decision when, in his battle at Tolbiac
against the Alemannians, the day seeming about to be lost, Aurelian
cried: "My lord king, believe only on the Lord of heaven, whom the
queen, my mistress, preacheth!" Clovis exclaimed: "Christ Jesus, Thou
whom my queen Clotilde calleth the Son of the Living God, I have invoked
my own gods, and they have withdrawn from me; I believe that they have
no power, since they aid not those who call upon them. Thee, very God
and Lord,