I invoke; if Thou give me victory over these foes; if I find
in Thee the power the people proclaim of Thee, I will believe on Thee,
and will be baptized in Thy name." The fortune of battle immediately
turned in favor of the Franks.

On his return home, to make sure that her husband would fulfil his vow
while his gratitude was warm, Clotilde sent for Saint Remi, the holy
Bishop of Rheims, to perfect her own instructions and receive him into
the Church. Clovis was baptized, as were also the majority of his
subjects. To what extent the doctrines of Christianity had taken
possession of his mind may be gathered from the anecdote which recounts
how, after hearing from the bishop's lips the story of the sufferings of
Christ, he shouted: "Had I been present at the head of my valiant
Franks, I would have revenged his injuries!" As Gibbon says: "The savage
conqueror of Gaul was incapable of examining the proofs of a religion
which depended upon the laborious investigation of historic evidence and
speculative theology. He was still more incapable of feeling the mild
influence of the gospel, which persuades and purifies the heart of a
genuine convert. His ambitious reign was a perpetual violation of moral
and Christian duties: his hands were stained with blood in peace as well
as in war." He took part in a synod of the Gallican Church, and
immediately murdered in cold blood all the princes of the Merovingian
race. Into what, a pit the Christianity of those times had fallen may be
understood when we find Gregory of Tours, after calmly reciting the
murders of Clovis, concluding with these words: "For God thus daily
prostrated his enemies under his hands, and enlarged his kingdom,
because he walked before him with an upright heart, and did that which
was pleasing in his sight." Clovis was the only strictly orthodox
sovereign of that day--a day when orthodoxy was permitted to cover a
multitude of sins.

After making himself sole monarch of the Frankish race, Clovis died in
the year 511, and was buried in the church which had been erected by
Clotilde. The queen survived her husband many years, but did not
exercise any noticeable influence. She could not even save her two
little grandsons from the ambitious cruelty of her sons--Clotaire and
Childebert. These sent a message to Clotilde saying: "Send the children
to us, that we may place them on the throne." Having sent them, there
soon came to her another messenger, bearing a sword and