and captives of the southern provinces. This splendid triumph was
soon clouded by the intelligence, that Gundobald had violated his recent
obligations, and that the unfortunate Godegesil, who was left at
Vienna with a garrison of five thousand Franks, [41] had been besieged,
surprised, and massacred by his inhuman brother. Such an outrage might
have exasperated the patience of the most peaceful sovereign; yet the
conqueror of Gaul dissembled the injury, released the tribute, and
accepted the alliance, and military service, of the king of Burgundy.
Clovis no longer possessed those advantages which had assured the
success of the preceding war; and his rival, instructed by adversity,
had found new resources in the affections of his people. The Gauls or
Romans applauded the mild and impartial laws of Gundobald, which almost
raised them to the same level with their conquerors. The bishops were
reconciled, and flattered, by the hopes, which he artfully suggested, of
his approaching conversion; and though he eluded their accomplishment
to the last moment of his life, his moderation secured the peace, and
suspended the ruin, of the kingdom of Burgundy. [42]

[Footnote 40: Gregory of Tours (l. iii. c. 19, in tom. ii. p. 197)
indulges his genius, or rather describes some more eloquent writer, in
the description of Dijon; a castle, which already deserved the title of
a city. It depended on the bishops of Langres till the twelfth century,
and afterwards became the capital of the dukes of Burgundy Longuerue
Description de la France, part i. p. 280.]

[Footnote 41: The Epitomizer of Gregory of Tours (in tom. ii. p. 401)
has supplied this number of Franks; but he rashly supposes that they
were cut in pieces by Gundobald. The prudent Burgundian spared
the soldiers of Clovis, and sent these captives to the king of the
Visigoths, who settled them in the territory of Thoulouse.]

[Footnote 42: In this Burgundian war I have followed Gregory of Tours,
(l. ii. c. 32, 33, in tom. ii. p. 178, 179,) whose narrative appears
so incompatible with that of Procopius, (de Bell. Goth. l. i. c. 12, in
tom. ii. p. 31, 32,) that some critics have supposed two different wars.
The Abbe Dubos (Hist. Critique, &c., tom. ii. p. 126-162) has distinctly
represented the causes and the events.]

I am impatient to pursue the final ruin of that kingdom, which was
accomplished under the reign of Sigismond, the son of Gundobald. The
Catholic Sigismond has acquired