the honors of a saint and martyr; [43]
but the hands of the royal saint were stained with the blood of his
innocent son, whom he inhumanly sacrificed to the pride and resentment
of a step-mother. He soon discovered his error, and bewailed the
irreparable loss. While Sigismond embraced the corpse of the unfortunate
youth, he received a severe admonition from one of his attendants:
"It is not his situation, O king! it is thine which deserves pity and
lamentation." The reproaches of a guilty conscience were alleviated,
however, by his liberal donations to the monastery of Agaunum, or
St. Maurice, in Vallais; which he himself had founded in honor of
the imaginary martyrs of the Thebaean legion. [44] A full chorus of
perpetual psalmody was instituted by the pious king; he assiduously
practised the austere devotion of the monks; and it was his humble
prayer, that Heaven would inflict in this world the punishment of his
sins. His prayer was heard: the avengers were at hand: and the provinces
of Burgundy were overwhelmed by an army of victorious Franks. After the
event of an unsuccessful battle, Sigismond, who wished to protract his
life that he might prolong his penance, concealed himself in the
desert in a religious habit, till he was discovered and betrayed by
his subjects, who solicited the favor of their new masters. The captive
monarch, with his wife and two children, was transported to Orleans, and
buried alive in a deep well, by the stern command of the sons of Clovis;
whose cruelty might derive some excuse from the maxims and examples of
their barbarous age. Their ambition, which urged them to achieve the
conquest of Burgundy, was inflamed, or disguised, by filial piety: and
Clotilda, whose sanctity did not consist in the forgiveness of injuries,
pressed them to revenge her father's death on the family of his
assassin. The rebellious Burgundians (for they attempted to break their
chains) were still permitted to enjoy their national laws under the
obligation of tribute and military service; and the Merovingian princes
peaceably reigned over a kingdom, whose glory and greatness had been
first overthrown by the arms of Clovis. [45]

[Footnote 43: See his life or legend, (in tom. iii. p. 402.) A martyr!
how strangely has that word been distorted from its original sense of a
common witness. St. Sigismond was remarkable for the cure of fevers]

[Footnote 44: Before the end of the fifth century, the church of St.
Maurice, a