ris, (Panegyr.
Majorian. 238-254;) and such pictures, though coarsely drawn, have a
real and intrinsic value. Father Daniel (History de la Milice Francoise,
tom. i. p. 2-7) has illustrated the description.]

[Footnote 20: Dubos, Hist. Critique, &c., tom. i. p. 271, 272. Some
geographers have placed Dispargum on the German side of the Rhine. See a
note of the Benedictine Editors, to the Historians of France, tom. ii p.
166.]

[Footnote 21: The Carbonarian wood was that part of the great forest of
the Ardennes which lay between the Escaut, or Scheldt, and the Meuse.
Vales. Notit. Gall. p. 126.]

[Footnote 22: Gregor. Turon. l. ii. c. 9, in tom. ii. p. 166, 167.
Fredegar. Epitom. c. 9, p. 395. Gesta Reg. Francor. c. 5, in tom. ii. p.
544. Vit St. Remig. ab Hincmar, in tom. iii. p. 373.]

[Footnote 23:

--Francus qua Cloio patentes
Atrebatum terras pervaserat.
--Panegyr. Majorian 213

The precise spot was a town or village, called Vicus Helena; and both
the name and place are discovered by modern geographers at Lens See
Vales. Notit. Gall. p. 246. Longuerue, Description de la France tom. ii.
p. 88.]

[Footnote 24: See a vague account of the action in Sidonius. Panegyr.
Majorian 212-230. The French critics, impatient to establish their
monarchy in Gaul, have drawn a strong argument from the silence of
Sidonius, who dares not insinuate, that the vanquished Franks were
compelled to repass the Rhine. Dubos, tom. i. p. 322.]

[Footnote 25: Salvian (de Gubernat. Dei, l. vi.) has expressed, in vague
and declamatory language, the misfortunes of these three cities, which
are distinctly ascertained by the learned Mascou, Hist. of the Ancient
Germans, ix. 21.]

[Footnote 26: Priscus, in relating the contest, does not name the two
brothers; the second of whom he had seen at Rome, a beardless youth,
with long, flowing hair, (Historians of France, tom. i. p. 607, 608.)
The Benedictine Editors are inclined to believe, that they were the
sons of some unknown king of the Franks, who reigned on the banks of the
Neckar; but the arguments of M. de Foncemagne (Mem. de l'Academie, tom.
viii. p. 464) seem to prove that the succession of Clodion was disputed
by his two sons, and that the younger was Meroveus, the father of
Childeric. * Note: The relationship of Meroveus to Clodion is extremely
doubtful.--By some he is called an illegitimate son; by others merely
of his race. Tur ii. c. 9, in Sismondi, Hist. des Francais