Every
indication shows that she came from a far lower level of civilisation
than that which her husband's people occupied. Did she soon learn to
conform herself to the stately ceremonial which Ravenna borrowed from
Constantinople? Did she too speak of _civilitas_ and the necessity of
obeying the Roman laws, and did she share the "glorious colloquies"
which her husband held with the exuberant Cassiodorus? When war came
between the Ostrogoth and the Frank, did she openly show her sympathy
with her brother Clovis, or did she "forget her people and her father's
house" and cleave with all her soul to the fortunes of Theodoric? As to
all these interesting questions the "Various Letters", with all their
diffuseness, give us no more information than the most jejune of the
annalists. The only fact upon which we might found a conjecture is the
love of literature and of Roman civilisation displayed by her daughter,
Amalasuentha, which inclines us to guess that the mother may have thrown
off her Frankish wildness when she came into the softening atmosphere of
Italy.

We return to the event so memorable in the history of the world, Clovis'
conversion to Christianity. In the year 486 he went forth to fight his
barbarian neighbours in the south-east, the Alamanni, The battle was a
stubborn and a bloody one, as well it might be when two such
thunder-clouds met, the savage Frank and the savage Alaman. Already the
Frankish host seemed wavering, when Clovis, lifting his eyes to heaven
and shedding tears in the agony of his soul, said: "O Jesus Christ! whom
Clotilda declares to be the son of the living God, who art said to give
help to the weary, and victory to them that trust in thee, I humbly pray
for thy glorious aid, and promise that if thou wilt indulge me with the
victory over these enemies, I will believe in thee and be baptised in
thy name. For I have called on my own gods and have found that they are
of no power and do not help those who call upon them". Scarcely had he
spoken the words when the tide of battle turned. The Franks recovered
from their panic, the Alamanni turned to flight. Their king was slain,
and his people submitted to Clovis, who, returning, told his queen how
he had called upon her God in the day of battle and been delivered.

Then followed, after a short consultation with the leading men of his
kingdom, which made the change of faith in some degree a national act,
the celebrated scene in the cathedral of Rheim