and
raising Clovis on a buckler proclaimed him their king. And he receiving
the kingdom and the treasures of Sigebert added the Ripuanans to the
number of his subjects. "For", concludes Gregory, Bishop of Tours, to
whom we owe the story of this enlargement of the dominions of his hero,
"God was daily laying low the enemies of Clovis under his hand and
increasing his kingdom, because he walked before him with a right heart
and did those things which were pleasing in his eyes".

This ideal champion of orthodoxy in the sixth century then proceeded to
clear the ground of the little Salian kings, his nearer relatives and
perhaps more dangerous competitors. Chararic had failed to help him in
his early days against Syagrius. He was deposed: the long hair of the
Merovingians was shorn away from his head and from his son's head, and
they were consecrated as priest and deacon in the Catholic Church.
Chararic wept and wailed over his humiliation, but his son, to cheer
him, said, alluding to the loss of their locks: "The wood is green, and
the leaves may yet grow again. Would that he might quickly perish who
has done these things!" The words were reported to Clovis, who ordered
both father and son to be put to death, and added their hoards to his
treasure, their warriors to his host.

Chararic had not gone forth to the battle against Syagrius, but
Ragnachar of Cambray had given Clovis effectual help in that crisis of
his early fortunes. However Ragnachar, by his dissolute life and his
preposterous fondness for an evil counsellor named Farro, had given
great offence to the proud Franks, his subjects. Just as James I. said
of the forfeited estates of Raleigh: "I maun hae the land, I maun hae it
for Carr", so Ragnachar said whenever anyone offered him a present, or
whenever a choice dish was brought to table: "This will do for me and
Farro". Clovis learned and fomented the secret discontent. He sent to
the disaffected nobles amulets and baldrics of copper-gilt--which they
in their simplicity took for gold,--inviting them to betray their
master. The secret bargain being struck, Clovis then moved his army
towards Cambray. The anxious Ragnachar sent scouts to discover the
strength of the advancing host. "How many are they?" said he on their
return. "Quite enough for thee and Farro", was the discouraging and
taunting reply: and in fact the soldiers of Ragnachar seem to have been
beaten as soon as the battle was set in array. With his ha