rvants in all directions in search of the mendicant who
had stolen his wallet. He was found and brought to Aurelian, who, after
drubbing him soundly for three days, let him go his way. He afterward
told Clovis all that had passed and what Clotilde suggested. Clovis,
pleased with his success and with Clotilde's notion, at once sent a
deputation to Gondebaud to demand his niece in marriage. Gondebaud, not
daring to refuse, and flattered at the idea of making a friend of
Clovis, promised to give her to him. Then the deputation, having offered
the denier and the sou, according to the custom of the Franks, espoused
Clotilde in the name of Clovis, and demanded that she be given up to
them to be married.

"Without any delay the council was assembled at Chalons, and
preparations made for the nuptials. The Franks, having arrived with all
speed, received her from the hands of Gondebaud, put her into a covered
carriage, and escorted her to Clovis, together with much treasure. She,
however, having already learned that Aridius was on his way back, said
to the Frankish lords, 'If ye would take me into the presence of your
lord, let me descend from this carriage, mount me on horseback, and get
you hence as fast as ye may; for never in this carriage shall I reach
the presence of your lord.'

"Aridius, in fact, returned very speedily from Marseilles, and
Gondebaud, on seeing him, said to him, 'Thou knowest that we have made
friends with the Franks, and that I have given my niece to Clovis to
wife.' 'This,' answered Aridius, 'is no bond of friendship, but the
beginning of perpetual strife. Thou shouldst have remembered, my lord,
that thou didst slay Clotilde's father, thy brother Chilperic, that thou
didst drown her mother, and that thou didst cut off her brothers' heads
and cast their bodies into a well. If Clotilde become powerful she will
avenge the wrongs of her relatives. Send thou forthwith a troop in
chase, and have her brought back to thee. It will be easier for thee to
bear the wrath of one person than to be perpetually at strife, thyself
and thine, with all the Franks.' And Gondebaud did send forthwith a
troop in chase to fetch back Clotilde with the carriage and all the
treasure; but she, on approaching Villers, where Clovis was waiting for
her, in the territory of the Troyes, and before passing the Burgundian
frontier, urged them who escorted her to disperse right and left over a
space of twelve leagues in the country whence