sole king of the Franks, for all the
independent chieftains had disappeared.

It is said that one day, after all these murders, Clovis, surrounded by
his trusted servants, cried: "Woe is me! who am left as a traveller
among strangers, and who have no longer relatives to lend me support in
the day of adversity!" Thus do the most shameless take pleasure in
exhibiting sham sorrow after crimes they cannot disavow.

It cannot be known whether Clovis ever felt in his soul any scruple or
regret for his many acts of ferocity and perfidy, or if he looked as
sufficient expiation upon the favor he had bestowed on the churches and
their bishops, upon the gifts he lavished on them, and upon the
absolutions he demanded of them. In times of mingled barbarism and faith
there are strange cases of credulity in the way of bargains made with
divine justice. We read in the life of St. Eleutherus, bishop of
Tournai, the native land of Clovis, that at one of those periods when
the conscience of the Frankish King must have been most heavily laden,
he presented himself one day at the church. "My lord King," said the
bishop, "I know wherefore thou art come to me." "I have nothing special
to say unto thee," rejoined Clovis, "Say not so, O King," replied the
bishop; "thou hast sinned, and darest not avow it." The King was moved,
and ended by confessing that he had deeply sinned and had need of large
pardon. St. Eleutherus betook himself to prayer; the King came back the
next day, and the bishop gave him a paper on which was written by a
divine hand, he said, "the pardon granted to royal offences which might
not be revealed."

Clovis accepted this absolution, and loaded the church of Tournai with
his gifts. In 511, the very year of his death, his last act in life was
the convocation at Orleans of a council, which was attended by thirty
bishops from the different parts of his kingdom, and at which were
adopted thirty-one canons that, while granting to the Church great
privileges and means of influence, in many cases favorable to humanity
and respect for the rights of individuals, bound the Church closely to
the state, and gave to royalty, even in ecclesiastical matters, great
power. The bishops, on breaking up, sent these canons to Clovis, praying
him to give them the sanction of his adhesion, which he did. A few
months afterward, on the 27th of November, 511, Clovis died at Paris,
and was buried in the church of St. Peter and St. Paul, nowadays S