TROISIÈME RÉCIT

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1. 12. des terres du fisc , grants of crown lands in return for service.

1. 17. référendaire, referendarius, a Roman title borrowed from the Impérial administration. The position of this official was something like that of a chancellor in later times.

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1. 16. transporté de nuit hors de la ville . See Lemercier’s Frédégonde et Brunehaut (Act I. Sc. 2, lines 135 — 140).

“J’ai su, des assassins trompant la frénésie,

L’emporter en mes bras jusque dans l’Austrasie :

J’y convoquai les grands, et, réclamant leur foi,

Leur montrai le berceau de l’héritier d’un roi;

Je leur contai son sort, j’exposai sous leur vue La corbeille propice en mes mains descendue,

Qui, du haut d’une tour, me remit ce trésor”.

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1. 33. couraient les environs de la ville, were scouring the neighbourhood of the town.

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1. 2. Leudaste. In his Cinquième Récit Thierry gives the history of Leudastes. He was son of Leocadius, a crown serf, and having run away, obtained a post in the palace of Charibert, King of Paris. He became Count of Tours, and though several times expelled recovered his power. He tried to ruin Fredegund and Gregory of Tours alike by an intrigue, but failed, and was put to death by the queen’s orders in 583 A.D.