sa mère . Audovera, divorced by Chilperich

1. 17. le degré d' affinité. Brunichild was the widow of Merowig’s uncle, and hence the marriage was illégal.

1. 24. Prœtextatus , Bishop of Rouen. Chilperich had him condemned by a council in 577 and sent to Jersey. In 584 he returned to Rouen. Fredegund had him stabbed in his church, Feb. 24Ü1 5 86 A.D., and he died soon after. His story occupies the Quatrième Récit of Thierry.

Page 70.

1. 3. fit invasion dans la grande architecture, cintrer to form round arches. The most approved writers on architecture trace the pointed style to Eastern sources, ‘‘l’arc brisé, appelé Ogive , a été d’abord une importation d’orient”. — Derand (. Architecture des voûtes ). M. Michelet, quoting Crawfurd’s Journalof an Embassy to the Court of Ava, remarks similarly that “ le mystère de l’ogive apparait dans l’Inde et la Perse”. (Histoire de France, vol. II. p. 668.)

Page 72.

1. 1. de grands desseins dont il était incapable. Merowig makes a poor figure in history. But he might hâve been a formidable tool in the hands of Brunichild.

1. 32. se compromit. Chilperich used this act as a pretence for charging Pretextatus with theft.

1. 26. Desiderius. Chilperich’s best general, and Duke of Toulouse. He was killed at Carcassonne by the Goths, 587 a.d.