ity of
his absence on an expedition to the North was seized by the girl in a
way which showed at once the unscrupulous and subtle treachery which
was the keynote of her character. The Queen was brought to bed of her
fourth child, a daughter, while the King was still from home. By
Fredegond's suggestion, the infant was held at the font by Audowere
herself and christened Hildeswinda. Hlodowig at once took advantage of
the trap into which the innocent and unsuspecting mother had fallen.
As soon as he returned he sent away Audowere and her baby to a
monastery at Le Mans, on the pretext that it was illegal for the
godmother of his own daughter to be his wife. He then made Fredegond
his queen.

The conduct of the younger brother Sigebert was at once more dignified
and more politically secure. At Metz in 566 he married Brunhilda, the
younger daughter of Athanagild, King of the Goths, whose capital was
at Toledo, a woman whose courage, beauty, and resource, have remained
a byword in history and song. The splendour and success of this
alliance roused Hilperik's jealousy, and he lost no time in sending an
embassy to Spain asking the hand of Galeswintha, the elder sister of
his brother's wife. After much negotiation, the girl left the palace
of Toledo on her long march to the north. Her own presentiment of
coming evil was strengthened by the tears of her reluctant mother, who
could with difficulty be persuaded to leave the procession that
escorted the princess across the Pyrenees. By way of Narbonne,
Carcassonne, Poitiers, and Tours, Galeswintha moved slowly across
France towards her husband, with all her Goths and Franks behind her,
and a train of baggage waggons groaning beneath the treasures of her
dowry. She made her entry into Rouen on a towering car, set with
plates of glittering silver, and all the Neustrian warriors stood in a
great circle round her with drawn swords, crying aloud the oath of
their allegiance. Before them all, the King swore constancy and faith
to her, and on the morning following he publicly made present to her
of the five southern cities that were his wedding gift.

Fredegond had disappeared. In the general proscription of immorality
that had followed the embassy to Spain, she was swept away like the
rest, and she knew when to yield. Like the viper in the grass she lay
hidden, gathering up her venom for a more deadly blow. So harmless did
she seem that she was soon allowed to return to her former humbl