ew of
troyes, elect of the prelates of fraunce for to goo quenche an heresye
that was in grete brytayne, now called englond, came to nannterre for
to be lodged and heberowed and the people came ageynst theym for to
have theyr benyson. Emonge the people, saynt germayn, by
thenseignemente of the holy ghoost, espyed out the lytel mayde saynt
geneuefe, and made hyr to come to hym, and kyste hyr heed and
demaunded hyr name, and whos doughter she was, and the people aboute
hyr said that her name was geneuefe, and her fader seuere, and her
moder geronce, whyche came unto hym, and the holy man sayd: is this
child yours? They answerd: Ye. Blessyd be ye, said the holy man, whan
god hath gyven to you so noble lignage, knowe ye for certeyn that the
day of hyr natiyuyte the angels sange and halyowed grete mysterye in
heuen with grete ioye and gladnes."

[Footnote 21: Again we quote from the _Golden Legend_.]

Tidings soon came to Paris that Attila, the felon king of Hungary, had
enterprised to destroy and waste the parts of France, and the
merchants for great dread they had, sent their goods into cities more
sure. Genevieve caused the good women of the town to "wake in
fastynges and in orysons, and bade the bourgeyses that they shold not
remeuve theyr goodes for by the grace of god parys shold have none
harme." At first the people hardened their hearts and reviled her, but
St. Germain, who had meantime returned to Paris, entreated them to
hearken to her, and our Lord for her love did so much that the
"tyrantes approachyd not parys, thanke and glorye to god and honoure
to the vyrgyn." At the siege of Paris by Childeric and his Franks,
when the people were wasted by sickness and famine, "the holy vyrgyne,
that pyte constrayned her, wente to the sayne for to goe fetche by
shyp somme vytaylles." She stilled by her prayers a furious tempest
and brought the ships back laden with wheat. When the city was at
length captured, King Childeric, although a paynim, saved at her
intercession the lives of his prisoners, and one day, to escape her
importunate pleadings for the lives of some criminals, fled out of the
gates of Paris and shut them behind him. The saint lived to build a
church over the tomb of St. Denis and to see Clovis become a
Christian. She died in 509, and was buried on the hill of Lutetius,
which ever since has borne her name.

The faithful built a little wooden oratory over her tomb, which Clovis
and his queen Clotilde repla