est be certified
thereof, he sendeth thee this ring.' She accepted this ring with great
joy, and said to Aurelian, 'Take for recompense of thy pains these
hundred sous in gold and this ring of mine. Return promptly to thy lord;
if he would fain unite me to him in marriage, let him send without delay
messengers to demand me of my uncle Gondebaud, and let the messengers
who shall come take me away in haste, so soon as they shall have
obtained permission; if they haste not, I fear lest a certain sage, one
Aridius, may return from Constantinople; and if he arrive beforehand,
all this matter will by his counsel come to naught.'"

Aurelian returned and told Clovis all that had passed and the
instructions he had received from Clotilde. "Clovis, pleased with his
success and with Clotilde's notion, at once sent a deputation to
Gondebaud to demand his niece in marriage. Gondebaud, not daring to
refuse, and flattered at the idea of making a friend of Clovis, promised
to give her to him. Then the deputation, having offered the denier and
the sou, according to the custom of the Franks, espoused Clotilde in the
name of Clovis, and demanded that she be given up to be married. Without
any delay, the council was assembled at Chalons, and preparations were
made for the nuptials. The Franks, having arrived with all speed,
received her from the hands of Gondebaud, put her into a covered
carriage and escorted her to Clovis, together with much treasure. She,
however, having already learned that Aridius was on his way back, said
to the Frankish lords, 'If ye would take me into the presence of your
lord, let me descend from this carriage, mount me on horseback, and get
you hence as fast as you may; for never in this carriage shall I reach
the presence of your lord.'

"Aridius, in fact, returned very speedily from Marseilles; and
Gondebaud, on seeing him, said, 'Thou knowest that we have made friends
with the Franks, and that I have given my niece to Clovis to wife.'
'This,' answered Aridius, 'is no bond of friendship, but the beginning
of perpetual strife; thou shouldst have remembered, my lord, that thou
didst slay Clotilde's father, that thou didst drown her mother, and that
thou didst cut off her brothers' heads and cast their bodies into a
well. If Clotilde become powerful, she will avenge the wrongs of her
relatives. Send thou forthwith a troop in chase, and have her brought
back to thee. It will be easier for thee to bear the wrath of o