the tastes and customs of the native population.  At first, they appropriated everything that flattered their pride and sensuality.  This is how the material remains of the civilisation of the Gauls were preserved in the royal and noble residences, the churches, and the monasteries.  Gregory of Tours informs us, that when Fredegonde, wife of Chilperic, gave the hand of her daughter Rigouthe to the son of the Gothic king, fifty chariots were required to carry away all the valuable objects which composed the princess’s dower.  A strange family scene, related by the same historian, gives us an idea of the private habits of the court of that terrible queen of the Franks.  “The mother and daughter had frequent quarrels, which sometimes ended in the most violent encounters.  Fredegonde said one day to Rigouthe, ’Why do you continually trouble me?  Here are the goods of your father, take them and do as you like with them.’  And conducting her to a room where she locked up her treasures, she opened a large box filled with valuables.  After having pulled out a great number of jewels which she gave to her daughter, she said, ‘I am tired; put your own hands in the box, and take what you find.’  Rigouthe bent down to reach the objects placed at the bottom of the box; upon which Fredegonde immediately lowered the lid on her daughter, and pressed upon it with so much force that the eyes began to start out of the princess’s head.  A maid began screaming, ’Help! my mistress is being murdered by her mother!’ and Rigouthe was saved from an untimely end.”  It is further related that this was only one of the minor crimes attributed by history to Fredegonde the Terrible, who always carried a dagger or poison about with her.

Amongst the Franks, as amongst all barbaric populations, hunting was the pastime preferred when war was not being waged.  The Merovingian nobles were therefore determined hunters, and it frequently happened that hunting occupied whole weeks, and took them far from their homes and families.  But when the season or other circumstances prevented them from waging war against men or beasts, they only cared for feasting and gambling.  To these occupations they gave themselves up, with a determination and wildness well worthy of those semi-civilised times.  It was the custom for invited guests to appear armed at the feasts, which were the more frequent, inasmuch as they were necessarily accompanied with religious ceremonies.  It often happened that these long repasts, followed by games of chance, were stained with blood, either in private quarrels or in a general melee.  One can easily imagine the tumult which must have arisen in a numerous assembly when the hot wine and other fermented drinks, such as beer, &c., had excited every one to the highest pitch of unchecked merriment.

[Illustration:  Fig. 42.—­Costumes of the Women of the Court from the Sixth to the Tenth Centuries, from Documents collected by H. de Vielcastel, in the great Libraries of Europe.]