Clovis went to Cologne and convoked the Franks of the canton.  “Learn,” said he, “that which hath happened.  As I was sailing on the river Scheldt, Cloderic, son of my relative, did vex his father, saying I was minded to slay him; and as Sigebert was flying across the forest of Buchaw, his son himself sent bandits, who fell upon him and slew him.  Cloderic also is dead, smitten I know not by whom as he was opening his father’s treasures.  I am altogether unconcerned in it all, and I could not shed the blood of my relatives, for it is a crime.  But since it hath so happened, I give unto you counsel, which ye shall follow if it seem to you good; turn ye toward me, and live under my protection.”  And they who were present hoisted him on a huge buckler and hailed him king.

After Sigebert and the Ripuarian Franks came the Franks of Terouanne, and Chararic, their King.  He had refused, twenty years before, to march with Clovis against the Roman Syagrius.  Clovis, who had not forgotten it, attacked him, took him and his son prisoners, and had them both shorn, ordering that Chararic should be ordained priest and his son deacon.  Chararic was much grieved.  Then said his son to him:  “Here be branches which were cut from a green tree, and are not yet wholly dried up:  soon they will sprout forth again.  May it please God that he who hath wrought all this shall die as quickly!” Clovis considered these words as a menace, had both father and son beheaded, and took possession of their dominions.  Ragnacaire, king of the Franks of Cambrai, was the third to be attacked.  He had served Clovis against Syagrius, but Clovis took no account of that.  Ragnacaire, being beaten, was preparing for flight, when he was seized by his own soldiers, who tied his hands behind his back, and took him to Clovis along with his brother Riquier.  “Wherefore hast thou dishonored our race,” said Clovis, “by letting thyself wear bonds?  ’Twere better to have died,” and cleft his skull with one stroke of his battle-axe; then turning to Riquier, “Hadst thou succored thy brother,” said he, “he had assuredly not been bound,” and felled him likewise at his feet.  Rignomer, king of the Franks of Le Mans, met the same fate, but not at the hands, only by the order, of Clovis.  So Clovis remained sole king of the Franks, for all the independent chieftains had disappeared.

It is said that one day, after all these murders, Clovis, surrounded by his trusted servants, cried:  “Woe is me! who am left as a traveller among strangers, and who have no longer relatives to lend me support in the day of adversity!” Thus do the most shameless take pleasure in exhibiting sham sorrow after crimes they cannot disavow.