One of them went to Fredegonde, and said to her: Thou hadst already committed many crimes, but this exceeds them all. May God revenge quickly the blood of his priest! We will eagerly pursue the chastisement of this murder, for it is time to put an end to thy cruelties.' Having said these words, he quitted her presence, and was leaving the palace. But Fredegonde, affecting great indifference for his reproaches and for his threats, sent after him, and invited him to her table. The chief refused. The queen sent again, begging more pressingly that at least he would not leave the royal residence without having drunk of her cup. This time he allowed himself to be persuaded, and yielded. Immediately was brought a cup full of a mixed beverage, after the Frankish manner, of wine and wormwood and honey. Scarcely had he finished the draught, when he was seized by excruciating pains. Perceiving that he had drunk poison, he cried to those who accompanied him, Fly, and let not your lips touch this drink. They have poured death into the cup.' They fled; himself, remounting his horse with difficulty, tried to follow, but at a short distance he fell: he was lifeless."-vol. i. p. 442-444.

Gontran, on receiving the intelligence of this event, was furious-he was eager to pursue the murderer, and to avenge this sacrilegious deed—he summoned a council of bishops to examine into it. But new jealousies and new plots arose, which frustrated his designs, rendered Fredegonde the close associate of the governors of Chlotaire, and restored her to all her former influence in the kingdom of Soissons.

Gontran and Childebert remained faithful to each other; and Brunehault, who, during the minority of her son, had been excluded from power by the nobles, recovered her ancient influence in Austrasia. The nobles, who were jealous of her and faithless to their king, regretting perhaps the loss of the power which they had held during the regency, laid deep plots. Their object was nothing less than the overthrow of the throne of Childebert: they were excited and supported by Fredegonde. But a brief period saw all their designs exposed and defeated, and they paid for their treason with their lives. The treaty was subscribed by Gontran, which gave the succession of his crown to Childebert and his sons. An unexpected event followed-Soissons revolted from Fredegonde, and with Melun, which had set it the example, formed an independent state, which received for its king Theodebert, one of Childebert's sons. Childebert was at war with the Lombards of Italy-and, which redounds to the praise of Brunehault, when the war was ended, she bought with her own treasure the captive Lombards, and sent them home free. Then broke out a war between Gontran and the Bretons, whom Fredegonde excited against him. Two new attempts to murder the kings of Austrasia and Burgundy failed, and Fredegonde wreaked

her fury upon her own blood-the victim was her daughter Rigonthe, who died by the hands of her mother. But an accident, which happened soon afterwards, nearly drew upon that mother the punishment of her manifold crimes. Bitter animosities had arisen at Tournai between the Franks and the original inhabitants, and the two opposing parties fought in the streets of the town.

"Fredegonde came, thinking to appease them by her authority or by her counsels. She was mistaken, and her pride was offended. Immediately conceiving new designs, what she had not been able to effect by fair words she resolved to attempt by violence. She invited all the chief people of Tournai to a great feast. At their head were the chiefs of the two families whose quarrel had caused the disturbance, namely, Charivald, Leudovald, and Waldin. These three were placed together on the same bench. On the approach of night, as was the custom among the Franks, the tables were withdrawn; but the guests still retained their places, and continued to drink the wine which was brought to them in profusion. Soon heaviness came upon them, and the servants themselves, overcome with drunkenness, fell on the pavement asleep. Then entered three men, armed each with an axe, whom Fredegonde had sent. They glided, without opposition, behind the three chiefs, and, striking at the same moment, slew them as it were by a single blow.

"The trouble was great, the alarm general; every one fled. But that which Fredegonde had not foreseen happened. The irritation of the townspeople, already so great, took in an instant new activity and new violence. They arose, flew to arms, seized the gates, and the queen was a prisoner. At the same time they sent to Childebert; they resolved to deliver to him his enemy; they desired him to order her death. She, on the other hand, neglecting no means of safety in this extremity, hastened secret messengers to Champagne, ordering the people to come to her aid. The people of Champagne obeyed, and their promptitude was such, that they arrived at Tournai before the army of Childebert. Thus Fredegonde was delivered, and thus was lost for her enemies the most favourable opportunity for vengeance."-vol. i. p. 486.

Soon after this, Gontran died, and his death was the signal for new troubles and new contentions. The kingdoms of the Franks were hastening towards reunion.

But the first direct attempt at this reunion was not made by the party who carried it into execution. Childebert, unopposed, succeeded to the kingdom of his uncle, and now, master of two kingdoms, he resolved to attack the third, and to take exemplary vengeance for the long series of crimes and violences of Fredegonde, which afforded a sufficient pretext for the war. His army ravaged Champagne, and approached Soissons. Fredegonde, however, proved herself equal to the danger: she assembled the

army of Neustria, showed to the soldiers their young king, encouraged them by her words and by her example, and led them suddenly and by night against the camp of the enemy, who was surprised and defeated. In the day, the enemy returned; another battle was fought, longer and more obstinate than the former, but Fredegonde again triumphed. Her own loss was immense, but the throne of Chlotaire was saved, and the army returned victorious to Soissons. Yet, though successful in one instance, and for a time, the power of Fredegonde was not equal to the struggle against Neustria and Burgundy united, and she strove to rid herself of her enemy by her accustomed arts. Childebert, having got rid of his other enemies, was on the point of renewing his attack upon Neustria, when he and his queen suddenly died their death was attributed to poison, and common report laid the crime to the charge of Fredegonde.

The successors of Childebert were his two sons-Theodebert had Austrasia, and Theodoric, Burgundy. Brunehault, the guardian of both, governed with an equal authority in both kingdoms. The occasion was favourable for Fredegonde; she raised au army, and prepared to attack her enemies. Brunehault was equally active, but an obstinate and bloody engagement ended in the success of the former. The loss in the army of Brunehault was immense. Yet Fredegonde reaped not the fruits of her victory-she suddenly fell ill and died.

"It was a day of expiation and deliverance. The human race was relieved from an immense opprobrium. We must despair of finding colours warm and vigorous enough to describe this fearful figure of a queen-every passion, every vice, every fury; all the cunning which crime can demand, all the crimes which ambition can solicit, all the ambition which the most unbounded perversity can conceive."vol. ii. p. 20.

Brunehault was delivered from her enemy. She was at the height of her prosperity. She reduced to quietness the barbarous nations who surrounded her own-she formed treaties with distant states. It was by her mediation that Christianity was introduced among the Saxons in Great Britain. But the faction which Fredegonde had excited in Austrasia still existed, and with it all its virulence and hatred. For a time Brunehault triumphed over it. Yet the spirit of the queen was too haughty to conciliate; the factious nobles by degrees gained the ears of their young king, and Brunehault was obliged to fly into Burgundy. It might have been expected that she would have sought revenge in arming Theodoric against his brother. No: though her injuries were here great, she had still a bitterer enemy-the hatred of Fredegonde lived in the person of Chlotaire. The policy of

Brunehault united again the arms of Austrasia and Burgundy in an attack upon Chlotaire. He was prepared for the war, and even sought the combat; but, in the sanguinary battle of Dormelle, fought in the first year of the seventh century, his army was destroyed, and he was obliged to accept a disgraceful peace. Another battle, four years later, equally fatal to Chlotaire in its immediate results, was the first occasion of disagreement between the two sons of Childebert. Theodoric believed himself to be betrayed by his brother, who had entered into alliance with the King of Neustria; he raised an army to attack him, and was encouraged by Brunehault. But in Burgundy there were also violent jealousies; the hearts of the soldiers were not engaged in this war, and their rebellious conduct obliged him to make peace with Theodebert. The latter, reckoning too much on the weakness of the King of Burgundy, commenced the war, and by a base deceit succeeded in entrapping his brother, and in wresting from him important concessions. Theodoric hastened to revenge himself; in several engagements Theodebert was defeated, his armies were destroyed, and at length he was himself taken and put to death. His infant son experienced a similar fate. Theodoric became King of Austrasia as well as of Burgundy.

A terrible struggle approached between Theodoric and Chlotaire. But Providence suddenly changed the face of affairsthe former was seized by a dysentery and died, and his army disbanded itself. The result may be told in a few words. Brunehault, aged, yet still haughty and proud, made a resolute but vain attempt to secure the kingdoms of Burgundy and Austrasia to the descendants of Theodoric, though illegitimate. She acted with promptitude and skill; but Chlotaire had a powerful army in the field. Brunehault was deserted by the people for whom she fought; her army left her in the hour of combat; two of the sons of Theodoric were murdered; Brunehault fled, but was betrayed, and fell into the hands of her enemy. We will not describe the horrible degradations and violences which she suffered. The aged queen was brought forth like a malefactor for judgment, and was put to death after having endured all the torments which savage barbarity could invent. The kingdom of the Franks was united in the person of Chlotaire.

The history of the first race of the Frankish kings presents to us throughout a vivid picture of the evils of the Salic law-of that system which was distinguished by the absence of the rights of primogeniture. But the cure of the evil also arose among the institutions of the Franks. The office of mayor of the palace was originally one which was filled by the choice of the king, but after the death of Chlotaire, the blood of Merovée became de

based; union and reunion followed each other in quick succession; and, by the ambition and firmness of the mayors of the palace, aided by the weakness of the monarchs, their office was made hereditary. Such an office, it is clear, could not be divided, and in this case, at least, the right of primogeniture came in naturally and necessarily. As the weakness of the kings constantly increased, the powers of the mayors of the palace increased also; the elder Pepin and his son, the glorious Charles Martel, possessed virtually the kingly power; the race of the Merovings was fast approaching its end; the second Pepin effected the last reunion; he united the name with the exercise of royalty, two things which had been entirely separated during the days of his father and of his grandfather. The crown, now, like the office which had preceded it, was inherited by primogeniture, and the struggles of partition and reunion no longer racked and devastated the empire of the Franks.

ART. VIII.-Philosophie de l'Histoire Naturelle, ou Phénomènes de l'Organisation des Animaux et des Végétaux; par J. J. Virey. Paris, Bailliere, 1835. 8vo.

THAT the study of the works of creation is an almost intuitive feeling in the human mind is strongly evinced, even in the pleasure which children derive from gathering their little bunch of daisies; and the bird's-nesting excursions of the school-boy, and his fishing predilections, are but a stronger development of the same tendency. Natural objects invariably excite in children and youth pleasurable sensations; and it is not until we become the slaves of the utilitarian principles of advanced life, when commerce with the turbid society of cities has sophisticated earlier simplicity of manners, that, before we cordially take up any pursuit, we first ask what we can get by it, and that, unless a satisfactory reply can be made by the chink of the current coin of the realm, we hold the wonderful creations of Nature as idle objects of curiosity, and those who study them in silent contempt.

This might perhaps be explained by the progress of society: having, however, reached its culminating point and exhausted the whole course of sensual and physical enjoyment, and then found how vague and unsatisfactory it is to the inward man, we again resort to the great parent for a toy to amuse our tedium. This we play with for a time, until the intellectual faculties gradually arouse us to its closer contemplation; and in inspecting its structure, other wonders develop themselves, and what originated in