Legends -- Pyrenees; Pyrenees -- Description and travel; Pyrenees -- History
In a fury Gunthram ordered the embassy to be driven out of the palace
and pelted with horse-dung and rotten vegetables.
The Aquitanians flew to arms; Gundowald was crowned at Brives, and
marched to secure Toulouse. The ecclesiastics of the south to a man
favoured the pretender. Gunthram was alarmed, and at once detached his
nephew Childebert from the side of Gundowald, by the bribe of an offer
of the succession to the kingdom of the Franks after his death.
The reconciliation of the two kings discouraged the party of Gundowald.
The fickle Aquitanians were as hasty in deserting him as they had been
in acknowledging him. As a large army of the Franks was pouring south,
Gundowald was constrained to throw himself into Lugdunum Convenarum,
along with the grandees most compromised, as Duke Mummolus, and two
bishops, Sagittarius and Waddo.
Duke Boso, who had been foremost in instigating the rising, secured
all Gundowald’s treasures and fled with them. Mummolus and the bishops
only waited for an opportunity to betray him. The army of Gunthram
surrounded the town, lying all along in the plain. Then Mummolus and
the bishops advised the prince to throw himself on the mercy of his
brother Gunthram. “It was at your invitation,” answered he, “that I
came to Gaul. I was in Constantinople with my little children, in high
honour with the Emperor, when Boso sought me out and informed me of
the death of all my brothers save Gunthram, without issue, and that
Childebert, my nephew, was a poor creature. I allowed myself to be
persuaded to return to Gaul; and now this same Boso has stolen the
treasures I had brought with me, and has gone over to my brother who
is warring against me.” Then said Mummolus, “Do as we bid you. Divest
yourself of your golden baldric and sword and go forth. We swear to you
that no harm will befall you.” Seeing that nothing else was open to
him, that he could trust none of those who had egged him on, he issued
from the gates, and at once Mummolus closed them behind him. Otto,
Count of Bourges, received the prince and surrounded him with armed
men. Gundowald raised his hands to heaven and said, “Judge Eternal,
Avenger of the innocent! To Thee I commit my cause, and I pray Thee to
avenge me on my betrayers.”
As he was descending the hill, Otto dealt him a sharp blow on the back
that made him fall, saying, “This dauber of the walls of churches and
oratories is down at last!” Then raising his spear he attempted to
transfix him, but failed, owing to the armour worn by the prince.
Gundowald sprang to his feet, and turned to reascend the hill, when
Duke Boso, as base as he was treacherous, dashed a stone at his head
and crushed in his skull. The prince fell, and the men at arms, after
making sure that he was dead, tied his feet together, and dragged him
around the camp with jeers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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