Love with one of her Domesticks, and knowing him to have been kill'd by her Mother's Orders, feigned a thorough Reconciliation, and desir'd in Token of it to receive the Holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper with her Mother; but Privately mixing some Poyson in the Chalice, She at once gave the strangest Instance both of Impiety and Cruelty in thus murdering her own Mother. The Account given of it by _Gregory_ of _Tours_ is this: "They were (says he) of the _Arrian Sect_, and because it was their Custom that the Royal Family shou'd communicate at the Altar out of one Chalice, and People of Inferior Quality out of another. (_By the way, pray take notice of the Custom of Communicating in both kinds by the People._) She dropped Poyson into that Chalice out of which her Mother was to communicate; which as soon as she had tasted of it, kill'd her presently."--_Fredegunda, Queen-Mother_, and Widow of _Chilperick the First_, got the Government into her Hands; She, in her Husband's Time, lived in Adultery with one _Lander_; and as soon as she found out that her Husband _Chilperick_ had got Wind of it, she had him murdered, and presently seiz'd upon the Administration of the Kingdom as Queen-Mother, and Guardian of her Son _Clotharius_, and kept Possession of it for 13 Years; in the first Place she poyson'd her Son's Uncle _Childebert_, together with his Wife; afterwards she stirred up the _Hunns_ against his Sons, and raised a Civil War in the Republick. And lastly, She was the Firebrand of all those Commotions which wasted and burnt all _Francogallia_, during many Years, as _Aimoinus_ tells us, [lib. 3. cap. 36. & lib. 8. cap. 29.]