"It was a horrible spectacle--I shall presently describe it to you, but I must first return to our own affairs. Faithful to our promise to Loysik, we drew nearer to the boundaries of Burgundy. That region, one of the first that was conquered before Clovis by other hordes of barbarians that preceded him from Germany and were called Burgunds, was full of heroic souvenirs of old Gaul. It was there that, at the voice of Vercingetorix, the Chief of the Hundred Valleys, the people first rose in arms against the Romans. Epidorix, Convictolitan, Lictavic and other patriots of that province joined with their several tribes the Chief of the Hundred Valleys, all anxious to join him in doing battle for the freedom of Gaul." "And I suppose that once so brave region has undergone the fate of the others?" "There, as elsewhere, Kervan, the bishops undermined the mental virility of the people, besotted them, and rendered them submissive prey to the conquerors." "But here in our Armorican Gaul, both the Christian and the non-Christian druids preach to us the love of country and hatred for the oppressor." "And, consequently, Brittany has remained free. It happened otherwise with the unfortunate province that I am speaking of. Since the year 355 its population began to degenerate visibly. Two chiefs of barbarian hordes, Westralph and Chnodomar, invaded the region; other barbarians, Burgunds by name, who came from the region of Mayence, in torn drove away the first invaders and established themselves at about the year 416. These Burgunds, who gave their name to the region, were a pastoral people and less savage than the other tribes that poured in from Germany. The larger number of the original inhabitants were either cut to pieces or led into slavery at the time of the first conquest in 355. Although held in slavery by the Burgunds, the lot of the surviving portion of the population was less wretched than that of their brothers in most of the other conquered provinces. Gondiok, Gondehaud and his son Sigismond succeeded one another as kings until 534. In that year, Childebert and Clotaire, sons of Clovis, fell upon the Burgunds, and, although these were of their own Germanic race, laid their country waste, enslaved both Burgunds and Gauls, and attached the territory to the domain of the Frankish kingdom." "What devastation! What bloodshed!"