" He expressed a willingness, however, to have
the Princess Clotilda brought up in his palace, which had been
her father's, and requested the priest Ugo of Rheims to remain
awhile, and look after the girl's education. In those days a
king's request was a command, and the good Ugo, though stern and
brave in the face of real danger, was shrewd enough to know that
it was best for him to yield to the king's wishes. So he
continued in the palace of the king, looking after the welfare of
his little charge, until suddenly the girl took matters into her
own hands, and decided his future and her own.
The kingdom of Burgundy, in the days of the Princess Clotilda,
was a large tract of country now embraced by Southern France and
Western Switzerland. It had been given over by the Romans to the
Goths, who had invaded it in the year 413. It was a land of
forest and vineyards, of fair valleys and sheltered hill-sides,
and of busy cities that the fostering hand of Rome had
beautified; while through its broad domain the Rhone, pure and
sparkling, swept with a rapid current from Swiss lake and
glacier, southward to the broad and beautiful Mediterranean.
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