She knew her uncle, the king of
Burgundy, too well. When once he was roused to action, he was
fierce and furious.
"Good Aurelian," she said at length to the king's ambassador, who
rode by her side: "if that thou wouldst take me into the presence
of thy lord, the king of the Franks, let me descend from this
carriage, mount me on horseback, and let us speed hence as fast
as we may, for never in this carriage shall I reach the presence
of my lord, the king."
And none too soon was her advice acted, upon for, the counsellors
of King Gundebald, noticing Clotilda's anxiety to be gone,
concluded that, after all, they had made a mistake in betrothing
her to King Clovis.
"Thou shouldst have remembered, my lord," they said, "that thou
didst slay Clotilda's father, her mother, and the young princes,
her brothers. If Clotilda become powerful, be sure she will
avenge the wrong thou hast wrought her."
And forthwith the king sent off an armed band, with orders to
bring back both the princess and the treasure he had sent with
her as her marriage portion. But already the princess and her
escort were safely across the Seine, where, in the Campania, or
plain-country,--later known as the province of Champagne--she met
the king of the Franks.
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