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History of the Franks

St Gregory of Tours, tr. Dalton, 1927

Book 5, 50. What Things Bishop Salvius Foretold Concerning Chilperic

I should have recorded above a conversation which I had with the holy bishop Salvius,¹ but since it then escaped me it may perchance not be taken amiss if I add it in this place. When the aforesaid council was at an end, and I was about to return home, having already bidden the king farewell, I was unwilling to depart without embracing Salvius again. I sought him therefore, and found him in the court of the royal dwelling at Berny. I told him that I was on the point of returning home. Then, as we were talking of one thing and another, having withdrawn a little from the house, he said to me: ‘Canst thou see above the roof that which I see?’ I answered: ‘I can see the superstructure which the king recently ordered to be erected.’ ‘And thou beholdest nothing more?’ ‘Nothing more can I see,’ I answered, for I suspected him of joking with me. I added: ‘If thou discernest anything more, tell me what it is.’ He fetched a deep sigh, and said: ‘I behold the drawn sword of the divine wrath suspended over this house.’ Nor was the bishop wrong in his presage. Twenty days later passed away the king’s two sons, whose death I have already related.²

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