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History of the Franks

St Gregory of Tours, tr. Dalton, 1927

Book 6, 33. Of Locusts, Sicknesses, and Prodigies

In the ninth year of King Childebert,¹ King Guntram himself restored to his nephew the part of Marseilles belonging to him.²

Envoys of King Chilperic returned from Spain with the news that the province of Carpitania had been ravaged by locusts, so that there remained not a tree, not a vine, not a thicket, not a crop, no, not any green thing which the locusts had not destroyed. They further reported that the enmity which had sprung up between Leuvigild and his son³ was now in full violence. The pest had also devastated various regions, but raged with especial fury in the city of Narbonne. Three years had passed since it had won a hold there, and it seemed to have died out; but now the returning fugitives were once more consumed by the disease; the city of Albi in like manner suffered very greatly under this plague.⁴

In those days there appeared at midnight in the northern sky a multitude of rays which shone with an exceeding splendour; they came together, went apart again, and vanished in all directions. So brilliant was the heaven towards the north that it seemed the breaking of the dawn.

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