tell her what he saw. In a trance-like voice the king replied: “I see a great light upon the plain, although all around is blackest night.” He paused; then, at her bidding, proceeded again: “I see an immense concourse of wild animals—the lion, the tiger, the spotted pard, the elephant, the unicorn—ah! they are coming this way—they will devour us!” and he turned to flee in great terror. Basina bade him stay in peremptory tones and again to look out over the plain. In a voice of alarm he cried out: “I see bears and wolves, jackals and hyenas. Heaven help us, the others are all gone!” Heedless of his terror, the queen bade him look again and, for the last time, tell her what he saw. “I see now dogs and cats and little creatures of all kinds. But there is one small animal—smaller than a mouse—who commands them all. Ah! he is eating them up—swallowing them all—one after another.” As he looked the light, the plain, the animals all vanished, and darkness fell. Basina then read to him the meaning of his vision. “The first vision you saw indicated the character of our immediate successors. They will be as bold as lions, terrible as tigers, strong as elephants, uncommon as unicorns, beautiful as the pard. These are the men of an age; for a century shall they rule over the land.” At this Childeric was delighted and ejaculated a fervent “Praise be to the gods!” “The second,” pursued Basina, “are the men of the following century—our more remote descendants—rude as the bear, fell as the wolf, fawning as the jackal, cruel as the hyena—the curse of their people and—themselves. The last one—the following century—they will be weak, timid, irresolute—the prey of every base and low thing, the victims of violence, deceit, and cunning; vanquished and destroyed at last by the smallest of their own subjects.” Such was Childeric’s vision and his queen’s interpretation. As she had predicted, the Merovingian dynasty lasted three hundred years, when it was overturned by one Pepin of Heristal, the smallest man of his day—at
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