the west, the Burgundian on the east, the Visigoth strongest of all and gentlest, in the south, from Loire to the sea.
Sketch for yourself, first, a map of France, as large as you like, as in Plate I., fig. I, marking only the courses of the five rivers, Somme, Seine, Loire, Saone, Rhone; then, rudely, you find it was divided at the time thus, fig. 2 : Fleur-de-lysée part, Frank; \\\, Breton; ///, Burgundian; 𝄘, Visigoth. I am not sure how far these last reached across Rhone into Provence, but I think best to indicate Provence as semee with roses.
Now, under Clovis, the Franks fight three great battles. The first, with the Romans, near Soissons, which they win, and become masters of France as far as the Loire. Copy the rough map fig. 2, and put the fleur-de-lys all over the middle of it, extinguishing the Romans (fig. 3). This battle was won by Clovis, I believe, before he married Clotilde. He wins his princess by it: cannot get his pretty vase, however, to present to her. Keep that story well in your mind, and the battle of Soissons, as winning mid-France for the French, and ending the Romans there, for ever. Secondly, after he marries Clotilde, the wild Germans attack him from the north, and he has to fight for life and throne at Tolbiac. This is the battle in which he prays to
