Chilperic imitating his predecessors, hoping to absolve himself of his
enormous crimes, in the year 606 founded the very interesting and
curious church of St. Germain, opposite the Louvre, and still an object
of admiration to the lover of antiquity. His wife Fredegonde, imagining
no doubt by that act he had made his peace for the other world, thought
that the sooner he went there the better, before he committed any
farther sins, and had him assassinated that she might the more
conveniently pursue her own course of iniquity; perhaps never was the
page of history blackened by such a list of atrocities committed by
woman as those perpetrated by her and her rival Queen Brunehault, who
was ultimately tied to the tail of a wild horse and torn to pieces in
613. Paris, however, notwithstanding the wickedness, injustice, and
cruelty of its rulers, continued to increase, and would no doubt have
become a prosperous city, had it not been for the incursions of the
Normands, who in the ninth century entered Paris, burnt some of the
churches, and meeting with scarcely any resistance, made themselves
masters of all they could find, whilst the Emperor Charles the Bald, at
the head of an army, had the pusillanimity to treat with them, and
finally to give them seven thousand pounds of silver to quit Paris,
which was only an encouragement for them to return, which they did in a
few years after, carrying devastation wherever they appeared, the poor
citizens of Paris being obliged to save their lives by flight, leaving
all their property to the mercy of the brigands. At length, the
Parisians finding that there was no security either for themselves or
their possessions, prevailed on Charles the Bald to give the requisite
orders for fortifying the city, which was so far accomplished that it
resisted the attacks of the Normans for thirteen months, who as
constantly laid siege to the grand tower which was its principal
defence, without being able to take it; when at last Charles the Fat in
887 proved as weak as his predecessors, and although he was encamped