1^6 HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. 



Great a most valuable present consisted of a few horses. 

 At the reception of Theodebert by his uncle Childebert, 

 king of Paris, among all the considerable gifts he received, 

 none excited so much admiration as six horses;' and when 

 Theodebert entered Italy in 539, with an army of 100,000 

 combatants, the only mounted men were a few armed 

 with lances who formed his body-guard. All the others 

 were footmen.^ 



The renowned Clovis himself, after defeating the 

 Visigoths at Vouglc, went to the tomb of Saint Martin to 

 return thanks for his victory, and presented the monastery 

 with the horse he rode at the battle. But so scarce were 

 good horses, that in a very short time he repented hav- 

 ing bestowed his courser, and offered to buy it again 

 for fifty marks of silver. The monks, however, sent an 

 answer that Saint Martin was very tenacious of the pre- 

 sent made to him ; so that Clovis was obliged to double 

 the amount in order to overcome the defunct Saint's 

 scruples. This crafty stratagem caused the impious Si- 

 cambre to murmur in his beard, ' Saint Martin does his 

 friends good service, but he sells it somewhat dear.' 



When the nobles or their families travelled it was 

 either on foot, or in carriages {bastenie) drawn by oxen ; 

 kings even journeyed in this manner, and the possession 

 of horses did not denote nobility or wealth. Martin, 

 alluding to this period, gives us an example of this 

 undignified mode of progression, ' Clodowig hastened 

 to send an official ambassador to Gondebald, who, not 

 without hesitation, permitted the deputies to espouse 



' Gregnr. Turn)!. Lib. iii. pp. 24, 198. 

 " Sisrnondi. Op. cit. vol. i. p. 275. 



