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History of the Franks
St Gregory of Tours, tr. Dalton, 1927
Book 6, 44. Of Divers Signs
In this year the locusts which for five years had ravaged the province of Carpitania1 moved forward, following the great highway, and entered another and neighbouring province; they covered a space fifty miles long by a hundred broad. In this year also many marvellous sights were seen in Gaul, and the people knew much desolation. Roses were seen in January; the sun was encircled by a ring of various colours, like those of the rainbow after the fall of rain. Frost nipped the vines, doing great damage; a tempest followed, which in many places made havoc of vines and crops. Then, what the hail had spared was consumed by a terrible drought; in some vineyards a few grapes were seen here and there, in others there were none at all. Men were wroth with God; they laid open the gates of their vineyards and turned in the cattle and horses, in their misery calling down ruin on themselves, and crying: ‘Let no shoot grow from these stocks to the end of time!’ Trees which in July had borne apples in September bore a second crop. Disease again and again fell upon the flocks, till scarce a beast remained.
Notes
- Cf. above, ch. 24 (33).