Finished in one sitting last night Gregory of Tours' History of the Franks. I have read in various places stunned, halting, barely coherent allusions to the "unspeakable" Merovingians; but the reality as far outstrips the rumors as Giles de Rais does the Comte de Sade. Now I understand the significance of Charlemagne--and of all subsequent history of feudalism and state-sponsored terrorism. Now I can get cracking on those books on torture: I have established the historical framework. Think now (Can I ever forget?) of the horrid murder of Clotilda's young grandsons, despite her best, pitiful efforts to save them; and remember Clovis's wolfish/crocodilian half-humorous wish that he knew of some more close relatives--so that he could murder them too. I can't think of anything, even in Chinese history, or the plain facts of the necropornophilia of John Negroponte or Adolph Hitler, which so horrifyingly bespeak a tiger-sandshark or Kali-Durga underlying reality of evil.