Note 101 — CHAPTER ONE.
Reading edition
When the tomb of Childeric, father of Clovis, was opened, there were found, besides the skeletons of his horse and page, his arms, a crystal orb and more than three hundred little ornaments resembling bees of the purest gold, their wing part being inlaid with a red stone like cornelian. It has, however, been asserted that they were what are called fleurons, supposed to have been attached to the harness of the monarch’s war-horse. Napoleon, wishing to have some regal emblem more ancient than the fleur-de-lis, adopted the fleurons or bees, and the green ground as the original Merovingian color, (Notes and Queries, viii. 30.)