In these days Austrechild, King Guntram's wife, was taken by this plague. … As Herod had done before her, she is said to have made this last request to the king: “I should still have some hope of recovery if my death had not been made inevitable by the treatment prescribed for me by these wicked doctors. It is the medicines which they have given me which have robbed me of my life and forced me thus to lose the light of day. I beseech you, do not let me die unavenged. Give me your solemn word, I beg you, that you will cut their throats the moment that my eyes have closed in death. If I have really come to the end of my life, they must not be permitted to glory in my dying. …” As she said this, she died. When the funeral was over, the King was forced by this dying wish of his evil consort to commit the foul deed which she begged of him. At his orders the two doctors who had lavished their skill upon her were put to the sword….