Wichmann

Wid III.50


III.50. Therefore, as we related above, since Wichmann failed to provide a justification against his paternal uncle, he was under guard within the palace. When the king wished to depart for Bavaria, he [Wichmann] refused the journey by feigning illness. The emperor then reminded him that, his father and mother gone, he had taken him in as a son and educated him liberally and promoted him to his father’s honor; he asked that he not cause him trouble, since he was burdened with many other things. Hearing nothing useful in reply to this, the emperor left, having entrusted him to count Ibo. After spending a considerable number of days with him, Wichmann asked permission to go into the forest for the sake of hunting. Secretly taking companions with him there, he returned to his fatherland and, having occupied some burgs and with Ekbert having joined him, took up arms against the emperor. But the diligence of dux Hermann suppressed them easily and forced them across the Elbe. Since they had perceived themselves unable to resist the duke, they allied themselves to two subreguli of the barbarians already hostile to the Saxons at that time, Nakon and his brother.