not so easily reduced; and from 715 to 718 the inhabitants, led by lords placed over them by the Visigoths, defended themselves against Alahor a new lieutenant of the Caliph's. In 719, Zama, who succeeded Alahor, crossed the Pyrenees, took Narbonne, put the inhabitants to the sword, founded a Saracen colony, and subdued the remainder of Spanish Languedoc, the ancient Septimania.

Having vainly endeavoured to penetrate into Provence in 720, the Arabians turned their forces against Toulouse, which they besieged in 721; but Zama was killed and his soldiers forced to retreat. A war of devastation was kept up till 725, when Ambigu, Zama's successor, passing the Pyrenees once more, took Nimes and Carcassonne, and advanced unopposed through the then kingdom of Bourgogne as far as Autun, which he took and plundered on the 22nd of August, 725. The Moslems then returned to Spain, and made no further attack on the South of France till 729, when Eudes, Duke of Aquitania, in order to obtain a lasting peace, granted his daughter in marriage to the Moslem general, Mumusa. But this chief being suspected, by Abderame the Caliph's lieutenant at Cordova, of a design to render himself absolute master of Languedoc and Catalonia, was put to death, and the Christian princess, his wife, sent to the Caliph's seraglio at Bagdad. Abderame then entered Gascony, took and pillaged Bordeaux, crossed the Dordogne, and defeated the Duke of Aquitania in a battle which ensued.

According to an old chronicle, Eudes himself called the Saracens to his assistance against Charles. Although the Duke and Charles Martel had for several years waged war against each other, yet the former being hard pressed by the Saracens, was constrained to have recourse to the latter for assistance. Charles, mayor of the palace, was in fact master of France, although the externals of royalty were worn by Thierry IV. The mayor received the Duke of Aquitania in a friendly manner, and determined on joining him in opposing the Moslems, who were about to attempt enslaving France as they had enslaved Spain. They had advanced as far as Poitiers and menaced Tours, when they were stopped by Charles, who gave them battle in October, 732. The Saracens were completely routed; and the hard blows dealt them in this engagement by Charles, are said to have obtained for him the surname Martel. Credulous writers, in later days, have gravely asserted that three hundred and sixty-five thousand Moslems (as many thousands as there are days in a year) were slain, while no more than fifteen hundred Franks had the glory of martyrdom on the occasion. However important this victory may have been, still it does not appear that Charles reaped from it all the advantage which was to be hoped for. The Sara

P Eudo namque Dux, cernens se superatum atque derisum (a Carolo), gentem perfidam Sarracenorum ad auxilium, contra Carolum Principem et gentem Francorum, excitavit. FREDEGAR. SCHOL. Chron. jussu Childeb. conscrip. chap. 108.

cens retreated, murdering the Christians, pillaging houses, and devastating the country, and were joined by some of the great Christian lords, who were opposed to Charles. The old chronicles speak with terror of these successive invasions; a terror most strikingly depicted in the strange stories of miracles which they mention, as having been necessary to check such enemies. This terror was perhaps the source of those traditions on which the heroic poems are founded. One Duke Mauronte, not only joined the Saracens against Charles, but treacherously delivered Avignon into their hands. This place was, however, retaken and burnt, its inhabitants being put to the sword by their brethren and deliverers. Charles even laid siege to Narbonne, and defeated an army sent to its relief; but was finally compelled to raise the siege in 737.

Liutprand, King of Lombardy, was not without apprehensions lest the Saracens, whose ships covered the Mediterranean, and whose armies had such strong hold in Provence, might pass over to Italy. He therefore entered into an alliance with Charles, and while the Lombards took possession of the passes on the Alps, the French swept all the sea coast as far as Marseilles, expelling the Saracens from their forts, driving Mauronte for shelter to the mountains, and punishing those lords who, faithless to their country and religion, had joined the enemies of both.

Charles died on the 21st of October, 741, leaving Provence tranquil. Internal discords, rather than his victories, had arrested the progress

of the Saracens; and the clergy condemned to everlasting flames a general whom they might have been expected to canonize. Their conduct is, however, easily accounted for. Charles Martel had obliged the clergy to contribute towards the expences of a war in which they were more interested than other people, and also rewarded the valour of his soldiers by conferring on them ecclesiastical benefices. In a national council held at Kiersi in 858, the right reverend fathers proclaimed that as Charles Martel had dared to separate and divide the property of the church, he was damned to all eternity. 'We know, indeed,' added the holy fathers,' that St. Eucharius, Bishop of Orleans, once being at prayers, had a vision, and amongst other things which he saw, and which the Lord pointed out to him, he recognised Charles tormented in the deepest abyss of hell.' In this manner the council proceeded alleging other matters all equally true with that just related. Granting that a person might be seen in hell, Charles Martel would have had a better chance of beholding the holy Bishop in that place, since His Reverence died three years before him.

Under Pepin, the successor of Charles, the good understanding between the Franks and Lombards was put an end to by the charitable offices of

a Charles Martel, we are told, had occasion to send one of his knights to hell, who accordingly went, and returned. See the notes to the genealogy of the heroes of romances, at the end of the volume. Whether he went to look after the bishop we are not informed.

Pope Stephen II., or, according to others, of Stephen III. The Lombards appear to have frequently invaded the Dukedom of Rome, belonging nominally to the Greeks. Pope Stephen proceeded to France to crave assistance from Pepin against the Lombards, and in consequence of this application Lombardy was invaded. King Astolph agreed to indemnify the pontiff for the damage done to the church, and promised to molest him no more, upon which understanding Pepin withdrew his troops into France. Astolph did not keep his engagement, but actually besieged Rome; whereupon the Pope, in order to rouse the Franks to his assistance, sent them an authentic copy of a dispatch, which he had received from St. Peter respecting this business. Pepin again crossed the Alps, and forced Astolph to accept the conditions which he was pleased to impose upon him. The Lombards were obliged to surrender their conquest in the Italian provinces belonging to the Greek empire, restoring them not to that power, but to the Holy See. In 756, Astolph died of a fall from his horse, and Pope Stephen communicated the glad tidings to Pepin in the following 'That tyrant, that partizan of the devil, Astolph, that savage who thirsted for Christian blood, that plunderer of the church of God, struck by a blow of divine vengeance, has been hurled into the lowest abyss of hell.' Such was

terms:

" He is called Stephen III. by those who reckon another Stephen who, it is said, was pope a very few days only, and of whom nothing more is known.