FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE SPANISH WAR,

TO THE INCORPORATION OF SAXONY WITH THE FRENCH DOMINIONS.

FROM 777 TO 780.

 

A twofold traitor to his religion and his country had, about the year 710, courted the Arabs from Africa into Spain. Whether revenge or ambition was the motive, is a question of little import here; it is sufficient that Count Julian betrayed his country and his God. A divided people and a feeble king on the one hand, and a daring commander with a veteran host on the other, decided the fate of the Gothic throne, and, by the close of the year 714, Spain, with the exception of a few remote districts, was subdued by the Arabs, from the columns of Hercules to the chain of the Pyrenees. The government of the conquered country was entrusted to the lieutenants of the caliphs; and the spirit of war had then so strong an influence on the Arab race, that few of the Spanish governors contented themselves, without adding something to that which their predecessors had acquired.

The Pyrenees were thus soon passed; and, a short time before the close of the Merovingian dynasty in France, a considerable portion of the southern districts of that country was under the Saracen dominion. The celebrated Abdurrahman, seeking to extend his power still farther, fell before the arm of Charles Martel, and the Saracens, retiring from France, contented themselves with their territories in Spain.

For the space of fifty years, the Iberian peninsula remained dependent upon the throne of the caliphs; but domestic dissensions soon began to diminish the vigor of the race of Mahomet. A powerful faction sprang up against the children of Omar, who had for so long possessed the great Oriental throne. Two bloody battles decided the fate of the caliphate; and a cruel system of extermination destroyed the major part of the unfortunate Omaides.

While the house of Abbas, however,—the greatest which ever swayed the scepter of the East,—established itself firmly in the heart of the Mahommedan world, one of the rival race of Omar escaped to Spain, where the party of his family was predominant, and about the same period at which the Merovingian dynasty ended in France, and Pepin assumed the throne of that country, Spain separated from the dominion of the caliphs, and placed herself under a monarch of her own. This state of independence, of course, was not established without a contest; but the officer sent against Abdurrahman, now caliph of Cordova, was defeated and slain, and the power of the new sovereign was confirmed by victory. The subjects over whom he was called to reign, were divided between Jews, Christians, and Mahommedans of the two sects of Abbas and Omar. Clemency and protection were, in general, shown to the Christians, and favor and regard to the Jews; but, according to the common course of human feeling, the very suspicion of being one of the party of Abbassides—the heretical usurpers of the caliphate—was enough to call down every species of severity and intolerance.

Besides those Christians who had submitted to the Arab yoke, and lived contented under the dominion of their conquerors, a portion of the ancient Gothic race still remained unsubdued in the heart of the Asturias, strong in bold, free, and independent hearts, but weak in number and in means. Such were the inhabitants of Spain, when, in the heart of Saxony, the monarch of the Francs was visited by one of the Saracen Emirs of Aragon, praying for protection and redress, and offering to hold the whole of his territories from Charlemagne, rather than from the crown of Cordova.

In all revolutions, such as those which had lately taken place in Spain, the natural tendency of private ambition is to divide the state, rather than to consolidate it. Selfishness, joined with talent, has, in all political convulsions, the greatest room for exertion; and each man who possesses the power, the activity, and the courage to struggle, aims at individual independence, if not at general dominion. In many instances this took place in Spain; and we find a multitude of petty princes rendering themselves wholly or partially free from the domination of the monarchs of Cordova. Whether this desire was the motive of Ibn al Arabi, as the Saracen who visited Charlemagne is termed by the annalists, or whether he was one of the hated Abbassides, whom oppression had driven to revolt, does not appear. His vengeance or his ambition, however, took larger views than that of his fellows, when it led him a thousand miles across a strange and Christian country, to seek support from the conquering monarch of the Francs. To that monarch he held out a prospect of easy victory, extended dominion, and vast advantage; and his petition met with immediate attention.

CHARLEMAGNE IN SPAIN

Charlemagne undertook to invade Spain; and it must be here remarked, that this was the first war in which that great warrior ever engaged, with the sole view to conquest. The war of Aquitaine had been the act of a sovereign to correct and repress a revolted vassal,—that of Saxony, to defend his frontier, and punish the aggressors on his land,—the invasion of Italy, to fulfill the duties of an office he had long before accepted, and to deliver and protect a devoted friend. But the Saracens had committed no new infringement of the French territory,—no old and dear ally was to be defended by his expedition,—and, making every allowance on the score of Christian zeal, and the desire of protecting the oppressed Goths of Spain, this remains still the most unjustifiable war in which Charlemagne was ever engaged. But the desire for conquest and aggrandizement, like every other passion of human nature—and even more than any other—increases by habit and indulgence. Charlemagne had been educated to war, and pampered by victory; yet, through his life, his moderation is much more conspicuous than his excess.

In order that no long march might fatigue his troops and delay his progress, Charlemagne passed the winter in Aquitaine, collecting all his forces on the frontier he meant to violate. In the spring, as soon as the defiles of the Pyrenees were passable, he led one large division of his army through the mountains into Spain, and advanced rapidly upon Saragossa. At the same time, a considerable force, raised in Burgundy, Austrasia, and even Lombardy, passed the mountains of Roussillon, and made themselves masters of Catalonia. Their progress and success were rapid and extraordinary; and, after taking possession of Barcelona, Huesca, Gerona, and other neighboring towns, they advanced across the country, and joined their monarch at Saragossa.

Though the whole of that part of the country is highly defensible—though the Arabs of that day possessed more military skill and warlike energy than perhaps any European nation—and though the cities of Aragon and Catalonia were both strongly garrisoned and fortified, yet little or no resistance was offered by any place except Pampeluna. From these circumstances, and from a number of active military operations, which were almost immediately after undertaken by the Goths of the Asturias, it is more than probable that the Mahommedan monarch, embarrassed with doubtful friends and internal enemies, wore unprepared with any sufficient means to oppose the formidable army of the invaders. Whether the resistance of Pampeluna itself was at all vigorous, is not distinctly stated in any contemporary account; but it may be inferred that the struggle was severe, from the marks of triumph and precaution which followed its fall. A medal was struck, to commemorate the capture of the city; and the walls Mere razed to the ground, to guard against the consequences of future revolt.

The rest of Navarre and Aragon was soon reduced to submission. Ibn al Arabi and his companions were restored to their dominions, whatever those dominions were, and, giving hostages and tribute, rendered themselves in some degree vassals of the crown of France. The pledges, either offered by Abu Taurus, one of the Saracen Emirs, or exacted from him, were his brother and his son; and it is but reasonable to suppose, that the degree of protection granted, was in proportion to such a high price as the exile of two near and dear relations.

Garrisons were now placed in particular cities, to secure the country which had been won; every measure of precaution and defence was adopted; and what has been called "the Spanish March", comprising a broad band of country, extending along the southern foot of the Pyrenees, was added to the dominion of Charlemagne.

It is not easy to say, whether the acquisition and preservation of this territory by the Frankish monarch was designed from the first by cautious policy, or merely originated in the spirit of conquest. In a political point of view, however, it was infinitely well judged. The passages of the Pyrenees, which had ever been a refuge for the turbulent and treacherous Gascons, were thus secured. A barrier was placed between them and their old allies, the Saracens of Spain. The keys of the southern frontier of France, which had been heretofore in the hands of the Arabs, were thenceforth entrusted to Charlemagne's own subjects; and while the complete and final reduction of the whole of Aquitaine to law and submission, was ultimately ensured, his Pyrenean provinces, from the Gulf of Lyons to the Bay of Biscay, were secured from invasion.

Although the conquest of the Spanish March had been easy and nearly unopposed, Charlemagne was not suffered ultimately to fix his power in so important a district without a struggle. The time he was forced to employ in perfecting the various arrangements for incorporating the acquired territory with the rest of France, and in providing for its government, both civil and ecclesiastical, gave room for preparation on the part of the Saracens. A large army was collected, and poured down into Aragon. The Francs were attacked near Saragossa, but after a battle of several hours, in which many thousands of the Mahommedans were slain, victory declared in favor of the French monarch; and his new dominions in Spain were secured. After this success, Charlemagne proceeded calmly to complete that regular organization in the state of the province, which he always endeavored to introduce into every country he conquered. But before long, the news from his northern frontier became of such a nature as to call him back from the scene before him, with all the rapidity which never failed to attend his movements on every occasion of importance.

Dangers of the most pressing kind were represented as threatening the provinces on the Rhine; and the monarch's march was immediately directed towards the Pyrenees. Dividing his forces into two bodies, he advanced in person, at the head of the first division, and, for the sake of greater speed in his own progress, left all the baggage with the rear guard, which was strong in men, and commanded by some of the most renowned chieftains of his army. The names of Eggiard and Anselm have come down to us, together with that of Rolando, or Orlando, the nephew of Charlemagne, as the commanders of the second division, which had to suffer much from unforeseen hostility.

It must be remembered that Lupo Duke of Gascony, on delivering up his rebellious uncle Hunald, had been suffered to retain his duchy, which, from its position among the Pyrenean mountains, fully as much as its tenure, was but slightly dependent upon the crown of France. Lupo was ambitious as well as treacherous, and was filled with the same turbulent and rebellious spirit which had animated his ancestors. The sovereignty of the French monarch was alone tolerable so long as it was distant and unexercised; and tranquility was only to be expected while powerful armies enforced obedience, or suspended authority left the shadow of independence. To a man of such a character the acquisition of a large territory on the southern side of the mountains by Charlemagne was anything but agreeable. He saw himself surrounded on all sides by the dominions of a monarch against whom he eagerly sought an opportunity of revolt; and, with the mad miscalculation of his own powers which had ruined every other member of his family, he prepared to offer an outrage to his sovereign which could only be productive of temporary advantage to himself, and could never be forgiven by the king. It is probable that he had only suffered Charlemagne to enter Spain without molestation because he had no power of opposing him. But when he found that the ravages of the Saxons called the monarch imperatively to the north, and that the rear-guard of his army, loaded with baggage and treasure, was separated from the rest of the troops, he resolved upon an undertaking for which punishment seemed remote, and in which success was probable, and rapine sure.

BATTLE OF RONCESVALLES

The Pyrenees, extending in a continuous line from the Bay of Biscay to the borders of the Mediterranean, rise in a long straight ridge, the superior points of which are but a few yards lower than the summit of Mont Blanc. In the highest part of the chain there are occasional apertures; and from the main body of the mountains long masses of inferior hills are projected into the plain country on either side, decreasing in height as they proceed, till they become imperceptibly blended with the level ground around. Between these steep natural buttresses, narrow valleys, sometimes spreading out into gruid basins, sometimes straitened into defiles of a few yards in width, wind on towards the only passes from one country to another. The roads, skirting along the bases of the hills—which, to the present day, are frequently involved in immense and trackless woods—have always beneath them a mountain torrent, above which they are raised, as on a terrace, upon the top of high and rugged precipices. A thousand difficulties beset the way on every side, and nature has surrounded the path with every means of ambush and concealment.

Mounted on heavy horses, and loaded with a complete armor of iron, the soldiers of Charlemagne returned from their victorious expedition into Spain, and entered the gorges of the Pyrenees, without ever dreaming that an enemy beset their footsteps.

The monarch himself, with the first division of his host, was suffered to pass unmolested; but when the second body of the Francs, following leisurely at a considerable distance, had entered the wild and narrow valley called the Roscida Vallis (now Roncesvalles), the woods and mountains around them suddenly bristled into life, and they were attacked on all sides by the perfidious Gascons, whose light arms, distant arrows, and knowledge of the country, gave them every advantage over their opponents.

In tumult and confusion, the Francs were driven down into the bottom of the pass, embarrassed both by their arms and baggage. The Gascons pressed them on every point, and slaughtered them like a herd of deer, singling them out with their arrows from above, and rolling down the rocks upon their heads. Never wanting in courage, the Francs fought to the last man, and died unconquered. Rolando and his companions, after a thousand deeds of valor, were slain with the rest; and the Gascons, satiated with carnage, and rich in plunder, dispersed amongst the mountains, leaving Charlemagne to seek for immediate vengeance in vain.

The battle must have been fierce and long, and the struggle great, though unequal; for, during the lapse of many centuries, tradition has hung about the spot, and the memory of Rolando and his companions is consecrated in a thousand shapes throughout the country. Part of his armor has there given name to a flower; the stroke of his sword is shown upon the mountains; the tales and superstitions of the district are replete with his exploits and with his fame; and even had not Ariosto, on the slight basis which history affords, raised up the splendid structure of an immortal poem, and dedicated it to the name of Rolando, that name would still have been repeated through all the valleys of the Pyrenees, and ornamented with all the fictions of a thousand years.

The news of this disaster soon reached Charlemagne, and he immediately paused on his march, to seek vengeance for the death of his followers. But the Gascons had dispersed amidst the impenetrable fastnesses of their mountains; no present enemy was to be found; the Saxons were ravaging the territories of France; and the monarch, with the joy of all his Spanish triumphs clouded, was obliged to continue his journey towards the north. Other circumstances, however, clearly establish that the perfidious Duke of the Gascons was afterwards taken, and forfeited his life as a punishment for his treason, although it is difficult, if not impossible, to ascertain at what precise period this retribution was accomplished.

It was some consolation to the French monarch to find, that the evil consequences which this signal defeat of a part of his army might have produced, did not follow. Notwithstanding the death of so great a number of their conquerors, the Saracen inhabitants of Navarre and Catalonia did not attempt to throw off the yoke which had been imposed upon them. The Spanish March remained for the time in tranquility, and Charlemagne pursued his journey towards the north.

The events which called him from the scene of his late conquests, were such as admitted no unnecessary delay. His absence during the winter in Aquitaine, and his march into Spain, had removed from the Saxons, the terror of his immediate neighborhood, and had given both time for preparation, and opportunity of revolt. Such an occasion was not lost by a nation whose habit was to wander, whose delight was war, and whose occupation was pillage. Witikind returned from Denmark almost immediately after Charlemagne's departure; and soon, by his eloquence, roused the whole mass of his countrymen to throw off the indifference with which they had beheld the precautions taken by the monarch against their future irruptions. The visit of the Saxon chief to the savage courts of the north, had not tended at all to civilize his mind, or to open his eyes to the general principles of equity. Still forgetting the aggressions his own nation had committed, to him the forts built by the French king appeared as fetters on the Saxon people. The act of repelling or chastising their irruptions, he viewed as ambitious encroachment, or triumphant insult; and, animated himself by a wild spirit of liberty and a desire of vengeance, he found his purpose seconded amongst his countrymen by the predatory habits of ages, and the warlike character of barbarism.

In a short time the whole of the Westphalians were in arms; and, while Charlemagne was still in Spain, they were ravaging all the German provinces of France, even to the very banks of the Rhine. Often as they had invaded the Frankish territory, and little as they were accustomed to show mercy, their present irruption left all their former ones far behind in cruelty and depredation. Nothing was spared,—neither age, nor sex, nor condition. The child was murdered at the breast, the priest at the altar, the peasant by his hearth. Fire and death accompanied them on their way, and ruin and desolation spread out behind their footsteps. Finding that they could not pass the Rhine in safety, they ravaged the whole territory from Cologne to Coblenz. The monks fled from their monasteries, the citizens quitted the towns; nothing resisted their approach, nothing survived their passage; and all was confusion and destruction, rapine, massacre, and flame.

BATTLE OF THE ADERN

Such were the tidings that every day met the ear of Charlemagne, as he advanced from the south of France towards the north; and, finding that he could not lead forward his heavier forces with all the celerity that the occasion instantly demanded, he dispatched his lighter troops from Auxerre, with orders to make all speed, and, if possible, to overtake the Saxons on the territory of France, that their aggression might be punished where it had been committed. The troops chosen for this purpose, were all either of the eastern tribes of Francs or of the German tributaries, whose lands and dwelling-places were the first on every occasion to fall a prey to the Saxon invasions. Every personal inducement to speed, therefore, was added to the injunction of the monarch; but ere their arrival, the enemy, sated with blood and gorged with plunder, were once more returning to their native country.

Thus the Frankish army, notwithstanding the rapidity with which it always moved, did not succeed in coming up with the retreating Saxons, till they had traversed the greater part of Hesse; but at the moment the plunderers were crossing the river Adern, they found themselves assailed by the forces of Charlemagne. The very act of pursuing gave impetus to the Francs; while national hatred, and individual revenge, added the energy of passion to the vigor of constitutional courage. At the same time, the Saxons were already retreating, an act which too often degenerates into flight. They had accomplished their object; were loaded with spoil; the sloth of satiety hung upon their actions; their own country was before their steps, and escape was too near for resistance to be vigorous.

Thus, while they were embarrassed with the passage of the river, the Frankish cohorts poured in upon them. A feeble resistance but added to the slaughter; and very few survived to carry to their own country the tidings of their successful irruption, their retreat, and their defeat.

To fight and conquer in two far separated countries, within the space of a few months, was common to the Francs under the command of Charlemagne; but a long campaign in Spain, and a march of nearly twelve hundred miles, had so far exhausted the year, that no farther movement could be made against the Saxons till the return of spring.

The other events which may be traced to this year, now call our attention to the civil government of Charlemagne, —an object, when considered in reference to the age in which he lived, far more interesting and extraordinary than all his great military operations. During the active scenes in which he had been lately engaged—the continual movement and incessant occupation in which he had existed—no part of his vast territories was neglected; and his eyes were alternately turned with careful attention to Italy, to Germany, and to France.

Ascending the throne in a barbarous period, when internal policy was perfectly in its infancy, and the whole mechanism of society rude and irregular, Charlemagne could not be expected to change, by the simple power of his own mind, the constitution of his whole race, rekindle in an instant the extinguished light of past ages, or hurry into maturity the whole fruits of coming years. The performance of such a task was not within the grasp of human faculties; but what he did do, when joined with the circumstances in which he was placed—surrounded on every side by darkness, superstition, and prejudices, and having to vanquish them all—shows him as great a conqueror in the moral as in the physical world; and raises him to the highest pitch of human grandeur, by evincing that he not only overcame the barbarians of his time, but also overcame the barbarism itself.

Whatever were the warlike undertakings in which the monarch was engaged, and whatever were the immense demands upon his time and attention, no evil to his fellow creatures which was brought before him, ever passed without notice and correction,— no effort to purify and improve the state of society was forgotten. We find instances to justify this assertion in every part of his reign; but at the present period, a great occasion for exertion and remonstrance presented itself, and was not neglected, although that remonstrance was necessarily directed against an authority for which he strove to inculcate respect, and towards which he always set the example of due reverence.

While in the midst of his preparations for the war in Spain, information was by some means conveyed to him, that the odious traffic in slaves was permitted in Rome; and not a few complaints reached him, about the same time, concerning the irregularities of the Italian clergy. To both these points his attention was immediately directed, and a strong remonstrance was addressed by him to Pope Adrian, pressing the reformation of the abuses which were said for exist. Adrian immediately replied, and, in the most positive terms, assured Charlemagne that no such trade in slaves was carried on between the Romans and the Saracens, as had been asserted. The Lombards, he said, it was true, were in the custom of selling slaves by means of the Greeks who frequented their ports,—a custom which he had in vain attempted to prevent, The lives, also, of the priests under his own inspection he boldly defended, and declared that their accuser had calumniated them basely by the charge he had brought against them.

Whether this explanation proved satisfactory to the monarch or not, does not appear; but the terms of Charlemagne's letter sufficiently evince, that he still considered Rome as under his sovereign dominion; and the reply of Pope Adrian equally proves his submission to the jurisdiction of the Patrician. Various other matters of civil polity occupied the attention of the monarch of the Francs about this timeand he had an opportunity of displaying his clemency and moderation in a manner which changed a doubtful vassal into a firm and attached friend. Not long after the return of Charlemagne from Spain, Hildebrand, Duke of Spoleto, who had been one of the first in the conspiracy of the Duke of Friuli, but who had remained at once unpunished and unpardoned, trusting to the character of the sovereign, visited his court in France, and, with magnificent presents, renewed the homage he had cast off. His rebellion, which had never proceeded to open warfare, was immediately forgotten in this voluntary act of confidence. His gifts were accepted, but returned by others in full proportion and, after being entertained with splendor at the court of the monarch, he was dismissed to his own land a grateful and faithful subject.

Before joining the forces, which were in active preparation, for renewing the war against the Saxons, Charlemagne also issued a new capitulary, containing a variety of important laws on various subjects, some regulating the proceedings of the church, some affecting the duties of the various judges, and some regarding the people in general. The absence of all classification is the great want observable in these laws, and is the strongest symptom of the barbarism of the age. Various efforts, however, to overcome that barbarism are likewise to be noticed. Though considerable power is still entrusted to the clergy, several rules are laid down, for the purpose of enforcing regularity in their lives. The privilege of screening offenders found worthy of death, which has been so often claimed by the church, is formally rejected by the voice of the monarch; while a law against the exportation of arms, shows how much Charlemagne was obliged to look upon his nation as a military people.

As soon as the season permitted, Charles was once more at the head of his army; and, entering Saxony, he passed by the spot where the idol Irminsul had once stood, but which was now covered by a growing town, and advancing towards the Lippe, prepared to take signal vengeance of his incorrigible enemies. At first the Saxons displayed a strong disposition to trust to the force of arms, rather than once more appeal to the clemency they had so often abused; and at a place called Bucholtz, the situation of which is now unknown, their army was drawn up, to oppose the farther progress of the French monarch. The sight of the multitude of their enemies, however, shook their courage as the battle was about to close, and while only a few had fallen on either side, the Saxons fled precipitately, leaving the path open to Charlemagne. This flight was but a prelude to submission; and, proceeding rapidly through the country, the French sovereign, according to his custom, abandoned his more hostile intentions on the prayers and promises of his enemies. More unconditional submission, however, was demanded of the Saxons after their last aggression, and Charlemagne began to treat them as a conquered people, after having in vain attempted to put a stop to their irruptions while they retained their independence. About this time, the general division of the whole country into bishoprics, abbacies, and presbyteries, took place. Such of the clergy of France as zeal or ambition prompted to accept the dangerous trust, were appointed to the new cures thus created; and Charlemagne only left the country to return the next year and complete the arrangements which he had begun for incorporating Saxony with the Frankish monarchy.

The greater part of the annals of that day were composed by monks and ministers of the church, who, of course, attempted to magnify the affection of the Frankish king towards the body of which they were members, with the purpose of holding out both an example and an incitement to others. Nevertheless, it is evident, that Charlemagne was inspired by a sincere love for the Christian religion, and an eager wish to spread its pacific doctrines amidst his barbarous and intractable neighbors. Nor was it, as has been often falsely said, by the sword that he sought to convert. With the sword he overcame his enemies, and punished the pertinacious assailants who had so often ravaged his dominions and slaughtered his subjects. But the very desire of sparing the sword, made him the more eager in the propagation of that religion, which he hoped would remove the causes that compelled its use; and the work of conversion he entrusted, not to soldiers, but to the ministers of the Gospel. If he did, indeed, mingle on any occasion the means of worldly policy with the purer methods of religious persuasion, it was in the shape of gifts, presents, and menaces,—inducements more within the comprehension of the barbarians whom he sought to civilize, than any that could be afforded by reason and argumentation.

Though personally successful to a great degree, and seeing his power and reputation increasing in every manner, Charlemagne was visited in his dominions by many of those calamities which, from time to time, in the course of nature, affect whole countries and nations. Tremendous earthquakes shook his Lombard kingdom, during the year of which I speak, cast down many of the finest buildings, and spread death and ruin through the land. A pestilence devastated the country and the cities and a severe scarcity added to the horrors of the time. Terror and dismay reigned through the whole of France; and prayers and alms were the resources of the king and the peasant, the warrior and the churchman, in order to turn away the Almighty wrath, and obtain mercy from on high.

THE SAXON CAPITULARIES

Thus passed the winter of the year 779-80, and early in the spring he returned to Saxony, and completed the subjection of the country. He had warned the Saxons, in 777, that in case of any new outrage, he would exercise the full power which he possessed, and deprive them of their independence; and he was now proceeding in the execution of that threat. It is to be remarked, however, that the total subjugation of Saxony, as far as we can discover from the contemporary writers, was by no means (as has been since represented) a blow struck at once, in the pride of victory, and the spirit of aggrandizement, conceived long before, and pursued through a series of unrelenting wars. On the contrary, it was slow and gradual, as Charlemagne found himself compelled to take progressive measures against his savage neighbors,— measures suggested by the great principle of self-defence, and executed with calm and clement reluctance.

I may be permitted to collect into one view the facts connected with this warfare, as they are spread through the preceding pages, when it will be found, that had he been so inclined, a thousand opportunities of taking possession of Saxony presented themselves, which he never showed any inclination to use, farther than his own security rendered necessary. In his first campaign against the Saxons, though he destroyed the idols that he found on his march, he granted peace to the nation as soon as they demanded it, merely taking twelve hostages, and raising a fort at Eresburg, to guard against their future incursions. On their next irruption, he left another body of French troops at Sigisburg, and required a more comprehensive oath before he withdrew his forces. During this time he had never desisted from his endeavor to civilize the Saxons, by sending missionaries among them; and his desire of converting them to Christianity appeared so evident, as to become a means of fraud in the hands of the barbarians themselves. The next cause of warfare was the Saxon attack upon the garrisons he had placed in the two castles; and being once more conquered, the assailants again supplicated peace, and many, to obtain it, demanded to be baptized. Charlemagne added a third fortress to those he had before constructed, and once more retired from the country. Finding that he had scarcely passed the frontier when his enemies actively prepared to attack him again, the monarch of the Francs frustrated all their schemes, by marching into the heart of the land before their plans were mature. Witikind, the instigator of the war, fled; and the nation completely submitted, generally seeking baptism as the strongest proof of their pacific intentions. Charlemagne trusted them once more; but he gave them full warning, that if they again violated the treaties they had entered into with him, he would not only inflict the temporary chastisement of a hostile invasion, but would use the right of conquest, which he had hitherto disregarded, and deprive them of that independence which they so constantly abused to his detriment. No sooner had he entered Spain, than the treacherous people, who crouched to the earth at his presence, took instant advantage of his absence, to destroy his provinces and massacre his subjects. The indignant monarch returned, and, marching through Saxony as a victor, he now annexed that country to his former dominions as a conquered province.

The next year he advanced at once to the junction of the Elbe and the Oder; and, having spent some time in taking precautionary measures against any invasion by the neighboring nations of the north, he proceeded to enact a variety of laws for the regulation of the barbarous people he had subdued; which laws have been made the subject of extravagant praise for a few points of superior excellence, and of ridiculous censure for severity, susceptible of great extenuation, if not justification. The same want of classification is observable in their construction, which affects most of the capitularies of the age; and a tinge of barbarism spreads over them all; but I doubt much, whether barbarous laws are not necessary to a barbarous nation; and whether Charlemagne, believing such to be the case, did not, like the great Greek legislator, frame for the people he had conquered, not the best laws which the mind of man could devise, but the best which could be adapted to the circumstances of the country. Charlemagne had found by long and painful experience, that the only principle which could restrain the Saxons was fear and, accordingly, the code which he addresses to them is that of terror. Death is awarded for a thousand crimes, but especially for offering human sacrifices, and for refusing, or abandoning, or insulting the Christian religion.

The Saxons during the last two or three campaigns had almost universally received baptism; but in many instances, they returned to the most hateful rites of idolatry, which was always the sure precursor of outrage and irruption. Both from political and religious motives, it had become the great object of the French monarch to force this the most obdurate race of pagans in Europe, to listen to the voice of Christian teachers, which nothing but the fear of death could induce them to do: and for that purpose he used the terror of extreme punishment, as a means of enforcing attention to the doctrines of peace. But, at the same time, there cannot be a doubt, that he had no intention the severity of the law should have effect; for it was enacted by the self same code, that the unbaptized who received baptism, and the relapsed who returned and underwent a religious penance, escaped the infliction of the punishment. By this means he forced the Saxons to hear, at least, the doctrines of the Christian church, and to become accustomed to its forms,—the first great step, without which conversion could never be obtained. By this means, also, he at once put a stop to the human sacrifices which continually disgraced the land; and he offered to all the power of escaping punishment, and gaining security.

It is true, as a general principle, that laws should never he enacted unless they are intended to be enforced; but this was an individual instance, where the object was but temporary. If he could compel the Saxons to hear the truths, and habituate them to the influence, of the Christian faith, Charlemagne never for a moment doubted that their sincere conversion must follow. That conversion once obtained, and the laws were not cruel, for they were ineffectual. In the meantime, however, their operation would be great before the Saxons discovered that they were not rigidly enforced. At all events, it is evident that Charlemagne believed that his object would be gained by terror, long ere the rude pagans, for whom he legislated, perceived that punishment was remote. For this great purpose, he framed the laws to which I refer, and made use of the only influence which he knew to be strong with the Saxons,—the influence of fear; while, at the same time, the natural benevolence of his own heart induced him to guard severity by mercy j and to add a law, which, while it offered the means of escape from the harshness of the others, tended to the same object.

Such considerations shield the Saxon code from the bitter censures which have been directed against it by some writers; but, at the same time, the lavish praises which it has received from others are equally inapplicable; for, though it was intended in mercy, and directed with wisdom, it was arbitrary in character, and in principle unjust.

No sooner was the regulation of Saxony completed, than the monarch turned his eves in another direction, and prepared to avert a storm that was approaching from a different quarter. Though constitutionally fond of war, and now habituated to conquest, Charlemagne, in general, took every means to prevent the necessity of having recourse to arms. Sometimes, it is true, he suffered himself to be dazzled with the prospect of brilliant expeditions; and, as in the case of the invasion of Spain, the prayers of others for protection and assistance, by offering a fair excuse to his natural inclination, occasionally overcame the better spirit of generous moderation which taught him to refrain. But wherever the probable war was likely to be one in which, as a sovereign, he was to act against a rebellious vassal,—one, in short, of revolt and punishment,—Charlemagne, if the danger could be foreseen, ever endeavored to stop it in its progress, before folly had been hurried into crime, and while pardon was compatible with justice.

Such views now called him into Italy; and as soon as the state of Saxony appeared finally settled, he took his departure for his Lombard dominions.