READ.
I SHOULD be extremely sorry to weary you, my dear readers; in fact,
I should be wretched if you were to look on this volume as serious
reading, and yet I am compelled to sum up in a few words the great
events which agitated France at the time my story commences. However,
put a bold face on it, and bolt this chapter without taking breath, as
you would swallow any peculiarly nauseous draught.
After the death of Pepin the Short, in 768, his two sons, Carloman and
Charlemagne, divided his kingdom. Carloman, who was the elder, took
Burgundy, Provence, Septimania, and the chief part of Neustria. His
coronation took place on the 9th October, 768, at Laon. Charlemagne had
part of Neustria, Bavaria, and Thuringia. He was crowned at Soissons
on the same day as Carloman. Aquitaine was also shared between the
brothers. You are probably aware that Pepin the Short was the founder
of the second line of French kings. The first line, that of the
Merovingians, was not, however, extinct when he came to the throne, for
the Dukes of Aquitaine were of Merovingian descent. They sprang from
Caribert, King of Toulouse, the son of Clotaire the Second. Eudes, who
shares with Charles Martel the glory of having conquered the Saracens in
the sanguinary battle of Poitiers, in 732, was also of this family.
Hunald, the son of Eudes, had, at the time of Pepin’s death, lived
five-and-twenty years in the convent to which that monarch had consigned
him. Now, the Merovingian Dukes of Aquitaine had a fierce hatred of the
Carlovingian Kings of France, and accordingly, as soon as Hunald heard
of the accession of Carloman and Charlemagne, he quitted the monastery,
took up arms, and proclaimed the independence of Aquitaine.
[Illustration: 021]
The two newly-crowned kings had reason to be alarmed at an outbreak like
this, for, unless put down at the outset, it might arouse and encourage
the pretensions of the descendants of Clovis with regard to Neustria.
Charlemagne summoned a Parliament, to which he invited his brother. They
both came to it, attended by their ecclesiastics and nobles, and war was
decided upon.
The two kings crossed the Loire together; but Carloman, who, if one
may judge from the chronicles of the period, was of an un-amiable
disposition, had such quarrels with his brother about the partition of
their inheritance, that it was even feared they would come to blows.
They therefore determined to part company. Carloman returned to Laon,
and Charlemagne prosecuted the enterprise alone. He overran Aquitaine
without meeting any resistance, as Charles Martel had done before him.
Hunald, a fugitive, and hard pressed, found himself obliged to seek
shelter with his nephew Wolf, Duke of Gascony. Wolf! When was a name in
a fairy tale bestowed with more propriety? This Wolf was most deservedly
called so, as you will see. As soon as Charlemagne discovered where his
enemy had found an asylum, he dispatched some of his foremost knights
to the Duke of Gascony, commanding him to deliver up the fugitive, and
threatening, if he refused, to enter his duchy and lay it waste.
[Illustration: 022]
In those days, my dear readers, travelling was not quite so expeditious
as it ‘s now! so Charlemagne, foreseeing he would have to wait some
months, established his camp on the borders of the forest. In the next
place, in order to put the time of his stay to profitable use, and to
give employment to his troops, about five leagues from Bordeaux he had a
strong fortress which was called Fronsac, or rather Fransiac, the castle
of the Franks. The building of the castle was hardly completed when the
by Wolf of Gascony, who did not in the least scruple to deliver up to
Charlemagne, as a proof of his fealty, Hunald and his family, who had
claimed shelter of him.
The insurrection having been thus deprived of its leader, Aquitaine
submitted to Charlemagne.
[Illustration: 022]
[Illustration: 023]