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were forced to respect the Pyrenees as the bulwark of Christendom.

The revolution which transferred the khaliphate from the descendants of Moawiyáh to the posterity of Abbas, the uncle of Mohammed, led to the dismemberment of the empire. Mohammed, the grandson of Abbas, had long been engaged in forming a party to support the rights of his house, and from his obscure residence in Syria sent emissaries into the remotest parts of the empire, to secure partisans for an approaching struggle. On the death of Mohammed, his son Ibrahim succeeded to his influence and his claims; he sent Abu Moslem as the representative of his party into Khorassan, and there that intrepid warrior for the first time raised the black standard of the house of Abbas. From this time the parties that rent the Saracenic empire were distinguished by the colours chosen as their cognizance; black was the ominous badge of the Abassides, white of the Ommiades, and green of the Fatimites, who claimed to be descended from Mohammed, through Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet, and the wife of Ali. Abúl Abbas, surnamed Al Saffah, or the Sanguinary, overthrew the last of the Ommiade line near the river Jab, and not only put him to death, but massacred all the princes of his family whom he could seize, broke open the sepulchres of all the khaliphs, from Moawiyáh downwards, burned their mouldering contents, and scattered the ashes to the winds.

Ninety members of the Ommiade family were living at Damascus after their submission, under what they believed the safe protection of Abdallah-Ebn-Ali, the uncle of the khaliph. One day, when they were all assembled at a feast to which they had been invited by the governor, a poet, according to a preconcerted arrangement, presented himself before Abdallah and recited some verses enumerating the crimes of the house of Moawiyáh, calling for vengeance on their devoted heads, and pointed out the dangers to which their existence exposed the house of Abbas. God has cast them down,' he exclaimed; 'why dost not thou trample upon them ?'

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This abominable exhortation fell upon willing ears; Abdallah gave the signal to the executioners whom he had already prepared, and ordered the ninety guests to be beaten to death with clubs in his presence. When the last had fainted under the hands of the executioner, he ordered the bodies of the dead and dying to be piled together, and carpets to be thrown over the ghastly heap. He then, with the rest of his guests, ascended this horrible platform, and there they revelled in a gorgeous banquet, careless of the groans and agony below!

Abd-er-rahman, the youngest son of the late khaliph, alone es

caped from this indiscriminate massacre. After a series of almost incredible adventures he reached Spain, where the Saracens, fondly attached to the memory of Moawiyáh, chose him for their sovereign, and he thus became the founder of the second dynasty of the Ommiade khaliphs.

This example of separation was followed by the Edrissites of Mauritania, and the Fatimites and Aglabites of eastern Africa. Bagdad, founded by Almansúr, became the capital of the Abbasside dynasty. The khaliphs of this line were generous patrons of science, literature, and the arts, especially Harún-al-Rashid, the hero of the Arabian Nights, and his son, Al Mamún. The love of learning spread from Bagdad into the other Saracenic countries; the Ommiade khaliphs founded several universities in Spain, the Fatimites established schools in Egypt, and the Mohammedan nations were distinguished for their attainments in physical science, while Europe remained sunk in barbarism. The Saracenic empire gradually passed from splendour into weakness; the Turkish mercenaries employed by the later khaliphs became the masters of their sovereign; and the dignity, after being long an empty title, was finally abolished (A.D. 1258).

CHAPTER III.

RESTORATION OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE.

THE

SECTION I. The Life of Charlemagne.

HE Papal recognition of Pepin's elevation to the throne of France was something more than a mere form; it was a ratification of his claims by the only authority that was respected by the nations of western Europe. In return, Pepin gave military aid to the popes in their wars with the Lombards, and openly proclaimed himself the champion of the church. The French king intrusted the command of the armies he employed in Italy to his youthful son Charlemagne. This prince also played a distinguished part in adding the fine province of Aquitaine to the dominion of the Franks.

Pepin did not long survive this acquisition; he divided his dominions between his sons Charles and Carloman. Their mutual jealousies would have exploded in civil war, but for the judicious interference of their mother Bertha. At length Carloman died suddenly; his wife and children fled to the Lombards; his subjects, with one accord, resolved to have Charlemagne for their sovereign; and thus the French monarchy was again reunited under a single head. The protection granted to the family of Carloman was not the only ground of hostility between Charlemagne and the Lombard king Desiderius; Charlemagne had married, and afterwards repudiated, that monarch's daughter; Desiderius threatened war, but had not the means of executing his threats; Charlemagne was prevented from crossing the Alps by the appearance of a more formidable enemy on his eastern frontiers.

The Saxons and other Germanic tribes were still sunk in idolatry; they frequently devastated the frontier provinces of the Christian Franks, and showed particular animosity to the churches and ministers of religion. A missionary, St. Libuinus, had vainly endeavoured to convert the Saxons by denouncing the vengeance of heaven against their idolatry; irritated by his reproaches they expelled him from their country, burned the church erected at

Deventer, and slew the Christians. The general convocation of the Franks, called, from the time of meeting, the Champ de Maï, was at the time assembled at Worms under the presidency of Charles; its members regarded the massacre of Deventer as a just provocation, and war was declared against the Saxons. As the assembly of the Champ de Maï was at once a convention of the estates and a review of the military power of the Franks, an army was in immediate readiness; Charlemagne crossed the Rhine, captured their principal fortresses, destroyed their national idol, and compelled them to give hostages for their future good conduct. He had scarcely returned home, when he was summoned into Italy to rescue the pope from the wrath of Desiderius, who, enraged at the pontiff's refusal to recognise the claims of the sons of Carloman, had actually laid siege to Rome. Charlemagne forced a passage over the Alps, and was already descending from the mountains before the Lombards knew of his having commenced his march. Desiderius, after vainly attempting to check the Franks in the defiles, abandoned the field, and shut himself up in Pavia. The city was taken after a year's siege: during the interval Charlemagne visited Rome, and was received with great enthusiasm by the pope and the citizens. Soon after his return to his camp Pavia surrendered, Desiderius and his queen were confined in separate monasteries, and the iron crown, usually worn by the kings of Lombardy, was placed upon the head of the French monarch.

A Saracenic prince sought refuge in the French court, and persuaded the monarch to lead an army over the Pyrenees. The frontier provinces were easily subdued, owing to the disputes that divided the Mohammedans in Spain. Charlemagne gained a decisive victory over the Saracens at Saragossa, but before he could complete his conquest he was recalled home by a dangerous revolt of the Saxons. The rear-guard of the French, commanded by the gallant Roland, was treacherously assailed on its return by the Gascons, in the defiles of Roncesvalles, and almost wholly destroyed.

The devastations of the Saxons which recalled Charlemagne from Spain exceeded anything which Europe had witnessed since the days of Attila. Witikind, prince of Westphalia, was the leader of this dangerous revolt; he had united his countrymen into one great national confederacy, and long maintained a desperate struggle against the whole strength of the French monarchy. He was at length irretrievably routed, and, submitting to the conqueror, became a Christian. Several minor revolts in his extensive dominions troubled the reign of Charlemagne, but he quelled them all, and secured the tranquillity of Germany both by subduing the

Saxons and destroying the last remnant of the barbarous Avars who had settled in Hungary. The brief intervals of tranquillity were spent by this wise monarch in establishing schools and encouraging science and literature. In these labours he was assisted by Alcuin, an English monk, the most accomplished scholar of his age. Such was the fame of the French monarchy at this time, that embassies came to the court from the most distant contemporary sovereigns. The most remarkable was that sent from the renowned Harún-al-Rashíd, khaliph of Bagdad; among the presents they brought were some beautiful pieces of clockwork, which were regarded as something almost miraculous in western Europe, where the mechanical arts were still in their infancy.

But a new enemy appeared on the coasts of France, whose incursions, though repelled, filled the monarch with bodings of future danger. These were the Northmen, or Normans, pirates from the distant shores of Scandinavia, whose thirst of plunder was stimulated by the desire of revenging the wrongs that their brethren the Saxons had endured. At their first landing in France they had scarcely time to commit any ravages, for they fled on the news of the dreaded king's approach. Charlemagne saw their departing ships without exultation; he burst into tears, and predicted that these 'sea-kings' would soon prove a dreadful scourge to southern Europe.

Probably about the same time that Charles was excited by the appearance of these pirates, whose ferocity and courage he had learned to dread during his expeditions into the north of Germany, three ships of a similar character to those described entered one of the harbours on the south-eastern coast of Britain, about a century and a half after the Anglo-Saxons had established their dominion over the southern part of the island, and given it the name of Angle-Land, or England.

Here the sight of the strange ships produced the same doubts as in France. The Saxon graf, or magistrate of the district, proceeded to the shore to enquire who these strangers were, and what they wanted. The foreigners, who had just disembarked, attacked him and his escort without provocation, slew them on the spot, pillaged the neighbouring houses, and then returned to their vessels. Some time elapsed before it was discovered that these pirates were the Danes, or Normans, names with which the ears of Anglo-Saxons were destined soon to become sadly familiar.

Soon after the retreat of the Normans Charlemagne was induced to visit Italy, both to quell the rebellion of the duke of Beneventum, and to rescue Pope Leo from his insurgent subjects. He succeeded in both enterprises, and the grateful pontiff solemnly

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