The Days of Chivalry; Or The Legend of Croquemitaine Read online

  CHAPTER II. WHICH THE AUTHOR CONGRATULATES HIMSELF ON NOT HAVING TOREAD.

  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 seriousreading, and yet I am compelled to sum up in a few words the greatevents which agitated France at the time my story commences. However,put a bold face on it, and bolt this chapter without taking breath, asyou would swallow any peculiarly nauseous draught.

  After the death of Pepin the Short, in 768, his two sons, Carloman andCharlemagne, divided his kingdom. Carloman, who was the elder, tookBurgundy, Provence, Septimania, and the chief part of Neustria. Hiscoronation took place on the 9th October, 768, at Laon. Charlemagne hadpart of Neustria, Bavaria, and Thuringia. He was crowned at Soissonson the same day as Carloman. Aquitaine was also shared between thebrothers. You are probably aware that Pepin the Short was the founderof the second line of French kings. The first line, that of theMerovingians, was not, however, extinct when he came to the throne, forthe Dukes of Aquitaine were of Merovingian descent. They sprang fromCaribert, King of Toulouse, the son of Clotaire the Second. Eudes, whoshares with Charles Martel the glory of having conquered the Saracens inthe sanguinary battle of Poitiers, in 732, was also of this family.

  Hunald, the son of Eudes, had, at the time of Pepin's death, livedfive-and-twenty years in the convent to which that monarch had consignedhim. Now, the Merovingian Dukes of Aquitaine had a fierce hatred of theCarlovingian Kings of France, and accordingly, as soon as Hunald heardof the accession of Carloman and Charlemagne, he quitted the monastery,took up arms, and proclaimed the independence of Aquitaine.

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  The two newly-crowned kings had reason to be alarmed at an outbreak likethis, for, unless put down at the outset, it might arouse and encouragethe pretensions of the descendants of Clovis with regard to Neustria.Charlemagne summoned a Parliament, to which he invited his brother. Theyboth came to it, attended by their ecclesiastics and nobles, and war wasdecided upon.

  The two kings crossed the Loire together; but Carloman, who, if onemay judge from the chronicles of the period, was of an un-amiabledisposition, had such quarrels with his brother about the partition oftheir 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 Aquitainewithout meeting any resistance, as Charles Martel had done before him.Hunald, a fugitive, and hard pressed, found himself obliged to seekshelter with his nephew Wolf, Duke of Gascony. Wolf! When was a name ina fairy tale bestowed with more propriety? This Wolf was most deservedlycalled so, as you will see. As soon as Charlemagne discovered where hisenemy had found an asylum, he dispatched some of his foremost knightsto the Duke of Gascony, commanding him to deliver up the fugitive, andthreatening, if he refused, to enter his duchy and lay it waste.

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  In those days, my dear readers, travelling was not quite so expeditiousas it 's now! so Charlemagne, foreseeing he would have to wait somemonths, established his camp on the borders of the forest. In the nextplace, in order to put the time of his stay to profitable use, and togive employment to his troops, about five leagues from Bordeaux he had astrong fortress which was called Fronsac, or rather Fransiac, the castleof the Franks. The building of the castle was hardly completed when theby Wolf of Gascony, who did not in the least scruple to deliver up toCharlemagne, as a proof of his fealty, Hunald and his family, who hadclaimed shelter of him.

  The insurrection having been thus deprived of its leader, Aquitainesubmitted to Charlemagne.

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