854-855 and Saint-Etienne or Notre-Dame-these having

848

Destruc

redeemed themselves by contributions to the enemy; but Saint-Denis made a bad bargain. The Northmen did not hold to their contract, or another company of pirates did not consider it as binding: the Monastery was burnt to a shell, and a most heavy ransom paid for the liberation of Abbot Louis, Charlemagne's grandson by his daughter Rothaida. Sainte-Généviève suffered most severely amongst all; and the pristine beauty of the structure rendered the calamity more conspicuous and the distress more poignant. During three centuries, the desolated grandeur of the shattered ruins continued to excite sorrow and dread, the fragments and particles of the gilt mosaics glistering upon the fire-scathed vaultings.

Such were the apprehensions excited by the visitations of the Northmen, that a new supplication,-A furore Normannorum libera nos, was introduced into the Gallican liturgies. They antient Ba- broke open the sepulchres, plundered the tombs Généviève. of the Merovingian Sovereigns, and scattered the bones of Clovis and Clotilda.

tion of the

silica of

So keenly was the wound which they had inflicted at Sainte-Généviève still felt in after times, that the same petition,-“A furore Normannorum libera nos"-continued to be intoned in the Abbey Choir even till the era of Louistreize it is not impossible but that the dread inspired by the Lion of the North may have

857

imparted a new reality to the archaic ritual. 854-855 Moreover, besides the commemoration thus kept up in prayer, the community steadily observed a statute which forbade the admission of any monk of Danish blood. The prohibition, inscribed on stone, was shewn to the visitor when he entered the Cloister, and testified their determination never to receive a Dansker-man within their walls.

The relics of Sainte-Généviève had been carried away by the monks. Until the reign of Philippe-Auguste the Church remained desolate, uncovered and open to the sky. Abbot Stephen (afterwards Bishop of Tournay) then began the restoration. Another sanctuary was erected, containing the renewed shrine of the patroness of Paris, vast and gloomy, and inspiring religious awe pendant over the portal, hung the iron sanctuary ring which, touched by the fugitive, protected him from the avenger.

Such was the traditionary respect rendered to the dark Gothic Basilica, that the building was preserved when the new edifice arose-Corinthian portico and mathematically balanced cupolaequally testifying the encrease of architectural skill and the decline of religious sentiment.-The last fragments of the ancient consecrated fabric were not uprooted until after the restoration of the Bourbons. We well recollect the belfrytower, standing, when we first saw Paris, upon

857

840-877 the dusty and desolate plot: the Church had been previously demolished by the Bande-noire, and the empty stone-coffins of the Merovingian kings were found as they had been left by the Scandinavian grave-robbers, plundered, broken open and in confusion.

Cowardice

of the Franks.

The shrine of Sainte-Généviève has been put aside in a neglected corner of an adjoining parochial Church, and every vestige of Christianity is obliterated from the Pantheon-Aux grands hommes la Patrie reconnoissante the Sanctuary dedicated to the revilers of the Most High; and the altar trodden down by the star-crowned statue symbolising Immortality,—their immortality— stars glaring with the Unquenchable fire-the immortality of the never-dying Worm.

§ 22. Amongst the calamities of the times, the destruction of the Parisian monasteries seems to have worked peculiarly on the imagination. Paschasius Radbertus, the biographer of Wala, expatiates upon this misery when writing his Commentary on Jeremiah. The general discontent was vented by the people in vituperations against Charles-le-Chauve, whom they accused as the cause of their misfortunes. This was the accustomed subterfuge of self-reproach their panic-cowardice was shameful and almost inexplicable. The Counts had full power to summon the lieges for the defence of the country: the Franks were strong men, well armed, well trained,

853-859

the country abounded with resources; and if the 854-855 Counts neglected their duty, the Franks were fully able to combine and defend themselves, to fight for their vineyards, their harvests, and their homes. Yet instead of making any resistance, the recreants scarcely ever attempted to oppose the enemy, even in the strongest fortified cities; the few occasions when they held out were so exceptional, that the raising of a siege is most usually ascribed to a miracle.

Charles-le

the expul

sion of the

Charles-le-Chauve did not lose heart. Entangled, embarrassed, yet undeterred, he formed a grand strategic plan for recovering the Seine and securing Paris, and, through Paris, central and southern France. The first movement now needed against the Danes would necessarily be the dispersion of their nest in the Isle d'Oscelles. He summoned his Arrièreban, and blockaded the Plans of Northmen. Affairs in Aquitaine had become Chauve for more adverse; Charles the boy was again ex- Northmen: pelled; and so intricately variable and contra- ads them dictory were the political tergiversations of those times, that Pepin was equally a fugitive, seeking protection from his uncle. Amidst all these disturbances Charles conducted his operations vigorously. He intended to establish a complete line of fortifications and fortified posts, calculated, if the French could be roused from their fatal apathy, to frustrate the Pagan designs. After his death, though the works were only partially

he block

in Oscelles.

854-855 executed, Paris was saved by his military prescience. The blockade of Oscelles therefore 853-859 interested not merely Charles-le-Chauve or France, but the whole Carlovingian Empire.

853-859. § 23. During five years the discontented Conspiracy nobles and popular leaders of France had been

for the de

thronement

and the

substitution of Louis-leGermanique.

of Charles plotting to depose Charles-le-Chauve, through le-Chauve, the instrumentality of his brother Louis-le-Germanique. In the rapid and imperfect narratives of the Chroniclers a few names of the disaffected meneurs are mentioned, whom we cannot easily identify a Gunzeline, a Gosfrid, or an Hervey;— others somewhat better known, such as the son of Bernard of Septimania; but the name of the most celebrated amongst them all, the most illustrious in France, he who holds a paramount station in European history, is not disclosed until after the explosion.

Louis was apprehensive, as he declared, lest he should be accused of ambition. Dangers and conscientious scruples might combine to restrain him his disobedient sons, Louis the younger, Carloman, and Charles, were digging pitfalls for their father. The Sclavonians were disturbing the German realm, the Czechs or Bohemians revolting, the Daleminzians recalcitrating against the imposed tributes. But, at length, the opportune moment arrived: the Northmen were defending themselves vigorously in Oscelles, levying contributions upon the country, feeding them