862-888 retribution which afflicts an enemy through the means of an enemy: nations who hated the 880-881 Danes hailed the Danish victory: the oppressed and enthralled Sclavonians, Daleminzians, Bohemians, Sorbs, who immediately retaliated upon their tyrants, and wasted Thuringia and Saxony with fire and sword.

Sorrows, vexations and misfortunes accumulated upon the head of Louis the Saxon, each succeeding year more dreary. Yet one consolation remained to him, his lively boy; and for the child's sake as well as his own, his despondency was cheered by a great accession of good fortune, the pleasurable zest being heightened by the patience with which he had waited during nearly three years for the full enjoyment of the Death of inheritance. Carloman, upon whom the Germans of Bavaria and Italians had fixed their hopes neither pre

Carloman

-Louis the

Saxon ob

kingdom.

tains the sumptuously nor unworthily-the courteous, the brave, the learned Carloman, in whom, the moment before the stroke had fallen upon him, no bodily or mental talent required for the defence and honour of the throne was wanting,— after lingering so long in distressful languor22 March, now expired. Carloman's talents were inherited by the Sclavonian concubine's son, who had been named Arnolph by his father in honour of Arnolph of Metz, the patriarch of the Carlovingian dynasty. Probably Carloman had bestowed the appellation with some hope of designating the

880.

Prince as his successor, but the bold and popular 862-888 youth was not yet able to assert his claim,he must content himself a while with his Carinthian Duchy.

880-881

Upon receiving the intelligence of his brother's death, the sufferer's happy release, Louis, with his Queen and only child, his heir, hastened to Ratisbon. Arnolph secured himself in his castle of Mosaburch, surrounded by impassable marshes. The Baioarian nobles hailed the arrival of King Louis and the boy Louis, submitting themselves with extreme alacrity to his sovereignty. Arnolph also became a homager, and thereby maintained his position, being confirmed by Louis in the Duchy of Carinthia. And thus Louis had obtained his heart's desire, his brother's kingdom for himself and his child; but the active child, Louis the brought to witness his father's inauguration, fell child. from the palace-window, his skull was fractured, his brains were dashed out.-Never afterwards had Louis the Saxon a gleam of brightness; and his cheerless life was soon brought to a close.

880

Death of

Saxon's

(see p. 385.)

and disloy

Franks.

§ 13. It was the constant complaint of the Treachery Romane Franks, that they had no chieftain around alty of the whom they could rally. An idle and factious pretence,-chieftains they possessed, fully competent to have enabled them to concentrate their national forces and energies; but the one thing was wanting-truth. Louis and Carloman the young royal brothers,-very young,-were endued with

862-888 remarkable gifts and talents, both of body and mind: unshaken, energetic, active, faithful to each 880-881 other, faithful to all with whom they were concerned; and they were guided and aided by the most experienced surviving warrior of the era, Hugh the Abbot. In the experience of this military counsellor, the Franks ought to have placed full confidence. Loyalty should have bound them to their young Sovereigns; but that sanctifying gift, that unselfish, natural affection,-which, after all, is the truest support of monarchy, as well as the source of the greatest comfort and ennoblement to a people,—was taken away.

peror Charles, his encreasing influence.

The Tetrarchy was re-established: there were now again four reigning Carlovingian Sovereigns. How long could or ought this Tetrarchy to enThe Em- dure? Charles the Emperor, the exalted representative of the Senior or German line, had won universal confidence.-His reputation increased in proportion to his successes :-Louis the Saxon was evidently drawing nigh his end, and all the countries of the Teutonic tongue would naturally seek for Kaiser Karl as their sovereign: Louis and Carloman, the representatives of the French line, might be considered as minors,-were they reduced to dependance, France would once more be incorporated with the Empire?-These considerations revived Archbishop Hincmar's political enthusiasm for the restoration of Carlovingian unity; and he exhorted and advised the Emperor

to treat the two young French kings as his wards, 862–888 and to take order for the due and regular government of their kingdom-in other words, to de- 880-881 throne them, the preparation for captivity and death.

The advice was bestowed exactly at the time when the Brothers were displaying extraordinary boldness, merit, and talent and giving the greatest promise of excellence. Archbishop Hincmar was a sound theologian, upright in his conduct, a wise man and a good man: but political casuistry stupifies the conscience of the wise and the good. Hincmar's conduct towards the grandsons of Charles-le-Chauve was, from the beginning, equivalent to a prophecy of evil: therefore he tried hard to make his words come true. No immediate step was taken by the Emperor to follow the Archbishop's suggestions; but the influence of Louis and Carloman was sensibly diminished, and their subjects continued to betray their kings, their country and themselves, by apathy and treachery.

Louis of

operations

Danes.

§ 14. The Danish invasions, the exploits of 880 881 Sigfried and Godfrey, excited the apprehensions France, his and energies of the young French Sovereigns. against the The Northmen continued stretching and speeding over the country. Corbey and Amiens had been pillaged, Cambray taken, Arras occupied and the Northmen stationed in the Abbey of Saint-Vedast. They burnt the city but spared the Churches:

862-888 in other respects their devastations were merciless. Plunder, which they had reaped so abund880-881 antly, no longer satisfied the bloody Danes; they

slew the inhabitants indiscriminately. Whether the people submitted or not, they sustained the same fate. All about Courtrai, where they established their winter-quarters, they exterminated the inhabitants.

Evidently calculating upon subduing the country by terror, they succeeded to a considerable extent. Abbot Gauzeline summoned his troops, but when they had to face the Danes they ran away, and the people generally gave themselves up to passive despair. Carloman could not withdraw from Burgundy, and Louis, returning to Neustria, had to fight the battle singlehanded. Unexperienced in the art of war, the youth's acuteness and daring compensated for his deficiencies. Nay more, so far as his dastardly and unprincipled subjects were susceptible of the inspiration, he excited them to quit themselves like men.

The Danes were masters of the Seine and Loire districts. Gormund and his companions commenced movements for the purpose of gaining a tract offering a very strong position, adjoining the future Norman Duchy. This is the Vimeux constituting subsequently a bailliage of Ponthieu, a compact peninsula, enclosed by the Somme on the North-East, and on the South