888 of posthumous renown. The French have erased 862-888 him from the list of their monarchs: they do not reckon him in. Fame is very truly a breath. Charlemagne's world-wise praise has been permanently sustained by his popular denomination. He was a hero unquestionably; nevertheless "Carolus Magnus," "Karl der Grosse," "Charles-le-Grand," is pre-eminently indebted to his epithet for his vast celebrity. You cannot disconnect the idea from his name; but all the merits of his unfortunate descendant have been obscured by the associations involuntarily annexed to the designation derived from his clumsy corporeal disfigurement.-The world's commiserating contempt is poured out upon "Carolus Crassus," 'Karl der Dicke," "Charles-leGras." 66 VOL. I. SS CHAPTER V. DISMEMBERMENT OF THE EMPIRE: EUDES AND CHARLES-LE- fortunes upon the gian race. 888-912. 888-912 § 1. WITH a Charles arose the second dyAccumula- nasty's glory: with a Charles that glory departed. tion of mis- It is a profitable aid to the memory in the teachCarlovin- ing of history, when important events coincide with dates rendered distinguishable or remarkable, whether by regular or serial sequences, or by repetitions or by regular combinations of numerals; so that the chronological era assumes a species of concrete identity. Signally is this the case with the thrice-repeated eight, the eight hundred and eighty and eight, which dissolved the Carlovingian Empire. The mouth speaks the fulness of the heart: hence the similarity of proverbs and proverbial phrases in all languages and at all times, sentiments echoed in various tones, but of one import, passages of one strain, because harmonized by common feelings and universal experience. Hence the deep instruction conveyed in that familiar aphorism often used with irreverent levity or discontent, "misfortunes never come single;" testifying the predetermined consilience of events, when chastisements are specially appointed in anger or in mercy. All things, and all the relations of matter and spirit, are governed by 888-912 laws; and human punishments, as well as human rewards, are produced by the convergence of lines whose first direction proceeds from all eternity the arrows wing their flight against the flesh, where they are to stick fast. History, private or public, everywhere abounds in such examples; and writers least willing to acknowledge the Invisible Presence ruling the affairs of man, are enforced to render the extorted acknowledgment, that the contingencies and calamities which destroyed the Carlovingian dynasty were beyond calculation. The Carlovingians were ruined by a glut of miseries. Within twenty years, Charlemagne's lineage had possessed fifteen Emperors, Kings and Princes, either ruling on the throne, or expectant and competent to assume supreme authority. In the year Eight hundred and eighty-eight, the old and the young, the ripe and the immature, were all swept away: some according to the ordinary course of human life, but many more by strange diseases, by mean, trivial, or household accidents, by unexpected, and as one might say, unreasonable contingencies. Their good angel had departed from them. One individual only who could colourably pretend to be a Carlovingian, now wore a Royal crown: one whom Charlemagne would have blushed to acknowledge, the half-caste Sclavonian bastard ARNOLPH, who had obtained the supremacy of 888-924 888-912 GERMANY and all the dominions speaking the German tongue, together with the Sclavonian Marches and borders, where he was heartily acknowledged and obeyed, and seeking to extend his sway over the whole empire. Revolu tions of Italy. § 2. Not so in ITALY-here Arnolph was neglected or opposed; Apulia and Calabria would have scarcely cared had they passed under the Emir or the Soldan; and if the wreck of the old Longobard aristocracy desired a Christian king, they would prefer some sovereign more congenial to them than the semi-Sclavonian Ar888-924 nolph. Rome, the Roman Senate, the Roman rius, King. clergy, and the Roman people, exercised their 889-893 suffrage for their own advantage, and according to Berenga Guido, King. their own pleasure. All the interest which Pope Stephen could exert was bestowed upon his adopted son, the bold, active and shrewd GUIDO Count of Spoleto. But in Lombardy and the North, the French interest fostered by the Court of Pavia was preponderating, and the Estates of the kingdom either invited or accepted the grandson of Louis-le-Débonnaire by his daughter Gisella, the "august BERENGER," worthy of the diadem he acquired. Ere they contested Italy, these two illustrious princes had become good friends, and when the deposition of the unfortunate Charles-le-Gras was impending, they agreed to act in concord and share the spoil: Guido should take France, 889-893 and il Rè Berengario, the Transalpine Empire. 888-912 Guido entered France, but, as we shall soon see, yielded to a more popular rival. Tempted by opportunity, he broke the compact he had made with Berenger. A series of adventurous and varied conflicts arose between the competitors for Rome and Italy, in which the skill and prowess of the Princes appear as remarkable as the sufferings inflicted upon the people during the lengthened frays. Guido assumed the royal title, whilst Berengarius received the iron crown in San Michele's Basilica. Great celebrity did il Rè Berengario earn in Italy, his long reign being full of dramatic vicissitudes. His recollections are still fresh in Lombardy-go to the Treasury of Monza by the side of Queen Theodolinda's Ciocca, the strange plateau representing the motherly hen encircled by her nestling brood, you may yet see the Gospel-book deposited by Berengarius in the Sanctuary, when, after his Coronation, he restored the iron crown to the shrine. As Berengarius left that Gospel-book, so the Book remains, the crumbling leaves enclosed between the ivory tablets. These are quaintly carved and pierced, adorned by the interlacings termed runic knots, according to conventional archæological 891-893 phraseology; but no Scandinavian sculptured peror. their embossed and graceful foliage: they were worked by a Celtic hand. Civil wars ensued, tediously and destructively Guido Em |