France ... Second edition, etc

Preface

. '"~T~rHE Romance of the History of France is one of a series of historical tales founded on the histories of England, France, Spain, Italy, and India, which obtained great popularity when first published. The copyright of them having passed to the present Publishers, they have been induced to reproduce them in a compact form — complete in a single volume — in the belief that by so doing they will be adding to the literary pleasure of another generation. The original Illustrations are retained. CONTENTS. PAGE Bertha ; or, the Court of Charlemagne .... 3 The Last of the Breton Kings 27 The Adventures of Eriland 66 The Man-Wolf 114 The King of the Beggars r5o The Serf . r84 The Pilgrim of Saint James 2r8 The Bondsman's Feast 302 The Phantom Fight 335 The Magic Wand 379 The Rock of The Fort 450 The Dream-Girl 486 The Black Mask; or, the Lottery of Jewels . .

HISTORICAL summary. CHARLEMAGNE. When part of the extensive and beautiful country of Gaul was still in the feeble, enervated grasp of degenerate Rome, it was thought necessary to hire the arms of the neighbouring barbarians to defend the government against the barbarians it had subdued. Among the Germanic tribes thus brought into a sort of alliance with Rome, were those of the Franks, whose province it was to guard the banks of the Rhine. This restless and warlike people at length began to throw looks of desire upon the fertile plains it was their duty to de fend ; and when the genius of Clovis, one of the Salian kings, had united some of the tribes into a body powerful enough for the adventure, the Franks in the year 486 set forth upon their path of conquest. Though coming among the last into the field of all the hordes of northern barbarians who overthrew the Roman empire in the west of Europe, the Franks were destined to outstrip every one of their competitors.

Clovis de feated Syagrius at Soissons, made himself master of the Roman provinces in Gaul, and received the titles of Consul and Patrician from the Emperor for his pains. He allied himself by marriage to the Burgundians, who had fastened upon the territory watered by the Rhone and the Saone, and sub sequently made them tributaries to his throne ; he beat the Swabians, who hung upon his rear, at a place near Boulogne, and inconsequence of a vow made during the battle, became a Christian ; he attacked Alaric the Visigoth, whose spoil had been a large portion of the south of Gaul ; and to punish the laxity of his religious principles, for Alaric was an Arian, overthrew his empire, and shut him up in a narrow strip of country between the Rhone and the Pyrennees ; and finally he put to death the other independent chiefs of his own nation, and died in 51 r, sole king of the Franks.

The glory of this conquest expired with the conqueror ; the empire was divided among his four sons ; and for nearly two centuries reluctant history wanders with disgust and contempt among the crimes and follies of a multitude of obscure princes, till she finds them sunk through every intermediate stage of villainy into confirmed idiotism. The last of the "rois faineants," or insensati (idiots) of historians was Childeric III. ; for Pepin, sumamed Le Bref, unsatisfied with the real sovereignty enjoyed by his father and grand father in the quality of Mayors of the Palace, mounted the throne in 752, and commenced a new dynasty of the kings of France. The principal events of FRANCE. B CHARLEMAGNE. 2 importance which took place from the time of Clovis until this period were, the final subjugation of the Burgundians, the concession of the Emperor Justinian to the Franks of the right of empire over Gaul, the birth of the feudal system, and the defeat of the Saracens, who invaded France, by Charles Martel.

Pepin, when dying, divided, agreeably to custom, his kingdom be tween his two sons, Charles and Carloman ; but the younger following his father soon, Charles, in 77 r, found himself alone on the throne of France, and at liberty to begin that splendid career which ultimately procured him the title of Magnus, or, CHARLEMAGNE. 772. — He received in marriage a daughter of the King of the Lombards, then a powerful prince, divorcing his former wife to make room for her. Soon after, he divorced this princess also, and taking the part of Rome against his ex father-in-law, marched against him, captured Pavia his capital, and dethroned the king. The iron crown of the Lombards was placed upon the head of the conqueror in 774, by Pope Adrian. The Saxons, whose crimes, in the eyes of Charlemagne, were their valour and freedom, next felt his vengeance.

He converted all he could to the religion of Christ, and made the converts his slaves. Those whom he could neither convert nor enslave, he massacred by thousands, or transported from their homes to other parts of his dominions. Witikind, however, their glorious chief, was not to be crushed very easily, and it cost the Franks a thirty-three years' war to subdue this brave and simple people. Gottifried, King of Den mark, afforded them refuge for some time, but in the end they were obliged to conform both to the religion and laws of Charlemagne. It is worthy of re mark, that among the pirates who afterwards issued from Denmark and the countries adjacent to lay waste the soil of France, there were probably included many of the descendants of those martyrs of liberty. During this period, he carried his arms into Spain ; but the time of the Saracens, who then occupied the country, was not yet come.

While constantly traversing Europe sword in hand, this extraordinary man was not the less attentive to civil affairs : he established schools, where all the accomplishments of the age— namely, reading, arithmetic, and church music were taught ; and invited learned men from all quarters to come and civilize his subjects. He assembled his Champs-de-mai at Aix-la-Chapelle, where the nobles, bishops, and some freemen discussed the Capitulaires which he pro mulgated as laws ; nor while thus occupied in establishing order in the country which his victories had aggrandized, was he less solicitous by the practice and inculcation of the domestic virtues to humanize its rude inhabitants. The close of the eighth century saw Charlemagne the greatest King in Europe, both in fact and in name ; for in its concluding year the Imperial crown was placed upon his head by Pope Leo §jrijp; OR, THE COURT OF CHARLEMAGNE.

J'aim' bien loiaument, Et s'ai bel amy, Pour qui di souvent, J'aim' bien loiaument. Est miens liegement, Je le sai de fy : J'aim' bien loiaument, Et s'ai bel amy. Chatelain de Couci. THE palace of Aix-la-Chapelle was in sight. Its stupendous buildings, broken here and there to the eye by intervening groves and eminences, filled so considerable a space on the horizon as to give the idea of a city of domes and towers j the loftiest of which was surmounted by an immense apple of pure gold, as if the gorgeous pile had been meant to be enlightened by a. sun of its own. A confused murmur of exclamations arose from the procession when the end of this long journey at length ap peared to draw so near ; and the eyes of all were eagerly bent upon what might as yet have seemed but a palace of cloud-land.

The eunuch, unwilling to compromise the dignity of his mistress by a show of vulgar wonder, commanded a halt when they had reached the brow of a beautiful hill from which a view of the whole surrounding country could be obtained ; and after allowing his followers sufficient time to gaze, proceeded to arrange the B BERTHA ; OR, THE ranks and to remove as far as possible the appearance of careless ness and disorder which is usually produced by a long journey. He then instructed them to move calmly and loftily on, mindful at once of the dignity of her from whom they came, and of the respect with which it was necessary to enter the presence of one of the mightiest potentates of the earth. When the order was about to be given for a renewal of the march, a line of black figures on horseback was observed approaching from the quarter of the palace at full speed.

The em bassy continued their halt, and watched with admiration the seemingly interminable succession of the file ; for when the com manding officer had already reached the foot of the hill, his followers extended in an uninterrupted line to the very gates of the buildings. The black appearance of this formidable body was caused by the armour with which every individual was clothed from head to foot, and which had all the effect of the uniform of later times ;* they looked indeed, as they sate grimly on their saddles, like statues of solid iron ; and even the horses were defended by plates of the same metal, over which robes of rich cloth hung almost to the ground. Their offensive arms con sisted, besides a sword, of a thick lance, which was not thrown like the darts, or angons of their fathers, but retained in the grasp after striking ; and, wielded by these iron hands, it seemed a more formidable weapon even than the battle-axe' which it had dis placed. | When the challenge was given to the strangers in the customary form of the time, and the eunuch had replied, as was expected, that his errand was to carry salutation from the mighty Princess Irene, Empress of the East, to the renowned King of the French, the visitors were invited to approach the palace of the great Charles,;1 and the black horsemen marshalled the way as a guard of honour. * Soldiers did not begin to wear uniform generally till under Louis XIV in 1672. t The French abandoned, in a great measure, the use of bows and arrowswhen they established themselves in Gaul. % This prince did not receive the title of Magnus, or Charlemagne, till after his death.

" I pray thee, Sir," said a private cavalier attached to the Greek embassy, riding up to the commanding officer of the escort when the march was begun, " tell me, I pray thee, whether the Princess Bertha,* whom thou knowest we are come to demand in marriage, be as beautiful as she is described by report." The soldier stared haughtily at the querist for a moment, and then replying coldly, " Thou wilt see anon," spurred his steed, and rode forward. The Greek, with an angry, or perhaps contemptuous capriole, leaped to one side, and, riding up an eminence, appeared to contemplate for some time the procession, so rich in variety of manner and cos tume, and partaking in such brilliant contrast of the pageantry of war and peace. Then perceiving the road bend round the corner of a forest, to avoid the unequal ground within, and seeming to have been rendered reckless by the relaxation of discipline per mitted on a long journey, or else protected by his insignificance from the interference of the chiefs of the cavalcade, he forsook entirely the line of march, and dived into the thicket.

The shade of the trees and the trickling of water rendered the air pleasant after a hasty march, although it was now near the beginning of winter ; and the stranger, whose blood was quickened not only by the warm pulses of youth, but by the curiosity natural in a traveller arriving in a new and interesting quarter, gave his horse the rein, and galloped on at the will of the proud animal, so far as this was unchecked by the intervention of barriers too high to be overleaped. He had not proceeded far when he heard the voice of some one singing cheerily in the wood, and he pulled in his bridle to listen. The song seemed to be one of the war hymns of the Celts, popularly known in France since their collection a few years before by the King, and the manly and well tuned voice in which it was pitched accorded well with the appearance of the singer, who soon after emerged from a jungle and crossed the path of the Greek stranger. * The title "princess" is not given to her in her capacity of King's daughter.

The King and his high nobles were indiscriminately styled Princes ; and women of lofty rank, whether royal or not, were Princesses. The terms, nevertheless, for the sake of distinction, are used in this work more frequently than otherwise in their modern sense. BERTHA ; OR, THE He was a remarkably tall man in the prime of life, and portly and well-formed in his figure; although, critically examined, his neck would have appeared too short and thick, and his waist a little more prominent than is necessary to the line of beauty. His dress, which did not bespeak him to be raised many steps above the common rank of the people, consisted of the ordinary frock, or tunic, descending to the knees, made of blue cloth, and ornamented with a silk border ; above this, on account of the season, was a tight vest of otter skin with the fur on ; and over all a plain cloak, not of the sweeping length worn by the nobility, but short and homely.

His legs were covered with a sort of long hose, or pantaloon, fastened crosswise with particoloured garters. His pace was grave and firm, with nothing either of meanness or pretence ; and when he turned his head at the noise made by the horseman, there seemed to be so much good nature, approaching to joviality, in his countenance, that the stranger, checking his steed, and resting his lance upon the ground, hailed him in the manner of one who would willingly expend a little while in con versation. " I pray thee, fair Sir," said he, " if thou be not hindered for time, tell me whether the Lady Bertha be as beautiful as report speaks her." "What is that to thee?" counter-questioned the forester stur dily, turning a pair of large bright eyes and a long aquiline nose towards the querist. "I belong to the embassy of the Empress Irene,"* explained the stranger, " who seeks the French princess in marriage for her son Constantine ; and I would fain know whether this Bertha of thine is likely to prove a jewel worthy of being set in the crown of the East."

The cavalier of the short cloak turned a look half of surprise half of ridicule upon the Greek. He appeared to be about to make some severe reply ; but checking the sarcasm which rose to his lips, he turned away with a slight but courteous obeisance. * Who usurped the throne after the death of her husband Leo. " Patience, patience," said he, " thou wilt see anon," and he walked leisurely away, without turning his head. The young cavalier, with flashing eyes and rising colour, debated for a moment whether he should not follow him ; but looking for a longer space of time, not unadmiringly, at the lofty figure and slow and stately step of the stranger, he pursued his journey. He had not ridden far before he fell in with a second pedes trian, a young man about his own age. His dress and accoutrements, which proclaimed him to be a sportsman, consisted of a doublet trimmed with grey fur, a short green coat fastened with a leathern girdle, tight buskins, couteau de chasse, bow and arrows, and ivory horn suspended from his neck by a chain of polished steel.

He was tall and well-formed, and showed the bearing of a cavalier of birth and distinction. " Ho ! fair Sir," cried the Greek stranger, " tell me, I pray thee, if thou be not hindered for time, whether the Lady Bertha be as fair as men say she is. " Saint Maurice !" exclaimed the sportsman, jumping suddenly round, "what is that to thee?" and with a look of menace, mingled with curiosity, he strode up to the inquirer. "Nay," said the latter, "I did but ask the question as one attached to the mission of the Empress Irene, who sends to demand the Princess for her son Constantine ; and I am right curious to know whether this Bertha of France is likely to prove a jewel worthy to be set in the crown of the East." '*Know then, Stranger," said the sportsman, with imperious heat, " that the Princess Bertha, set in the crown of the East, would show like a rich diamond mounted in worthless lead."

" It may be so," replied the Greek good-humouredly : " the comparison is difficult, I own, between lifeless metals and lovely ladies." " And know farther," continued the other, " that the she-wolf of Greece must match her cubs lower than in the House of lordly France !" "Say'st thou?" cried the stranger: "on that quarrel I am for thee. The House of France is only too much honoured by the condescension of the Empress. Sir Frenchman, thou liest !" and leaping from his horse, he threw away his lance and drew his sword. The sportsman, on his part, was not less nimble in disen cumbering himself of his bow and arrows ; and having substituted a more warlike blade for the couteau de chasse, the two cavaliers went to it with equal dexterity and good will. Their swords, however, had not clanked many times together when both the weapons were beaten down at one stroke by a third party.

"What! tilting within the purlieus of the palace?" said the gigantic cavalier of the short cloak, whirling round the combatants a branch of a tree weighty enough to crush the best helmeted head that ever appeared in field. " Here is goodly discipline ! By the holy St. Maurice ! if the King comes to know of this contempt of the Royal authority, I would not give a grain of sand a-piece for your lives ! — What, Angilbert, art thou mad ? This stranger may have some slight excuse in his ignorance of our localities and customs ; but thou, thou knowest well whom thou beardest !" An gilbert put up his sword promptly yet sulkily. " As for the customs and localities thou talkest of," said the Greek in a towering passion, " I neither know nor care ; I did but say " " Say nothing," interrupted Angilbert, " if thou art wise : what is said is past, and for the love I bear to arms, I would not see thee come to mischief through other means than cold steel and fair fighting."

" As for this House of France," shouted the choleric Greek, " I say again " " Bah, bah ! hold thy tongue, man," said Angilbert, " and return to thy post — if one is trusted to so empty a head." " Hark thee, Sir Frenchman," demanded the stranger in a calmer tone ; " do the customs of France in all cases thus tie the tongues of its visitors ? Why may I not speak ? Answer me that. Wherefore must I not discourse with my lips ?" " Thou wilt know anon," said Angilbert, walking rapidly away, and disappearing in the thicket. The tall mediator was by this time at a considerable distance striding swiftly along, while he used the branch with which he had extinguished the fray as a walking-staff. The Greek, leaping upon his horse, galloped after him, apparently with the purpose of repeating his interrogatories ; but just as he was about to overtake him, he saw him enter by a, gate that had appeared a part of the interlaced shrubbery, which in this part of the forest served for an inclosure.

The tall cavalier did not answer a word to the shouts of the curious stranger, but, locking the gate deliberately after him, walked on without turning his head ; and when his pursuer reached the enclosure, he found it at once too high to be over leaped, and too strong to be broken, and was therefore fain to return to the road by nearly the same route as he had come. By dint of hard riding, he rejoined the cavalcade before it en tered the palace, and in contemplating the animated scene around, soon forgot the annoyance which the churlishness of the French cavaliers had given him. Immense galleries, surrounded by pillars, ran all round the building ; and in particular the portico, extending from the palace to the chapel, appeared to be finished with extra ordinary art. Such was the extent of these galleries that they afforded shelter to the whole of the troops and inferior officers attending the court.

They were divided, however, into regular compartments, each of which was appropriated for the assembling place of a particular company or class of men. To the left was seen the Royal guard, constantly under arms ; and in the same compartment numerous officers attached to the court amused themselves with pacing up and down between the marble columns, and retailing the news of the day while waiting for orders from their superiors. There, and in the other galleries, stoves were placed at convenient distances, and were seen surrounded by crowds of retainers, clients, and strangers, whom official duty, business, or curiosity, had brought to the palace. In the interior, stupendous halls for the administration of justice, the reception of ambassadors, and other purposes, conferred an air of princely grandeur upon the building ; and beyond these was the private apartment of the King, into which access could only be obtained by entering through seven doors.

This chamber, nevertheless, was so contrived that Charles could see every individual who entered or quitted the palace ; and hence, in a great measure, the strict order and decorum which prevailed throughout, where the officers were every instant aware that they were under the eye of the King. Beyond this was the wardrobe of the palace, for the white habits of the newly baptised, and the robes of the domestic officers, a new suit of which, made of serge or cloth, was presented to them every Easter. A staircase led downwards to the stables, the menagerie, the aviaries, and dog-kennels; and here the spacious baths, sur rounded with flights of marble steps and magnificent couches, exhibited in their hot springs the temptation which had induced the King to pile around them these wonders of art and industry.

The great gallery leading to the church, which gave its name to the palace, was supported by columns of marble, the materials of which had been brought from Rome and Ravenna. The doors and rails of the chapel were of gilt bronze ; and it was ornamented with marble pillars, beautiful mosaics, and vases and candelabras of gold and silver in gorgeous profusion.* It was only by means of hurried glances and questions that the inquisitive Greek saw and learnt so much ; for when the cavalcade had entered the palace, the pomp and bustle increased to a degree which seemed to have an almost stunning effect upon its boldest members. The door of a magnificent hall was at length thrown open, and the embassy, floating slowly in, prepared to pay homage to the mighty chief of the French. A man of a portly and warlike pre sence was seated on a throne at the farther end of the room, dressed in superb robes furred with ermine.

He was surrounded by a thousand lords clothed from head to foot in cloth of gold and in that regal state and proud, bold bearing, looked " every inch a king." This personage, however, was only the Constable of the Palace; and the ambassador, agitated and confounded * Eginhard, in Vit. Carol. Magn. ; in prœmat. Alcuin. de Carol. Magn. t. 2. Collect. Duchesnian, p. 188 ; Antoine Mieville, Voy. dans l'Anc. France. ' passed on to another hall, of which this appeared to be but the antechamber. Here a spectacle of the same kind, but more magnificent in its details, awaited the strangers ; and if they had not been prevented the ambassador and his whole train would have fallen on their knees before the Count of the Palace in his ordinary hall of justice. In the third hall the Grand Master of the table presided in still loftier state ; and in the fourth the Grand Chamberlain appeared to leave no higher step to the very summit of regal splendour.

When the fifth door opened, a kind of hushing whisper was heard, and the voices of the crowd, nay, their very breathing, sank into profound silence. The procession entered the hall with no other noise than that produced by the rustling of their robes, the beating of their hearts, and the soft, measured tread of their feet upon the mingled flowers and rushes which carpeted the floor. Bucklers, cuirasses, and other arms, were suspended from the roof, and the walls were hidden with what might have seemed the riches of a world. On a seat, without arms or supporters, the throne of the ancient sovereigns of France,* sat the renowned Charlemagne, with twenty diademed kings standing around him, and the high nobles of his empire. Crown on head and sceptre in 'hand, robed in purple and ermine, and blazing with gold and gems, the conqueror, noble in aspect, and almost gigantic in stature, seemed to be something more than man ; and the Greeks, confounded by everything they had encountered, bewildered by a display of power and wealth they had never seen before even in dreams, and dazzled by the glory which was attached throughout the world to the name of the hero, were unable to support a presence so majestic, and fell on their faces upon the floor.

The young cavalier alone of all the embassy remained erect, and this apparently more from surprise than philosophy. He stared at * So constructed to signify that a king must be able to support himself without assistance. the King as if he had been a spectre ; and at length, wiping the perspiration from his brow — " 'Tis he, 'tis he indeed," he muttered. " I know him by the great eyes, the long nose, and the bull neck. The peasant lord, or the lordly peasant — he of the short cloak and the heavy arm ! By the holy Virgin ! this churl Angilbert is no ungenerous foe, to lug me, yea or nay, out of the lion's maw — into which, blisters on my tongue ! — I would fain have thrust myself. As I live, there he is, bolt upright behind his master, and as fine as jewels and cloth of gold can make him ! — Hark ye, fair Sir, who is that handsome cavalier, — he who stands next the King ?"

" His nephew, Angilbert." " Nephew ! Oh ye Saints ! so much the better ; for that is within the forbidden line of consanguinity, and Angilbert, no doubt, bristled up so fiercely for the honour rather of his cousin than his love." Before the young Greek had ended his meditations, the eunuch, who represented on this occasion the Empress of the East, had recovered his presence of mind, and delivered the greeting of Irene with a good grace. The reply of Charles to the powerful princess who demanded his daughter for the wife of the heir of her crown was as favourable as might have been expected either from the courtesy or ambition of his character ; and the embassy was at length dismissed from the presence, every individual overwhelmed at once with the condescension of the King and the splendour of his court.

The young Greek, ever unmindful of the form of etiquette, stood absorbed in the gratification of his curiosity as the pageant dissolved before his eyes, and at length found with a start that he was the only stranger remaining in the room. When about to follow his companions hastily, a voice called to him which he recognised with a thrill as that of the King — " Ho ! young Sir, a word with thee ;" and obeying what in that place was a command, he walked to the other end of the hall where the Monarch stood in conversation with his courtiers. Charles then opened a small door behind, and beckoning him to follow, disappeared ; and the Greek, muttering an invocation to his patron saint, followed him in silence into the passage. They walked on for some time almost in darkness, till the King, suddenly throwing open a door, slapped his visitor familiarly upon the shoulder.

" Thou art impatient," sard he, " to know whether the merits of the Princess Bertha equal her reputation ; and I deem it a duty of hospitality to gratify so laudable a curiosity. Wait in this apartment, and thou wilt see anon." The Greek entered the room, and the door was shut behind him. Ardent as Charles imagined the youth's curiosity to be with regard to his daughter, it was for some time entirely forgotten, so much was he absorbed in examining the magnificent chamber where he now found himself. The few articles of furniture with which the customs of the age and people had garnished their dwelling-houses, and which indeed consisted of nothing more than stools, benches, and tables, here made up for their want of variety by the extraordinary richness of each individual piece. The stools and benches* were covered with fine carpeting, and three of the tables were of silver, and the fourth of gold.