the city. There he left them, and changing his dress,
came with his shield reversed, after the custom of messengers in time of
war, accompanied by one soldier only to the city; and when the people
inquired his business, he informed them he had brought a message from
King Charles to Argolander, whereupon he was admitted into his presence,
and addressed him in these words: "My King bids me say, you may expect
to see him, provided you will come out with only sixty of your people to
meet him." Now Argolander little thought it was Charles himself to whom
he was speaking, who all the while took especial note of his person, and
of the weakest parts of the walls of the city, as well as of the
auxiliary kings that were then within it. Argolander then armed himself,
and Charles rejoined his sixty soldiers, and soon after the two thousand
that at first accompanied him. But Argolander came out with seven
thousand men, thinking to slay the Emperor, but was himself compelled to
fly.

The King then recruited his army, and besieged the city for six months.
On the seventh his battering rams, wooden castles, and other engines,
were ready to storm it; but Argolander and the rest of the Kings made
their escape in the night through the common sewers, and, passing up the
Garonne, got clear off. Charles entered the city in triumph the next
day, and slew ten thousand of the remaining Saracens.

CHAPTER X.

_Of the City of Xaintonge, where the Spears grew._

Argolander now came to Xaintonge, at that time under the dominion of the
Saracens; but Charles pursuing him, summoned him to restore the city,
which Argolander refused, resolving first to fight, and that it should
be the conqueror's reward. But on the eve of battle, when the battering
rams were ready to attack the castle in the meadows, called Taleburg,
and that part of the city near the river Carenton, certain of the
Christians fixed their spears in the ground before the castle, and on
the morrow found them covered with bark and branches. Those therefore
that were to receive the crown of martyrdom perished in the fight, after
slaying a multitude of the Saracens, namely, about four thousand men.
The King's horse was likewise slain under him, but valiantly placing
himself at the head of his infantry, he slew so many of his enemies that
they were forced back into the city, which Charles invested on every
side but the river, through which Argolander made his escape, with the
loss