trength and
appetite: at a single stroke of his good sword Joyeuse, he cut asunder
a horseman and his horse; at a single repast, he devoured a goose, two
fowls, a quarter of mutton, &c.]

That empire was not unworthy of its title; [105] and some of the fairest
kingdoms of Europe were the patrimony or conquest of a prince, who
reigned at the same time in France, Spain, Italy, Germany, and Hungary.
[106] I. The Roman province of Gaul had been transformed into the name
and monarchy of France; but, in the decay of the Merovingian line, its
limits were contracted by the independence of the Britons and the revolt
of Aquitain. Charlemagne pursued, and confined, the Britons on the
shores of the ocean; and that ferocious tribe, whose origin and language
are so different from the French, was chastised by the imposition of
tribute, hostages, and peace. After a long and evasive contest, the
rebellion of the dukes of Aquitain was punished by the forfeiture of
their province, their liberty, and their lives.

Harsh and rigorous would have been such treatment of ambitious
governors, who had too faithfully copied the mayors of the palace. But
a recent discovery [107] has proved that these unhappy princes were the
last and lawful heirs of the blood and sceptre of Clovis, and younger
branch, from the brother of Dagobert, of the Merovingian house. Their
ancient kingdom was reduced to the duchy of Gascogne, to the counties
of Fesenzac and Armagnac, at the foot of the Pyrenees: their race
was propagated till the beginning of the sixteenth century; and after
surviving their Carlovingian tyrants, they were reserved to feel
the injustice, or the favors, of a third dynasty. By the reunion of
Aquitain, France was enlarged to its present boundaries, with the
additions of the Netherlands and Spain, as far as the Rhine. II.

The Saracens had been expelled from France by the grandfather and father
of Charlemagne; but they still possessed the greatest part of Spain,
from the rock of Gibraltar to the Pyrenees. Amidst their civil
divisions, an Arabian emir of Saragossa implored his protection in the
diet of Paderborn. Charlemagne undertook the expedition, restored
the emir, and, without distinction of faith, impartially crushed the
resistance of the Christians, and rewarded the obedience and services
of the Mahometans. In his absence he instituted the Spanish march, [108]
which extended from the Pyrenees to the River Ebro: Barcelona was the
residence