The subjugation of Germany withdrew the veil
which had so long concealed the continent or islands of Scandinavia
from the knowledge of Europe, and awakened the torpid courage of their
barbarous natives. The fiercest of the Saxon idolaters escaped from
the Christian tyrant to their brethren of the North; the Ocean and
Mediterranean were covered with their piratical fleets; and Charlemagne
beheld with a sigh the destructive progress of the Normans, who, in less
than seventy years, precipitated the fall of his race and monarchy.

[Footnote 113: See Eginhard, c. 16, and Gaillard, tom. ii. p. 361-385,
who mentions, with a loose reference, the intercourse of Charlemagne and
Egbert, the emperor's gift of his own sword, and the modest answer of
his Saxon disciple. The anecdote, if genuine, would have adorned our
English histories.]

[Footnote 114: The correspondence is mentioned only in the French
annals, and the Orientals are ignorant of the caliph's friendship for
the Christian dog--a polite appellation, which Harun bestows on the
emperor of the Greeks.]

[Footnote 1141: Had he the choice? M. Guizot has eloquently described
the position of Charlemagne towards the Saxons. Il y fit face par le
conquete; la guerre defensive prit la forme offensive: il transporta la
lutte sur le territoire des peuples qui voulaient envahir le sien: il
travailla a asservir les races etrangeres, et extirper les croyances
ennemies. De la son mode de gouvernement et la fondation de son empire:
la guerre offensive et la conquete voulaient cette vaste et redoutable
unite. Compare observations in the Quarterly Review, vol. xlviii., and
James's Life of Charlemagne.--M.]

[Footnote 115: Gaillard, tom. ii. p. 361-365, 471-476, 492. I have
borrowed his judicious remarks on Charlemagne's plan of conquest, and
the judicious distinction of his enemies of the first and the second
enceinte, (tom. ii. p. 184, 509, &c.)]

Had the pope and the Romans revived the primitive constitution, the
titles of emperor and Augustus were conferred on Charlemagne for
the term of his life; and his successors, on each vacancy, must have
ascended the throne by a formal or tacit election. But the association
of his son Lewis the Pious asserts the independent right of monarchy and
conquest, and the emperor seems on this occasion to have foreseen and
prevented the latent claims of the clergy. The royal youth was commanded
to take the crown from the altar, and with his own hands t