, (de Gestis Langobard. l. vi. p. 921, edit. Grot.,) and
Anastasius, the librarian of the Roman church, (in Vit. Gregorii
II.,) who tells a miraculous story of three consecrated sponges, which
rendered invulnerable the French soldiers, among whom they had been
shared It should seem, that in his letters to the pope, Eudes usurped
the honor of the victory, from which he is chastised by the French
annalists, who, with equal falsehood, accuse him of inviting the
Saracens.]

[Footnote 33: Narbonne, and the rest of Septimania, was recovered by
Pepin the son of Charles Martel, A.D. 755, (Pagi, Critica, tom. iii. p.
300.) Thirty-seven years afterwards, it was pillaged by a sudden inroad
of the Arabs, who employed the captives in the construction of the mosch
of Cordova, (De Guignes, Hist. des Huns, tom. i. p. 354.)]

[Footnote 34: This pastoral letter, addressed to Lewis the Germanic, the
grandson of Charlemagne, and most probably composed by the pen of the
artful Hincmar, is dated in the year 858, and signed by the bishops of
the provinces of Rheims and Rouen, (Baronius, Annal. Eccles. A.D. 741.
Fleury, Hist. Eccles. tom. x. p. 514-516.) Yet Baronius himself, and
the French critics, reject with contempt this episcopal fiction.]

The loss of an army, or a province, in the Western world, was less
painful to the court of Damascus, than the rise and progress of a
domestic competitor. Except among the Syrians, the caliphs of the house
of Ommiyah had never been the objects of the public favor. The life of
Mahomet recorded their perseverance in idolatry and rebellion: their
conversion had been reluctant, their elevation irregular and factious,
and their throne was cemented with the most holy and noble blood of
Arabia. The best of their race, the pious Omar, was dissatisfied with
his own title: their personal virtues were insufficient to justify a
departure from the order of succession; and the eyes and wishes of the
faithful were turned towards the line of Hashem, and the kindred of
the apostle of God. Of these the Fatimites were either rash or
pusillanimous; but the descendants of Abbas cherished, with courage
and discretion, the hopes of their rising fortunes. From an obscure
residence in Syria, they secretly despatched their agents and
missionaries, who preached in the Eastern provinces their hereditary
indefeasible right; and Mohammed, the son of Ali, the son of Abdallah,
the son of Abbas, the uncle of the prophet, gave audienc