r men were buried in repose.
He was accustomed, we are told, to wake spontaneously, and rise from his
bed four or five times in the course of each night; and so great was his
economy of moments, that the brief space he employed in putting on the
simple garments with which he was usually clothed, was also occupied in
hearing the reports of his Count of the Palace, or the pleadings of
various causes, which he decided at those times with as much clear
wisdom as if listening to them on the judgment seat.

Some lighter exercise of the mind was nevertheless necessary even to
him; but this was principally taken during his repasts, when he caused
various works to be read to him, which did not require the severe
attention that he was obliged to bestow on judicial investigations. The
subject of these readings was, in general, the history of past times,
and works, upon theology, amongst which the writings of St. Augustin are
said to have afforded him the greatest pleasure.

By the constant employment of moments which would otherwise have been
wasted to the intellect, an extraordinary mass of business was easily
swept away; and, at the end of the very year in which he returned from
Italy, a number of acts, diplomas, charters, letters, judgments, and
affairs of all kinds, can be traced to Charlemagne himself, the despatch
of which, together with all those that must have escaped research, would
be utterly inconceivable, were we ignorant of what were the habits of
that great and singular man.

The war dress of Charlemagne himself was wholly composed of steel,
consisting of the casque, breast, and back plates, together with
greaves, gauntlets, and cuissards, formed likewise of iron plates. Nor
were inferior warriors less cumbrously defended; for though the arms of
the earlier Francs were light, in comparison with this heavy panoply,
yet we find that, in the days of Charlemagne, each man in the army,
whose means permitted it, was protected by a suit of armour similar to
to that of the monarch.

[Mr. James's summary of the character of Charlemagne is a delightful
piece of writing:]

The character of Charlemagne can alone be appreciated by comparing it
with the barbarism of the times from which he emerged; nor do his
virtues or his talents acquire any fictitious grandeur from opposition
with objects around; for, though "the ruins of Palmyra derive a casual
splendour from the nakedness of the surrounding desert,"[9] his
excellence la