hus the circles were repeated, the circumference
always narrowing till you came to the innermost, or ring, in which the
Avars kept all their wealth, the accumulation of centuries of rapine.
Such, at least, is the account, however improbable, handed down to us
by an historian of the day.

In the outset fortune favored Charlemagne as usual. He took the first
three of the defensive circles sword in hand, and laid waste the
country to the junction of the Raab with the Danube, while his son
Pepin had met and routed their army in another quarter. But unhappily
a pestilential disease broke out among the horses, who died by
thousands, and he was obliged to retreat, unpursued, however, by the
Avars, their surprise and terror not having yet subsided.

In the doubtful lull that followed, a conspiracy was raised against
the life and throne of the monarch, in which his natural son, Pepin
the Hunchback, was implicated. It was discovered in time, and all the
conspirators were put to death, with the exception of Pepin, who was
confined for life within a monastery.

Scarcely had the king escaped this danger, than he was alarmed by news
that the Saxons had revolted, and uniting themselves with the Huns,
had given a bloody defeat to his cousin, Theodoric. Close upon this
came other tidings of equally evil import. In the late campaign
against the Huns, Charlemagne had called to his aid his son Pepin,
King of Italy, who, notwithstanding he was himself embroiled with
Grimbald, Duke of Beneventum, did not hesitate to obey. To reward this
prompt obedience, Charlemagne early in the winter had despatched
another son, Louis, King of Aquitaine, to the help of his brother,
when the Saracens took advantage of the latter's absence to attack his
frontiers, and even penetrated to Narbonne before any forces were
ready to oppose them. From this expedition they returned home laden
with plunder, and satisfied with this success, remained for a while in
quiet. Charles therefore had a brief respite to turn against the
Saxons; and as he had hitherto found all his precautions unavailing to
keep them within the bounds of good order, he broke up the nation, and
transported an immense number of the most turbulent to a distance from
their own country. Multitudes of men, women, and children were
dispersed over France, and not a few were transported to Brabant and
various parts of Flanders.

About this time, 793, the first collision took place between the
Franks