tory of the
times, they will find it hardly less romantic than the tales of the
poets.

In the century beginning from the year 600, the countries bordering
upon the native land of our Saviour, to the east and south, had not yet
received his religion. Arabia was the seat of an idolatrous religion
resembling that of the ancient Persians, who worshipped the sun, moon,
and stars. In Mecca, in the year 571, Mahomet was born, and here, at
the age of forty, he proclaimed himself the prophet of God, in dignity
as superior to Christ as Christ had been to Moses. Having obtained by
slow degrees a considerable number of disciples, he resorted to arms to
diffuse his religion. The energy and zeal of his followers, aided by
the weakness of the neighboring nations, enabled him and his successors
to spread the sway of Arabia and the religion of Mahomet over the
countries to the east as far as the Indus, northward over Persia and
Asia Minor, westward over Egypt and the southern shores of the
Mediterranean, and thence over the principal portion of Spain. All this
was done within one hundred years from the Hegira, or flight of Mahomet
from Mecca to Medina, which happened in the year 622, and is the era
from which Mahometans reckon time, as we do from the birth of Christ.

From Spain the way was open for the Saracens (so the followers of
Mahomet were called) into France, the conquest of which, if achieved,
would have been followed very probably by that of all the rest of
Europe, and would have resulted in the banishment of Christianity from
the earth. For Christianity was not at that day universally professed,
even by those nations which we now regard as foremost in civilization.
Great part of Germany, Britain, Denmark, and Russia were still pagan or
barbarous.

At that time there ruled in France, though without the title of king,
the first of those illustrious Charleses of whom we have spoken,
Charles Martel, the grandfather of Charlemagne. The Saracens of Spain
had made incursions into France in 712 and 718, and had retired,
carrying with them a vast booty. In 725, Anbessa, who was then the
Saracen governor of Spain, crossed the Pyrenees with a numerous army,
and took by storm the strong town of Carcassone. So great was the
terror excited by this invasion, that the country for a wide extent
submitted to the conqueror, and a Mahometan governor for the province
was appointed and installed at Narbonne. Anbessa, however, received a
fatal