the promoters of the revolt. All agreed in denouncing Wittikind as
the author of this treason. But as they could not deliver him up,
because immediately after his sudden attack he had taken refuge with the
Northmen, those who, at his instigation, had been accomplices in the
crime, were placed, to the number of four thousand five hundred, in the
hands of the King; and, by his order, all had their heads cut off the
same day, at a place called Werden, on the river Aller. After this deed
of vengeance the King retired to Thionville to pass the winter there."

But the vengeance did not put an end to the war. For three years
Charlemagne had to redouble his efforts to accomplish in Saxony, at the
cost of Frankish as well as Saxon blood, his work of conquest and
conversion: "Saxony," he often repeated, "must be Christianized or wiped
out." At last, in 785, after several victories which seemed decisive, he
went and settled down in his strong castle of Ehresburg, "whither he
made his wife and children come, being resolved to remain there all the
bad season," says Eginhard, and applying himself without cessation to
scouring the country of the Saxons and wearing them out by his strong
and indomitable determination. But determination did not blind him to
prudence and policy. "Having learned that Wittikind and Abbio, another
great Saxon chieftain, were abiding in the part of Saxony situated on
the other side of the Elbe, he sent to them Saxon envoys to prevail upon
them to renounce their perfidy, and come, without hesitation, and trust
themselves to him. They, conscious of what they had attempted, dared not
at first trust to the King's word; but having obtained from him the
promise they desired of impunity, and, besides, the hostages they
demanded as guarantee of their safety, and who were brought to them, on
the King's behalf, by Amalwin, one of the officers of his court, they
came with the said lord and presented themselves before the King in his
palace of Attigny [Attigny-sur-Aisne, whither Charlemagne had now
returned], and there received baptism."

Charlemagne did more than amnesty Wittikind; he named him Duke of
Saxony, but without attaching to the title any right of sovereignty.
Wittikind, on his side, did more than come to Attigny and get baptized
there; he gave up the struggle, remained faithful to his new
engagements, and led, they say, so Christian a life that some
chroniclers have placed him on the list of saints. He was