of Charlemagne's influence and at the sight
of him. This monk gives a naive account of Charlemagne's arrival before
Pavia, and of the King of the Lombard's disquietude at his approach.
Didier had with him at that time one of Charlemagne's most famous
comrades, Ogier the Dane, who fills a prominent place in the romances
and _epopaeias_, relating to chivalry, of that age. Ogier had quarrelled
with his great chief and taken refuge with the King of the Lombards. It
is probable that his Danish origin and his relations with the King of
the Danes, Gottfried, for a long time an enemy of the Franks, had
something to do with his misunderstanding with Charlemagne. However that
may have been, "when Didier and Ogger (for so the monk calls him) heard
that the dread monarch was coming, they ascended a tower of vast height
whence they could watch his arrival from afar off and from every
quarter. They saw, first of all, engines of war such as must have been
necessary for the armies of Darius or Julius Caesar. 'Is not Charles,'
asked Didier of Ogger, 'with his great army?' But the other answered,
'No.' The Lombard, seeing afterward an immense body of soldiery gathered
from all quarters of the vast empire, said to Ogger, 'Certes, Charles
advanceth in triumph in the midst of this throng.' 'No, not yet; he will
not appear so soon,' was the answer. 'What should we do, then,' rejoined
Didier, who began to be perturbed, 'should he come accompanied by a
larger band of warriors?' 'You will see what he is when he comes,'
replied Ogger, 'but as to what will become of us, I know nothing.' As
they were thus parleying appeared the body of guards that knew no
repose; and at this sight the Lombard, overcome with dread, cried, 'This
time 'tis surely Charles.' 'No,' answered Ogger, 'not yet.' In their
wake came the bishops, the abbots, the ordinaries of the chapels royal,
and the counts; and then Didier, no longer able to bear the light of day
or to face death, cried out with groans, 'Let us descend and hide
ourselves in the bowels of the earth, far from the face and the fury of
so terrible a foe.' Trembling the while, Ogger, who knew by experience
what were the power and might of Charles, and who had learned the lesson
by long consuetude in better days, then said, 'When ye shall behold the
crops shaking for fear in the fields, and the gloomy Po and the Ticino
overflowing the walls of the city with their waves blackened with steel
(iron), then may ye think