that Charles is coming.' He had not ended
these words when there began to be seen in the west, as it were a black
cloud, raised by the northwest wind or by Boreas, which turned the
brightest day into awful shadows. But as the Emperor drew nearer and
nearer, the gleam of arms caused to shine on the people shut up within
the city a day more gloomy than any kind of night. And then appeared
Charles himself, that man of steel, with his head encased in a helmet of
steel, his hands garnished with gauntlets of steel, his heart of steel
and his shoulders of marble protected by a cuirass of steel, and his
left hand armed with a lance of steel which he held aloft in the air,
for as to his right hand he kept that continually on the hilt of his
invincible sword. The outside of his thighs, which the rest, for their
greater ease in mounting a-horseback, were wont to leave unshackled even
by straps, he wore encircled by plates of steel. What shall I say
concerning his boots? All the army were wont to have them invariably of
steel; on his buckler there was naught to be seen but steel; his horse
was of the color and the strength of steel. All those who went before
the monarch, all those who marched at his side, all those who followed
after, even the whole mass of the army had armor of the like sort, so
far as the means of each permitted. The fields and the high-ways were
covered with steel: the points of steel reflected the rays of the sun;
and this steel, so hard, was borne by a people with hearts still harder.
The flash of steel spread terror throughout the streets of the city.
'What steel! alack, what steel!' Such were the bewildered cries the
citizens raised. The firmness of manhood and of youth gave way at sight
of the steel; and the steel paralyzed the wisdom of graybeards. That
which I, poor tale-teller, mumbling and toothless, have attempted to
depict in a long description, Ogger perceived at one rapid glance, and
said to Didier, 'Here is what ye have so anxiously sought': and while
uttering these words he fell down almost lifeless."

The monk of St. Gall does King Didier and his people wrong. They showed
more firmness and valor than he ascribes to them; they resisted
Charlemagne obstinately, and repulsed his first assaults so well that he
changed the siege into an investment, and settled down before Pavia, as
if making up his mind for a long operation. His camp became a town; he
sent for Queen Hildegarde and her court; and he ha