mans soon discovered that a part of the common booty had been stolen by some of their followers. They assembled the whole band at the sound of the trumpet, and inflicted that summary justice upon the delinquents, which might have reminded the Franks of the conduct of their ancestors, under the same circumstances, when Clovis first invaded Gaul. Charles having succeeded in raising the stipulated treasure, to which he added provisions, the Normans condescended to perform their part of the contract. They blockaded their countrymen, who occupied the island of Oisel, in the Seine. During the siege, arrived the band of adventurers from Spain, who joined in the attack. The besieged demanded a capitulation, and offered as the price of their deliverance, to divide with the besiegers the immense booty they had accumulated. Under this arrangement both parties affected to prepare to set sail from the coasts of France, but the commencement of winter afforded them a pretext for still lingering on the banks of the Seine and its tributary streams. A band of the Normans, under Veland and his son Vidric, ascended the Marne, in their light barks, and Charles, by an extraordinary effort of resolution, determined to bar the passage of the river against their return. Finding their passage back to the Seine thus intercepted, the Normans offered to surrender all the booty they had taken since their entry into the Marne, to quit France with their companions, and even to compel all their countrymen to leave the kingdom. They offered hostages for the performance of these conditions, and the monarch of the Franks consented to let them escape. Some days after, Veland had an interview with Charles, and confirmed his promises with an oath. At this interview, he was

persuaded to be baptised, and dismissing his followers, returned to the court of Charles, with his wife and children, where he embraced what was called Christianity in that age, and was afterwards killed in a duel with one of his followers.*

(863.) His conversion was followed by that of Hastings. This was an object of the highest interest to the people, who had been so long terrified and distressed by his incursions. The king of the Franks deliberated with his prelates and barons how to rid himself and the kingdom of so troublesome an enemy. His vassals offered to furnish the needful supplies of men and money, of sergeants, archers, and infantry, if he were disposed once more to try the fortune of war; but the monarch shrunk from this alternative, and the deliberations of the council resulted in a determination to send the abbot of St Denis and several bishops to implore peace from the Norman chieftain. He was persuaded by means of supplications, promises, and presents, to consent to their offers. The haughty Vikingr suffered himself to be led before the king, and consented to the ceremony of Christian baptism, upon the payment of a considerable sum of money, and according to the chroniclers of Normandy, the gift of the county of Chartres, which was conferred upon him for life.†

Thirty years had now elapsed, since France had suffered all the calamities incident to continual invasion and ravages by the Northern adventurers. There now only remained of their numerous bands a small remnant in

*Sismondi, Histoire des Français, tom. iii. pp. 137, 140, 172. †This pretended gift of the county of Chartres to Hastings is treated as a groundless imposture by the best modern French antiquaries. de Rou, tom. i. p. 65. Ed. Pluquet, Note 2.

Roman

the fortified station, in the mouth of the Loire. The abbot and monks of St Germain-de-Pres, who, on the approach of the Normans, had fled to Nogent, returned to Paris with the relics of their patron. They were met by the clergy and burghers of the capital, on the banks of the Seine, where is now situate the quay of the Garden of Plants. The sacred relics were brought on shore, and a solemn mass was chaunted: the procession then moved towards the abbey, whilst the clergy sung these words of the prophet Jeremiah: "How doth the city sit solitary that was full of people! how is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary!"*

• Depping, tom. i. pp. 169-186.

CHAPTER IX.

First attempts to convert the North to Christianity.-Missionaries, Ebbo and Halitgar.-Conversion and baptism of Harald Klak.-His intercourse with Louis-le-Debonnaire.-Character and first mission of Ancharius, the apostle of the North.-His first visit to Sweden.-Obstacles to the progress of the new religion.-Papal bull erecting archiepiscopal See of Hamburg.-Sack of that city by the Danes, and flight of Ancharius.—His second mission to Sweden.-Death and canonization of Ancharius.

THE elements of civilization were scattered among the people of the North in the eighth and ninth centuries, by their constant intercourse with the East, and with the South-western nations of Europe. This intercourse was maintained both by war and conquest. Even the piratical expeditions, though marked by such circumstances of horror for the nations against whom they were directed, ultimately contributed to the civilization and improvement of the North. The bloody and exterminating war carried on for a period of more than thirty years by Charlemagne against the Saxons, who defended, with obstinate valour, their national freedom and ancient religion, was a principal means of bringing into contact the more and the less civilized people of Europe. The Danes, both from religious sympathy and dread of the impending power of the Franks, were closely united with their Saxon neighbours, on the banks

of the Elbe. They too were zealous worshippers of Odin and Thor, and the other gods of the North. Wittikind, their patriot hero, had married a Danish princess, and in the most desperate state of his fortunes had found a refuge in Jutland, beyond the reach of his mighty conqueror. But Charles was more anxious to establish a firm and permanent barrier for the Northern frontier of his vast dominions, which extended from the Elbe to the Ebro, than to subdue the savage tribes beyond the former. He conquered, in order to civilize, and his empire was already more than sufficient to require all his vigilance to defend its extensive frontiers against the barbarous nations by whom it was on every side surrounded. Ragnar Lodbrok, who, from the throne of Lethra, swayed the united realms of the Danes and the Sviar, led the warlike youth of the North in the train of his distant expeditions to the borders of Sweden and the coasts of England. His name even seems to have been unknown to the Franks, though it afterwards became their terror in the person of another prince. His son, Sigurd Snogoje, king of Jutland, took up arms against them in the latter part of the eighth century. Peace was afterwards concluded between him and Charles, and Sigurd extended his sway over all Jutland, Scania, Halland, and a part of Norway. Sigurd fell in battle (803), and was succeeded in Jutland by his brother, Gudrod, called by the Franks Godfrid, who, as guardian of the young Harde-Knud, became regent of all Denmark.* (812-813.) In the peace which Charlemagne subsequently concluded with Hemming, son of Sigurd, and nephew of Gudrod, that

Suhm, Historie af Danmark, vol. ii. p. 1-2.