The monkish chroniclers, from whom we are obliged to glean a narrative
of this memorable campaign, bear full evidence to the terror which the
Saracen invasion inspired, and to the agony of that great struggle. The
Saracens, say they, and their King, who was called Abdirames, came out
of Spain, with all their wives, and their children, and their substance,
in such great multitudes that no man could reckon or estimate them. They
brought with them all their armor, and whatever they had, as if they
were thenceforth always to dwell in France.
"Then Abderrahman, seeing the land filled with the multitude of his
army, pierces through the mountains, tramples over rough and level
ground, plunders far into the country of the Franks, and smites all with
the sword, insomuch that when Eudes came to battle with him at the river
Garonne, and fled before him, God alone knows the number of the slain.
Then Abderrahman pursued after Count Eudes, and while he strives to
spoil and burn the holy shrine at Tours he encounters the chief of the
Austrasian Franks, Charles, a man of war from his youth up, to whom
Eudes had sent warning.
Pages:
625
626
627
628
629
630
631
632
633
634
635
636
637
638
639
640
641
642
643
644
645
646
647
648
649