To place textually before the reader a fragment of an old chronicle will
serve better than any modern description to show the impression of
admiration and fear produced upon his contemporaries by Charlemagne, his
person and his power. At the close of this ninth century a monk of the
abbey of St. Gall, in Switzerland, had collected, direct from the mouth
of one of Charlemagne's warriors, Adalbert, numerous stories of his
campaigns and his life. These stories are full of fabulous legends,
puerile anecdotes, distorted reminiscences and chronological errors, and
they are written sometimes with a credulity and exaggeration of language
which raise a smile; but they reveal the state of men's minds and
fancies within the circle 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.
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