As he had but lately done for his campaign in Italy
against the Lombards, he divided his forces into two armies: one
composed of Austrasians, Neustrians, Burgundians, and divers German
contingents, and commanded by Charlemagne in person, was to enter Spain
by the valley of Roncesvalles, in the western Pyrenees, and make for
Pampeluna; the other, consisting of Provencals, Septimanians, Lombards,
and other populations of the South, under the command of Duke Bernard,
who had already distinguished himself in Italy, had orders to penetrate
into Spain by the eastern Pyrenees, to receive on the march the
submission of Gerona and Barcelona, and not to halt till they were
before Saragossa, where the two armies were to form a junction, and
which Ibn-al-Arabi had promised to give up to the King of the Franks.
According to this plan, Charlemagne had to traverse the territories of
Aquitaine and Vasconia, domains of Duke Lupus II, son of Duke Waifre, so
long the foe of Pepin the Short, a Merovingian by descent, and, in all
these qualities, little disposed to favor Charlemagne.
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