However, the
march was accomplished without difficulty. The King of the Franks
treated his powerful vassal well; and Duke Lupus swore to him afresh,
"or for the first time," says M. Fauriel, "submission and fidelity; but
the event soon proved that it was not without umbrage or without all the
feelings of a true son of Waifre that he saw the Franks and the son of
Pepin so close to him."
The aggressive campaign was an easy and a brilliant one. Charles with
his army entered Spain by the valley of Roncesvalles without
encountering any obstacle. On his arrival before Pampeluna the Arab
governor surrendered the place to him, and Charlemagne pushed forward
vigorously to Saragossa. But there fortune changed. The presence of
foreigners and Christians on the soil of Spain caused a suspension of
interior quarrels among the Arabs, who rose in mass, at all points, to
succor Saragossa. The besieged defended themselves with obstinacy; there
was more scarcity of provisions among the besiegers than inside the
place; sickness broke out among them; they were incessantly harassed
from without; and rumors of a fresh rising among the Saxons reached
Charlemagne.
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