OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 17
civil and religious freedom of their posterity. The epithet of Martel, the Hammer, which has been added to the name of Charles, is expressive of his weighty and irresistible strokes : the valour of Eudes was excited by resentment and emulation ; and their companions, in the eye of history, are the true Peers and Paladins of French chivalry. After a bloody field, in which Abderame was slain, the Saracens, in the close of the evening, retired to their camp. In the disorder and despair of the night, the various tribes of Yemen and Damascus, of Africa and Spain, were provoked to turn their arms against each other: the remains of their host was suddenly dissolved, and each emir consulted his safely by a hasty and separate retreat. At the dawn of day, the stillness of an hostile camp was suspected by the Christians : on the report of their spies, they ventured to explore the riches of the vacant tents ; but, if we except some celebrated relics, a small portion of the spoil was restored to the innocent and lawful owners. The joyful tidings were soon diffused over the Catholic world, and the monks of Italy could affirm and believe that three hundred and fifty, or three hundred and seventy-five, thousand of the Mahometans had been crushed by the hammer of Charles ; while no more than fifteen hundred Christians were slain in the field of Tours. But this incredible tale is sufficiently disproved by the caution of the French general, who apprehended the snares and accidents of a pursuit, and dismissed his German allies to their native forests. The inactivity of a conqueror betrays the loss of strength and blood, and the most cruel execution is inflicted, not in the ranks of battle, but on the backs of a flying enemy. Yet the victory of the Franks was complete and final ; Aquitain was recovered by the arms of Eudes; the Arabs never resumed the conquest of Gaul, and ihey were soon driven beyond the Pyrenees by Charles Martel
These numbers are stated by Paul Warnefrid, the deacon of Aquileia (de Gestis Langobard. 1. vi. p. 921, edit. Grot. [c. 46]), and Anastasius, the Hbrarian of the Roman church (in Vit. Gregorii II.), who tells a miraculous story of three consecrated spunges, which rendered invulnerable the French soldiers among whom they had been shared. It should seem that in his letters to the pope Eudes usurped the honour of the victory, for which he is chastised by the French annalists, who, with equal falsehood, accuse him of inviting the Saracens. ^[This is not quite accurate. Maurontius, the duke of Marseilles, preferred the alliance of the misbelievers to that of the Frank warrior, and handed over Aries, -Kvignon, and other towns to the lords of Narbonne, who also obtained possession of Lyons and Valence. They were smitten back to Narbonne by Charles the Hammer in A.D. 737, and yet again in 739. Cp. Weil, op. cit. p. 647. Okba was at this time governor of Spain. For the expedition of Charles in 737, see Contin. Fredegar. , 109.] VOL. VI. 2
