."

The archbishop hurried toward a grotesquely carved cottage door where
lived a gravedigger.

"No silken sleeper so calm as they
Who seek a couch in the churchyard clay,"

sang a voice from within.

[Illustration: CHARLEMAGNE]

In half an hour the grave was begun, and in another half-hour the
churchman was in the chamber of Frastrade, where the Emperor, exhausted
by his vigil, slept kneeling at the bedside.

The archbishop approached, and, peering into the mouth of the corpse,
saw beneath the tongue a glittering jewel.

With hasty fingers he seized the token, and, as he removed it, a loud
wail startled the silence of the death-chamber and aroused the king.
_The spell was broken._

Throwing but a single glance at the corpse of his wife, Charlemagne left
the chamber, and, even as he went, agreed to the archbishop's
arrangements for her burial.

The grave so secretly made ready was unnecessary, however, for the body
was borne to Mayence, where a tomb raised to the memory of Frastrade is
still to be seen.

At the archbishop's desire Charlemagne once more took his seat in the
Council of State, and once more the Empire was put in order.

The courtiers resented the advent of the churchman into the favour of
the Emperor, who at length, when the court was sitting at
Aix-la-Chapelle, determined to rid himself of the mystic jewel. Choosing
a dark night, he sought a deep pool near the centre of a morass as
being suitable for concealing the gem, which he had determined no man
should ever see. Coming upon the spot, and holding the bauble in his
hand above the waters, he dropped it and saw it sink, as though the pit
were bottomless. But the brilliancy of the gem was inextinguishable.

Next morning the court was pleased to note that the archbishop's
influence over the Emperor was quite gone.

As the Emperor was strolling about the city, he fell upon the pool which
held the gem. There he would sit by the hour, gazing upon the still
waters, near which he afterward built himself a home, known to-day,
though in ruins, as the castle of Frankenberg.

A few years after the death of his wife, Charlemagne built _La
Chapelle_, that great octagonal church which gives the city its French
name. The tomb of Charlemagne is there, inscribed only _Carolo Magno_.
He died at Aix-la-Chapelle in 814, and was buried with great pomp.
Victor Hugo gives Aix-la-Chapelle as the place of his birth, which is
manifestly an error.

Char