carried on a war against
the Saxons. Finally he conquered them, and their great chief, Wittekind,
submitted to him. The Saxons were a people of Germany, who then
lived near the land of the Franks. They spoke the same language
and were of the same race as the Franks, but had not been civilized
by contact with the Romans.

They were still pagans, just as the Franks had been before Clovis
became a Christian. They actually offered human sacrifices.

After Charlemagne conquered them he made their lands part of his
kingdom. A great number of them, among whom was Wittekind, then
became Christians and were baptized; and soon they had churches
and schools in many parts of their country.

Another of Charlemagne's wars was against the Lombards.

Pepin, as you have read, had defeated the Lombards and given to
the Pope part of the country held by them. The Lombard king now
invaded the Pope's lands and threatened Rome itself; so the Pope
sent to Charlemagne for help.

Charlemagne quickly marched across the Alps and attacked the Lombards.
He drove them out of the Pope's lands and took possession of their
country.

After he had conquered the Lombards he carried on war, in 778,
in Spain. A large portion of Spain was then held by the Moorish
Saracens. But a Mohammedan leader from Damascus had invaded their
country, and the Moors invited Charlemagne to help them. He therefore
led an army across the Pyrenees. He succeeded in putting his Moorish
friends in possession of their lands in Spain and then set out on
his return to his own country.

On the march his army was divided into two parts. The main body
was led by Charlemagne himself. The rear guard was commanded by a
famous warrior named Roland. While marching through the narrow pass
of Roncesvalles (_ron-thes-val'yes_), among the Pyrenees, Roland's
division was attacked by a tribe called the Basques (_basks_), who
lived on the mountain slopes of the neighboring region.

[Illustration: THE BAPTISM OF WITTEKIND]

High cliffs walled in the pass on either side. From the tops of
these cliffs the Basques hurled down rocks and trunks of trees
upon the Franks, and crushed many of them to death. Besides this,
the wild mountaineers descended into the pass and attacked them
with weapons. Roland fought bravely; but at last he was overpowered,
and he and all his men were killed.

Roland had a friend and companion named Oliver, who was as brave
as himself. Many stories and songs have bee