mission or resistance.
After having, in four or five successive expeditions, gained victories
and sustained checks, he thought himself sufficiently advanced in his
conquest to put his relations with the Saxons to a grand trial. In 777,
he resolved, says Eginhard, "to go and hold, at the place called
Paderborn (close to Saxony) the general assembly of his people. On his
arrival he found there assembled the senate and people of this perfidious
nation, who, conformably to his orders, had repaired thither, seeking to
deceive him by a false show of submission and devotion. . . . They
earned their pardon, but on this condition, however, that, if hereafter
they broke their engagements, they would be deprived of country and
liberty. A great number amongst them had themselves baptized on this
occasion; but it was with far from sincere intentions that they had
testified a desire to become Christians."

[Illustration: Charlemagne inflicting Baptism upon the Saxons----215]

There had been absent from this great meeting a Saxon chieftain called
Wittikind, son of Wernekind, king of the Saxons at the north of the Elbe.
He had espoused the sister of Siegfried, king of the Danes; and he was
the friend of Ratbod, king of the Frisons. A true chieftain at heart as
well as by descent, he was made to be the hero of the Saxons just as,
seven centuries before, the Cheruscan Herrmann (Arminius) had been the
hero of the Germans. Instead of repairing to Paderborn, Wittikind had
left Saxony, and taken refuge with his brother-in-law, the king of the
Danes. Thence he encouraged his Saxon compatriots, some to persevere in
their resistance, others to repent them of their show of submission. War
began again; and Wittikind hastened back to take part in it. In 778 the
Saxons advanced as far as the Rhine; but, "not having been able to cross
this river," says Eginhard, "they set themselves to lay waste with fire
and sword all the towns and all the villages from the city of Duitz
(opposite Cologne) as far as the confluence of the Moselle. The churches
as well as the houses were laid in ruins from top to bottom. The enemy,
in his frenzy, spared neither age nor sex, wishing to show thereby that
he had invaded the territory of the Franks, not for plunder, but for
revenge!" For three years the struggle continued, more confined in area,
but more and more obstinate. Many of the Saxon tribes submitted; many
Saxons were baptized; and Siegfried, king