to Thuringia and Bavaria, and in 913 the Hungarians
advanced as far as Swabia, but being surprised near Oetting by the
Bavarians under Arnulf, who on this occasion bloodily avenged his
father's death, and by the Swabians under the kammerboten Erchanger and
Berthold, they were all, with the exception of thirty of their number,
cut to pieces. Arnulf subsequently embraced a contrary line of policy,
married the daughter of Geisa, King of Hungary, and entered into a
confederacy with the Hungarian and the Swabian kammerboten, for the
purpose of founding an independent state in the south of Germany, where
he had already strengthened himself by the appointment of several
markgrafs, Rudiger of Pechlarn in Austria, Rathold in Carinthia, and
Berthold in the Tyrol. He then instigated all the enemies of the empire
simultaneously to attack the Franks and Saxons, at that crisis at war
with each other, in 915, and while the Danes under Gorm the Old, and the
Obotrites, destroyed Hamburg, immense hordes of Hungarians, Bohemians,
and Sorbi laid the country waste as far as Bremen.

The Emperor was, meanwhile, engaged with the Saxons. On one occasion
Henry narrowly escaped being taken prisoner, being merely saved by the
stratagem of his faithful servant, Thiatmar, who caused the Emperor to
retreat by falsely announcing to him the arrival of a body of
auxiliaries. At length a pitched battle was fought near Merseburg, in
915, between Henry and Eberhard, the Emperor's brother, in which the
Franks[24] were defeated, and the superiority of the Saxons remained,
henceforward, unquestioned for more than a century. The Emperor was
forced to negotiate with the victor, whom he induced to protect the
northern frontiers of the empire while he applied himself in person to
the reestablishment of order in the south.

[Footnote 24: So great a slaughter took place that the Saxons said on
the occasion:

"'Twere difficult to find a hell
Where so many Franks might dwell!"]

In Swabia, Salomon, Bishop of Constance, who was supported by the
commonalty, adhered to the imperial cause, while the kammerboten were
unable to palliate their treason, and were gradually driven to
extremities. Erchanger, relying upon aid from Arnulf and the Hungarians,
usurped the ducal crown and took the bishop prisoner. Salomon's extreme
popularity filled him with such rage that he caused the feet of some
shepherds, who threw themselves on their knees as the captured prelate
pas